Spring is Coming!

I am so looking for Spring. I love the Winter. Snow makes a handy tool for dragging bags of horse feed on the sled. Much preferred over trying to use the wheel barrow in mud!
One daylily is coming up. I have been looking at them for the past week or so. Finally! I do have bigger plans for the flower and veggie gardens this year. We'll see.
Being as we have a little bit more money each month, I can do a little bit more. I plan to:
Plant 3 more daylily varieties.
Plant more echanacia (SP??)
Select a couple of Irises (haven't picked my to die for color yet) and maybe some perennial greenery. Of course I plan to add some marigolds grown from seed. And try to start some other annuals by seed as well.
Fist is to till the area for the flower bed (taking care not to disturb the daylilies that survived the winter), then work on a low chickenwire fencing.
Possibly some before and after pictures.....I'll take a pic or two this evening during chores.

Woke up to snow and chickens and ducks

Image via WikipediaWoke up to a little snow this morning. I enjoyed a cloudy day yesterday hoping for some rain. About 2am the rain changed to snow and we got about 2 inches. I brought the seedlings in from the greenhouse and put them on the pellet stove. Not quite cold enough to fire up the stove.
The hatching of chicken eggs didn't go so well this time around. While cleaning and vacuuming, I must have accidentally nudged the plug-in and didn't notice until later that the incubator wasn't kicking on. It got down to 75 degrees F. Half the embryos died. We ended up with 12 living chicks, one pushed half way out then died, one hatched with splayed legs and did not survive.
Today I am going with a friend to one of her friend's houses to pick up a Buff Orpington Rooster that decided he was not happy with his mom for going on vacation for two weeks (honeymoon actually) and turned on her. While there, we are going to discuss having me hatch some duck eggs. I don't know what to charge, especially being as I really don't know what I am doing in that department. Decided I would make a bid of $20 for a dozen living ducklings. Starting with 18 eggs. Especially because this is going to be the initial hatching experiment and I value the learning experience over a monetary gain.
Will likely kill "Red" since 3 roosters is too many. I love the Orpingtons.

The Perennial Garden

50% success rate on the perennial garden! Finally! Year in and year out, I have never been able to get a good start on a perennial garden. The plants would die every winter and never come back,
Last June I planted an Echenacia, foxglove, 3 daylilies and something else I don't remember the name of. Pretty light blue fringed flowers.
The dayliies are coming up as well as the unknown. The Echenacia and foxglove have not come up yet. Still harboring a glimmer of hope, I am watering them anyway. I would like to add some hostas and a different perennial to the garden this year. Something for hummingbirds.
Our neighbors sold their house and gave us one of the spare garden benches. I created a cinder path and sitting area near the perennial and veggie garden.
Recommended reading - The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques

How to Design a Butterfly Garden

Cultivating and maintaining a butterfly garden can be a beautiful and unique idea for environment conservation. With over 700 different butterfly species in North America, it is easy to attract them to your yard.

Butterflies are an important part of the environment. The caterpillars and adults are both food sources for birds, bats and other wildlife. The adults pollinate flowers, and also the blooms of vegetables.

The size of your butterfly garden is of no real importance. Start small and add new plants yearly. Try clumping several of the same type of plants together as butterflies are nearsighted and are attracted to large clusters of color. Place the garden strategically in a sunny area that is partially protected from winds and relatively closely to any vegetable gardens. Choose plants that are popular to butterflies and provide them with nectar.

To provide a source of water, without encouraging mosquitoes, try placing a sheet of aluminum foil in an open area and add a shallow layer of aquarium gravel, creating a small shallow depression in the center to create a small puddle. As you water the flowers, this drinking pool will retain moisture. Just enough for the butterflies but not enough for mosquitoes to lay their eggs.

I want to attract many different species of butterflies to my gardens, so I select perennials suited to each species that is commonly found in my area.

The end of Winter is coming, making plans

... a bit too soon?
I finally remembered I had some tulip bulbs in the closet over the Fall and Winter and decided I better get them in the fridge. Too late! They had already started sprouting. So into pots they went and are doing well. I may need to bury the bulbs a little deeper.
Then I was wanting to start some blackberry seeds and completely forgot to put them in the fridge/freezer.They are currently in little solo cups of soil spending two days in the freezer, then a thaw, then back in the fridge. We'll see how that goes.
Trying to keep the greenhouse warm through the winter did not work well at all. At least I tried. New ideas for next Winter. It's late enough in the season now that I can hopefully talk hubby into letting me heat it so I can start peppers and tomatoes.

Slight OT Pumpkin Carving......papier mache style

I know, I know.... this is not really gardening related.... but it is Halloween and Pumpkin carving.....saving the real pumpkins for pies! LOL!
This is just too cool not to share. I think we may have to try this. Since we don't grow pumpkins and large pumpkins are expensive and last two or three days....
http://www.stolloween.com/?page_id=67&ref=nf

  

Avocado Pits

We started the one on the far left in July. All went really well, then the “stalkling” seemed to dry up. Still hoping a sucker will develop since the roots are developing at an astounding rate. Brought home two Mexicola avocadoes and started again. Both have split and the nodules are starting to sprout.

I’m really depressed over the burned out seedling. Chalk it up to a learned experience – keep the blinds down. I am sure the sun sunburned the poor thing. 

We’re just about ready to start the peach pits. They’ve been in the fridge for about 2 months now.