#gardening@growyourown#zone9a#PNW
Transferred tomatoes to bigger pots today and letting them sit out in the sun. They'll go in the cold frame until the nighttime temperatures warm up more.
The pepper plants that I dug up last fall and over-wintered inside are producing again (thanks @MCDuncanLab for the idea!). New pepper germinations started two weeks ago are now an inch tall. #gardening@growyourown#zone9a
#gardening#Zone9a
Moved the tomato seedlings up to pots a week earlier this year in anticipation of a warm spring. Repeating from last year: Japanese Trifele Black, Italian Heirloom, Costoluto Firorento. From previous years: Momotoro and Marsalato. New to me this year: Old German, Buffalosun, and Sweet Million. Two of each, although I have extras in backup. Peppers and eggplants germinating now.
It's been getting colder over the last week or so, with maybe 10 (15?)cm of new snow in several moderate instalments. Today topped out around -21C/-13F but it will get much colder in the days to come.
These include one of the lowest lows forecast I recall, and some of the coldest days- days much below -20C have not been that common in the 15 years or so prior to the last couple! #Alberta#weather#ShareYourWeather#January#Winter#ClimateChange#icetodon
@cohanf Lowest low forecasts aren’t good. Keep as snug as you can in your frozen world.
In comparison although we are into our coldest spell (and thankfully also the driest) of our winter so far, the occasional night is getting down to -4°C/24F days are still 5°C-6°C/41F-42°F. We’ve barely had a frost, let alone a hard frost.
This week's #SixOnSaturday is inspired by all the lovely autumn photos in my timeline. I'm calling it "Looking for Fall."
Bc it's 91°F today. In October.
(I wish I was joking.)
My garden is blazing hot, ridiculously green & not an autumn vibe in sight. This is the best I could find. 😂
(**Editing to add that I don't want to sound ungrateful - I'm thankful for the rain & that my garden is lovely & green. My brain just wants to shift into Fall weather - snuggly sweaters & cool crisp air. And yeah...that's just not happening lol)
I don't see many posts for flowers like this, but goldenrods are some my favs. There's just something so magical about hundreds of these exquisite little flowers making up these big showy blooms.
No idea the variety of goldenrod. I don't remember what I planted & that tag has long since vanished lol.
Yesterday we hit a high temp that shocked even me - a person who usually loves summer in Texas. But this year has been brutal. It was so hot outside yesterday I had trouble breathing.
And with the extreme drought I am now - for the first time ever as a Gulf Coast resident - far more worried about wildfires than hurricanes.
My garden has been absolutely decimated. I go out there and just cry.
But today this beautiful little thing appeared. Amidst all the dried out & dying plants this single stem of Yarrow bloomed.
It feels like my garden gave me a hug. Yeah we're struggling & things are hard right now. Really hard.
There's something really satisfying about letting basil flower & then seeing it covered in bees.
It's a side of #gardening that for a long time I didn't realize existed. I was focused on growing things I could eat & then promptly tearing them out as soon as they were "done."
But eventually I realized I might be done w the plant - but the wildlife certainly isn't.
(This morning a long-tailed skipper was laying eggs on old pole bean vines that are done producing but still green. I grew them for food but now they're a host plant for a butterfly I love.)
It's a really lovely side of gardening that makes me feel very connected to nature.
Anyway - just a few Saturday musings & a lot of happy bees lol.
All of these were photographed (by me) in my small suburban garden.
I wanted to post this to show that #biodiversity does still exist. With all the climate doom & gloom in the news it sometimes feels really hopeless. Like a battle we've already lost.
But the butterflies are still here. So are the bees & other vital pollinators. It's not too late to protect them.
Gardens don't have to be expensive or elaborate to provide them a home. What matters is that we create space for #pollinators in our landscaped lives. Just adding a few flowers can make all the difference & help ensure these lovely creatures continue to survive.
Creepy cool critter that I didn't even see when I took the photo.
Finally organizing my spring pics. I remember taking this one bc it's a nearly perfect flower. And let's face it - that's a rarity in my messy garden, lol.
But I somehow didn't notice the mini-monster off to the side giving me a death glare. Like how'd I miss that? 😂
Spotted the babies this morning (very exciting). Went out just now to try for better pics. Found this little bubble stranded in the middle of the pond.
It is scorching hot today. My weather app says it's 98° right now (feels like temp 115°).
Dunno how long they were stranded, but I'm glad I found them in time. They seemed okay & swam off when I tipped them back into the pond.
Surprisingly territorial. It's making a play for the pond - which 100% belongs to the male Blue Dashers. (Of the 8 species in my garden, they're the smallest but the fiercest - like little blue Chihuahuas lol)
There's quite a dragonfly battle going on out there. It's kinda fascinating.
Not a great photo but wow was I lucky to get it. It was behind the hedges & this was the best angle I could get without disturbing it. It still fluttered away almost immediately. Bc of course, lol.
But it's so exciting! A butterfly I've never seen before & I got enough of a photo to ID it!
(please excuse me while I do a butterfly happy dance 😂 )
(As I understand it this is known as the "obelisk posture" - raising the abdomen minimizes surface area exposed to the sun which helps prevent overheating.)
It might be for practical reasons, but omg it's completely adorable lol.
One of my fav volunteer flowers. They're just so pretty.
I know these as Tievine, but I've also seen it called Pink Morning Glory & Purple Bindweed.
I didn't plant it, and yeah, technically it's invasive. It's super aggressive & can cause problems if not kept in check.
But I have a very liberal attitude towards gardening lol. These are currently decorating a very boring set of hedges and I just think that's delightful.
The last week or so I've started finding these adorable little lizards all over my garden. It seems like every clump of foliage suddenly has a teeny tiny new resident.
I watched the carpenter bees gathering pollen from the Woolly Mallows this morning.
This one was so loaded down it actually had trouble flying. It had to land & sort itself out.
It made me laugh bc it had the exact same vibe of having too much stuff exploding from a suitcase and having to stop in the middle of the airport & repack it all to make everything fit. 😂