is it summer finally?

We are 2 days from the last frost date in our area (zone 5a). And it doesn't look like we are going to have frost anymore!!! Hurray! Maybe I can start planting my seedlings into the ground. I'm feeling that my tomatoes are getting too leggy, and a bit yellowish. But that's OK, usually they are be buried  up to their neck and will be getting fat and strong very quickly. We are waiting for the Memorial Day weekend, the family will be together for the full four days. It is so much to do in the yard and around, I'm afraid it will be a lot of work. Though for sure we will find time to have gorgeous meals, and try some new summer drinks. But for right now I am still edging, mulching, planting new annuals. The more I'll get done these days, the more pleasant time we'll have over the holidays.

Eggplant in the pot. And doing great.

Here are my leggy tomatoes, I think they are yellowish too, another week or so and they are going home....into the ground

Lilly-of-the-valley under backyard's old blue spruce

Lilac "Sensation" in fullest bloom. The smell is almost intoxicating

Some prettiness is waiting to be planted

End of April

The end of April finally. The weather got much better, warmer, with pleasant soft rain yesterday. Nightly temps in low 50's, and the day highs in low 70's. I think it's the best time to enjoy dining al fresco on our patio, there is not much of a bug life yet, not too hot, not humid - I love these days! And we for sure took advantage of this gorgeous weather, spending most of our weekend outside. Magnolia is in bloom, forsythia is just glowing, daffodils, hyacinths, tulips - blooms are everywhere!
Now I should mention my veggies... Eggplants are looking very strong, big, very green with thick short stems. Basil is just beautifully growing, we made Caprese salad the other day using our homegrown basil. I planted two varieties; regular Genovese basil and new for me Lettuce Leaf basil. They are both great, but we think that we will use Genovese for cooking and Lettuce Leaf for eating fresh in salads, it's much more tender, delicate then Genovese basil. But again both are great. Tomato seedling are still kinda slow, well maybe not, but I went to Lowe's just today, took a look at tomato plants for sale - they are so big compare to mine, some even have flowers! I am upset :-) Oh well, I should be patient. It's been 3 weeks exactly since I've seeded them, all of them starting second pair of true leaves, but they are sooooooo tiny! I hope everything will be alright. I just fertilized all of my veggies with fish emulsion ( 2 Tbsp for a gallon of water ), let's see how my babies will like it. Next time I should do it in 3 weeks. So here are the pics from our end-of-April weekend.

mini daffodils in the garden

hyacinths

my best garden friend - a garden snake. it devours my enemies - voles and mice!!!!!

my Jimmy and I - enjoying afternoon sun

my beautiful Barbara with her little Gucci

tomato seedling, 3 weeks after seeding them

a pot of home grown basil, LOVE the smell!

a giant leaf of Lettuce Leaf Basil

eggplants are doing great!

Caprese salad. That is why we are growing basil and tomatoes :-)

Sunday breakfast on the patio, we can bird watch while we eat.

Cherry blossoms

Couple of days ago we encountered a really miserable weather in our area. I am not sure how many inches of rain fell on us in 5 days. It is really great for our plant life for the season, but goodness! what a misery... Fortunately Barbara and I were lucky to escape for couple of days. Gorgeous trip to DC, cherry blossoms, Georgetown University, and the temperature climbed up to 90 F! At the mean time my basil and eggplants continuing doing great, and all of my tomato and pepper seeds germinated well and happily growing under the light on the heating mat. Didn't take the pictures of them, but will soon :-) But today I am posting some pictures from our trip to DC.

 Charming french cafe in Georgetown, we were really pleased with the atmosphere and food...French crepes with caramelized peaches, homemade vanilla ice-cream and berry melba sauce.

Finally tomatoes!

It's this time finally, time to start tomatoes. I love them! Any color, any size, cooked, fresh from the vine, tomatoes are my favorites! Easy to start, easy to grow, and quite productive...every gardener's dream :-) So today I soaked tomato seeds in my seed starter potion which I still have left in the fridge from starting eggplants. I am going to prepare cells today, put them under the light to warm up the soil, and tomorrow will sow the seeds. Also this year I am trying new sweet peppers "Chinese five colors" and hot Caribbean Habaneros. That will go together with my tomato seeds to soak in this potent potion until tomorrow. It is finally a bit warmer here, we warmed up to 49 F yesterday...I know, it's not warm enough for this time of the year, but will do for now. Barbara and I moved my cold frame out of the shade on the sunny spot, I cleaned it and actually got brave enough to put in my little jolly eggplants and basil for a little sun tanning. Basil doing great this year, fat little bushes, very green and smell wonderful! A little change of subject, I am contemplating whether to buy or not to buy a cute green house from Gardeners Supply place...hmmm...Will wait till May. For now I am going out to work in the yard, yes. The oregano on our herb bed is taking over the entire bed, I really need to fix it......
Worked almost four hours outside, got some sun tan. And by the end of the day we had a very nice dinner, tried potatoes recipe from Pinterest, it was really good!!!

Happy Easter!

Beautiful weekend with my family! Cooking, baking, gossiping, drinking wine, eating, watching favorite movies....I love when family gets together.

                                         the PLACEK/KULICH in the making

                                                            final product

happy birthday to me

Yes, it's my 18th yet again...Happy Birthday to me. Not much to report on my seedlings, except that I repotted my little eggplants into individual pots. Now they are looking like a real things. By the way what is with the weather this year???? We've got about 3-4 in. of snow yesterday, it's still on the ground today. ENOUGH!!!!!!
On the different note, here are my birthday roses. After ...hmmm...well...many years of marriage Jimmy still remembers and really knows how to make me happy, sappy etc. :-)

future lemon tree

About three weeks ago I repinned :-) an interesting pin on how to start a lemon tree from a seed... at home... in a pot.  I followed instructions carefully and planted several Meyer lemon seeds. And today voila I have first lemon sprouts. It's kind of difficult to see, but they are there....:-)

warm day

Today we warmed up to 45 F, yey!!!! It was not snowing, not raining, not sleeting, in fact we saw some sun behind clouds. I run outside and spent couple of hours on the backyard cleaning the debris, dethutching the lawn, and swiping the patio. Gucci was "helping" me, putting his little nose into every available hole, so cute he is, still a baby...On the sideyard we discovered our very first crocuses, tiny, puny but nevertheless beautiful, colorful; and here are the pics of them.

seed starter potion

Just for keeping it in one place for my records, here is the recipe for seed starter potion:

• 1 tsp of baby shampoo
• 1 tsp of Epsom salt
• 1 qt of weak tea water

soak seeds for 24 hours in fridge. The recipe comes from Jerry Baker's Terrific Garden Tonics. It does work, especially with my eggplant seeds. I'm ready to stand on my head for them to sprout lol.

first sprouts

After two painful weeks of waiting, digging out, forced germination with really wicked potion I can rest in peace - my eggplants sprouted, and now growing gingerly, and even starting the first set of true leaves. In the excitement of eggplant germination I kind of neglected my basil, and maybe for the best ( for basil ). It has first pair of true leaves and starting second! It might be still cold and wintery (not might, it is!) outside, but it's warm, green and cheerful in the basement under T-5 lamps. I wish I could be a veggie...

eggplants and basil are planted

Going back in time... March 8th, several days before new moon, started my eggplants in the basement. This year I chose two varieties, "Little Fingers" and "Black Champion"( I'm getting all of my seeds from rareseeds.com. They are usually wonderful, all organic, heirloom etc.) The eggplants are very stubborn, capricious, finicky in the beginning. But we love them cooked in any way, well Jimmy and I do (Barbara DOES NOT eat veggies). Anyway... I even got a heating mat for starting eggplants. It works much better then putting my cells into the oven, and then forgetting to take them out several times. So  (cross my fingers ) saw my seeds, put them under the T-5 lights and on the heating mat. I can't think of any better way to start a veggie. Oh, and I started basil too, just for the kitchen, not yard.

starting my blog

Here we go. I'm getting advanced (ahem) and starting my very own, very first blog. Can't think of a better subject then GARDENING. Yeah...For some years I've kept my garden diary, mostly for myself, for the reassurances in February... and March... and April...that spring is coming, yes, it's going to be warm, and we will see flowers, and veggies ( just need to be patient ). This year I've spend several days trying to locate my notebook (/garden diary) which led me to the idea of creation of this blog. SO here I am, creating...