hot hot hot

On a day when it reached 68 degrees in Portland, the temp in my greenhouse rose to 110. Whoops! Who knew I'd need to ventilate the thing in March. I almost scorched my kale. Let's hope it survives.

More signs of Spring

Yesterday, a chipmunk in the back yard, and a bee flying about the crocuses.

FIrst Crocuses!

My first crocuses opened up two days ago, where all the snow has melted from the radiant heat of the house. Spring is coming!In my eagerness I've taken to shoveling much of the snow off of the garden, as I have in years past.

A new year begins

In the 18th century, before people switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, March 25 used to be the start of the new year. (Thought you'd want to know.)

Today I'm celebrating my garden's new year, since I finally started my seeds. I have had some kale growing under lights since early January, as I wanted to see if I could move them into my new greenhouse. (The ones I moved out didn't survive.) But today I set up two new grow lights (the lazy-boy kind that you can move up and down on a string), mixed up a seed starter by using only coco fiber (a great bargain, though I'll have to feed the sprouts when they're up), then sowed impatiens, amaranth, nicotiana, lobelia, shasta daisies, zinnias and bachelor buttons (among the flowers) and green peppers and two kinds of kale. (We love kale here, both roasted and in our smoothies every morning.)

I had planned on getting an earlier start than this, then move things out to the greenhouse when weather permitted. I'm still on a learning curve on how to use the greenhouse. Stay tuned.