Gardening: Mother Nature

Sometimes Mother Nature isn't quite so motherly. Last night storms blew through the Detroit area. And although normally I would welcome lots of rain in mid-to-late June, this was more than just a gentle shower. As you can see from the photos below, we have some flooding next to the house. We had it get pretty close to the house a couple of springs ago after large quantities of snow melted and the ground was still frozen. But I've never seen it get this high in the summer months - probably since this time the flooding was caused by a clog in the grate covering the drainage pipe. I fear many of the plants I started from seed have been lost as >60% of the area we planted is under water. I doubt it'll dry up in time to save them. Keep you fingers crossed...maybe they're stronger than I think.

Gardening: Starting from Seed Update

Remember all of those trays of seed I planted weeks and weeks ago? Well the weather up here is finally starting to become more consistent. As a result, this past weekend I moved the "babies" outside to start hardening them off. They're sitting under a tree in the back yard getting ready to be planted this coming weekend. Hopefully Jonathan remembers to water them since they're at his house :)

Gardening: Starting from Seed Update

It's now week three in my seed starting project and the plantings are coming along very nicely. Almost EVERYTHING has germinated with the exception of a few delphinium (even the giant plume grass has shown it's baby roots). So far so good...I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Luckily the frost-free date is quickly approaching (May 15 for here in Detroit) meaning these babies can be transplanted outside very soon!

Gardening: Starting from Seed Update

So I'm sure you're dying to know what's going on with all of those seeds I planted...At the one-week mark (Saturday), I had some germination for a lot of the items.

This tray is full of various hollyhocks...most have sprouted.

The main seeds up on this tray are Jupiter's Beard. Some of the catmint has sprouted as well but I'm still waiting on the ornamental grass. I have another full tray of giant plume grass (covered in the background) that has yet to germinate...if it doesn't happen this week, I'll be pretty bummed.

The far left two rows contain some silver pampas grass babies, followed by two rows of status, and four rows of goldmoss sedum. The delphinium to the far right hasn't germinated yet...

Gardening: Starting from Seed

This year I decided to try growing ornamental grass from seed for the first time. Unfortunately I haven't had a lot of luck starting plants from seed in the past - probably since I get a little too anxious when it comes time to put them outside during the day and bring them in at night. But I took a leap of faith that this year that I will get it right and all the little babies will survive and grow into lovely plants! This past weekend I planted three, 72-cell seed starting containers. Although I did plant a few flower seeds, the trays primarily contain ornamental grass with the goal to develop plugs for a yard privacy barrier. Here's what my project looks like right now...all of the seeds are nested in moist little peat pots. Germinate little seeds, germinate!