GardenzSpring Starts

There'll be plenty of time later, in the summer, to set and relax..but now's the time to put in those days and weeks of preparation for that harvest of blooms!

I hope you're nurturing all those little seedies! Whether it be in a greenhouse, in spare room, in the basement, or sprawled all over the kitchen table! This is my little poly greenhouse. Jim made the shelving units from pvc and vinyl coated wire shelves. Mounted two small perches at each screened peak, where I've got two oscillating fans running nearly all day. There's a huge, zippered, screened vent in the back as well. The door zippers shut (well, not this year, as it ripped). I made a make-shift screen door, cause it didn't come equipped with one. (BTW: Thanks to suggestions from my wonderful gardening friends, I was able to repair the poly door. So, it's all snug in there again.) If temps dip below 40˚, I kick on a space heater.

I'm quite the fashion plate, n'est pas? Hey, it's functional! Note the pants tucked into the socks:TICKS! Between pruners, utility belt and whatever else I can stuff in my pockets, I'd better be wearin that belt!(Hard to garden with your pants around your ankles, you know!) Seedlings get moved out here after they've been transplanted from their tiny plug trays and into 6-packs. They'll rest for awhile, still in the house, till they..uh..calm down. Then they get moved to the greenhouse when they're "less nervous". (HAH!) It's kind of a round-robin type procedure. New flats go on bottom shelf for first few days, cause it's a little more shaded there. Then moved to top shelf.

From the greenhouse, they graduate.. full-time.. to the outside world to complete their hardening off. Last stop: They're in the ground! HOME AT LAST!!

"Miss Stuffedgardenz"is supposed to scare off the critters, but, HEY.. she's too friendly-looking to be considered a genuine "scarecrow".

These waskuly wodents will snooze on her outstretched arm or in her lap..when they're not dining on my deck!

Of course, this cheery bloak BELOW didn't do much but provide them a lofty perch from which to sun themselves in his hair of blue fescue!





This guy, with his outstretched arms, is made from recycled pieces of an old trellis and a plastic pot-head. (Uh..."Scuse me?") I had a hyacinth bean vine trailing up his "legs" and out onto his arms. He rests in the front center of a large island perennial/annual bed in front of the house. That's a large leafed coleus ("Limelight") growing at his feet and French Vanilla Marigolds on either side. Behind him is a Korean Spice Viburnum. There's more beds behind that and my house in the background.

I have to apologize, here, for the quality of the pics. I reduced them and unfortunately, some came out rather grainy...no matter how much I fiddled with the scanner/fax/copier/printer/popcornmaker/icecream machine/hair dryer/chipper/shredder!! "Yikes!"

To see where these seedlings spend their summers, then pick up the trowel, and "dig" on to Gardenzville.

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