it’s 4:30 pm on the coldest day so far this winter – an extremely breezy 25 degrees F – and my entire car smells like potting soil. it’s a fresh smell and it should be reassuring but instead it is a reminder of a broken vow: i solemnly swear i am done with all of my seeds for this year.
yeah, right.
last week alone was two trips to adam’s faircare to say nothing of the two orders to prairie moon nursery that happened in the dead of night, totally on their own, of course! i had a hankering to grow my own ornamental grasses instead of paying $25/container for the classics (big and little bluestem, indian grass and prairie dropseed) but that necessitated ordering the seeds AND the containers AND topping up my dwindling soil supply. since all of the outdoor potting soil stocks have well frozen by now, even if it took much longer than usual, i went with the happy frog brand. it comes in a nice big 2 cu/ft bag and with a hefty price tag, but damn if it doesn’t smell fantastic.
other than the aforementioned grasses, i really am (really, i swear) nearly finished with the perennial winter sowing chores. (i say nothing on the subject of annuals) i’ve got most of them in re-used containers from last year’s nursery purchases, and the remaining lot split between perforated underbed storage containers and propagator’s pots ordered from johnny’s seeds. i haven’t decided which method i like best – though if the experiment is a total failure i’ll have nothing to compare it to.
my panic arises because it was literally just last week that i realized, amidst a late-night ordering spree, that someone (i.e., me) was going to have to PLANT ALL OF THESE SEEDS come spring. why i never thought of this before can best be described as denial, i suppose, or the over-enthusiastic naivete of a girl with a new hobby – that is, winter sowing. once i discovered the secret to unlimited plant-starting space i was lost, and i have an entire binder full of ideas that require plants to execute.
even better worse, the annual bluestone perennials 50/50 sale season has started. i learned my lesson from ordering last year and have managed to be more judicious in my ordering, but the boxes will still start to pile up eventually. #truth
a garden for kino makoto 