My Solitary Bees Have Been Put Out

 Today I put my Mason and Leaf Cutter Bee larvae.  I put the tubes in a box in the fall and keep them with my Dahlia tubers because their wintering requirements are similar.  I finally ordered new bamboo tubes which I placed in the bottom of the box.  Then I placed a piece of corrugated on top of them to divide the new ones from the old ones.   After a length of time when I feel that everything that will hatch has hatched out, I will remove and set aside the old tubes from the top and add more new nesting tubes.

I transplanted my indeterminate tomato seedlings.  They were sown ten days ago on April 1st and were just starting to show their first leaves.

When I checked the tray for water I noticed that one variety, my Amish friend Elsie's Tomatoes, which are very vigorous plants their whole lives, was sending roots through the drain holes.  They were ready to be out of their baby cell.  

They never look like much the first day, but give them three or four days and they will be off and running.  When they are sending out their first leaves they are in a growth spurt and now they have plenty of room to root.  Tomato plants respond very well to transplanting.  In my opinion, it is better to bump them up gradually from small cells to small pots, then maybe a larger pot before they go out to the garden.  I have heard it is true in house plants and am coming to believe it is also true for vegetable plants.  They do not like their container size to change drastically.  They would rather the stages were more gradual.  If I had planted these babies in, let's say 6" wide pots, they would shock and stall their growth.  Because Tomato plants send out little roots along the stem, they can be submerged quite deeply and they will send out more roots along the stem.

I have room in this tray for two more 6 packs.  I plan to use these for Marigolds or maybe Lettuce.  I have a difficult time discarding extra seedlings, so I left some in the seed tray under the light just in case one of the others doesn't thrive.  The Dwarf Eagle Smiley plant was transplanted too.  He has a buddy.  A second seed (on the left) germinated in a much quicker and less dramatic fashion.  

In other News...

I use this blog all of the time to figure out when something happened.  Today will be known as "the day Big Bird flew through the neighbor's upstairs window."  

I was in the house sort of napping when I heard what sounded like a van door slamming shut.  You know, that sliding track sound that comes with UPS and some Amazon trucks.... 1980s minivans... wwrrrroooooshhhCRASH.

I noted it as being very loud and unusual, but we live close to a busy intersection and if I went out and investigated every weird sound I'd neve get any rest.  About 20 minutes later our next door neighbor called in a fairly high state of agitation.  She wanted us to come over and "have a look at the upstairs window.  It's shattered all over the driveway."  We knew her husband was away for the day but the situation wasn't making much sense over the phone and to be fair, it wasn't making much sense to her either.  

The upstairs attic window was shattered.  Below is a photo of the house from back when my husband lived there.  We went over there and surenuf, there was glass on the driveway and the window pane was gone.  She said she had heard a whooshcrash and thought maybe we had cut down a tree nearby.  But it didn't sound right so she looked around the house inside and out. That was when she saw the glass.  We went up in the attic expecting to find a dead bird up there.  There was a lot more glass in the attic, a few drops of blood on the floor right below the window and a dozen or so big, black, breast feathers blowing around.

We cleaned up the mess.  We took pictures with her phone for her insurance agent.  My husband screwed a piece of plywood over the window.  It was a double pane insulated window and there was nothing left of it.  Glass was scattered across the attic in a twelve foot arc and I even picked one shard of it out of a rafter.  But no sign of a bird.  It had to be a BIG bird.  There are only a few Christmas decorations in the attic and we panned a flashlight into every corner.  There was no more blood or bird.

 The feathers were black and wide with a metallic band.  They looked sort of like turkey feathers.  Google Image agreed.  The first thing Google came up with was wild turkey too.  But what the heck would a turkey be doing way up there?  I could imagine that maybe a turkey vulture, which are common here, dove after a song bird that was scoping out the widow and flood light for a nesting spot.  But even that seemed a little far fetched.

Later on, I was outside working on my bee nesting house and the neighbor's husband called me over.  They had gone back over their security camera footage and they believed they had a picture of the culprit.  The camera view didn't go up as high as the attic window, but it did catch a reflection in one of the lower windows of something standing in the driveway along the fence.

That there is a big ole wild turkey.  With a beard.

What the hell was he thinking?

We walked around the driveway again looking for blood or feathers and didn't find a thing.  Apparently Big Bird made it out alive.   That's one lucky bird.  And I think we were lucky too.  No one needs a big, bloody turkey dying in their attic.  It was nice to have photo evidence as an explanation.  Quite frankly, I don't think the insurance agent would have believed the story without it.  I mean how often does some one tell you "A wild turkey flew through my attic window and then disappeared."

What's Going On Outdoors

 Today I planted my second row of peas.  3 ounces of Penelope Peas.

I planted my second grape vine.

It already has a tiny sprout

These are the Tickled Pink variety from Gurney's.

They come bareroot packed in wet straw.

When you propagate seedless grapes, you have to root cuttings of vine.  These sections were cut in the winter of 2024-25 and rooted in a year ago.  They are allowed to grow and then trimmed back in autumn and sent out before they break dormancy.

The Vitis Himrod White Seedless Grape arrived almost two weeks ago and has already begun to send out some growth tips.

Right now it looks like I have planted a small selection of sticks.

Triple Crown Thornless Blackberries

The thornless blackberries in the other bed are putting out some green leaves.

The Bushel and Berry Raspberry Shortcake Bush I got last year has put out a lot of green leaves.  I kept it in this warm sunny spot on the deck and it loves it.  Soon I will move it back out to the raised bed garden.

The fruit trees are breaking dormancy.  I could almost sit and watch the apple buds turn from fuzzy little silver tips to the promise of flowers, but the pear tree is ahead of them.

It has been a really fruity day.

Unhappy Tomato Seedlings

 I have three unhappy Dwarf Adelaide Festival tomato seedlings.  You can see that the six pack beyond them are as happy as can be.  They were all seeded on March 1st, and have been side by side every day with the same lights, fan and water.  The thriving Tomato plants behind are actually Orange Hat Micro Dwarf Tomatoes which will start producing at 6" tall and may grow as tall as twelve inches if put into a larger pot.  So... the Dwarf Adelaide Festivals, which mature around 36" should be at least as tall as they are at this point.  They act like they are burning, so it may be the light or the fan.

To rescue them, I transplanted them into 3.5" pots with a little Biotone Fertilizer.  They are well rooted, yet nowhere near root bound,  The soil was dry, but they have never wilted even once, so they have had enough water.

I made room for them under the florescent light where they still have a fan, but the fan is further away.  We will see how they react to this change.  Every other seedling is as happy as can be.

Edited to add:  Look who made it out today!  Welcome to the world little tomato plant.  Very tiny as expected, but green and healthy looking.

Happy Easter

 I am enjoying some Easter flowers.  My volunteer Petunias are blooming.  There are a few other things of note.

My pinched Dahlias are already starting to produce side shoots.

Some of the Zinnia plants may be ready for pinching.  You can see that they are already sending out side shoots.  I'm going to watch them and see if any really need pinching or if these will bush out well on their own.

Some of the Cabbage leaves are beginning to burn.  I dropped the tray down 2 inches.  You have to be careful with LED lights.  You need at least 10-12 inches between the leaves and the lights because they are stronger than the florescent bulbs we used to use.  So as the plants get taller, the tray needs to move down.

The indeterminate Tomato seedlings began popping out yesterday (day 4).

The Dwarf Eagle Smiley seedling is making slow progress.  

You can't really tell unless you take a photo and zoom way in...

But there are eeny weeny little leaves showing below the seed coat.  I just keep dripping one drop of water on it each day to keep the seed coat flexible.

If it doesn't make it I will just buy a Sun Sugar plant at the nursery in May.

Shifting Things

 I have dug up and removed a lot of my Daylilies just because they take so much effort to protect from the deer.  I have saved a few of my favorites.  I saved four of these "Big Smile" daylilies up near the house.  They are one of the last varieties to bloom and they are right along the driveway so the protection season for them is long and strenuous.  But they are worth it.

The easiest way to protect them is to keep a couple of these "Pest Guard" mesh plant covers on them.  In the evening I go out and cover the plants, securing the cover with an Earth Staple or two.  In the morning I collect them up and stack them in a dark corner nearby.  Easy peasy.

But one of the Daylilies was too close to this Bird's Nest Alberta shrub.  I had a note in my spring to-do-list to shift it over.  This is an easy job when the plant is dormant and the ground is soft.

I just dig out the soil where I want the clump slid to, dumping the soil in a trug.

Then I cut the roots around in a large circle to avoid disturbing them too much and use the spade to leverage the whole thing to the right tight against the edge of the new hole.   If your plant has any deep tap roots it may even move over without breaking them.   Then I dump the soil out of the trug and firm it in.  Done.  Plant shifted.  And if you do this on a rainy day, you don't even have to go get any water to water them in.  We had almost an inch of rain the evening after I moved this.

The wet spring is also a great time to pull grass or weeds out of your ground cover.  Dandelions and grass are always weeks ahead of most perennials.  Its the perfect time to spot them and remove them before they get lost in the plants.  If you accidentally pull up any of your ground cover you just replant it right there.

Rye grass was starting to take over the Snow on the Mountain.

Soon the Snow on the Mountain will fill in and the grass would have been inaccessible.

Here is a look at some of my spring flowers.

Pinching Dahlia Seedlings

My Dahlia seedlings are doing well and I would not consider them to be "leggy" but they have awhile to go in their small 6 pack cells before I will have enough grow light room to pot them up into larger accommodations.  So they need to be size controlled.  Pinching back will not only control their height, but will encourage them to put out two thicker sprouts in place of the single leader, making them bushier.  In the case of flowering plants, this also means, potentially, twice as many flowers per plant.  Pinching back can begin when the plants have three sets of true leaves.

Using a pair of snips, or simply breaking off with your fingers, you remove the growth tip and maybe a set of leaves.  There should be at least two sets of true leaves left.

In this example, I could have gone down one more set of leaves.  In the photo below I have illustrated where two new "axillary buds" will emerge from the leaf "nodes" and form new stems.

 If you were interested in propagating more plants, you could use these cuttings to root more.  I have no idea what the characteristics of these plants will be since they are first season, cross pollinated plants.  I don't need any more of them.  If these plants were sprouting from tubers, and therefore clones of a known variety, they may be worth saving.

It only took me a few minutes to clean the dried cotyledons and pinch back all of the seedlings by a third.  All of the plants look nice and healthy.  Some are taller and some are very compact with little stem length between the sets of leaves.  It was tempting just to cull the taller, rangier plants right now and only grow on the short, compact ones as this growth habit will continue throughout their lives.

I had a nice surprise today as I was poking around in the seedling trays.  My Cherry Tomato variety "Dwarf Eagle Smiley" is finally sprouting.  These seeds were sown on March 5th.  That's 28 days!  All of the other Dwarf Tomatoes and Ornamental Peppers I sowed in that week are already inches high.  These seeds are TINY for a Tomato seed.  Last year they took weeks as well.  in fact, last year I gave up on them, chalked it up to bad seeds, and then Surprise! -they popped out in an abandoned cell tray after I had given up hope.  So this year, I just left them where they were on the heat mat and kept them watered.  What finicky little divas.  Next year I will choose a similar Dwarf Cherry.  I really like the variety a lot but if they are going to be so hard to grow....  I don't need the hassle.

And he's not out of the woods yet.  As you can see, the cotyledons have not broken out of and shed the seed coat yet.  They are still encased and will need moisture to help them break out.  I misted the poor little guy and left him alone.  There are at least five other seeds in there.  We'll see if any survive to adulthood.

Peas and Carrots

 Today I planted my first row of peas.  I have discussed my pea planting plan before.  This year I am planting two beds with two rows each.  I have been saving pea seeds for several years now.  I decided to clean house and use up all of my old seed.  I generally plant somewhere between 2.5 and 4 ounces (dry) of seeds per row.  I have a little over 12 ounces of seed left, so 3 ounces a row it is.  I am going to plant one row a week on Wednesdays to try to spread out the season a bit.  I am planting only my saved Penelope Pea seeds so they may all catch up to each other.  Today is cool and rainy, but I prepped the bed two days ago with Garden Tone fertilizer and dug the rows.  I soak my seeds over night so all I have to do is walk out there and pour them out.

Then I rake loose soil over the seeds until they are well covered and tamp it down with the rake so there is good soil contact.  It is raining on and off today and will continue through the night.  At some point I will sprinkle lettuce seeds along the side of each row to act as living mulch.

While I was out prepping the bed the other day I dug some carrots.  For years now I have been growing carrots in containers which works very well, but with the thinning and daily watering, they are fairly labor intensive.  Last year I ran a seed tape of YaYa carrots along the back of the Strawberry bed where the soil is rich and deep.  Besides watering them now and then I completely ignored them.  I have been digging them since fall.    One of the last things I did last fall was rake loose mulch up over the tops of the carrots to insulate them from cold.  Carrots protected thru the winter will grow exceptionally sweet and crisp.  These carrots have been excellent.  I don't think I will bother with the container carrots this year.  I'll just run a double row of seed tape back there.

In the workshop everything is growing like crazy.  I started my Indeterminant Tomato seeds today.

Marigolds transplanted 4 days ago

Ornamental Hot Peppers and Dwarf and Micro Tomatoes

Cabbages, Cauliflower and Broccoli.  Lettuce to the right

One of two rogue Petunia volunteers getting ready to bloom

My next gardening chore will be pinching back these Dahlia seedlings.