Took the day off from planting today -- even though this afternoon had some perfect weather, I didn't feel as much pressure as I have and decided it would do more good for both me and the garden to take a rest.

Tomorrow I'll be back at it no doubt.

I can't remember where I was talking about winter sowing more lettuce seeds (even now it is no longer winter?) These are heat tolerant varieties but they did need coolish temps to germinate. Fortunately our weather did cool off these recent days, and all three jugs of new lettuces sprouted up nicely.

oh yay more planting. But not right yet anyway, not for these.

The two containers I dumped are doing ok. I tucked in the nigella and they are good. The amaranthus has a few sprouts.

Woo-Hoo! Go, sprouts! Glad the dumpage did so little harm.



I had a hard time getting the amaranth going here but finally, finally, finally, it did it.

I don't even know why I sowed amaranthus. I'll have volunteers coming up all over from previous years.

Well, I think that's lovely! I sowed Love-Lies-Bleeding because I am hoping it will look yummy next to a Dusty Miller I rescued....... somehow it seems that ought to be a pretty combo.

Glad to learn they'll self-sow! I do know the birds love the stuff. That's both good and bad because one of the resident cats is an inveterate hunter. Have to see how it goes.

I have three in the ground now, and these ones potted up as extra.

I planted out my very last jug today. This was wintersown but not in winter, haha -- three varieties of heat tolerant lettuce to replace the earlier lettuce that is almost done. I did one jug of each variety that I chose, and the third one got planted.

Now what will I do with myself?

I only planted six jugs this year, and only 4 of the 6 sprouted. I planted one earlier, and the last three planted today.

Karen

What were they, Karen?

I have maybe six or eight jugs that did nothing, or else the slugs got the sprouts before I saw anything. I should probably resow some of that, the cardinal climber I ought to be able to germinate for pity sake.

The good ones were snapdragons, rud hirta, corydalis sempervirens, and agastache golden jubilee. They were all seeds harvested from my own plants, and the snapdragons must have been 6 or 8 years old.

I had two failures. One was corydalis lutea and I forget what the other was. I dumped those 2 jugs into the compost bin a few days ago. They both had the green goo and looked like toxic waste dumps.

Karen

Ah, too bad! But I've not grown any of those so you're giving me ideas. Snapdragons, I should definitely do a jug of those. I like the mini ones. And corydalis is lovely!

Snapdragons sometimes winter over for me in warm years, and they reseed for me too. I hadn't sown any in several years.

Karen

Yes! Glad to hear they do that in your zone. I had some dwarf snapdragons in containers on a deck in coastal N.C. which became like little bonsai, the stems all woody and interesting, and bloomed again every year. I'd love to replicate that look, if ever I can. They were beautiful.

So, here is that heat tolerant lettuce that I wintersowed in April, LOL!

Two varieties here, Carioca and Muir:


And the third here (and in a second pot), Concept:


We'll see how they do! I was sad to see the end of the earlier lettuces; they were so good! I still have a little growing in a few containers but they won't last long now it's hot weather here.

Have you grown it before? Just wondering how heat tolerant it is.

Karen

Nope, this is an experiment. The seeds are all from Johnny's Select Seeds, who have a whole selection of heat tolerant lettuces. I'll keep you posted how they do. There are two pots in full sun, however, and I didn't put any shade over them, and so far they are taking the sun and liking it, nobody lying down and gasping for relief. So, that's a good sign!

Here's their group of what they term "heat tolerant" lettuces: http://www.johnnyseeds.com/sea...

Johnny's has a wonderful selection of all sorts of "greens" !!

And the catalogue has pictures so you can identify smaller seedlings.

Caroline, I didn't know that, or maybe never noticed it......

Here's my very last most recent wintersown jug, some Milkweed! I was given the seeds by a neighbor; the ones I sowed first didn't germinate but these did!


They're just about ready to plant.

Just a few short weeks left until school lets out for the summer...must get my w/s seedlings planted out soon!

The ones that were frost hardy and got planted out early seem to be just sitting there. They're probably spending their energy on rooting well right now, but it's a bit nerve-wracking to see an absence of top growth after two months of waiting. Then again, those are mostly gentianas, which are slow-growing here anyway.

I hate that just-sitting-there time!

Here's to bursting growth!