Odds 'n' Ends

Thanks for stopping back!

I was outside in the garden early in the week cleaning up winter debris when I noticed a small flock of geese flying north over Lancaster. Simultaneously, a little one engine airplane came into view flying south over the city. Three of the geese broke from the flock, banked,  and started to follow the plane. I watched, and for as long as I could see them, the three geese were still flying several hundred feet behind the plane!

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Helleborus is among the first plants to bloom in the new year. This plant is a little strained this year. It doesn't seem to have cared very much for my moving it last year to make way for some strawberry plants. In the past, it bloomed in late February, so it's at least two weeks late this year. The new location isn't as sunny as the previous spot so I'm sure that caused the fall off in both foliage and flowers as well as bloom time.

                                                          Helleborus

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If you happen to be cleaning up or pruning shrubs or berry bushes in the fall or spring, and stumble on something that looks like icky brown cotton candy (except it's dried), don't toss it in the compost heap or trash. See the picture below. This is a praying mantis egg case just waiting for warm weather to hatch out as many as a hundred baby mantises to help you control pests in your garden.

                                      Praying mantis egg case, center.
                                                         
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The garden centers had the first "cold weather" plants out for sale yesterday, March 15.....right on time! So between yesterday and today, I've planted the first 8 foot row of spinach, leaf lettuce and romaine lettuce, 16 plants in all. The lettuce and spinach I started from seed earlier this month is taking its time getting to a stage where I'd put it in the ground.

                                              
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Mica, the Semi Stray Cat, got quite bored watching me putting in the lettuce and spinach. He sauntered over to the rose bed, and in 40 degree weather took an hour long nap.  He's no help whatsoever!

                                      MTSSC naps in the garden mulch

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With the weather entering a warming phase over the next few days, I'll be planting sugar pod peas directly into the garden bed, probably this weekend. And, it wont be too many days now before I start some seeds for the summer vegetable garden....squash and tomatoes. I'm using peat pots again this year. Last year, the plants I started in  fiber (coconut?) pots seemed to experience stunted growth due to roots struggling to pass through the fiber. Did anyone else have this problem?

                            Some of the fiber pots I used to start seeds last year.

Happy St. Pactrick's Day to all of you of Irish descent, and also to those of you who just pretend to be Irish for the day. What the heck! I pretend to be Mexican on Cinco de Mayo!