Six on Saturday – 26/03/2022 – Seeds etc

Gardening stuff is again happening both indoors and out this week. Seasonal temperatures mean spring bulbs continue to push through the thawing ground, and as we’re about eight weeks from our usual last frost date, indoor seed starting has begun in earnest.

Indoors, my last seed order arrived on Thursday – from Renee’s Garden in California. They were the only place I could find Cardinal Climber vine, and while I was perusing their catalogue I also decided to grow Jalapeno chilies for the first time, and try new varieties of sunflower and spinach. And, if you can see the featured photo, I was thrilled that the Shishito pepper seeds I saved from last year’s plants germinated!!

Outside, more bulbs, as mentioned, are showing, and growth is showing in some of the perennials.

Some of the earlier daffodils are well on their way…

…as are the Hyacinths.

Sedum spectabile (now known as Hylotelephium spectabile) has started to send up new growth – I’ll be needing to cut back the old stems within a few weeks, before the new ones get too tall.

Rhubarb has also emerged…I’m already thinking about cookies and pies and scones…

Finally, I’ve mentioned before the unusual things rabbits seem to have been chomping away at this past winter (Yucca, rose canes, Allium shoots…) – they haven’t stopped their weird ways, despite having fields of greenish grass available now. This week I’ve noticed they’ve been going hungrily at a sage bush, Contoneaster branches, a small Juniper, the tips of a Rose of Sharon. All this is one specific area of the garden, so I wonder if it is indeed rabbits (there’s plenty of rabbit pellets in the area to support that theory) or something else…I need one of those night vision motion cameras I think… They also love another Allium – sphaerocephalon – the drumstick Allium. Here’s the evidence:

Anyway, that’s it for me. Hope everyone has a great weekend, and, if you’d like some early spring inspiration from other gardeners around the world – take a look at all the links in The Propagator’s site for more Six on Saturdays.