Tomato Seedling Update. 5.1.2021

 The Romas are mostly planted now.  That included the hybrid, determinate Romas, and the indeterminates.

These are Amish Paste and Tiren, both indeterminate but Amish Paste is open pollinated and Tiren is a hybrid.

These are mostly the slicing tomatoes.  They are the second group that I planted out, so they didn't get cooked in the Wall-o-Waters.

Some of these did get cooked.  However, I think they might be starting to grow anyway.  That would be nice.

These are the hybrid Romas.  They are determinate.  I hope they do well.  The nonhybrid Romas are only two plants, and not yet ready to plant in the garden bed.

Then there are the first of the Dwarf tomatoes.  This was a large plastic container that was originally a water feature filter.  I drilled nine 4-inch holes in the bottom, filled with a mix of home soil and home compost.  Also some left over peat moss.  This container should be large enough for these two dwarf tomatoes.  I read that they can be grown in 5 gallon buckets, and this container holds about 5 of those buckets of soil.  They do seem close together.

Forsythia Cutting Update. 5.2.2021

 I have these forsythia cuttings in my home office window.  There are two pots with smaller cuttings that I scored and treated with Dip-and-grow.  They are in peat moss / perlite mix, seed starting medium.  They are covered with plastic sandwich bags.  At 4 or 5 days, no wilting.  There was slight wilting the first day.

There are also 4 cuttings in water.  They are much bigger.  I also scored them and treated with dip-and-grow.  I doubt that did anything, since the water probably washed it off.  It's possible some is absorbed and not washed off.

If all of these take, that's about all I think I need for a nice hedge.  If they don't, well they are free plants, so not a problem.  Plus there are the ones I have soil layered in the mixed hedge row.

One thing I'm guilty of that frustrates me when I'm reading other gardening blogs, is that the start is nicely presented, but there isn't always follow up.  That's especially true if they don't grow.  If they do grow, the info is easier to present.  I'll try to keep a record of how these do whether they grow or not.  I've read that forsythia can be started in water, and I think I have done it, but my memory isn't perfect.

Pansies. 5.1.2021

A few of the pansies that I planted last month.  These were purchased plants from Tsugawa.  They are in a vegetable raised bed.

 

Planting Cucumber and Swiss Chard Seeds. 5.1.2121

 Today I planted old cucumber seeds.  I forgot to plant the cucumber seeds I saved, last fall, so will go back and do that.  The potential problem with those is, I don't know if they were hybrids, so I don't know what they will be like.  I planted these seeds in 4 inch flower pots. 

I also planted some Swiss chard seeds, directly into the garden soil. Swiss chard is my favorite green, although sometimes they are other colors.

I planted a short row from each packet.  Those from 2014 are pretty old.  We'll see if they grow.

Lilacs Today. 5.1.2021

 The lilacs are in full bloom today, so I took a bunch of photos.  The two with more delicate flowers are Korean lilac.  Also there's a viburnum in there, which is not a lilac.  I imagine that the lilac bush in front of the house was planted by the first owners of this house.  Last summer I pruned out all of the underbrush and left it as a kind of grouped tree.  It's more airy that way and I think nicer.