Good morning and welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging!
The Equinox has passed and we are at the official start of spring here in the Northern Hemisphere. The rapidly changing world we are living in continues it’s annual shift in seasons as the small blue marble we call home continues to revolve around our Sun.
With so much of our everyday “normal” changing around us I need to get my hands in the dirt and smell the warm earth waking up. There is a slight change to the smell of the evening air that I can’t quite describe but my sense memory perks up and I really do “feel” that it is now spring.
It is a faint loamy scent that smells damp like when it first starts to rain. Petrichor. I think that is the term for that fresh new rain smell. It’s that but tinged with the icy clean smell of snow melting.
The ground is warming up deep below my feet and flowering trees are opening their buds in an exhalation of relief reminding me that the world has not stopped turning.
Garden planning continues if not even more prioritized now. I’ve dumped out all the containers that still had old soil and am currently waiting on a bag of Sphagnum Peat Moss and then I plan to get some perlite and vermiculite to add in. I’m following the basic recipe from this blog that I follow:
Garden Betty
Make the Best 3-Ingredient Seed Starting Mix
She has one for seed-starting as well as a general potting mix which is the one I’m using as a basis:
Basic Potting Mix Recipe
My idea is to just add this to the existing old soil to refresh it.
Now, last week I remember thinking about garden gloves as there was a conversation in the comment thread and folks were asking for recommendations. I got some great gardening gloves based on a recommendation from a website called Wirecutter. It’s like the Consumer Reports for household stuff. For just general gardening the gloves I use these:
Atlas Nitrile Garden Gloves
Obviously these are not for heavy pruning type stuff. I do have a pair of welder’s gloves that I use for grilling that would also be good for that if needed. I’ve got a small trowel and a neat claw tool for breaking up soil clumps. Of course a good source of water; in my case we are lucky to have a faucet for a hose and a good rubber Craftsman hose. (I think we bought it at the local Sears when they still had a decent home & garden section.) I also have a wand attachment and a high pressure attachment.
Oh, and I need to get my hummingbird feeder filled and figure out where to hang it! Then I have one of those hanging copper mesh baskets that you see in kitchens all the time and I’ve been thinking about getting some coir liners and using that for lettuces or herbs. I also have a big plastic pasta colander that was superfluous so I’ve been thinking about what I could put in that. Repurposing!
Ah, it feels good to talk and think about gardening and spring and then summer! We all need this right now.
What’s going on in your neck of the woods? I’ll be in shortly with a nice hot cup of coffee to read and chat with y’all. Meanwhile, feel free to grab a cup and relax!