Each morning this is what greets me at the porch steps. The poor pansies are flattened by the cold. But if it warms up enough, and long enough, they perk right back up.
The chiondoxa lucillae buds I posted a few days back opened. They are in the sunrise light here.
The tiny Siberian squill bud I posted a few days ago opened. It looks mighty brave all by itself.
On the other side of the front porch the daffodils have buds and there are more flattened pansies.
Several of the transplants in the West Herb garden have buds.
Top: Cortland onions, verbascum, Pink Polka Dot, arnica
Middle: mesclun, arnica and agrimony not up yet
Bottom: broccoli and mesclun #2
I was up again in the night and after going back to bed around 3:30AM, I woke around 7AM. I had a lot of preparation to do for the seed starting and now didn’t have time to do it. My general helper would be here around 9AM.
Top: Walla Walla onions
Middle: leeks not up yet
Bottom: leeks up, celery, columbine, costmary, spinach
So I spent the morning playing catch-up and trying to stay ahead of her so she could keep working. But she got all but 1 small tray done of the 12 we had to do before she had to go, just the one to go down into the fridge with santolina.
We filled all the shelves except this middle one. It had a heat mat for the leeks not up yet and no one else except the broccoli needed one. The broccoli is in the dining window on the bottom shelf, next photo up.
Top: carnations, stocks, artichokes, mesclun, Swiss chard
Second shelf: beets
Third shelf: kale
Bottom: Sweet William, Canterbury bells, winter savory, parsley, ashwagandha, Sweet Annie, Sweet Cecily
There were 186 seedlings started on Wednesday. One thing I had forgotten was to wash trays. I only had to wash one as I had 10 left in the cellar. We used the new seed starting mix so we will see how well the plants do.
The next seed starting is in 2 weeks and is 13 trays. We have to get the cold frame covers out on Friday and on the cold frame so it can start warming up. I think I’d better think about getting supports and shelving up on the back porch too. There’s not that many that can go outside in mid April. I also need to get the trays washed before then, at least 13 of them.
I was so tired when she left; I just got lunch and sat down. The mess was still there when the contractor arrived at 3PM. We worked on the floor by the hearth and got the 2 small boards in and he got the hearth grouted where he’d started cutting away the stone. He’d brought the baseboard for the sink wall but it didn’t match up very well. It was very muted while the barnboards are pretty vibrant in color. He’s going to try to brighten the baseboard some.
On Thursday it’s to be cold and rainy in the morning. It may warm up enough for me to go outside in the afternoon. If so, I plan to plant the bulbs still in pots. I plan to pay bills in the morning.