We’ve had a stretch of really blah weather for a bit now, so while there are definite signs of Spring (all of the above pictures are from my backyard), I have not been out doing as much yardwork as I would like. I have plans, but not enough dry hours to accomplish all of them.
The seed starting is coming along well – these are the peppers and dahlias from planting up round one, and round two has joined them. I should be able to do a round three soon. This weekend is my anniversary of getting Covid, and the contrast in where I was last year is interesting. I ended up very behind because of the timing of that interruption. It’s been nice to be on the ball this year.
Hilariously, it would appear I have managed to kill mint. Or rather, I think being in pots in the shed on that weekend when it got down close to -20 (F) killed the mint. The ginger mint on the right looks like it might still have a little life in the extremities, so we’ll see there. It was new last year.
But the spearmint (which I’ve replanted in that same pot several times over the years) isn’t showing any signs of life. So it is possible to kill mint. I’m sure they would have been fine in the ground – you can see my chives just to the left, and the sage next to that, as well as the thyme on the right came back just fine.
I am pleased to report that one of the dahlias I saved in the garage over the winter has survived. It sprouted just in the nick of time, too. I was planning to put the pot out in the shed this weekend because it hadn’t been doing anything. You can see it’s far less robust than its cousins from the store that I bought and planted that same weekend. (I was pretty proud of myself – I resisted the worst of the siren lure, and only bought one bag of tubers.)
I did bring these inside for the 20 below weekend, which was when I discovered the other one I’d saved had started to mold. I also discovered my labelling methods were not adequate. So I don’t know if this is the bedding dahlia, or the taller pink one.
I have them in pots for now, but they’ll go in the ground once it’s warm enough, assuming they’re both the larger sized dahlia. If this is the bedding dahlia, I started some others from seed this year, and it’ll join them in pots on the deck.