Digging Suburbia

mumbling and fumbling my way through backyard restoration

#reallife

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DSC_0008psThe truth about this picture…

Is that I bribed the four year old with Disney Junior and I removed a piece of half eaten Godiva peppermint chocolate and its’ residual smear from the frame before I took it. But what you see in the picture is really my happy place…if such a place were to exist in this lifetime!

Ah, photos: how you lie and make life look remarkably less messy.

So I went with mostly Ferry Morse this year. I spent quite a bit of time online looking at the elite seed companies, and I wrote down the prices for everything I was wishing for…then I went to Home Depot.

I want to be that person who says “Small Business Saturdays Are the Best!” But when it comes right down to it, I’m often the person that says “the same amount of envy zinnias are $4.00 less here? SOLD.” I’ve been pleased with Ferry Morse germination rates in the past…if only we’d get a little more sun I’d be able to make a better assessment of this year.

The hard facts about tanning

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Another day of rain.  Did I say rain?  I meant hail.

Gravel sized hailstones.

As I type I’m staring out at yet another ominous cloud.

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The sprouts are showing signs of not enough sun.  So much so that I just Amazon searched how much grow lights cost.  *gulp.*  Looks like they are going to have to toughen up.

Do you use grow lights?  Do you like them?  Did you have a slight heart attack when you purchased them?

Late start

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We’ve lived in this house going on three years now, and the backyard has been on the “to do” list ever since. David gave me the go-ahead early March to hire the landscaper for the big work and irrigation changes, and the contractor to build the beds. Early March around here was a stretch of beautiful sunny days…until I got my seeds started. That was March 19th. The upcoming forecast projected partly sunny days for the next week. WELL. After March 19th it was a stretch of about 9 warm, but mostly cloudy days. Semantics, really, but it meant a lot for my seedlings. Many of them haven’t even popped their heads up.

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Our old house was a shotgun house with only about 15 feet between it and the neighboring houses on either side. Sunshine was sparse there and I had better luck. I’m going to blame this on weather.

So…if the seeds that haven’t sprouted yet have a germination projection of 5-10 days, are they even viable anymore? I hate to start over on those if they only need a couple more sunny days. It’s {hopefully} only a week or so until planting time, but a week’s a week.

Gets me every time

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DSC_0096 photoshopped

Have you seen this picture?

queen red lime zinnia from pinterest

If you have, I’m guessing you’re the proud owner of a brand new pack of lime mix zinnia seeds.

Darn you, Pinterest.

They sprouted quick. Pack says 28 days to germination. I’m guessing that’s a misprint…the extra words must have bled off the page because it should read 28 minus 26 days to germination.

I planted 14 seeds/2 per cell, and 12 of them germinated. That’s 86% or most excellent in my book. Many of my former students would have said “That’s practically an A!”

I didn’t get mine from Burpee—much to the chagrin of Pinterest—but from SaavySeeds on Amazon. Looking healthy so far…I’m sure it’s all the singing the 4 year old does to them. I’ll update…

A spade is a spade by any other color…

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or something like that…

I feel weird calling myself a gardener. Maybe because I grew up with the notion that gardeners were retired. Mostly because I have not done the following things:

  1. Grafted anything.
  2. Purchased a pair of overalls. {The high school pair was purchased by my parents, I’ll have you know, and was also considered highly stylish at the time.}
  3. Worked in a nursery. {Other than the one at church, and I am a big ball of complain-o when that happens.}
  4. Attended a seed swap.

 

But here are the things I have done:

  1. Attracted large swarms of gnats into our house due to wrong soil choice during my first season of indoor seed starting
  2. Planted a strawberry bed on the ground in an unfenced yard only to realize the neighborhood dogs were peeing on it
  3. Killed a black widow spider with my bare hands {and maybe a lot of weird dancing and the closest Tupperware container I could find…}
  4. Saved shower water {from when the water would heat up…ew…don’t be gross} during a drought to pour on a hydrangea bush that was given to us as a wedding present
  5. Heard my mother say that flowers speak to her and totally understand what she means
  6. Made my husband think we were about to wreck the car because I gasped a little too loudly at someone’s beautiful front porch planters

 

So I’m going to go with: isn’t it really life’s mistakes that wind up shaping your course in the most unexpectedly wonderful ways?

I’m calling myself a gardener. There. It’s done. I said it.

Dig in!

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