Hmmm not so much...

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.

Until next time, I leave you with my lone lavender bearded.