1) All of the pepper seeds have been planted and I’ve given myself a few extra just in case some don’t germinate or don’t survive. I know you’re supposed to plant two seeds per pot and snip the weaker and all that jazz but I can’t bring myself to do it. The waste of it all. Yes, yes I know you want strong plants for optimal growth and production and harvest but I should like to see the hard numbers before I go wasting seedlings willy-nilly. 

Also I did not prune the peppers and one got so big it flopped over. I realized that I had not been jostling them daily to help them make good strong roots even though I’m only watering from the bottom. So I tamped some new soil around his base and got him upstanding and he’s not floppy anymore. I shall have to remember to do the jostling each day or find a fan to set up so that they can have real world simulations. We get crazy wind here and they must stay up! I’m thinking I may make some sort of wattle work structure for support depending on how tall and floppy they get, plus to support all the branches and fruit they will produce once they get out in the garden. Oh, the excitement! Arrabiata sauce anyone?

2) Joshua saw some of these Barlow’s Doubles Mixed Columbine one year when we went for a walk and he really liked the look of them. Then we saw them again in one of the many spring catalogues we received this year, I can’t remember which one. When my sister and I went to get our starting mix at Canadian Tire I saw that Burpee had a seed packet of them and of the Harlequin Mixed Colours so I bought them to sow around our Potager in the flower garden on the outside. My sister also got me some Blue Breadseed, Sokol White Breadseed and Lavender Breadseed Poppies from Hawthorn and I got the Giganthemum Poppy from Seeds of Imbolc. 

I mixed the Columbine and Poppy seeds together so that there would be a bit of this and a bit of that, and sowed them all around the outside edge of the Potager. They need a bit of cold moist stratification to be really happy so this way I don’t have to do any of the work. Freezing nights and warm days will make for the right conditions to soften them up and have them ready to grow when the soil reaches the right temperature. I can’t wait to see them all!

3) I was able to pot up the Rosemary clippings and they’ll start to grow soon into lovely little plants of their own. I’m thinking I may have to do a little plant sale this spring for all of my extras because I won’t have room in the garden for everybody. 

4) A couple weeks ago we pruned our crabapple tree in the front yard and I wondered if I could root any of the cuttings to make new little trees. I found a method to make my own rooting hormone by steeping willow twigs in water and then dipping the branches in it before potting them up. So I tried it out, not sure how it would end. I also planted some outside in any soft soil I could find. 

The information suggested leaving the pots in an area of the house that didn’t get much light and then wait and see. 

The ones inside seem to be at least getting water because they’ve started to leaf out. Hopefully that means that they are growing little roots that will make happy little trees. Not everybody will make it but it looks like at least 6 or so are doing well, and once it warms up more we’ll see if the ones outside survived. 

5) Last, but not least, the Potager is free of snow and calling to me. I can’t do much right now but I’m considering trying to get my broccoli and cabbage seedlings out as early as I can. I should have planted them directly in the soil outside and then they wouldn’t need hardening off but maybe I can harden them off when they are quite small and plant them out under cloches. 

The plan is mostly filled in. I’ve left some extra space for the inevitable “why not just plant that here”. I want to do a large section of herbs because our dried herb mix last year was amazing and we’re almost out so I’ll need to grow more this year.