Why Use Perennials?

This post has moved to Ilona's Garden.

Why This Journal Stays on Blogger

All the blog wisdom has been to remove this blog from Blogger and put it under my own domain, or to move it to another platform altogether (like Wordpress, which I do use for Ilona's Garden). I could still do that, but what I have appreciated about Blogger is their consistency and innovation. Blogger makes it easy to try new things, or imports things working well on other platforms into their system.

An old idea for creating an organized system to access the best posts on the "IGJ" here was to open a new blog and fill it with links to the original blog. I did that with Garden File, but then Blogger in Draft opened the avenue to "Pages" which work so well in Wordpress. I've used WP for a number of years, and it is the platform for the website, Ilona's Garden. If all this seems sort of hodgepodge to you, remember that I have been making a garden website since 1998 and journeyed through the evolution of blogs growing more popular and going mainstream. Plus I like to experiment. I've used Blogger, Movable Type, Wordpress, and Joomla quite a bit, started playing with WPmu and Buddypress. So you can see how some things go by the wayside and others things change ... and here we are!

So far, Blogger only allows a few pages, but that is fine for my needs. I have moved the best of to "Seasons" which lists posts by season. It needs updating, additions to list. That will be easier to do, now. So what happens to Garden File? That will remain public, but be my own personal little page for writing down wishes and plans and to-do lists for the coming garden year. I also started a new project for book reviews -but that comes later. All revolve around gardening.

I wish it would produce a little income, but as Doug Green often points out, Garden writing as I do it doesn't make money. I've never been good at converting what I do into an economic venue anyway. I'm the kind that gives things away, and that shows. I use monetization on the blogs, but I seem to have little idea with how that works.

Inspiration: getting seeds started

[Originally posted 1/10/07]

I recall some of the many types of containers I experimented with in starting seedlings. One of the first attempts(and I always seemed to have beginners luck with my gardening) was with empty egg cartons. Each little egg holder was filled with soil, the top closed to keep in moisture and then opened as the seeds emerged. Sometimes I topped the half carton with clear film like Saran Wrap. Depended on whether the seeds needed light to germinate. These worked well, but there isn't alot of soil held within the little holders. Either you have to use it for late starters and get them planted out soon (before they are too big for their tiny pot), or transplant them to bigger pots for planting later. That is a bit of work, but many do this as a part of their regular method. Here is some professional advice. They mention peat pots.

I have tried several types of peat pots, and I don't tend to like them, but I always think they should do well; after all, they're peat! Perhaps because my house tends to be cold, or the fact that when I used them they were by drafty old house windows? But they stay too damp for me, and I had a hard time discerning how much to water them. Sometimes seedlings rot under those conditions. I did have that happen, and it is very disappointing. So usually I use plastic cell flats, now. But as mentioned in the pro article, peat is good for when a seedling is touchy about transplanting.

If you like to buy seeds through catalogs, I always felt the big seed houses were just fine to do business with. I usually buy mine in the stores locally, though. However, I do like Thompson and Morgan for hard to find seeds. Anymore, you just cannot find certain seeds in the local stores. At all. Period. So if you love mignonette or a special little something...get your catalogs and order them, soon.
I do have a page on some of the annuals I have grown.... it is located at my site. Sadly I do not yet have everything up to par there yet, but am working on it. The pages on annuals should look fine.
Annuals
Plant list, tiny and small choices. I'll have to look at that, either I didn't get to the larger size choices or lost the work on it in the move... well, should put that on my internet project work list, ahha. Along with the fact that I think I will use a subdomain name for this blog. But I have more ideas than time to do them right now. At least my internet connection has a reasonable speed. This past week was interminably slow. I can't express how frustrating that was (I might use bad words or something!)

But hopefully this gave you some starting information on your own efforts. Seed growing does save lots of money. Especially now that the nurseries are so stingy with amounts of plants for the money. I don't begrudge them this one bit- we all have to make a living at what we do, but if you love lots of plants and have a budget, the parameters have to start somewhere on how much can be spent on the garden.



Technorati Tags: seeds, starts

Tomorrow is the Start of The Home Garden Show

Yikes. The snow is blowing and weather advisories have been issued - Level 2 for my county. Tomorrow is the opening of the Ohio Home and Garden Show, but while it doesn't look like I can go at the beginning of it I am looking for opportunity in the middle of the week, possibly. It is closed on Monday, perhaps the days will be changed since the weather is so contrary over the weekend? If not, it is closed on Monday and Tuesday (and Thurs) it is not open before 3 PM., but open until 9PM.

Wed. and Friday are open noon til 9PM. More info @Dispatch Events .

The Year of The Big Snow

That is what I call the 2009-2010 winter. We have met records or surpassed them in snowfall this year. Listening to others I can tell I'm not alone when I say I've lost my infatuation with the snow.

It would be different if we had bought the cross country equipment we talked about last August. Cross country skiing is probably the one way to keep a happy face when the weatherman says we are in for another couple inches. Instead, I can't get out of the driveway again and it makes me cranky.





There. I said it.... all this beautiful whiteness, the delicacy of the crystal formation in the many forms that snow takes (for which we have so few words) is making me react with a certain irritability that only the edges of winter can bring. I am crying "Uncle".






Even though I have lost interest in the black and white landscapes, and the monochromatic pictures of snow... I offer up some that I took this past month. And perhaps I will shake this sluggish late winter malaise to write the thoughts that winter has given me.

Makes Me Think of Spring

Eggs, potting soil, plants... it all adds up to a new season for me- even though the view outside my window still holds mounds of snow.

clipped from kathybrowngarden.blogspot.com Houseleeks and echeverias adorn the stand; funny really because in the USA echeverias are known as the hen and chicken plant cos of all the little babies around the mother plant.

small encouragements

the snow vanished quick as i said. today, a warm sunrise and thawing ground have turned
my thoughts to arriving spring. after living in this place so many years, the signs of changing seasons stand out to me bright as as neon sign. we all receive our little messages of our
seasonal changes. it would be interesting to know them, wherever you are...
gardeners and farmers can read them best, i think.

vty, j-lea

-progression-

the first warm sunrise
first suggestion of nascent spring
there are certain signs for seasons:
birdsong returns as the days grow longer
winter honeysuckle perfumes the air

fat robins bob in the thawing yard
cheerful chirps as they search out
awakening early worms.
brave crocus, daffodils' bright blooms
first decoration in dun-colored world.
following fast, palest green shoots
testing the warming air.

from above, the faint voices of sandhill cranes
returning from warmer winters,
circling the lake, the loose v-shape
ever reforming as they rise up
on the warm air currents..the long
sharp arrow shape aligns and shoots
due north, riding the high winds.
their cries as they pass over
are soft alarms sounding -
spring is here.

snow day in georgia

we got snow here in the middle south, from noon til just after dark.
small flakes fell hard and fast all day, so similar to the hard rains we
have been getting regularly this fall and winter. this winter storm dipped
way down south to savannah; i also heard there were brief snow showers
in tallahassee, on down to the coast. i think snow on a florida beach would
be a photographic wonder! i took a walk yesterday evening- my horse
rosa , a snow novice, came along beside me anyway. as evening fell,
the snow stopped and the light was a lovely dusky blue...
trees, earth and sky in monochrome.

this morning, before sunrise, the world was the same indigo shade. as the
sun came up, the light hit the treetops. it was blinding, but beautiful.
i had my old 35mm, but no film, so i hurried inside to write haiku impressions

i grew up in ohio, and i do realize such pleasure from snow is the result of many
years in the south, away from it! you up north might consider such a reaction
kind of crazy - but this winter scene will be gone by tonight; only the muddy
ground and a few of the earliest brave daffodils will remain.
here's hoping you will forgive me my delight,
and enjoy my "snow pictures."


indigo evening
shrouded in snow
silent night.

indigo dawn-
snow crunches
underfoot.

i came upon
a woolly white armchair-
my garden bench.

snowy tree-tops
brilliant, blinding
limned in light

concrete Kwan-Yin smiles,
serene in her snowy
pillbox hat

bonsai benches
capped with snow
small magical forest

whack!
tiny bird hits window
flying snowblind

for my snow poems
i'll get no empathy
from midwest.

vty- j-lea

Message for Today

clipped from sugarcreekgardens.wordpress.com

updates for February 8

I received a note from Jessica working for the Dispatch events, and she advised me about Tracy DiSabato-Aust's appearance times:
Tracy will be appearing at 1 and 3 p.m. at the garden show coming up at the end of the month.
Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010

Glad that is cleared up!

We awoke this morning to the world being even more frosted-ness. Frigidly cold, the tree's every branch and twig carried picots of white snow crystals against that icy blue sky that only the coldest of days can manufacture.

And tomorrow more snow is predicted.

Again I stepped outside briefly to capture just a couple more photos. I might post them later- the frozen strings of the willow's branches were in one shot. I noticed little mousie tracks on the front porch. Isn't it a bit cold for mousie tracks? What was he doing on my porch with no perceivable contributions to his welfare? The tales the snow tracks tell us....

The ongoing saga of Winter 2010

Today is a day of sunlight glancing off the pure white diamond crusted cloak of Winter's grand performance. A day of long shadows and blue tones as the sun regains dominance over the sky. The cold temperatures have frozen the moisture on the branches from yesterday and the glinting ice limns them with shining platinum.

No photos for today I think- it is already very bright out there.

This morning I was up early and the light of the post lamp lured me to the window to see what the world outside looked like. I could see the glow of it off the whitened drifts. Drawing close to the window, movement caught my eye- some wild bunnies were out taking their chances on the plowed driveway, stopping to investigate some of my garden branches. I frowned inwardly with displeasure... all thoughts going to memories of losing a once thriving stand of Siberian iris to a rabbit family, which seemed to have feasted on its underground tubers. Not very generous of me, I know. And then turned thoughts more positively to the enjoyment of something living making its way through the frozen moonscape of the night.

Now that my old dog is gone, the deer and rabbits... and coyotes.... have rediscovered my place. Once again I must share with the wild things.

...And Still It Snows

I went to bed with snowy marshmallow views outside the window and woke up to a deepening snow enrobed world of Narnia proportions. As if winter will always reign. The evergreens branches are glued to their windward sides in awkward bows to the weight of the snow, recognition of the unseen Queen of Deep Winter and her howling consort, the North Wind.

Enough tortured allegory! I know I should venture out and relieve the evergreen branches of their heavy weights, but I am much too attentive to the warmth of my woodstove. I can't make myself. I did, however step tentatively outside my doors to snap a few pictures of the snow. Such pictures begin all to look the same. If I want something more enthralling I will have to bundle up and go looking for it.

Tracy DiSabato-Aust Featured At Ohio Garden Show

On February 27 through March 7 the 2010 Central Ohio Home & Garden Show takes place, and Tracy DiSabato-Aust is speaking at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010 according to the Dispatch page, but the press release states it is @ 1PM and 3PM. Which is it?

Normally, I wouldn't try to attend on a first day, or even a Saturday because of the crowds, but I am carefully reconsidering. I missed my chance to see her last year. The hours for the show on Saturdays are 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. It might be good to note that the exhibition is closed on Monday.

I was hoping to meet up with some of my fellow bloggers during this show. I guess that remains to be seen... but a sort of casual Ohio Garden Blogger meetup does sound like a fun idea.