Time to garden!

After boldly posting last week that I was sure there would be flowers by this weekend, I realized I had certainly jinxed myself and that, of course there wouldn't be flowers yet. Imagine my delight when I found this happy little crocus in my flower bed this weekend! Daffodils, tulips, and grape hyacinth are also starting to push through the soil. As with most gardeners, after the first of the year, I start itching to plant something ... anything! Spring seems like an impossibly long time off, which leaves me with starting seeds indoors. It has been a number of years since I have grown my own seedlings, so I'm excited to try it again! I dug out and cleaned up my seed starting materials, have been reading up on seed starting tricks, and purchased seeds at Westlake. I also have some great, unusual seeds coming in the mail ... how exciting! One thing I do remember from starting seeds before, is that it is easy to get carried away with too many varieties of seeds. :) I just said I remembered. I didn't say I learned my lesson. :) Here is my plan ... plant one flat (72 plants) of peppers, sweet and hot, one flat of tomatoes, one flat of perennial flowers, and one flat of violas. Oh, I just remembered I have lavender seeds coming in the mail! Add to that one flat of lavender plants. Yikes, that's five flats ... I'm going to have to get another table (and some more grow lights). While this may seem like an obscene amount of plants, it is very easy to justify ... really. (As are most obsessions ...). Here is the logic: One tomato or pepper plant costs anywhere from $2-$4 (that was last year ... they may be more now!). One seed packet costs about 2 bucks. With my current set up, I plan to grow at least 8 plants from each packet which results in about a $20 savings per variety! Okay, okay - so there are a few other costs involved, but it still saves money. Plus I can grow things now! (P.S. The savings on perennial flowers really is huge ... they are just a little trickier to grow). I'm hoping to get my seeds planted by this weekend. Last weekend, Gage tilled my gardens for me. Yes, you heard me right ... gardenS ... as in more than one. You can seen last year's tiny garden in the distance in this picture, next to my make-shift garden shed. In the fore front is my NEW garden! Can't wait! Can't wait! Can't wait! Did I mention that I also have 6 raspberry bushes and 6 blueberry bushes coming in the mail? CAN' WAIT! Okay, back to the house. It is really not much fun working on the house anymore. Thank goodness Gage is much more dedicated than I. :) The only fun part of working on the house last weekend was when we realized that the stonework currently looks like two thrones. Yeah, we took a picture in them. And no, I'm not going to post it. I love the picture, but we do look ridiculous. What's a blog post without pictures of the animals, right? The weekend was sooooo beautiful, and Koda was being silly. Playing dead ... Just kidding! Fun in the leaves!