The Country Garden Showcase- week 14

Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; who sows a field, or trains a flower, or plants a tree, is more than all.
John Greenleaf Whittier

 It rained, snowed, and sleeted much of the day, but the sun is peeking out now.  We are so lucky to be getting this moisture.  Ahead of this storm I planted several six packs of pansy, viola, stock, dianthis, snapdragon, and alyssum allover my yard, front and back.  I was inspired by Deb's recent flower garden posts.  I hope my new honeybees enjoy the flowers, I sure do.

Soon enough, I will be focusing on seed germination again, all those delicate warm season crops.  I have lots of tomatoes growing in the greenhouse and lots of winter veggies, but I have been reluctant to start anything else yet.  

Within the next 48 hours, I am going to separate the seedlings that I started about three weeks ago via the process described by Bob Thomson, The New Victory Gardener, in his book of the same name.  Per his instructions, I started many seeds inside each one gallon pot containing a mixture of vermiculite, sphagnum peat moss, a few handfuls of perlite, and soil-less seed starting mix.

According to Bob, I can safely handle and transplant the seedlings by gently grasping them from only the first true leaves and delicately transferring them into waiting 4" pots of the same soil-less mixture.  I plan to deviate a bit from his recommendation.  I will introduce about a 20% ratio of moisture control potting soil medium to the above components, and adjust ratios accordingly.   Wish me luck...

Oh, and I almost forgot to show these tasty goodies I picked this evening from my garden.  The plastic row hoophouses really speed things up.

What have YOU been working on in your garden this week???