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Hey my friend's! Here in Southwest Missouri Spring is on it's way. Sometimes I feel like I can hardly get through January and February! They seem to go on forever! We will still get some cold snaps and lately especially if you live in this general area you know that we have had lots of 🌧 rain!
So what has been keeping me busy lately besides my family? Gardening of course! I did some winter sowing which I told you about. I actually started a lot of tubers and bulbs like Peony, Poppy, Caladium ( I use them in pots on my porch, they do really well there!) I also started some Liatris and seeded some Tansy and Sunflowers 🌻! I put them all on my screened in backporch to keep my daughter's very busy puppy from playing with them! (The puppy is a Blue Heeler/Border Collie Cross named Katie!)
Some of them are already coming up! Then I started flats of seeds! My husband decided to rebuild my Greenhouse this year! I'm so excited! He isn't finished but he has it all closed in. So today I when I saw that the kitties were trying to use my flats for litter boxes I decided to go ahead and move them down to Greenhouse!
We went to the Garden Show in Springfield and talked to an expert on Greenhouses. He said he used to manage the Greenhouses for Pittsburgh State University in Kansas. My husband was trying to figure out how to make the Greenhouse more Green ( how to heat and cool it efficiently.) He told us if we put lava rock 🪨 under the beds and put white rock on the path, when you water 💧your plants the lava rock absorbs the water and it heats up from the sun. Then the water runs to the white rock at night and causes steam to rise up that helps keep the plants warm at night! We are still going to put a little heater in it and a fan on a thermostat to help cool it but it is supposed to make it almost self sufficient! We will find out!
So I have seeded flats of Marigold, Impatiens, Cosmos, Snapdragons, Foxglove, Delphinium, Coleus, Lettuce and I bought some little cabbage plants, Broccoli 🥦, and Brussel Sprouts. Also some Early Tomatoes to start in the greenhouse. When it comes to 🍅Tomatoe plants my Mom always had her favorite! Early Girl and Better Boy were her pick for flavor so I tend to pick those varieties also. My Grandson's helped me seed some flats! Hopefully I'm creating gardening buddies! I remember when I was little I used to follow my Mother around while she was gardening, I loved every bit of it except the weeding part! Maybe part of that love was because we did it as a family! Nobody got out of weeding, snapping greenbeans, or shucking corn. I remember one time we kids were gathered in the same room snapping greenbeans and listening to music while a summer breeze blew through the 🪟window! It didn't seem like work. It was just something we did together! So it's a rainy 🌧chilly Saturday! We decided to go out to eat at one of our local Mexican restaurants! Its name is "I Don't Care" really it is! It is good and fast! After that we went to Walmart to get Groceries! I of course made a bee line to the plant section! I found pots of Ranuculus and Primrose they both like cooler weather and were so pretty! I also potted up some little buckets 🪣 of Hyacinth and Ivy and they like the cooler weather! I was really looking for pansies, it's pansey planting time but so far no luck!
Oh well, I'm so glad it's time to play with plants again. If any of you need some advice or tips on starting plants from seed just let me know. You don't have to have a greenhouse to start your own seeds. Just a flat for planting in, some seed starting mix and a Sunny 🌞 🪟 window. My tips? Plant your seeds, water, use a permanent marker and a little plant stake to mark what you've planted, spray with fungicide and cover with plastic to keep the moisture in. When your little plants sprout use a pair of tweezers to thin them, then when your plants get their second set of leaves 🍃you can take the plastic off. Keep a spray bottle with water to spray your little plants. Be sure to keep them moist and don't let them dry out. That's it! I learned these things from a friend who was a greenhouse expert and they have always worked for me!
My garden cat! My Honey and my Dixie! So that is all my friends for now! Remember I love all of you in Jesus and happy gardening as Spring comes to your 🏡home! FG FARM GIRL