2020 Garden Update: February 10

We've had wet, warm weather much of the last week here in North Alabama, which means lots of plants are sprouting and growing outdoors. With a cold snap moving in this week, I'm hopeful that my sheltered backyard will be protected from the worst of any frost, but the only seeds already planted there (green peas and lettuces) are cold hardy, anyway. Still, there has been plenty to do whenever the sun comes out!

My indoor seeds are doing well, with the Purple Bumblebee tomatoes germinating really nicely in spite of being seeds left over from last year. The sunflower and cucumber seeds are also sprouting robustly. Hopefully the few stragglers will make an appearance soon. The zucchini, the Purple Russian tomatoes, and the straightneck yellow squash are the only seeds not to show any signs of life yet, and all of those are also leftovers from last year.

Outdoors we are slowly bringing in garden soil for the raised beds (always a big expense and a lot of work when you have to start from scratch!). We went back to the old house and divided some of the daylilies and irises already growing there and transplanted some babies to the front yard beds at the new house. There will be plenty growing for the new owners at the old place, but now they won't have to be divided as soon over there. Hopefully our transplants will spread and grow as well as they had in the old garden! If the cold snaps should kill any of our transplants it will be OK because we can replace them later.

The daffodils are coming along in the front and back beds, and we have our first flowers now, which is very exciting. I'm already wishing we had planted more bulbs back in the fall! This coming fall I will have a better sense of the new garden spaces and what I want them to include and look like through each season, but I expect to have 15-20 years with this garden to make it everything it can be.

While I'm at it, here's a reminder to novice gardeners not to plant mint in open areas or large beds. It will take over! The previous owner planted mint in the front beds, and I have been pulling it up nonstop ever since we moved in. I love mint, but I always grow it in a container because it's so opportunistic. Put your mint in a nice big pot and let it poke along through the winter. It is really hard to kill!

That's the garden update for February 10, 2020. I'll post a report on the progress again next week!