notsoswift.com visitors may notice that the "from seeds" blog no longer exists. i felt that any plant and gardening blogging i did from now on would be more at home on the "album" page, right here. and, in the battle of my duel personalities of documentarist/slash-and-burn artist, guess which won out? suffice it to say, all the "from seeds" posts no longer exist (although many pictures of last year's mantids, and previous years' gardening, still do exist in the home category of this page.)
ripley was her usual helpful self while ben replanted seedlings yesterday. ripley LOVES being in the yard, and can even spend a little time out there on her own, which is nice for everyone.
we are not doing mantis egg sacs this year since we are having our backyard planter rebuild by a mason -- a neighbor who is currently shuttling back and forth between his home on our block, and a restoration project at the library of congress. and the thought of wet mortar coinciding with the birth and frolicksome childhood of some six hundred mantid babies was not a pretty thought. but we did do some sowing; ben's valentine's day gift from me was a bouquet of rare heirloom variety seeds, including "green zebra" tomatoes and about fifteen varieties of pumpkin, squash and gourd, including "thai large pumpkin", "kukuza", "yugoslavian finger fruit", "tennessee spinning gourd" and others.
we also sowed wisteria seeds, from a pod i snatched last fall at maple acres on our annual pumpkin buying trip. i remember this day as the day we went to visit lyn and eric, and so i feel extra strongly that the wisteria should do well. in fact, there are two pink peony plants from lyn and eric somewhere in our planter right now, and i am really hoping they make an appearance this year.
more gardening posts will follow soon -- as well as comprehensive coverage of this years home improvements including "backyard and planter" as well as "grotto" and "out front".