Well it's been a busy week for me in the yard!
Updates to the front yard
- Put down crabgrass prevention fertilizer in preparation for new lawn (planning to seed in early April)
- Sprayed existing crabgrass
- Cleaned up bushes in front planters: removed dead leaves and flower stalks, finally completely cleaned out all other leaves that got stuck underneath, fixed dripline
- Removed dead flower bunches from front pot and replaced with stock in white, purple, and pink around the central jasmine
- Removed dead plantain lily (didn't do so well in the early winter) and replaced it with astilbe
- Bought some trellises and planted clematis and bower vine, secured one of the two trellises to the house (will secure #2 this coming week/end)
- Ran 5/8" dripline to front side yard from back hose attachment, seeded flower mixes (mostly cut bouquet mix and wildflower mix), and set up drip sprayers to water that area
Updates to the backyard
- All lettuce except the Paris White has germinated! I'll have to thin them pretty quick here, as they're growing quite fast.
- Added new catgrass to catgrass bowl
- Lots of crocus coming up and blooming, as well as some of the muscari. Lots of tulips and daffodils showing leaves but not ready to bloom yet
- Revised previous dripline to new bean trellis: originally, I had set up an extension of the main line I installed last summer, but there wasn't enough pressure to get water to the bean trellis. So I fixed the original drip back to what it used to be, and ran a new 5/8" line from the same hose bib as the front side yard. The pressure is much better on both the original line and the new bean line and now the beans will have their own timer.
Seedling updates
- I got a new, larger grow light. I started with a bulb from Amazon in a clamp light, which was okay when I had about 6 seedlings, but not nearly enough light once everything else popped up. So I visited Home Depot (my least favorite hardware store, but the store with the biggest light selection) and picked up a Feit Electric LED grow light, which I mounted from the ceiling on an adjustable rope, and the plants are MUCH happier! It's on the same timer that the clamp light was on, but allows everyone enough light so I don't have to switch them around each morning.
- Started some marigold seeds.
- Supersweet tomatoes seem to be doing the best by far, and I have two excellent looking plants and one good looking plant. I'll have to repot these soon.
- Sweet Aroma tomatoes are in second place, doing okay but don't look as aggressive as the Supersweets.
- Jalapenos doing okay, but I'm down to 2 from the original 4. Not an issue, since I only need 1 really, but it's disappointing to finally call it on one you've been nursing along.
- Jupiter peppers finally germinated (much slower than the others!) and two look pretty good.
- Coleus is doing quite well, with one excellent pod, one good pod, and one pod that I think I overwatered.
It's been so warm the past couple weeks that things are starting to bloom a bit early, including the almond trees. This week is supposed to cool down by about 10 degrees, and we'll probably get to freezing one or two nights this week. So as excited as I am to start planting things outside, I'll wait until the frost looks like it's truly done.
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