Class of 4/23/2008

Ok, I had planned on getting a real current count of everything that's growing, but I didn't. What I did instead was move most of the seedlings outdoors today. I know you're supposed to harden them off for a week, but it was just too nice out, so today was graduation day for some.

The first thing I noticed when I went out there this morning was that one catchfly had sprouted a flower overnight!After only one day in full sunlight, it bloomed! This is not at all what I expected from the package. It's supposed to be a plant that gets 18" tall (I was thinking it was about 4-5 feet for some reason), and sprout bright pink flowers. This is about 4-5" long and has a purple flower. Most likely the cause of this discrepancy was human error on my part, but it's still odd. My assessment- Pretty, but ultimately not worth the work that went into it. Maybe it can sway my opinion if I plant it somewhere and it takes off.

Here's everything that moved outside today.

Class of 4/23/2008:

All the marigolds, the broccoli and cauliflower (I've resigned myself to having to buy replacements in May), the catchflies, a few miscellaneous peppers, and the spare tomatoes went. Which brings me to the tomato issue. Remember the ones I picked as 'the ones'? They are currently about 2 feet tall and in dire need of being planted. Remember the ones I didn't pick that I later re-potted in 2-liter bottles? They are almost as big. So, 'the one' Beefsteak got so big that I had to re-pot it in a regular flower pot, but it wasn't looking so great. I don't think the soil it was in was draining. Well, the garden hasn't been tilled yet so it's not ready for plants and I just couldn't stand for it to be suffering anymore. What's a girl to do to save her plants? I dug a hole between the fence and deck and plopped it in. Now it is to the left of that stand and hopefully spreading it's roots out as I type this. Hey, it was do or die.

Still under lights:

The hot peppers, green peppers, and carnival mixed peppers are all about 6" tall. They are looking very robust and healthy, as are the sweet basils. I left the tomatoes in there because I'm afraid that the real sunlight will make them grow even more and we're just not ready for that. I must say though, that our tomato plants kick Menard's tomato plants into the dirt. Yay us! I also left the thyme and mint in there too. 2 rosemarys have started so far (they are very slow germinaters), and I'm still waiting for the sage to come up. The oregano went outside late in the evening and the watermelon joined their friends, squash and beans.

There's also a male carpenter bee vigorously defending his territory, which happens to be my deck and lounge chair. I know they can't sting, but it's a little unsettling to have a bee stare you down from 2 feet in front of your face. The funny thing is, it works and I run away.

Oh yeah, here's another funny thing. We went to the store yesterday to get all the ingredients needed for our new blueberry bush and after we got everything together and started heading up to the check-out, I realized that I had forgotten my checkbook at home and we didn't have any method of payment on us. We had planned on leaving that store and getting something to eat, but instead we just went home empty-handed and hungry. There we picked up the checkbook and quickly made a run to Kroger before we became too light-headed to go on. So, I really tried to plant something on Earth Day, but we did get a re-usable grocery bag.

If you don't already know, Kroger.com has coupons that you load right onto your Plus card online. You can also do their 'Design a Bag' (it's really easy), and get a free re-usable bag the next time you go to the store. It loads directly onto your Plus card too. We picked our free one up last night.

Ok, I think that's it for now.

High: 81! Low: 56, sunny and wonderful; Lunar Phase: Waning Gibbous, 88% of full.