The plant lights for the seedlings come on at 5AM. It’s pretty bright light to come into so early in the morning when I get up.
I converted over to T5 HO florescent lighting a few years ago.
Most of the fixtures are 2 tube but the round top has a 4 tube fixture on the bottom. Due to Lyme light sensitivity, I don’t tolerate LED very well.
The office door has two of the 4 tube fixtures on the bottom. The lights here and on the porch are ones I built during the pandemic. I had the electrician show me the first one.
The ones in the dining room and round top are real nice 2 tube ones I bought.
I went out to make breakfast about 8:30AM and realized I’d been too tired to make my granola the day before. So I made a 4X batch so I won’t have to do it any time soon. But it meant I didn’t get out to the gardens until just after 10AM.
It took me until just after noontime to finish the Big garden. It’s now ready to plant. I rested for an hour and had lunch and went back out to do some flowerbeds at 1:30PM.
Because I already had 2 hours in, I decided to tackle easy ones. This New South garden had been weeded and amended in March and the weeds were very happy about that. So I got it cleaned out again.
I went right around the corner and cleaned out the New West garden and the East of Steps gardens too. I did the West of Steps garden but it looks like I didn’t take a photo as I’ve taken several lately.
I went in and got the pansies and the dianthus I had bought on Tuesday. I planted the dianthus where the other one had died in the New West garden. I’m hoping it will do well and fill the air with its scent. (I bought it for the lovely scent.)
Then I planted 2 or 3 pansies each in the New South, New West, East of Steps and West of Steps gardens. There were still many left.
So I went up and planted 2 in the sign box. The purple one is the one that survived all winter.
Then I wandered around getting photos of everything new that’s up or open. In the South garden, 2 of the tulips had opened.
Around the corner from them, still in the South garden, the wood hyacinths have begun to open. Last year they were in full bloom on April 16, so these aren’t far behind.
The back porch garden in the early morning sun
A better view of the daffodils
In the New North garden the squills are putting on quite the brilliant blue show. But the camera just doesn’t capture it.
Magnolia is ¾ open
Because it is opening so much earlier than normal, it was hard to find a flower that was not tipped with brown from a frost.
West garden – jonquils and squills (a bit better shot of the squills’ color)
In the South Herb garden the westerly flowering almond had flowers open. Its twin, 6’ east, just barely has buds. Micro-climates…
West flowering almond flowers
In the South garden I had cleaned all the leaves out of this tiny alcove in March. I wasn’t sure if the clematis was alive. I was delighted to see this growth on it. And I’ll have to do the leaves again…
I was dismayed to see the pink tinge on the peach tree in the Little Trees row. When I went to get a photo, I found some of the flowers open. They are bound to get frosted, again, as it is only mid April. My last frost date is May 31…
So that’s what I found in the middle of April, before the next rains come on Thursday. I’m hoping Thursday will be a sort of rest day. But my husband’s cousins are here from Vienna, Austria and they may come to visit and talk gardens. They are bringing a friend who is interested in what I am doing.
So at the very least I have to clean up the kitchen. I noticed a lot of seedlings are up from the Monday starting, so I should deal with those. And maybe clean the bathroom, you know, just in case… I dunno how much rest I’ll be getting…
You do a lot of work on your garden everyday. You doing a good job. Keep it up!
In that first photo of your garden, is that mulching? Do you transplant your seedlings into it? I'm curious to know so that I can get some tips on gardening from someone who does it so well.
The magnolia, the jonquils and the squills really got me, very great colours.
The photo of the Big garden shows a good mulch cover from coming out of winter. I will move it carefully, amend the soil plant, and then put it back allowing room for the plants to grow. Here's a post I did years ago:
https://steemit.com/gardening/@goldenoakfarm/about-using-hay-for-mulch
I'm grateful, this would be most helpful.
In the middle of April, you can count your garden blessings because they are much. All those beautiful colours and fragrances meet in your garden and you should be proud 😊
May has typically been the most beautiful here on the far. But lately things have been changing, and it might be late April…
My eyes were full seeing your beautiful plants. I'm sure when it grows your garden will be as lovely as the flowers. 🫶
You have so many varieties of bushes and trees. I had always wanted a flowering almond but never did get one. I also had forgotten that dianthus is fragrant. I should see if my nursery has some and plant some on the west side of the porch to enjoy the scent.
Visitors from across the pond, how nice! Have a great visit with them.
I used to have a huge mat of highly scented dianthus on the northwest corner of the office, and between those and the wild roses in June the whole yard smelled soooo delicious! But it eventually died and this is the first one I’ve found with strong scent. So we will see…
Sorry that you are LED sensitive, over here we use it a lot.
It's a good thing that you were able to conclude your granola preparations.
Your garden is looking so lovely.
Looks like everything is waking up around you.
A lot of landscape to tend. Great job. Early flowers help perk us up for spring dont they
It’s been sweet being able to get all the work done so early this year. I’m just afraid that it will mean scalding summers, something we aren’t used to here.
It’s just amazing how much work you could do in a few hours. The garden is looking very neat and well looked after. You have so many colourful flowers around the house.
The light reflection from inside the house just showed how consistent you have been planning and working! I wish I had half to your stamina and patience.