Growing Things

With the cold, wintry, blustery weather of late, it's hard to imagine that it's really time to start thinking...or at least dreaming...about a new gardening season. For now, we are mostly enjoying our tiny bit of an indoor garden.

This is the miniature rose that Hubby got me last year for Valentine's Day. We left it out for some early cold weather and dormancy, but we had an early winter warm spell and it began to sprout. We brought it inside, and it is leafing out nicely.



Aren't the Santa gnomes cute? Little Bit and I made them as a holiday craft project - easy and fun!

We have some fresh herbs indoors too...like this rosemary I was given for Mother's Day. It struggled with coming indoors, but seems to be some better now.



I am terribly cheap stupendously frugal, so the other day when I purchased green onions, I saved the root ends and planted them in my herb pot. They should supply us with green onion tops through the remaining winter months. We also planted seed for some dill, basil, cilantro and parsley, which should sprout soon.





The thyme seems to be enjoying some time indoors, and is thriving in the dinig room window. The only thing that is doing poorly is the peppermint. I transplanted it from the ground into a pot. It seems very unhappy. I am not sure if it's the rich (alpaca enhanced) soil that I used, the transplanting, the window, or what, but the peppermint is not thriving. Any tips?

Meanwhile, the whole cycle takes a major upturn very, very soon.



I love perusing the catalogs. My shopping list is very short (seed potatoes in red, blue, gold and white), but I still love reading all the descriptions, seeing all the varieties, and dreaming about that garden that does not exist - the one where everything grows well (except the weeds), we get the perfect amount of water, and the deer/rabbits/bugs all go elsewhere.

There is plenty to do between now and planting - I didn't even take up the soaker hoses and mulch last fall. I have to plan, start seedlings, pull back mulch, till...many, many chores. But for now, I'll enjoy my indoor plants, a mug of cocoa and a few seed catalogs to dream with.