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...