Spring’s Promise

We got a little snow last night, but it was gone by 9am.  The cold frame is a smashing success so far; we’ve had several below-freezing nights, and as insurance, I leave a votive burning in the frame overnight.  Probably not necessary, but I have seedlings up and I’d feel sick if they froze at this point.  Here’s a view from this morning; the radishes poked out on Sunday, about 6 days after planting:

Indoors there’s some growing going on too.  Because I have limited space for seedlings indoors, and my family complains heartily once all the window space is taken up, I use the tiny Jiffy pots for most of my needs.  They stay a little moister than some seeds require, so by trial and error, there are some plants I grow under drier conditions.  The peat pots are handy, and have been around for a long time.  I remember my dad using them when I was a kid.  This tray was planted about 10 days ago; broccoli, a couple varieties of tomatoes, some other vegetables, and various flowers.  I plant in stages so that I get tomatoes coming on for a period of weeks rather than all at once.  Broccoli will be planted again midsummer to give a fall crop. 

The trick is not planting too soon so that the seedlings get leggy or overgrown.  I’m working on a second flat today.

Once the seedlings are poking up, they sit in a sunny window during the day, and then I move them to grow lights for some hours at night.  Too much heat but not enough light makes weak, leggy plants. 

Outside, I was pleased to see that this new rosebush (extra hardy climbing variety) has buds all the way to the top of the canes, surviving the Minnesota winter well.  In fact, this one is doing so well – it was my “test” plant, that I probably will put a matching rosebush on the opposite side of the arbor.  This plant doesn’t have a strong scent, but is winter hardy and is planted on the arbor for aesthetic appeal alone!

The blueberries are lookin’ good! I’m dreaming of big juicy blue berries already! This is the third spring for these plants, and they have been absolutely decimated by rabbits for the first three springs.  For some reason, hungry baby rabbits come along and chew off last year’s growth, meaning there are NO berries whatsoever when that happens.  We finally got wise and surrounded with chicken wire fencing, and the plants have taken off.  I’m hoping we get a modest crop- and it looks like the bushes will probably have doubled in size, since they haven’t been eaten down.  A couple year’s setback, but maybe the root systems are quite strong now?  Last year’s growth is covered with buds like these:

And, these crocus, newly planted last year, are just waiting for one warm day to open! I have several groupings of new bulbs planted last fall, and I can’t wait to see how everything comes out this spring: