Planting Some Wildflower Perennial Seedlings Outside. 3.6.22

These are still small, so they need protecting. Still, getting them into the soil frees up room on my plant stand for tomato seedlings or whatever, and they are less likely to get neglected and dry out because I moved them to a less intense spot. These were outside during a recent freeze. The six-packs froze solid, but on thawing out, the plants were unfazed. Also the Rudbeckia that I planted in a raised bed a week or so ago endured fhw same freeze, amd actually look a bit more vigorous than the ones that are still in their six packs. Some Coreposis and Echinacea seedlings. I also stuck a lone Gallardia into a spot into the raised bed.

These are small, so they need protection similar tomthe onion seedlings. It's nice to have them in the ground. If I'm up to it, more will follow tomorrow.

Planting Red Wethersfield Onion Seedlings. 3.6.22

This is the first pot of the Red Wethersfield onion seedlings, started in early January. They look healthy but small. Onions are a reasonably cold weather plant, and I've planted them this early before with good success. A frost is predicted in three days. This container was outside diring a hard freeze and not a single plant was damaged.

Onion roots don't wind around a lot, and they come apart easily for planting outside. I planted them about four inches apart. Being close together, the final onions may be a bit smaller. That's fine with me, giant onions don't keep as well and it's hard to use a whole giant onion at one time. Smaller ones mean less waste. Before planting, I mixed about a third of a bag of biochar, and half a bag of steer manure compost into the raised bed soil. So it should be pretty rich.

Onions need to grow healthy tops somthey can grow healthy onions. Planting them early in rich soil gives them a nice boost. Slugs and birds like onion plants. I gave a preventive dose of organic slug bait, and covered with a birdie fence.

Clivia. 3.5.22

This is Ning's Clivia. About twentyone years ago, I pollinated a Dutch Clivia, deep orange / red petals with yellow center, with a yellow clivia. This was the result. They are dramatic and beautiful, not a lot of trouble, but a bit large for a house plant.

Starting Summer Vegetable, Herbs, Flower Seeds. 3.5.22

It's a little early but not as early as last year. I decided to start the tomatoes, mostly dwarf types. Plus some thyme, Ratibida (this is called "Mexican Hat Flower"), some chive seeds saved in 2020, cilantro seeds saved last summer, basil, and replacements for carnations. When I up-potted the carnations, they all died. I think that was fungal rot. I don't know if that was carried by the soil, or I didn't sterilize the used pots. Disappointing. So I sterilized containers, used new containers for planting the new seeds, threw the diseased plants/containers/soil into the trash, and have learned a lesson. I also sterilized the plant stand. The same thing happened to the micro tomatoes.

I don't know why I bought those basil seeds. I have plenty that I saved myself. Oh well. This year I'm changing over all but a few tomatoes to dwarf types and of those, open pollinated rgat I can save seeds. I will also do a pruning experiment with the indeterminates to see if I can prune them into bush types - the exact opposite of the usual pruning. That is to try to raise them without tall poles. I'm hoping I can raise about a dozen in one large raised bed, plus two in large containers (Bush Early Girl and Early Boy Bush). The hand-written packets were seeds I saved last year. So was the cilantro (not shown).

Benville, Illinois Schoolhouse. 3.4.22

Benville, Illinois. Possibly eatly 1900s to 1910s. Here is the one room schoolhouse where some of my family went to school, including my grandfather, his siblings, and possibly his parents and their siblings. I don't know what grade he reached. Probably not high school grades but I'm not certain. Looking at the images, I don't recognize anyone. I probably would not have the photo if my grandfather or his parent's generation wasn't in it.

A different image, same schoolhouse.

There isn't much of a Benville any more. There is a cemetary where some of my ancestors are buried. I don't know if any buildings remain now. It's interesting, New Philadelphia was only a few miles away from Benville. You could almost walk from one to the other. I never heard about that until many years later.