ok so we have a foot of snow on the ground and it is supposed to be 60 degrees by wednesday. michigan, you’re killing me smalls!!!
i don’t have just a case of spring fever… i have spring flu, fever, mumps i. can’t. handle it. anymore.
my seed catalogs are all in and are full of post it notes, my left over seeds from last year are spread all over the counter… freaking out. i’m trying to practice some self control when it comes to seed starting because i’m a bit over zealous every year. like last year ordered over 200 packets. it’s the land i’m telling you.
one thing i learned from last year is that one packet goes a long way. there was no reason that i needed to plant 6 zucchini plants. i bet i picked over 100 lbs of zucchini. by mid summer my pals were like for the love of all things veggies bring us something else other than zucchini woman!
i did discover last year that i REALLY enjoyed having some cutting areas of my garden. i had two full beds of just flowers for cutting. mostly bells of ireland, asters, zinnias and poppies. this year i’m going to do a little less veggies (no need for an entire row of okra and the deer ate my pumpkins) and more rows of flowers. i tried blueberries last year but 1. my ground was too tough and 2.) i’m surrounded by three blueberry farms. waste not want not. right?
i’ve also given my friend jess full authority to cut up my credit cards pending how many seeds arrive in the mail. which by the way i’m SO excited about because her and chris (her hubs) have agreed to take us on as a side project. she is the master of farmhouse landscape design where as me…. i am a perennial hoarder. she came monday before the snow and laid out some plans for the front of the house and i’m totally geeked.
ok so lets talk about just flowers for the garden today. i’m planning on doing two different beds of flowers as well as three rows (replacing my pumpkins and okra from last year). i met a gal in the shop who owns a small dahlia farm called hope dahlias and she turned me on to floret. i spent about 2 hours sunday morning combing through the website and while the bulbs were all sold out i was able to get a few interesting zinnia and poppy varieties.
if you are going to start a flower garden i wrote a post last year about some basic steps to getting started. one thing i would highly recommend is growing zinnias. they are super hearty, easy to grow, big and beautiful.
i did order a few dahlia bulbs from terrain but i was a little late to the game they are mostly sold out everywhere else. i couldn’t help myself either i bought this adorable little tamper and dibbler set too. because you know… i need to tamp and dibble.
to order seeds from floret visit here. the photos themselves are gorgeous.
My Order:
Amaranth Chocolate & Cherry
Celosia Crushed Berries
Celosia Plume Mix
Cosmos Snow Puff
Dusty Miller New Look
Foxglove Camelot Cream
Foxglove Dalmation Peach
Iceland Poppies Champagne Bubbles White
Orach Chocolate and Apple Green Mix
Nasturtium Gleam Salmon
Snapdragon Madame Butterfly Mix
Snapdragon Sherbet Toned Chantilly Mix
Zinnia Oklahoma Salmon
Zinnia Zinderella Peach
Zinnia Zinderella Lilac
Zinnia Salmon Rose1
see? i showed some restraint… weekend project: seed starting guide.
