Gardening update

Well, the seeds are sprouting beautifully. Everything sprouted except the Tropeana Round Onions, and I'm betting that's because those seeds were 2 years old (I just threw them in to fill up the last 6 grow pellets in the mini-greenhouse). Never fear, however, those grow pellets did not go to waste. I had a few extra leeks and one cayenne pepper that were thinned which got moved over to the available slots and are doing fine. It's just as well, since I'd ordered onion sets which I received recently and need to plant out.

The only problem is, onion can be toxic to dogs, and as soon as I set the box on the ground to work with the sets, Charlie was in there trying to eat them. I put several in some planters up on the table on the back porch, but I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest! I suppose I'll have to try and rig a makeshift fence around each raised bed to keep the dogs out somehow, but I didn't have enough light to deal with it tonight.

Started the tomatoes today:

8 Amish Paste
3 Paul Robeson
3 Cherokee Purple
and 2 Arkansas Traveler (which may or may not germinate, some more 2 year old seeds)


The bees will be coming in mid-April, and so I've also been thinking a lot about the decorative gardening I want to do. I want to be sure to have plenty of flowers and plants for them to choose from for pollen within our yard. I have always coveted a cottage garden, and thinking of plantings around my apiary brings this style to the front of my mind. I've ordered a few plants to start building out the "bones" for a garden of this style, namely (so far):

Russian Sage
Mme. De Verneville Peony

Double Knock Out® Hybrid Tea Rose (red)

and Josee Reblooming Lilac

This is just the very beginning of a long way to go. I want to add foxglove, hollyhock, lupines, and other perennials, and I will need to add some evergreens (possibly holly bushes, I'm not sure what else) as well as figure out a wind break solution - it gets incredibly windy around here and I want to be sure that my apiary are protected!