Hosta

I love hosta, I hate redoing a hosta bed. Last year one of my gardens where I just leave plants in a pot winter-killed and I lost a big group of large green leaved hosta.

I am not a happy camper with that.

Asparagus

A Time To Sow – Indoors

In Zone 5 – I have sowed asparagus seed indoors on Ground hog day, February 2nd and have been successful from seed to transplanting to the garden.

Zinnias

Zinnias are something I plant a lot of. I save seed every year and my stash of these gorgeous hybrids is huge!

Annuals

Some people like to winter sow. I admit I have not tried that method, but I have been tempted. Traditionally, I sow indoors and about this time of year I am considering sowing the following in my Zone 5 garden:

10––12 weeks before my frost date:

Columbine
Echinacea
Eucalyptus
Grass (Blue Grama)
Lavender
Petunia
Sea Holly

Mark your Calendar!

Hear ye! Hear ye! The last Saturday in January – it is National Seed Swap DayI know, late notice! It usually escapes me as I trade all year around, but the powers that be, well they have made this a NATIONAL event!

Ask your fellow gardeners if they have excess seed! Maybe they have something you will need!

Seed Swapping with Kare!

Indoor Seed Sowing The Zone 5 Flowers & Ornamentals

For those of you following me along in my garden I will be blogging the following flowers and ornamentals, which are ones that would typically be sown indoors in Zone 5 at the 8-10 week out period and they are:

Bee Balm

Black-Eyed Susan.

Cape Daisy

Carnation

Cottage Pinks

Dahlia

Dusty Miller

Feverfew

Blackberry Lily

Lobelia

Ornamental Peppers

Pansy

Salpiglossis

Salvia

Snapdragon

Statice

Stock

Sweet William.

Voila

Yarrow

I hope to be blogging 3-5 of these a day for the next few days. Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog to get notifications by email when the pages for them are posted! You can also leave comments and questions on the blog! Thanks for joining me on my journey. I hope what I post will help you in your gardening ventures as well.

Mind you we are just at the tip of our sowing iceburg!

Seed Swap!

If you swap seed, check out my Seed Swapping pages! Right now I am just starting to list what I have so check back periodically!

Dill

It is early too start for me, but I love dill and it is fascinating to grow in the garden. Do you grow dill?

Seed Swapping Suggestions:

Trading fair is the name of the game. I have seed, you have seed and we make an agreement to trade. It is great when you can do it in person, but doing it by mail is another story.

We both concur costs in postage and postage has gone up again. We both want undamaged seed in the handling and we both want a fair amount of seed in the deal! Please when trading use bubble wrap envelopes! It makes the seed “chunky” and so it will not go through a letter cancelling machine!

And in fairness, send a photo of your seed to the one you are trading with before shipping and may I suggest taking a pic of the parcel before mailing and email those before you trade. Yes, it is is a little effort, but to be honest, it helps keep the trade balanced.

Some traders may not have seed so for the packet of seed they will be getting, send postage.

Bubble wrap envelopes can be re-used and you can take the envelopes and fold them so that your address is on one side and your recipients address is on the inside of the fold and then tape the folded envelope so the recipient can enter the envelope with out destroying it or the seed that is inside!

I have posted on my blog seed envelopes you can print and use for individual seed packets in the future! They are plain and easy to use.

I hope this helps!

Kare

Egg plants…

They are not for me, but here is a reference for you if you are so inclined to be sowing and raising them!

Celery And Me…

In sowing celery, celery and me, hmm, we are not the best of friends. As luck has it, I have seed in my stash. Hmm, will I sow it, yes, you know it, but celery and me, are not always lucky.