Yes, I am your typical garden blogger, one post every 6 months. But the long dryspell is over people! It's spring in Pepperell and that's means garden blogging time. So the seeds... yeah, not so much.
In March I finally hopped to it and planted my seeds in the basement greenhouse garden, and surprise! They grew. I hardened most of the babies off on my front porch over the last few weekends, mostly pleased at my meager success. Though I decided to leave the impatiens in the basement greenhouse to absorb a few more tender florescent hours.
Next week, when bringing them to the light of day of my kitchen, I tried to carry two trays up my awkward basement stairs. Mistake! Wrangling the trays through the door, I spilled the whole flat of seedlings all over my kitchen floor -- one of the few times I was thankful that the floor is faux brown marble. 2 months of tender shoots glared at me from the floor, accusing me (rightly) for my rushing, quick-push-the-door-open-with-my-foot, haste. I can tell you I owe quite a few dollars to the swear jar for that. So in addition learning that next year I need; more light, more plant food, more water to be successful, I also need more patience.
So after that, I marched right out to the nursery and purchased two more flats of impatiens to replace the ones I flattened. Here's a photo of the impatiens after planting.
I shopped the Pepperell Garden Club's annual sale this past Saturday. There was quite a bit of packaged stuff, and not as much stuff clearly dug from someone's garden as I would have thought. I would have liked more tags on the plants for sale, but then I probably would have bought more, so it worked out. As it is, I picked up about 5 plants for $20 bucks - not bad - among them a Rose Campion - I liked the fuzzy light green foliage, some plant that sends off runners and blooms in September in part shade (see my tagging issue?) and a variegated 'assorted' hosta to add to my collection.
The lilac tree and yellow Iris are popping (see above), and our first lavender iris bloomed this weekend. Things seem a little behind this year, I remember the Iris in full bloom Mothers day 2008, and this year things are just heating up the weekend after. 
So much for global warming.
So much for global warming. Until next time, I leave you with my lone lavender bearded.
