Cheerful Gloves....Dreary Weather

We made a trip to our nearest shopping city last Saturday and when we were at Costco, I spotted these garden gloves....which immediately jumped into our cart. :-)




Aren't they beautiful? Such bright and cheerful colors and designs, in an attractive package ....and five pairs for only $16.99!





I photographed the back of the package, for you lady gardeners, so you can read the details about each pair. (Click on the photo to enlarge) There are gloves here for every need! From left to right: Goatskin Leather/Spandex, Leather Palm, Nitrile Coated Knit, Latex Coated Knit, and Dotted Jersey. Yes, these were a good value, and cheerful indeed.

The weather, on the other hand, has been wet and dreary.....looks like I will need to be using those waterproof latex coated gloves above. Here you can see the low hanging clouds, and to the left of the greenhouse, my winter sown containers, of which about 2/3 are up and growing. I am just beginning to use the greenhouse for seed starting and growing on. I checked the ten day forecast yesterday and this is what it said:

1. Cloudy
2. Rain/Snow
3. Cloudy
4. Mostly Cloudy
5. Mostly Cloudy
6. Cloudy
7. Rain
8. Dreary - (sigh)
9. Rain,
10. Cloudy




So....I will be hoping those mostly cloudy days will be partly sunny. And that it will dry out enough to plant out my new flowers. I decided I didn't have enough early flowers for my color starved eyes, so I bought crocuses, primulas, and pansies. These should brighten things up until the sun decides to shine again. :-)

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Your garden gloves take a beating when you're working in the yard. Sticky mud, grass stains, tree sap and other messy job residue cling to gloves, shortening their working lives and ruining their appearance. Here's an easy way to clean them: (except for leather gloves, of course)

Step 1

Leave the gloves on your hands after you finish working in the yard.

Step 2

Wash your gloved hands with soap and water.

Step 3

Rinse well with fresh water

Step 4

Remove the gloves from your hands.

Step 5

Lay them out flat on top of a water heater or other heat-producing appliance to dry.

View from an Upstairs Window

David Perry of A Photographers Garden Blog recently issued a fun assignment....to take a photo from the window of one of the rooms of your house. The view below shows a portion of my garden, as seen from the window of an upstairs bedroom.

I like the slant of the winter sun filtering through the Pines, and the way it lights the greenhouse. Upon closer inspection of the photo, it made me wish I had put away the pots from my container plants last fall. Come to think of it, the greenhouse could use a good cleaning, too....as it won't be long now, before it will be in use again. Now that is something to smile about. :-)

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"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. "

Albert Camus

Project Winter Sow 2008

This is my second year of winter sowing....and I'm afraid I'm hooked! What a great way to get LOTS of plants, for not a lot of money. Especially since many of my seeds come from trades. I love trading seeds on Gardenweb.....but that will have to be another post. :-)


You can see my winter sowing containers lined up here on one of my raised garden beds, which is covered with a mulch of leaves. Last year I kept my winter sown containers behind the house on my picnic table, but this seems a more practical setup. It is closer to water and to the greenhouse where I work most days in the spring, enabling me to keep a closer eye on the containers in case they need venting or watering. Since I took this photo last week, I have added several more jugs, bringing this years count to 64. Last year I had 80+, and had so many plants I had to give them away to friends and neighbors! I planted fewer seeds in each container this time around....now that I have faith this method does work and those seeds will sprout. Another thing I did differently this year was to note the height of each plant on the marker I include in each container, as well as whether the plant likes sun/shade, etc. This saves me time when planting out...especially for those new seed varieties I try each year.




Besides the one gallon milk jugs I use for winter sowing, I use a lot of these clear plastic containers that we buy Organic Mixed Greens in, from Costco. I put vents in the lids and they work very well. I use these a lot for poppies, larkspur, bachelor buttons, calendulas and other favorite hardy annuals, which I sow in quantity. (The sowing surface area in these is roughly double that of the gallon milk jugs). Shown above is 2 of the lettuces I sowed and set out on Feb. 12th. They were up and growing by Feb. 22....some of the first to sprout!




A close up of little lettuce plants....this variety is Italienischer, from seeds shared by my friend Catherine last year. (Thanks, Cat!) It grows huge, to 18 inches and is great tasting. The other variety is an old favorite, Green Ice which I grow for it's tenderness and sweetness. These will be soon transplanted to the garden to grow on.

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If you haven't tried Winter sowing and would like more information:

www.wintersown.org