What a difference a day makes!

So I took all these pictures yesterday but got tied up painting my house and never posted it.  Oddly enough, some things look SO different today. So...the only to do, is "side by side" pictures of the things that changed...in a day.

The lime tree has blooms all over it- but only two have opened.  Yesterday it looked like a glorious flower...today it looks like the little lime-to-be is pushing its way through!

 

Yesterday- the lemon tree had a bud that looked like it might bloom soon- well, it did late last night!

 

And the little baby tomatoes popping up!!

Yesterday                           Today

So, my snapdragons.  I had no idea what to expect with flowers.  I've never grown them from seed (indoors) and was extremely shocked to see the snapdragons branching out- both on the plant and beneath the dirt. I made the pictures super big so what I'm talking about is a bit more visible. I'm excited to see what they have in store for me!  Oh, and the 3 cotyledon plants still have leaves coming in in threes!  

And finally, just for kicks- purple jalapeno seedlings! 

Bloomin'

All I have today is a picture of the first lime bloom to open. But, my oh my is it post-worthy.

Tomayto-Tomahto.

So...I couldn't wait until Friday to plant the tomatoes, so the preschool crew and I started them, the komachis, and the chives today!

New pack of chives.  Hopefully these will be winners for me.

First we hydrated the pellets...

Filled up the tray and poked some holes.....

Planted those seeds! Komachi balloon flowers, Green Zebra, Sweet Million, Spoon, White Queen, Black Trifle, Hazelfield, Egg Yolk, Paul Robeson, Costoluto Genovese.

 

And bada bing, bada boom....they're ready to go under the light. GO, PLANTS, GO!

Oh, peppers.

So upon inspection of the peppers this morning, it came to my attention they were busting at the seams and it was time to move on up- even though the first true leaves hadn't busted through.

Luckily, I had some lovely sunshine at naptime to work with...so I gathered up the materials- including one of my trusty tubtrugs... and got ready to pot them up!

Look at those roots busting out!  I see you!

My, my- you're a big pepper seedling.  

And then they were done.  I put two seeds in each cell....so since my success rate was 100% with growing...I ended up with a lot to thin.  I have 11 pots that will be on the deck for peppers...and will probably shove two peppers in the big raised bed....that is to be built in march. It's sneaking up on me...I need to buy my cedar :) 

So out of the 36 plants that grew from seed, I kept 19...and only need 13 from that.  Hope someone wants some pepper plants!

Calm down, Limetree.

So I finally got the warmth/sunshine I needed to check the base of my lime tree for black widows/wood roaches/another other small whatever that might be living between the self-watering piece and the bottom of the planter.  And by "I needed to check" I mean "Ki put on a work glove and pulled the piece out". One wood roach. Anticlimactic...but I wouldn't have had it any other way, ha.

Well...the dirt around the tree was....I'm not sure how to describe it.  It had a pretty good salt buildup around the edges of the dirt (which I could have just watered well around the sides, but while I was ALREADY pulling the plant out...) plus there was random mold mixed into dirt (probably where I hadn't quite gotten all of it off the top). So, I just gave the roots a little dusting off and replaced the dirt and fertilized it again.  Let's just say Limetree was less than pleased.  Last night was a sad sad sight.

When I woke up this morning, it still looked pretty furious with me...but the leaves started uncurling. I just wanted to be like "see! I do know what's best for you. calm your little attitude down." It's looking nearly bad to normal now.

Before preschool crew and I started our day, I went to grab some updated pictures....and found Hula staring intently.  Not entirely sure why....but she just sat in the chair staring.

Peppers will be potted up this week! The baby belles finally made it up (1st row, far right cell)....

Carrots and radishes are popping up! The kids are beyond excited.  The two bottom right cups actually do have something poking through...even if it isn't photographically evident.

And here are the snapdragons with three "first true leaves".....if I'm not mistaken, I think I see their second true leaves may be coming in in 3s too.  We'll see soon, I think!

Good morning, Starshine...

...the earth says "hello!"

Peppers are almost all the way in!  Except for the "baby belle" pepper. I get the feeling that it's going to fall into the same category as chives for me.  (Tiny backstory...I've started chives 3 times- nothing.  It has to be the seeds, right? RIGHT?)

Anyways....I'm pretty excited to get the greenhouse lid off of those and look out for the first leaves...especially since tomatoes are going to be started in ONE WEEK! Huzzah!! Most likely I'll be starting some chives and probably another baby belle as well. OH! And the balloon flowers!

In other news...we have some sprouts in the radish/carrot department! The kids are going to be SO excited. I don't really want to show them until they have all sprouted....but here are the biggest two -

watermelon radish:

Purple dragon carrot: 

Some of the snaps are getting second leaves....my little babies are getting so big! ::tear::

Oh and the limetree had some mold on the dirt.  WHY DID I LET IT CONVINCE ME TO WATER IT? I swear one of these days Levi Stubbs' voice is going to come singing out of it asking for blood and promising me a bunch of stuff.

Speaking of bloodthirsty plants....if you've never owned a Venus flytrap....do it.  I can't tell you how neat it is (for the children, of course) to squish a fly...and then feed it to the plant.

Back to the limetree- I took it outside for a second and looked at the drainage holes and realized I left the "self-watering" piece inside the planter....I'll be taking that out next warm day we have.  Not that it probably matters since I gouged extra drainage holes...but it also freaks me out to think there is a gap between the dirt and bottom of the planter where ANYTHING could be living.  ::shudder::  I'll be wearing gloves for that.

Snap snap snapdragons...

So I have a crazy triangular bed that cuts my driveway into two sections....

It doesn't look that clean right now....but it will.  I made the mistake of planting giant marigolds and cosmos in it last year.  I say mistake because while it was beautiful for like 2 months...it became a mangled mess of super tall half-rotting flowers leaning over into my driveway.  Oh...and impossible to weed. So Kile (my husband) mowed over everything once it was all dead and then I swept all the leaves from the driveway into it...now it's a big ol' mess.

Anyways.  My plan for this year is to go all dwarf.  Easier to weed...less obtrusive to people walking in the driveway.  The border will be dwarf cockscomb (that's right.), and inside will be alternating rows of dwarf marigolds and dwarf snapdragons.  Cockscomb can be direct planted...marigolds start indoors about 4 weeks from last frost (April 15th)...but snaps need TWELVE WEEKS indoors before going out.  Luckily, I checked a calender before the twelve week mark had passed!

So, January 21st, the preschool crew and I started snapdragons....which came out 6 days later!

I wanted to wait for them to get their first true leaves before I thinned out...but the seeds were SO tiny that the crew (myself included) overplanted each cell.  So, very carefully, I thinned them out early (this past Monday the 4th)

Here's the crazy part- I had 4 seedlings with 3 cotyledon leaves.  I have NEVER seen that before, let alone wind up with 4 seedlings having it.  Of course, I kept those.

Well, three days later, pretty much all the seedlings have true leaves growing in quickly...but the odd part? Two of the four 3-cotyledon plants have THREE true leaves growing in.  

I'm beyond excited to see what these are going to do!  (And before you think any different- these have been brought up organically.  Only fertilizer that I've used is organic fish emulsions.)