Rain Rain Rain...

So March came in like the proverbial lion and it looks like it's headed out the same. It seems like the rain just won't let up this weekend, which means not a lot of anything getting done outside.

Thankfully it does look like a warm-up is on the way...  and this week should be pretty nice. I'm on vacation and hoping to get quite a bit done to prep for the growing season, including installing a few new garden beds. We'll have to see how it goes. At this rate it may be way too wet to get the new beds in.

In the meantime, things are up and running in the basement. We've got all for shelves in action now as we keep adding and expanding as the planting season continues:

I ended up needing to re-pot the coleus, which I wasn't planning on, but they were getting WAY to big for their cell packs and it will still be a few weeks yet before they can go out. Luckily I had a bunch of 4" pots around. They are now hanging out down at the bottom of the germination station and getting comfy in their new digs.

Coleus

Lupine

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And..... we're back!! 2014 Blog re-launch.

After admittedly dropping the ball for a year or so, I've decided to re-launch the 'Burg in Bloom blog. I've dabbled with a lot of different ways to keep track of what goes on in the garden. Last year I posted exclusively to Facebook, which was fine, but didn't give me a great way to share progress and discoveries with the audience of people outside of my Facebook friends.

This year I'm bringing back the blog as a way to keep content out there for anyone who is interested to enjoy. It's early in the season, so there's not a LOT going on at the moment, but rest assured that I'll do my best to keep you up to date as the season progresses. 

The seed starting station is in full swing in the basement, and the first arrivals of the season are the pansies. I actually did remember to start pansies this year. They have to be started in early January so that they're ready to plant out about now. Usually I don't remember until I start seeing them popping up at garden centers this time of the year. I managed to start two full flats which will be just enough for around the evergreens in the front perennial beds, the two entry urns, and the window boxes on the porch.

An early bloomer

I took advantage of the one day of 60 degree weather this weekend and added compost to the spinach bed. Since temps are supposed to fall off again this week it is back under black plastic for the time being... but hopefully we'll get the spinach crop in next weekend.

Spinach bed turned and amended with compost.

I know not everyone is a huge fan of snakes, but I for one was super excited to see this guy out catching some sun this weekend. It's been a really long winter, so I was actually really happy to see he'd made it. We have a several of these garden snakes around every year, so I'm taking it as a good sign that we're inching closer to spring!

Our all natural pest control team.

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