Our GrowOrganic.com seeds have arrived!
Behold: .25 lbs of shade-loving wildflower mix, passion vines, comfrey, and amaranth.
spring
March Oaks
In our back yard
Seeds, Part 1
Our Seed Savers seeds have arrived!
Learning About This Garden
Early spring seems to be here: the snow is melting and the weather is rainy.
It turns out that our yard, particularly the back yard, is a bit of a swamp, at least at this time of year.
Most of the seeds we got specifically can handle part-shade… but most of them specifically call for well-drained soil.
I guess we’ll see what the rest of Spring and Summer hold. Glad we signed up for a CSA this year!
Sunday Outing
Over the weekend we took a trip over to Beltsville to check out two stores we’ve never been to before: Behnke’s Nursery and Aldi.
I first heard about Behnke’s from Garden Rant. I was really impressed with this nursery! It was huge, but there wasn’t a bunch of Miracle-Gro garbage for sale. The staff I spoke to actually knew things about soil chemistry, etc., they have free and paid classes, and their website is super informative (compost info, for example). They really seem committed to educating their customers about environmentally sound gardening and providing the supplies needed for that. We picked up our aloe plant there, as well as a carload of peat moss, top soil, and compost. F picked out a small blue flowerpot and a plug of lemon thyme. C snoozed in the Beco.
Also, when we first arrived, the girls were asleep, so J graciously sat in the car with them so I could wander the nursery solo. It was glorious.
Aldi was surprisingly clean and pleasant – I’d go there again for sure, and maybe even be a regular if there were one closer to me.
Blueberry Bushes!
The blueberry bushes arrived in the mail today!
They came in an impossibly small box, their root balls neatly wrapped in plastic with their twiggy little branches sticking out. F was totally baffled how we were going to put blueberries on them. And she was completely wowed to find out that they would make blueberries all by themselves someday!
We still have a fair amount of snow on the ground, so they’re temporarily sheltering away from outdoor snow and indoor cats in the basement bathroom, unwrapped, covered in potting soil, all in a cheap orange bucket. Humble beginnings!
I’m not sure why they seemed so abstract before they arrived and got perched out of site on the downstairs toilet. But now that I know they’re right here in the house, making serious plans for their exact location, pH needs, fertilizer, etc. seems less like long-term planning and more like a task to get done as soon as possible.
The Seeds are Ordered
We ordered seeds and a few transplants this week from Seed Savers Exchange and GrowOrganic.com.
It was sort of ridiculous how long it took me to decide what to try.
Our garden’s challenges are many, but the chief three are:
- lots and lots of shade
- the unknowns of a new-to-us yard
- we don’t know anything about gardening
The purchase that I’ll share now is… blueberry bushes! We ordered three.
I’ll share about the rest when they arrive.
Spring Birds
The other day, I woke up to dim morning light peeking around the curtains. J had already gotten up. I laid there, feeling cozy for a few minutes, and then he came in.
“It feels like Spring this morning.”
“It’s like negative twenty. I came in to get a sweater.”
Ah.
I think it was that I heard birds for the first time this season. There’s still snow on the ground, but the change is coming.
tersehouse 