Friday, April 13, 2012

Seeds and Sunshine

I think I can safely say spring has started for real now.  Despite a few recent snowfalls the temperatures are starting to stay consistently above freezing during the days and that means it's time to start seeds!  I actually started at the beginning of March with onion seeds as they require lots of growing time before the solstice in June.


The plants need to be well established before then because once the days turn around and start growing shorter then it's time for the bulbs to form.

Onions have been the only thing growing though for the last month.  The real bonanza of spring planting began last week.  Tomatoes, gaillardia, and rudbeckia hirta have all germinated.  Basil, sea holly, catalpa, and clethra have been started but have yet to show signs of growth.  I also tried magnolia seeds but am not having any luck.  Any tips for a magnolia novice?  The seeds have a very hard coat that hasn't seemed to soften with water so I nicked a few of them and will see if that does anything.

I'm a bit late getting to this but many thanks to Kevin at The Nitty Gritty Dirt Man for honoring me with the Sunshine Award.


Kevin started his seeds long before I did and is already transplanting them out to larger pots!  Lucky man.  Thanks to him sharing his gardening experience I now know that geraniums are easy to start from seed.  I think I know something I'll be trying next year!

The Sunshine Award asks me to answer a few questions for you readers so here goes:

1.  What is your favourite colour?  Yellow.  or maybe red?  but then I'm quite partial to blue.  Obviously I'm a bit indecisive on this front.  I think rather than name one colour I would say I prefer strong shades of colours.  No pastels for me, I like jewel tones.

2.  What is your favourite animal?  Despite the strong possibility that I may offend the cats I'm going to say horses.  Cats can't read can they?

3.  What is your favourite number?  Definitely four.  Best year of my life hands down.

4.  What is your favourite non-alcoholic drink?  Why the bias against alcohol?  Tequila has feelings too you know.

5.  Which do you prefer:  Facebook or Twitter?  I actually have a Facebook account so I guess I'll have to answer facebook although frankly I don't use it and find it incredibly pointless.  But then I can't understand why in the world people text either so I guess you could just label me a dinosaur and be done with it.

6.  What is your passion?  The garden, always the garden.  It's more like obsession.

7.  Do you prefer giving or receiving presents?  I like giving but it depends on if I think I have a good gift to give.  When you find that perfect gift and can't wait to give it to the person and see their reaction that's a great feeling.

8.  What is your favourite pattern?  That would insinuate I know something about fashion which apparently I don't because plaid seems to be the only pattern I can think of and I definitely don't like it.

9.  What is your favourite day of the week?  A weekday that I don't have to work.  It rarely occurs but when it does it's a major treat.

10.  What is your favourite flower?  Favourite flowers are always the newest ones, something I haven't tried yet.  Watching a new to me plant grow and monitoring its progress is my favourite thing to do.  Once I've watched it grow awhile then I get excited about the next new flower.

Part of receiving the award is passing it on and so I picked ten of my must read blogs.  I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do.
  1. Top of the Meadow  A city couple gone country.  They have baby sheep!!
  2. For the Love of the Soil  A local certified organic farmer tells it like it is.
  3. The Wind and the Wellies  Rampaging chooks and peedie dogs.
  4. Northern Gardeners Almanac  Melanie proves just how much can be grown in a cold climate.
  5. My Weeds are Very Sorry  The weeds might be sorry but I'm never sorry to visit Laurrie's gorgeous garden.
  6. Life DOESN'T begin at Retirement  Jane has a plan and she's making it happen.
  7. Casa Mariposa  It's like visiting a welcoming friend and being allowed to hang out in her house and garden whenever you feel like it.  Plus she's got a great sense of humour.
  8. Gardeningbren in Nova Scotia  I aspire to Brenda's garden.  It's beautiful, welcoming, provides food almost year round and she makes it look so darn easy. 
  9. High Altitude Gardening  Taking tough garden conditions and making it work.  and she takes the most amazing horse rides.
  10. Canadian Garden Joy  With a name like Joy it makes sense she's one of the most cheerful and happy bloggers out there.   and she takes a mean sky shot as well.

14 comments:

Karin / Southern Meadows said...

Congratulations on your award! It was fun reading more about you. Good luck with your seeds...I never do have much luck starting them indoors. I am looking forward to checking out your list of blogs; all but one are new to me. Have a great weekend Marguerite!

Laurrie said...

Thanks so much for the Sunshine Award. And of course I knew that your favorite color would be all the jewel tones. Any one with a garnet red floor is a color lover!

Aagaard Farms said...

Well, now you're knee deep in the seeding! Lots of babies to take care of!

Curbstone Valley Farm said...

That reminds me, I really need to get our basil started! Your onions look great. Congratulations on your award! Don't worry, I'm fairly certain the cats can't read ;)

Jane said...

Thanks for the shout out Marguerite! Answering those questions will be my next post :) I'm sort of like you when it comes to colours - I love blue, green, purple but I really can't say there are many colours i DON'T like, especially right now when my eyes are starving for colour! I'll have luscious bleeding hearts soon!!

Donna said...

Wonderful you got the award and nice to learn some things about you. Horses are my favorite animals too, but dogs are millimeters away. And my cats... my apologies too. Color... all of them. Hard to answer some of these questions with only one answer, I can see you were tossed too.

Marguerite said...

Karin, I try to keep things easy with seeds and grow things I know aren't too much trouble. Then I try one or two 'difficult' ones to practice. There's many things I've never been able to grow but I always manage a few flowers and veggies.

Marguerite said...

It's funny, when we first painted that room in whites and creams my niece was surprised, she thought for sure I would have more colour in there. Obviously she knows me well.

Marguerite said...

I do love this time of year, every day checking to see who else has sprouted, or not as the case may be!

Marguerite said...

At the very least their lack of thumbs will stop them from opening up the laptop and discovering what I've said about them :)

Marguerite said...

right now everything's so brown isn't it? A dash of colour will do wonders in the next month. 'new green' as I call it (there's no other shade quite like that of new leaves) is one of my favourite sights each spring

Marguerite said...

exactly, I find it hard to pick a favourite anything. I appreciate so many different things for different reasons.

Melanie J Watts said...

Thank so much Marguerite for the shout out. I've never tried to sprout magnolia seeds but since they are a tree and a perennial I imagine they need cool temperatures and take a long time to germinate , a month or two. They may even need to be stratified, frozen for a few weeks. Good Luck.

Marguerite said...

Thanks Melanie, maybe they just need more time, I"ll let them be another month before I completely give up.