It's finished! Last night while watching the NCAA championship game I finished up the project for Baby Ehlers, and it will be in the mail and on its way to Kansas City shortly. Until Amy receives it, I can't do the full reveal on the blog. :-)
Meanwhile, this is my next project. At Menards on Sunday I picked out some seed packets and am excited to see how well they do. Hopefully I can get at least some of them started enough and surviving long enough to move outdoors for the summer.
The above packets are the herbs I traditionally grow in containers during the summer: rosemary, oregano, dill, chives, parsley and basil. The chives my mom brought from Iowa usually come back in their pot, but I'm not sure if they will this spring, so I got some more to start. Oh, and the dill is new. I don't usually grow it, but I know it will grow and spread like gangbusters if you give it the chance.
Spinach and lettuce are supposed to be easy to grow, so I'm going to try them. I'll just sow them directly into the pots I'll keep them in all summer. Because cucumbers from the garden are so much more delicious than those from the store, I chose this dwarf variety, with smaller plants, and I will see how they do in my containers.
And, of course, flowers! Because I usually end up spending way more then I expect on bedding plants from the greenhouse every spring, I'm going to try starting some of my favorites from seed this spring. I chose varieties in my favorite colors, and I think the oranges and reds will go well with the yellow house. The gazanias are good for growing here, as they like a lot of dry heat, and that's certainly what we have. They're also tolerant of missed waterings now and then if I'm gone for a day.
I'm looking forward to having the zinnias for cut flowers. I remember, in the house in Iowa known as the South Farmhouse, where my family lived for two years when we first moved back from Georgia, there was a long sidewalk running out from the back door, and my mom put in flowerbeds on either side, running the length of it, and the zinnias would go crazy and be so pretty all summer long. Hopefully my zinnias are as successful!
My mom has also planted a lot of cosmos over the years, and they seemed to be pretty hardy and easy to grow, as well, and I was happy to find these in the colors that I wanted, instead of the traditional pinks, purples and whites.
Following the recommendations, I also picked up some seed starting mix, to get the seeds off to the best start possible.
I purchased a few flats for 89 cents each, and have also been saving my yogurt and sour cream containers to use for seed starting. I haven't even been saving that long... now I realize how much dairy we eat! I guess there are worse things. :-)
The snow we received on Sunday really helped in greening up the grass, and what few bulbs are in my flowerbeds are starting to leaf out. These days it's pretty windy in these parts, but thus is springtime in Wyoming. It's supposed to blow in more moisture mid-week, so hopefully that comes true. The fertilizer on my yard didn't dissolve as much with the snow as I thought it might. I think it needs some old-fashioned rain to help it break down.
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