Gray day, bit of cheer came knocking on my door!

Yep, I opened the door and there stood Marty, my neighbor across the street!  Clutched in her hand were two beautiful pink hyacinths and a handful of yellow daffies not open yet!  

Oh, the fragrance of the hyacinths was awesome!  What a day brightener!   All she said was that she had just been to Trader Joe's and handed them to me!

The next day the daffies opened and smiled at me, while the hyacinths continued to bathe me in their fragrance next to my favorite chair in the living room!  Their sunshine lit up my week indeed!

My granddaughter, Heather, was home recovering from a surgical procedure so I was inspired the next day while I was at Costco!  I grabbed one of their floral bouquets and stopped by her house to brighten up her day!  These days are short visits with very few words when I leave something at their door and quickly get back to the car!  Otherwise Facetime has become our family communication tool.

So, what have you been doing these rainy gray days this week?   I've been watching the grass turn green! 

And,  I've been busy on my computer gardening, so to speak!  An email from Minnesota State Horticulture Society with news of a free webinar on "Pollinator Plants and Gardens"!  Well, I quickly registered for that because I had been invited to help our neighborhood association participate with a small grant that will enable us to create three small pollinator gardens in our three neighborhood parks!  And then I shared the news of the free webinar!  I really am not "Up on" pollinators, etc.   So, learning I will do!

And it continued from there watching videos of "How to" garden stuff put on my our local Garden Center "Sargent's on 2nd!  Where there is a will there is a way....they had to close their store so they opened up their website and digital tools bucket to provide a way to market their inventory via pick up and delivery methods and continue their free gardening seminars!  Way to go!  They know we need to get our gardening "stuff" somehow to enjoy our spring!  

And then the emails from garden centers, gardening organizations, etc. with information and pictures of what is going on for spring, etc.!  And my list of "need to get" items is growing for my spring plans which are expanding!  What fun!  I hardly noticed the gray and rain out there!

So what new garden ideas have you gathered this last week?

With the cooler damp weather I shuffled my date to play with my garage stash of containers that have been trying to wake up from their winter naps!  I see sunshine on the agenda early next week, so being my schedule is pretty darn flexible with this "world crisis" keeping me at home..... you will find me answering the phone from the garage beginning on Monday!

Silver lining in a dark cloud!

Recently it was a sad day for our committee as we made the game plan for canceling our Gardening Enrichment Day for 2020 that I shared with you a few days ago!  We all, knew deep down, this was coming but had just not taken the official steps of cancellation hoping a miracle might happen!   Our world crisis is causing lots of challenges in our lives!

I also received a phone cancellation of the last upcoming event that was on my calendar, which was to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.   I was expecting it to come and we had decided to cancel our reservation regardless.   But, it was nice to hear  “But, we will be planning a celebration when this pandemic is over!”

What a fantastic idea! Something to celebrate and plan with joy for later!  You might know, it came from a gardening business!  Gardeners have developed a wonderful faith in the future as gardening does plant that faith deep inside us when we plant our garden beds and grow crops!  I was reminded of this faith when I saw my Siberian Squill poking their heads up last week!   And again daily as I notice the winter survivors still green in the pots on my garage floor!
  
I am looking forward to next week when I plan to help my garage plant stash “wake up” from their winter nap!  It will be a leisure time of joy as I clean off the dead plant material, add a bit of slow release fertilizer, work in a bit of compost and make sure the soil is moist!  Then the daily checking to watch for the sleeping plants to poke up looking for daylight!  On warm sunny moments outside, they will get a treat when I roll them out to “catch a few rays”! 


What fun ahead next week to replace the “social” times that have been cancelled!

The door prize I created is now a reminder to me that gardening time is just ahead and my plant “friends” are coming back to visit for the summer and create abundant beauty in my world soon!  I think I’ll begin to plan a garden party to celebrate this pandemic event ending! 

Daffodils jumped in my grocery cart last week and I noticed lots of spring bulb pots and spring plants spreading beauty in their flower shop areas!  I encourage you to either pick one up when you are there or call your local grocery store, florist or garden center and order one for delivery to your home!  Let it be a beacon to remind you to keep your faith going for brighter times ahead! 

Door Prize!

I am donating a miniature garden door prize to our Spring Gardening Enrichment Day!

All set to happen on April 18th!   "Gardening for the Health of It!"  At our RCTC Heintz Center, developed by a great team; Rochester Garden and Flower Club, Shades of Green Hosta Society of SE MN, Olmsted County Master Gardeners and RCTC Horticulture Dept.!  Registration is thru our local Community Education Program!  

Keynote speaker, 12 breakout sessions of gardening topics, morning break refreshments, lunch, door prizes, 12 vendors to shop at, tons of networking with other area gardeners! 

I figured I'd better get it together so it can "settle in" before then, so played in the potting soil with house plants yesterday!  Was fun!

Spring has sprung in Rochester MN!

The snow all  disappeared a few days ago!  And, there they are, a few days later...….

My spring friends are popping up to say "Hi, we're back!"

The first ones to reach for the light, Siberian Squill!   Love them!

Have you ever been to a Seed Library?

What a fun Saturday afternoon!

 I spent a few hours supporting the 2020 season kick off at the Rochester Public Library Open House for their Seed Library!  This is their second season providing vegetable seeds to library card holders for their gardens!  No return necessary, of course!  But, they'd appreciate some of the seeds harvested this fall and returned to the Seed Library to dispense next year!

It was such fun visiting with the people (and families) attending the event, which included a few fun activities and snacks along with opportunities to talk gardening while exploring other opportunities to learn more about gardening in our community!  They were making seed bombs to take home and drop in the snow now to have some native flowers this summer, and many were taking home some oat grass planted to watch grow right now!  The cinnamon rolls made with beets in the dough were not only beautiful but very yummy!

Volunteers had packaged up 9,500 packets of seeds to distribute, which included a wide selection of veggies!  It was a steady stream of checking out seeds for over two hours!  This is the season to start seeds for tomatoes, peppers, etc. and make plans for the rest of the garden! These seeds will be available until they are gone this spring!

Our garden club is a supporter so we were there to promote our club and activities while chatting with people about their gardens!  Definitely a fun afternoon I plan to do it again next year!

I am the one with the gray hair!  

House Plants 101

This week I attended a seminar put on by our local garden center, Sargent's on 2nd, to become a bit more current about house plants!

After 13 years without house plants, I was anxious to get with what was new in plants and plant care!  For only an hour seminar it covered loads of helpful information!  Neal did an excellent job identifying plants that like various light conditions and easy to grow plants from the ones that need a bit more attention along with those who present more challenges in care.  He also covered the new trends in house plants and various types of containers to display plants in.

Yep, I learned I  have a nice collection of easy to grow plants and a few who take a bit more care!  I got a few questions answered, which was helpful!

Also I purchased a new plant that caught my eye along with replacing a plant that had developed a problem.  My newer peperomia plant had brought along some spider mites and I had decided to get rid of it and the friends asap before they moved to any other plants!

My new plant, Aglaonema,  promises to be colorful and like my south facing window in the living room.  The larger plant I saw was awesome but I elected to start out with a smaller one and grow it out! The picture below is somewhat larger than the size I purchased.

Aglaonema Red