February Garden Start

Yesterday I got outside between rain showers and officially started off the gardening season here at the MoneyPenny digs.  Yeah, I've been managing the compost and the bird feeding station, but that is about it.  I've been really hankering to get with it and get some honest dirt on under my nails.  Time to get my grandson, Eli, up here and put together my Christmas present greenhouse so I can get some seeds going.

The first thing that I did yesterday was get my primroses potted up.  I bought these little breath of sunshines at QFC a couple of weeks ago when they were $1 each but was not sure what I was going to do with them. This is the pot that sits on my front porch and last summer it housed three lovely Gerbera daisies that my daughter-in-law, Miss PeggyRae, had given me.  Now that I think of it, that girl has been gold for me and my gardening life.  Thanks, sweetie.

Anyway, the daisies are no more, so what better place??  The first thing that I did was improve the soil with compost and some organic powdered fertilizer.  Then I cut off the old blooms that had run their course to make room for all the buds coming up in the center of each plant.  After they were all snugged in, I Sluggo'd the hell out of them because they are like potato chips to snails.  I think they look fabulous and make me smile.

I had noticed on my Old Farmer's Almanac calendar that I was supposed to give a lavender plant to my Valentine and I thought that I better see how mine made it through the winter.  I have planted several lavenders and they all died, except for this one, and he is about four years old.  He did fine over the winter but was in serious need of some grooming:

After the dead wood was removed.  Much more handsome.

Then I checked the hydrangea to see what was going on there.  I leave the blooms on all winter and don't trim them until I see new spring growth; then I prune them down to the next vigorous bud.  If it is snowing or freezing, wait.  No green growth yet.

Same thing with the hardy fuscia.  I don't prune it until I see the new green growth coming up out of the
ground, then I cut it all the way down to the growth.  No green growth here, either.  Just a few weeds.

Then I weeded like a crazy woman.  Best to get a running jump on the weeds while they are easy to pull.  I think it helps, but I'm not really sure.


Food Waste Update:

I haven't had much food waste lately because I've really been trying to be smarter about my planning and grocery shopping, so was surprised to see that I had totally forgotten this rice.  I had cooked a bunch of rice for my curry dish and planned to put the leftover rice in individual containers and freeze it but it got lost in the back of the fridge.  Didn't happen.  Notice the pink shower curtain type mold in the lower right.

Cha Ching - $1.00


Poppy, the Boston Terrorizer: