Spring? Hello...anybody home?

This spring weather, if you can call it that, is driving me a little crazy.  We are looking at low, single digit highs around here which, for my friends in the US, translates to temps in the 30's & 40's.  I've managed to get in a couple of hours when the mercury crept into the upper end of that range but my time outside was cut short by bouts of rain.

1st task of the season is removing the protective layer of straw from the beds

In addition to clearing the straw off some of the beds, I also started to tackle the overgrown bed I spoke about last time.  I found a couple of larger buckthorn trees at the back of the bed that need a chainsaw to cut down - which is work for warmer weather - and, to my despair, they were both female trees with a TON of dreaded black berries.

Buckthorn Berries

Yikes.  When I volunteered to help with buckthorn removal in an old growth forest just north of us, one of the things they said is that, much like not letting weeds go to flower, you should concentrate on removing the female trees first to prevent the spread of those berries.  Unfortunately, I hadn't even thought to check otherwise I would have made the time and removed them long ago.

As is often the case when spring is delayed and outdoor tasks have to wait, my gardening itch is scratched by what is happening inside.  The top shelf of the grow stand is packed, the onions are on the 2nd shelf and the third shelf has just been called to service. Even though the onions don't take up the entire shelf, they are on a 12 hour light schedule so they get one level to themselves.  It all works out as by the time I need the extra space (in a couple of weeks), they will be on their way outside.

Under the grow lights

Coleus ('Palisandra')

Lemon Basil beside chitting potatoes

Browallia ('Marine Bells')

While most things are doing well, there have been a few disappointments.

I've had a germination issue with the Chocolate Mint coleus - not one came up & I don't have any seed left (it's one of those varieties where you only get 10 or so seeds in a packet & I used up half of them last year).  Fortunately, I have a couple of Chocolate Mint plants from last season that I potted up and was able to - rather miraculously - overwinter in our family room window.

Last year's Chocolate Mint coleus will find it's way back to the garden this year.

It's rather exciting that I was able to get them through the winter.  I'll be taking some cuttings this week and hopefully transform the two into many.

The rock-hard seed coats of Love-in-a-Puff are also giving me a "hard" time 😉 with only one germinating - I'm trying to pre-germinate a few more that I've both scarified & soaked so we'll see how that goes.

When it comes to the edibles, everything is coming along fairly well, although there have been a couple of casualties in the pepper tray.  The peppers, as a whole, are doing fine with the exception of one variety - Carmen.  All four seedlings struggled and, in fact, two completely succumbed.

Notice the difference between Carmen
(on the right, 2nd from the bottom) & all the other varieties?

I have 32 pots of peppers under the lights and since Carmen is the only one with issues, it's safe to say that the culprit is the seed.  In a way, I'm not overly surprised as I haven't had the best experience with a few other items received from that particular seed house (which shall remain nameless), including receiving the wrong seeds ('Orange Blaze' peppers instead of 'Orange Blossom' tomatoes) and a completely dead haskap "shrub", which was more like a twig.

Carmen Seedlings a few weeks ago - the two on the left are the ones that have held on.
I've since put the two on the right out of their misery.

I'm holding onto the remaining two seedlings, even though they are runts, as Carmen is such a great producer but I'm not holding my breath.  Luckily, I have a few extra seedlings among the other varieties, just in case they don't make it.

Outside we had another casualty.  Something (I'm thinking long ears and twitchy nose), has once again chewed through a few of the drip lines.

This bed suffered the most damage with 3 of the 4 lines damaged
including one that was hacked into several pieces

Last year, a few of the lines in Area #2 were chewed up; this time round, all the damage was on the hilltop.  Looking on the bright side, the damage was limited to 5 lines (or maybe 6 - can't recall off the top of my head right now) out of the 24 that were exposed in that area.  Also, only one line was chewed in multiple spots, the remaining lines were only chewed at the end, so those can be trimmed and re-attached with a connector.

The ones that are only nipped off at the edge are an easy repair

Still, I'm annoyed and will have to figure out what I can do to prevent this type of damage in the future.

Now if only the weather would turn - the warmest day in the coming week will only hit 5C/41F.  The long range forecast indicates that we will be getting more seasonal temperatures by next Friday.  But we all know how accurate these long range forecasts are....not.