Good morning... time for a new thread.... don't wanna leave the hostess behind....
Dreary morning - expecting a lil more snow today... Getting psyched for the start of Winter Sowing
We came from here == > http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1063925/
**forgot the M in time
This message was edited Dec 30, 2009 9:17 AM
Thanks Tcs. Jumping with ya. Been up early this morning, though think I should have stayed in bed. Walke d by a table and dumpe d a tray of sowed seeds where robe caught it. Gla d they was in baggy. Took the trays out an dsrea d the dirt out so gona have fun when they sprout all crazy in the baggy with transplanting.
I getlizard s that come in on plants for the winter too, but I usually take them back out, cuz figur e there neve r enough knats or othe r pests aroudn in hous e to keep it alive. Thos e of you that bring the liards in how do ya keep em alive?
Which make sme wonde r wher emy toads have all decided to hybernate for the winter. Lst time wa s dumpig pots and ha d big huge old fat guy that ha d burie d himself deep in a pot and out he came just abotu into my lap. Gave me the willie s then had heck of time tryign to catch him out of wheelbarrol and find him anothe r spot to rest.
Phew, you all are hard to catch up with! Out of town, so only on the computer every couple of days.
Terese, I'll snap a photo when I get home of my headboard/blinds/curtains. They're set up exactly like yours, and the overlap really turned out to not be a big problem (why the architects don't think about things like a bed fitting between windows I have no idea!)
Lizards! What a great solution. Too bad my cats might actually think to behave like cats and catch them though :(
Can't wait to get home, recover from holidays, and then start getting the trays washed and ready! Should have done that when it was warmer, as I'll wash them all out in the garage sink freezing my hands off.
Have a happy New Year all!
Star, now I'll go bezerk trying to figure WHAT IS in my house because I never thought about it. The first one was a baby that came in almost froze and just stayed because I didn't want to toss it out in the cold and it survived then this year another baby was in a plant so I purposely brought it in because of last years baby and I saw it catching gnats and since I had more seeds sown and seedlings I figured that was what they both are eating. Now I'm worried about what else they find that I didn't know about. But Maybe I'll bring one in every year. I only see it around the window where my plants are and in my plants. Maybe he goes down in the drains and gets stuff. I don't know.
Doe s anybody know how easy it is to transplant sweet peas. been awhile sinc ei did them and don't remember. I picke d up a pack of these:
http://www.tmseeds.com/product/876/Top_Seller
thought i would try and do a combo with them of soem other plans in a smaller hanging basket. Have no ide a what would go with them or look good with them.
A bit of info for you starlight http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/swp-transplant-tips.html
Well that a real nifty link. Thanks Moonhowl. I sur e wouldn't have sowe d them deep enough. Aprpeciate it and welcome to our threads. Make yoruself at home. : )
Thank you kindly. I am a bit of a lurker, grin. I read and learn and when I see an opportunity to repay the kindness, slip in a link or two.
Moon.. No need to be alurker, feel free to join in at anytime. We all learn from each other ideas trials , successes, failure s and everythign in between. LOL
I missed my sweet peas this year. I sowed the peas and sweet peas as usual in Mid March, but they didn't come up this year. it got very warm very early, then froze. I think it was just an odd year. I am wondering when to sow them this year. If I have room inside, I may start them inside. I have a new type, bush sweet peas to try this year.
My dog wants to go out again. Blustery weather her in PA today. It was in the teens during the night.
It just started a sleet snow mix here a few minutes ago. Not suppose to do anything except rain, I thought.
mekos,
what part you in am in Summerville about 30 miles from charleston and it clouding up and temps dropping not susposed to do this lol You must be in upper part of state
Carolyn
My poor daughter. She brought her sled (saucer) up here to Delaware, as my parents got 18" of snow a week before Christmas. The day we drove up, it rained all day here and melted all the snow. Now you're getting weather at home, and we're here. We leave tomorrow, and it's supposed to snow again here! Our timing is way off!
Sorry you guys. But it is sleeting cats and dogs here right now mixed with snow. Was only suppose to get rain tomorrow nothing today! Dumb weather people. I'm sure not prepared for this. Well, I do have milk and bread-duh !
I had a couple of Sweet Peas seeds last spring I tried growing early, 3 I think, and they were a couple of years old. They did not come up, so I tossed the dirt into the bed where I would have planted them and Guess What? You are so right! One of them came up. I was smiling away that day when I realized what was growing! It came up late, but flowered and gave me a few more seeds to work with this year.
Kelly, I feel for your daughter. We have done something like that ... but it was driving the 5 hours to the cottage, only to have the same 2 inches of snow we had at home. One year went sledding on a hill of ICE! Dangerous but fun. But other things were fun ... first and last time we walked across the lake, about a mile. Of course that was about 7 years ago. Here is a pic of that ... I'm not in the picture. Just my kids and others in the family ... a little out of focus ... it was cold. Burrrr just thinking about it.
I sure WISH I could keep a lizard in the house and let run around......it's rather cold though i'd think. We used to have a gecko pet.....hhhmmmmm
I will be thinking about this now. :-) Right now we have rat pets.....plus a cat that has adopted us. Might as well add a lizard to the mix. Hee hee!
I have NOT seen a mealy bug fly - I am really hating them right now. ggggrrrr
THANKS for the sweet pea Link!! Awesome!
The weather gurus don't seem to know whether it will be snow/rain/sleet here. Temperatures are too close to freezing. It is supposed to be nearly 40' this weekend, anyway. I would prefer snow. Freeze/thaw is stressing out my roses and my dog. I carry her in and wash her muddy feet. She would rather head directly to her food bowl. I am glad that she is small enough to carry. (Tiffany is a Westie). Today she stayed inside barking at the squirrels.
I have been repotting some of my houseplants, dusting fungus gnats, trying to find room for more lights and trays. I am setting up a shelf this spring for seed starting. First, I have to finish painting and tiling the floor and find some more lights.
It must have warmed a degree, the sleet seems to be melting now but did have a white layer on the ground. Now I believe it is just mist of rain.
I would love to hear anyone chime in about the lizzies. I planted 4 tins of them on the 5th and not one has come up, I got the seeds at Parks. The seeds are in soiless compost and in ziplocks with enough moisture to collect inside the baggies, but don't know if something else went wrong. They were supposed to germinate in 10 days. hmmm.
Ella I sowed about 200 sweet pea seeds in the last few days and I saw the same page above or I would not have planted those buggers so deep. I did see another site where it says only to put them 1/2" deep, I think that was T&M world wide web page. And funny thing that on one of the sweet pea pages with t&m it says to include light as the seeds need light to germinate while the page you referred to says to put them in the dark. Maybe it depends on which type of sweet pea since there are several. Anyway I don't usually like to get too complicated so I just planted them all a little over 1/2" and put them in the gh, will see how they fare.
OK on these sweet peas, are they the blooming kind not the eating peas, right? I grow sweet peas and all I do is sow the seeds right out on the ground where they are going to grow and they sprout when they are suppose to and grow. I don't advise moving them anywhere after they sprout because I don't have good luck with them living after being moved. BUT you can winter sow outside and just forget them. Mine are hardy for here and come back each year.
I started doign some more hunting on the Seet Peas and ther e are two types. Annual and perennial ones. One s that are perennial it says to nick. Doesn't say to nick the annual one s, just plant but to giv e light.
Ansonfan.. Take s awhile for the Lisianthus to germinate. Can take 14-21 days at temps of 60-75F and do not cover them they need light to germinate. I do remember that it doe s take them quite awhile to germinate
Pourign rain here has been all afternoon adn rain again tommorrow. And then Friday night it gonna freeze big time. Wonder if I stil have my ice skates or finally threw them out. Use d to skate all the time up North then came south and no ice rinks. Darn skate s sat in closet for like 15 years. Think I finally got rid of them. Probabbly a good thing. Been so long sinc e I been on them I'd probably just fall and bust my buns. I do that enough just tryign to walk. : )
So which are yours Star, anual or perennial?
mekos I'm talking about the ornamental kind of sweet pea, although they can be eaten they are grown primarily for the bloom. And I have both the annual and perennial types but mostly the annual. Thanks for the info on the lizzies Star.
That is what I was talking about. I have the king size navy and some pastel colors and red, white and blue ones. My pastels come back every year. I haven't planted the others yet to see.
I wintersowed the perennial sweet peas (Everlasting Pea) last year, and they did well. I didn't nick them, but the freezing and thawing takes care of that.
I've heard country folks around here say to direct sow edible peas on Valentines Day.
Has anybody trie d to eat the ornamental sweet pea? I have heard it edible but never trie d it. Eating Dayliliy blooms and bud s I have though.
If your lisianthus don't come up after the reccomended time, I'd try calling park seed. They used to be very good about replacing seeds that didn't germinate well... Of course that was a few years ago, and their customer service seems to not be as good of late...
I'd be wary about eating Ornamental sweet peas very often. They are a Lathyrus species and are toxic if ingested in quantity. I've read it contains a chemical that can cause a type of lathyrism which prevents the proper formation of collagen and connective tissues.
Edible peas are in the Pisum genus. I think I'll stick with the Pisum genus for eating since I don't like the idea of paralysis and baggy skin!
I like looking at flowers but never got hungry enough to try eating any of them.
Hahahahhahaha Danita.. Choking on my coffe e here. Laughign and snorting so hard. Ya for real. I already got that baggy skin thing goign on.
Any other good links for sweet peas? I would like to know more about the perennial types and how to tell the seeds apart.
I am going to sow my regular peas and annual sweet peas around my grandmother's birthday mid March again. I think last spring was an anomaly. My grandmother and I planted peas and sweet peas every year around her birthday, I don't remember having troubles before. She also saved tomato seeds, etc and started them inside around Valentine's Day. She would let me plant anything - tangerine pits, avocado pits, pineapple tops-and always remember to water them.
I have a trellis that is shared by peas, sweet peas and morning glories. The peas are done by the time the morning glories start climbing. I also planted some in a window box. I love the self watering window boxes. I have some named sweet peas from an earlier trade. I think I will start some of them early in a window box.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!
Been rocking out with Dick Clark's NEw Year Eve. Actually manage d to stay up and watch the ball drop. Of cours e they interupte d the program for 11 o'clock local news and was sayign abotu how it was a Blue Moon tonight. Always wodnere d wher e that saying of once in a blue moon came from now I know.
The thign that did cross my mind is alot folks all sowe d by this months full moon, which, if I not wrong, was the start of winter stolice, but wonder how having two ful moons in a month works. Do ya do double planting. Since a blue moon only come s evry like 19 years and soem days, wonder if it make s the seeds grow crazy or something.
Well back to catchign last coupel minute s of show.
Best to all for the comignyear and may your flowers bloomand your gardens be beautiul! : )
GardenQuilts, the seeds for perennial sweet peas are smaller than the annual sweet pea seeds that I've seen, by about half as I recall.
I can't keep up. I missed a whole thread. But last I read is that my package arrived & Star your ants story reminds me of a similar situation with my son & I when we first moved here from IL. I had never heard of fire ants either & my son was about 2 1/2 years old at the time he discovered them. Was terrible! They ball up on you & hang on & the sting afterwards feels almost like a bee sting.
I finally dug up my Citrus trees & planted them all in one pot for the winter & they were FULL of fire ants! I don't know what to do about them. So far, I have been just spraying the ones that come out of the pot. I'm wondering if I should have just left them outside for the winter to see if they would make it. But I have had them for 8 years now & couldn't bear to do it. I do still have some little ones out there that sprouted this year. Most of them are still alive.
ants
Just a little reminder for all thos e piggie s that still haven't gotten there seed s in yet, please try adn do it as soon as possible, or at least update me on your conditions and statuses. : )
For thos e new to the piggy swap, well ya see how the seed s ya oink for go into yoru bucket.
Well the next step is takign your extras and to first start by puttign the hudnreds and hudnreds and mroe hundred s of seds first into groups of the alphabet. Kinda hard to tell but there oodle s of packets in each group and pile. Have to pile em up on top of each other to start. Later then each group of alphabet wil get laid out as to what it is. You'll see pic s of that proces s later, btu her e some pic s for now.
Part of the m's and s's and veggies. They needed a whole big table by themselves.
What I find amazing is the gazzillion of ways folks package and label seeds.
A giant mound ofc's. Haven't decide d yet which has more m's or c's but think seed with letter c winning.
Think there enough seeds?
Nope as seed a holics we need more. LOL
and ther e still more to come.
I will tell you this. I got lots and lot s of folks that didn't put ther e name on the extras and one to ones. With the enormity of folks this year, ther e some of you that ther e no way I gonan rmemebe r what a sent and didn't send and lookign back at 60 different kind s of lists and typign and handwrittign woudl take me forever, so know this.
You may get a couple of the extras ya sent in back in your bucket . Sorry but it just can't be helped. If ya get soemthign back ya cna just trade it or save it to send back into swap next year. Cuz for example you may have sent in hollyhocks and aske d for hollyhocks back, well i may have 25 kidns of hollyhocks with no id name on them so I just grab and toss.
Hope that make s sense.
Now if anybody recgonizes thes e seeds cna ya tell me what they are. Like annual , perennial, or find me links. So busy tryign to work on wish lists don't have to hunt for these.
A brown/beige envelope that just has the word grape on it. grape what? scratche s head.
Spitfire Vffa hyb. What is VFFa?
MaoGwa?
Bull horn acacia seeds. Is that atree?
Commelina dayflower.
scientific name for lov ein a puff. tryign to find which alphabet it fit s in
Herbertia lahue a propeller plant? doe s this oen giv e ya sky miles?
Chelorie ? obliqua common name
tricyrtis what is it?
Cohosh mineral, veggie, plant ?
Castilleja coccinea Indian Paintbrush.
schizanthus hookerii I shoudl knwo this one btu cant remmebr dah
spellign that looks like Billi's monstrosa is that the name and what is it?
dracocephalum Moldavica ????
Pavonia hastata is that a peony.
Agalinis purpurea common name
Bidens aristosa commonname?
alchemilla mollis?
Not too bad a list of I have noide a what ya are seeds LOL
Oh and very very important. Doe s anybody remmebr which Hibiscus it is now that is illegal to grow. Ther e all kidns in the trough and I knwo that one particular cultivar is illegal becuas e of teens abusing. If anybody remember s which one off hand I woudl appreciate knowing.
