Who has started seeds for their gardens?

Grooooan.
Hope all's well when you check them Pirl.
The next planting I do are the March coleus cuttings.
Its crazy to put seeds into anything like plant trays at this time ,too soon, plantw will be long and peunie by the time mid May comes.Our last frost

If you have a light set up, Jo Ann, some plants can be started now but generally it would be perennials in the hopes of having blooms this summer or fall.

Puny plants and those stretched out from lack of light never seem to thrive.

For years I couldn't raise a seedling indoors, just spindly things that ended up compost. In the last few years I've been gathering all sorts of ideas from members who do it successfully, and by golly was as proud as a peacock when I raised my first picture perfect bedding pants! So many times I've felt like Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein bellowing "its alive!" LOL It's been a trade off; when I was working full time I didn't have the time for it, but could purchase the plants, but then when I quit floral design to have the time to garden to the extent I wanted to, I no longer had the extra income for plants. With the time and energy to devote to being OCD with it, now it goes well.

No light set up altho if the art market goes as it seems to be doing. I can use the studio for lights and shelves.

Neal - the most common error is overwatering and watering from the top. Both are deadly and the cause of fungus gnats. Water only from the bottom and don't feed until they have a root system to be able to take up nutrients - half strength when they have four leaves or more works.

That doesn't sound like good news, Jo Ann. Might be good for the plants but not for art.

I wanted to make a planter or hanging basket for my MIL. Any suggestions of seeds that would be good to start now?

First why not look at some containers at Mischel's Greenhouses to get ideas?

http://www.mischelsgreenhouses.com/

Oh yeah, I've learned those tricks the hard way, LOL. I'm using a different potting mix this year that has more fine bark than peat in it, and its very free draining. I've had no gnats since I've been using it! I'm keeping the seedlings on the slightly dry side, and they are responding well to that too.

Here's my little Vincas before they got transplanted:

Great!

Various babies:

Oh, how cute. I just love seeing the baby sprouts. A sure sign spring is on the way when we start seeding.

Thanks pirl!
g_s, love your vinca. I've seen a few gnats flying around my seedlings. Does a sticky tape work well for getting rid of them?

Yes!!! Cinnamon sprinkled on the soil is also supposed to work. I haven't tried it yet.

It (sticky tape) catches some of them them, but doesn't really take care of the problem. In past years I've used chick grit from a feed store, and spread a thin layer on the surface of the potting media, and that has taken care of gnat problems. The soft bodied larvae are killed as they move across the sharp surfaces.

This message was edited Feb 20, 2009 7:57 AM

Chick grit I have! Actually just pick some up yesterday-I just got some turkeys and chicks. Good timing I guess.
Cinnamon would make them smell nice as well! Off topic abit: I potty trained my nephew by bribing him with cinnamon. After he'd use the potty I would let him have a sprinkle of cinnamon. He loved it! :-)

Whatever works is fine with me.

I started some herb seeds with the kids today. They love to start the seeds and eat the herbs. We did chives, garlic chives, celery leaf and basil. We also started leaf lettuce, spinach, and some sprouts. Each Sunday when they come out they just eat them, and in spring they will take some of the chives home to plant.

Maybe that will keep Jen from taking my potted irises. Little sneak, loads up the car before I even know they are gone. Seriously I'm so happen they are interested in gardening I don't mind a bit.

Polly, that is sweet that Jen has a love of gardening already, and funny she sneaks off with your potted Iris! It reminds me of myself as a child. I was such a nerd, and didn't really misbehave much, but I do remember one spanking...for picking a neighbor's tulips! I remember that sudden impulse, they were so huge and red and gorgeous..I had them in my hands before even having time to think about what I was doing! I think I was as shocked at my action as my mother was, LOL.

I also had a hand me down Tonka pick up truck (that had been my brother's), which I really didn't have much interest in...that is, till the summer I filled the truck bed with dirt and planted a wild flower in it. I played with that truck all summer that year, LOL.

One year my friend and her husband had gravel dropped for the driveway and they were using the board to level it out. The husband kept yelling at the wife and finally, in disgust, she walked over and plucked off every tulip head. It warms my heart to think about it.

No seeds started here yet too early.
I'm trying to think of a good story to go with that one Pirl.
Ohhhhh yES.
I had a bread and butter job for 13 years. I would pick up the office car and drive 45mins to the Doctors house to bring her into the city.
She was a princess and a meglamamiac and wanted things her way all the time.
They had a lovely piece of property along the lake with gardens they both tended.
Her husband was a clinging cloying baby(but he married well,she was a millionaire)
They developed an argument over a few dying white pine trees that formed the barrier between the house and road.
Not all the trees ,just a thining.
She wanted them cut down and he didnt want them touched, an ego thing no doubt.
As we drove to the city one Friday she told the story of the dispute and said he was going away for a week and she was going to have to figure out how to do the job without being obvious.
I always helped her out in these dilemas because I wasnt a fan of the man.
I told her if she could be patient , there was a way where she couldnt be blammed and the trees would have to be cut down eventually.
I told her to pour salt around the trunks of the trees she wanted thinned.
It worked like a charm.Trees died that year,cut down the next.

Where there's a will there's a way. Since the trees were dying anyhow...

Funny, Jo Ann.

Love the tulip stories.

I love the Tonka truck story, Neal. I have a friend who incorporated all of his weatherproof childhood toys into his garden. It's fascinating and not kitschy at all because he grouped all of them appropriately. The cowboys and Indians section, complete with a corral for many, many toy horses, for example, is planted with cacti, grasses, wildflowers, and other things belonging on the mesa.

That is so clever.
I couldnt do it myself but it must look so cool.

I bet it does look neat. I love train gardens, too, when done well.

I have a small fairy garden, and hope to make that larger this year, with Miss Jennas help.

Sounds like a fun garden Zuzu! Something to see at every turn, I like that.

What a cute idea! I do enjoy seeing a gardeners collection of well loved things artfully placed in the garden. Its something I don't do very well- I've often started arranging some of my blue and white Oriental (reproduction) porcelain in the garden, but ultimately always feel I'm encroaching on junkie and move them back inside. I'm going for it again though, because I've planned my "Sky Garden" in blue, white, and yellow with those pieces in mind. There's a cute little concrete Buddha bench down in one part of that garden and a serpent/dragon statue in keeping with the Eastern theme. My friend who died last year "surprised" me with garden art, which I reluctantly accepted with a smile- I've never done much with accessories in the garden and was always concerned with it looking cluttered or out of place, so I wasn't sure about the new additions at first. Now they've grown on me, and I'm happy with their placement, and they now have sentimental attachment too.

I personally think blue and white porcelain is extremely tasteful in a garden.

How beautiful! Is that Chantilly? The porcelain is lovely as well but the kittie is outstanding.

No, that's my sweet Jasper, the formerly feral cat, shortly after he arrived here last year. That was before he turned into such an affectionate sweetie. He was still wary of me then, so I had to stay at a comfortable distance from him.

I love the look he's giving you and how his eyes harmonize with the greens in the garden - almost as if you planned it that way.

Right. It should have been in your color harmonies thread.

We have tomatoes & peppers developing nicely. Lots of flowers & some cole crops were planted today. A tad later, but --

Bernie

Ooohh, I love that rooster! And I always love those fabulously fluffy cats.

Yes I do love porcelain in the garden too, the blue and white stuff I've been collecting for years, but the concrete pieces were the surprises. I think it will be fun arranging them, especially with the garden filling in quite a bit this year. Its my execution of the project where I have had doubts, but I judge my work harshly...which is particularly silly since I have no neighbors that can see the garden.

That is silly. I used to judge my decorating efforts harshly and get upset if I had more than one main color and two accent colors in each room, but now I just surround myself with everything I love.

My sister somehow amassed a big collection of cookie jars years ago -- cats and geese and bears, etc. It really was an odd choice for her because she was anorexic and probably hadn't eaten a cookie for decades, but she eventually put them all out in the garden because they were ornaments that were relatively unaffected by extreme weather conditions (as extreme as they get in California, at any rate). They weren't grouped in any way, just scattered around in various flower beds and at the curves of pathways, and they looked great.

Hey, I have that same blue ceramic ball!

What a pretty combo, Sue! I have no orange in my garden, but might have to rethink it. Love that blue and orange.

Mine was a gift from Lali, Sue.

She has great taste ^_^

Polly, I used to hate orange, back when my garden was all pink and lavenders. Now it's my favorite color in the garden, it's so vibrant.

My garden is all lavender, blue, blue, blue, purple and white. But I have such a big area, I'm sure I can try out some orange around the corner, and see if I can grow attached to it. I love the way you've done that area.