Seedfork's blog: Zinnias, Zinnias, Zinnias

Another beautiful, but dry day, starting tomorrow we should have rain for the next several days, I hope.
I mowed the lawn again yesterday.So, after looking briefly over the garden and thinking about the weather report, I watered just the few things that really needed it (like the seed beds), and just a few of the new plants. Then I headed off to Lowe's to get some lawn fertilizer, WOW! Is that stuff expensive! I looked and looked and finally made a choice, still just two bags and one bag of milorganite was over eighty dollars. That was not enough to do the entire yard, really needed two more bags, but I did the front and with the rest just did the parts of the lawn that looked the worst. Now hope we actually get that rain for the next few days.
I have just planted two seed beds with a mixture of flower seeds, mostly Zinnias and I have hundreds of them coming up it looks like (well that may be a little exaggeration) but a lot. I also had some cosmos that really needed to be transplanted it was getting tall and lanky. Then I had almost an entire flat of Zinnias (candy stripe) that were getting lanky also, don't know why they are growing in full sun. Anyhow, I decided to plant them down by my cold frame with the window pane frames on top. I had added a load of grass clippings and leaves down there not long ago,the mulch layer was still pretty thick so I decided to turn the soil over with my fork and mix the mulch in. That would give me a much better and smoother seed bed to work with. I pushed my fork down into the gray clayish soil and I was shocked by the amount of earthworms I turned up. Large ones and small ones, but lots of them, I was thrilled. I raked the bed smooth then straddling the bed with one foot on the cold frame and the other spread over the seed bed I started planting the flat of zinnias, man what a thigh workout that was.
I still have a flat of zinnias and some more cosmos to find spots for.
I decided to go ahead and weed out about 90 percent of the Celosia seedlings, there were hundreds of them spread over a span of about thirty feet. I ended up with a flower pot full of tiny seedlings. I did leave a few dozen
just in case someone comes over and wants any. I weeded the lower bog bed and am just about ready to mulch it when the plants get just a little bit taller.
This afternoon I got a envelope in the mail with four different types of zinnia seeds. I know...I already have more zinnia seeds than I have ever planted. But these were a trade..only I haven't traded anything yet! Anyhow, they were four kinds I have never grown from seed before: Rose Pinwheel, Crystal White (now these I could really use, I needed more white blooms), Zowie Yellow Flame and Profusion Orange. If they do as well as the others I planted they should be up in about four or five days. I just love having something to check on in the garden.
Had another 'Yellow River' hosta pop up today and a few more NOIDS showing pips. I had one new one that came up with the leaves all stuck together, I tore it up trying to get the leaves unstuck, and the leaves had holes already eaten in them. Reminded me of Canna lily leaves with leaf rollers eating them. What really made it bad was I think this might have been a seedling and it is the only one I have ever had that was not plain green. I will be keeping a close eye on it.
I fertilized all the new hostas and a few more plants that looked a little puny. I mixed up some of my beautiful finished compost with just a little 13-13-13, some Alfalfa pellets, and some milorganite and just sprinkled it around by hand. When the rain comes tomorrow it will be perfect, looking for a great hosta season.
The roses are just looking fantastic this year, they had a horrible year last year, just awful. I picked off what few leaf spot leaves were on them and they are ready for a beauty contest now. Had to charge the batteries for my camera, will try and get photos tomorrow between showers (hopeful).
The armadillo paid me a visit last night, dug up the squash plants looking for worms. I replanted them, then put some milorganite around the plants hoping to discourage his digging there. He dug up a huge area up in my mulch pile (more like a mulch path) but that was ok, because there is nothing growing there, except volunteer pumpkins.

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