stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

the pepper story has some wrinkles. i'll need to call back again and see if they can find some.

we have our other starts.

today i'll be weeding and trying to get all the onions planted. going to be a long day for me to get that area weeded and ready but it would be good to have that done in time for tonight's forecasted rains. this will be the hardest garden to plant because of all the weeding i'll need to do - the rest will be easy in comparison, but those will get planted.

next week one night is forecast to get down to 43F so that's a bit cool for tomatoes and peppers but i don't think it will kill them.

i wasn't really planning on planting anything today and was going to get the starts today instead of yesterday.

 

[digitS']

And, no Beaver Dam!

Damn. Cast about. Your cohorts at the library? Folks you have contacts for from seed swap?

 

[Branching Out]

Has anyone had success propagating peppers by cuttings?? I am wondering if it is worth trying to increase planting stock with that method.

 

[flowerbug]

And, no Beaver Dam!

Damn. Cast about. Your cohorts at the library? Folks you have contacts for from seed swap?

i have two local chances. we'll see how it goes. at this point if i get one plant i'll be happy. i was expecting a half dozen... if it ends up none i'll still be happy but...

 

[flowerbug]

Has anyone had success propagating peppers by cuttings?? I am wondering if it is worth trying to increase planting stock with that method.

i suspect that by the time you get seeds started and plants growing that then cutting them apart and getting those cuttings to develop a good root system you're having to start way back in the fall... peppers can produce so many seeds that i don't see any good reason to go the propagation route unless you are working with a pretty rare variety and want to keep the line more stable than what seeds may offer. i'm not sure at all how such cuttings may react to rooting hormones.

 

[flowerbug]

beautiful day outside, got the onions planted, it was a long day but i got it done. came inside, ate and drank a little and then promptly crashed out for a few hour nap. woke up feeling mostly ok, yes my body knows it did a lot of work, but it really does respond well to dirt therapy and i don't at the moment detect any significant pains or other indications that i overdid it. i've been ramping up slowly, but today was like jumping on a skateboard and hitting some ramps and pipes, so i'm glad i didn't wipeout...

 

[digitS']

keep the line more stable than what seeds may offer.

In my limited pepper seedsaving experience: that is an excellent reason. Peppers cross readily so if you have multiple varieties in the garden there's reason for serious isolation measures.

Cuttings of broad-leaf thyme, one of our favorite house plants, are taken every year. Peppers have great need for sunlight so they wouldn't be the best house plants. However, some folks may have a special pleasure in propagating a special variety under lights.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

critters and gardening...

chipmunk war has resulted in some success. two raisins fired and six chipmunks went to their resting places in a garden. one other got captured by the newfangled flip traps my brother bought for us and i hunted another with the air rifle as it was raiding the crocuses in the North Garden. i've not had such damage in that garden in years... i'm not sure it was the only one so i'll need to keep an eye on that area still.

then today a pretty young deer came wandering into the back yard. there's no real easy exit from that area and Mom was yelling at it to scare it away but i really don't want to scare it into running into a fence. so i closed the door and it wandered around and chewed on some weeds and then it laid down on the grass for a few minutes. then it wandered around some more and even spent some time looking into some pieces of mirror we have in the pyramid (yard art that Mom made many years ago) and sniffing at that. then it finally wandered back to the front yard where i could go out and scare it away. it's the first deer i've seen in the yard during the day in quite a long time plus i've not seen any tracks at all in the past few weeks so i was getting complacent... i hope it stays away...

 

[flowerbug]

four Beaver Dam plants - both sources came through! will plant them in a few days. they probably will need to acclimate to cooler temperatures 42F tonight, 44F tomorrow night, then warmer nights then-on. i will probably bring them and the tomatoes inside for these two coming nights because where we are is likely to get 3-5F degrees cooler than the forecast temperatures.

 

[flowerbug]

tentative plan for today is mowing and then trying to get plants in the ground at last. may not finish them all but even if i get some of them done then it makes tomorrow easier to finish up before forecast rains arrive. we'll see how it goes...