Things I Would've Blogged About Last Week

Roots emerging from bottom of planting tray.

Daylilies potted up.

Many of my little seedlings have quickly started outgrowing the little dishes I planted them in.  Here are some roots poking out of the bottom of the container with the daylilies in it.  Fortunately when I transplanted them I found that this was only a small fraction of the total root system.  The three that sprouted are happily living in 6" pots outside my back door.

Daffodils are up!

 There are daffodils popping up all over our yard - the last ones will be the ones in front of the mailbox, which are heavily shaded so they don't have quite the same oomph as the rest.  I love these flowers - so happy.  I almost pulled them all when I was pregnant with R because I read that they're toxic and you shouldn't grow them with toddlers around, but I'm glad I didn't.  He has just never been one of those kids who sticks strange things in his mouth.  Cat food, now, that's a different story...

Flood outside my front door.

I took this photo outside my front door the morning before our basement flood, intending to write a "Here's Why We Need Rain Barrels" post.  I suppose you can now understand why the WSSC (water company) guy was initially unimpressed by our water intrusion problem.  My poor strawberries were completely underwater.  I think I may try to dig this whole bed up this year and raise it a little.  Of course, ultimately I want to find another place for the water to go.

My low tunnel.

My low tunnel has been working really well since I stapled three sides down.  I'll show some pictures of the inside soon.  I haven't seen any signs of slubs in there yet, though some kind of bug seems to have hatched under the broccoli plant.  (The dirt blobs are from where I edged the garden bed and tossed the little clumps of sod behind me.  Oops.)

Pea fence setup.

Last weekend while waiting for the second plumber's estimate I went out back and edged the garden bed, lightly dug the southwest quadrant, and set up three chicken-wire trellises for my peas to grow on.  They are about 1.5' apart, with room to plant on both side of each trellis.  The middle trellis stops several feet short of the path, to leave room for me to slip in and plant the pepper plants later, while the other two stop a couple feet short to leave room for the squirrel cage I'm going to have to build around my sunflowers. 

Where do these massive pea fences fit into my garden plan (see the link at top right)?  They don't.  I was originally planning to do short trellises at each end of the garden like last year, but N really wanted a lot more peas this year, so I took a look and decided there was enough time for peas throughout this area.  This is the problem with garden plans - I wish they could be 4D.