Spring is here...hopefully

Yesterday was the first day of spring and it was surprisingly spring-like.  With the roller coaster weather all winter, I was half expecting a blizzard.  For the last couple of days, I've been able to comfortably walk around outside wearing only a fleece jacket.  Now, I'm not crazy enough to put my winter coat and boots away just yet - call me superstitious, but whenever I jump the gun, Mother Nature inevitably shows me who's boss.

Inside the house, however, I'm the boss - within reason, of course :)  As there has been little consistency in our weather, I decided to maintain my seeding schedule as is.  There's always the temptation to move things up a bit when the weather is unseasonably warm, but it's a gamble - sometimes it pays off while other times, it doesn't.  This year I have a lot on my gardening plate (more on that in a future post), so I'm sticking to the original game plan.

The onions, leeks & shallots were seeded back in February and are well on their way.  So far, no issues with damping off like last year.  Now excuse me for a sec while I look for a piece of wood to knock on ;)

Onion, leek and shallot seedlings, well on their way

Not long after starting the onions, I moved on to the peppers.  Peppers are a bit slow to get going - sometimes even germination takes a few weeks.  In our area, with it's short growing season, I find that they benefit from an extra early start.

Pepper seedlings (approx. 1 month old)

Next up was the eggplant, which was started on March 6.  A couple of years ago when I first grew eggplant, I started them in late March but, as with peppers, I find that they do better with an earlier start.

Eggplant seedlings (2 weeks old)

The kale is up.  I have opted (as I often do) to grow more varieties, in this case a total of four, but only have a couple of plants each for 8 plants in total:

Kale seedlings - less than a week old

The potatoes are also taking up some room under the grow lights.

Potatoes ready for chitting

For some strange reason, these did much better in storage than last year.  Many hadn't sprouted yet and those that did only had small sprouts for the most part. I stored them in the same way and our winter was once again rather warm so the cold cellar didn't stay as cold as usual (just like in the prior year).  I'm stumped as to why they would have stored better this time round.

The sweet potatoes are doing very well compared to last year, especially this guy:

Obviously enjoying the toasty heat mat

The fig trees were brought out of hibernation 2 weeks ago and placed in front of our south facing patio door:

It's still too cold for these guys to be outside; once their photo op was done,

they were quickly brought back in

I took a photo of the handsome duo at this time last year - you can really see how much they have grown:

Figs on March 12, 2016

From a distance, the plants may still look dormant, but on closer inspection the buds are swollen - it won't be too much longer before they open:

And lastly, I am growing a number of ornamentals this year, some of which are already up and running:

Lemon Bee Balm (Monarda citriodora)

Strawflowers (Xerochrysum bracteatum)
If you look closely, you can see seed germinating activity in all of the cells

Palisandra, one of three coleus varieties I'm growing

I'm super excited about the coleus - look at the gorgeous colour on the cotyledons already!

Things are going well at this point....more or less.  I was removing the layer of straw from my beds today and noticed that 3 of my drip lines had been damaged and/or severed by some critter over the winter.  It will be a quick fix, but it's nonethless annoying.

Oh well - let's concentrate on the positive, shall we?  So far, miracle of miracles, I'm right on schedule and all my little seedlings seem to be happy.  Let's hope it stays that way :)