Why I Oughta...

Yesterday, I posted an update on the Flame Thrower coleus that is in a container (not-mixed) on our back stoop and provided a peek at something else planted (similarly in a container) next to it.  The red foliage of the coleus contrasted with the bright green of the neighbor.  The bright green (and yellow and orange - if you look closely) are from a Firesticks Cactus.  My Firesticks Cactus is now in "Year Seven".  Below, is a photo that shows the new growth that it has put on this Summer next to the Flame Thrower Coleus: Here's what it looked like when I first planted it in 2018 .  Tiny, and just green.   I moved this Firesticks outside more than a month ago.  It has spent the past 8 months in our basement, on a ledge near one of the windows.  When I introduced it outside, I started it in the full shade, underneath our raised planter box.  And, after a couple of weeks, moved it to part-sun.  Then, most-recently to the full sun loca...

Last year, I direct-sowed zinnia seeds into the cut flower bed in our sideyard and into the vertical tower on our patio.  And...it...well...worked.  We grew Zinnias.  But, this year I wanted to get them started a little bit earlier (not as early as I should have, though...) and decided to start some seeds indoors.   I showed the three varieties of seeds we bought this year - earlier this winter/spring;  Envy , State Fair and Cut and Come Again.    I had some eight-cell packs on-hand from annuals that I put out front, so I filled those with a potting mix and tucked seeds into each cell.   Pretty quickly, most of them germinated.   I kept the seedlings in the screened porch and they started to grow up and get taller.   In an attempt to keep them from getting too-leggy, I moved them outdoors as often as I could - weather-permitting.  Below is a photo showing the two trays out on the patio - where they live all day...

A couple weeks ago, I potted up a number of stored and newly purchased Dahlia tubers in one-gallon nursery pots .  All of the stored tubers (Melina Fleur Dahlias) from last year were stored over-winter in Saran Wrap in the garage and a few of them were already showing some growth/sprouts of new growth off the tubers.  That lead to some of them moving fast to show new foliage - above the soil - with new shoots of life.   See below for a few photos of the tubers growing new green growth.   After these put on a couple sets of leaves, I'll move them out of the basement and into the screened porch.  There, they'll get A LOT more light and a tiny bit of wind (when I open the windows) and can continue their growing process.  Once they put on another set of leaves out there, I'll begin to harden them off by putting them outside for an ever-increasing amount of time.   That means they'll be in the porch for 4-5 days, then begin to harden-off for ...