Reading my blog title, some of you will probably be thinking that I am going to blog about all things related to romance and the upcoming Valentine's day. Mentioning that I am "in the mood" might even have some of you pondering a breathless whisper of those words in the ear of someone special. But most of you who really know me will know that I am most likely talking about.....gardening. Yep I am in the mood to plant stuff.
Even though it's still winter, you would think spring had sprung early here in the cornfields of Nebraska as I carefully lay out all the garden catalogs on the kitchen table, pages ear-marked, items circles, and an ever growing list filling a small note pad.
I blame the weather, I blame the seed companies with their slick glossy magazine covers, and I blame myself for a weakness for playing in the dirt and seeing something pretty in bloom. My biggest arising dilemma is the fact that I want too much. Seeing the pics, reading the descriptions has me itching to plant stuff I have never planted before or even ever considered planting before....
Case in point....Sweet peas.
Growing sweet peas in the midwest is a foolish notion. We can go from spring to summer in just a matter of days. Growing just regular garden peas can be daunting. They whither and dry up quickly in the heat and humidity, and the thoughts of even entertaining the idea of growing sweet peas promises a very, very short bloom period....and that is IF I get them started early indoors. But I still cling to the notion of trying to grow sweet peas this year,.... until the next catalog item catches my interest.
Brugmansia....Ooooh pretty...I want one in every color, I want a whole row, I want trellises of the cascading trumpet blooms. Never tried growing it before, but it's caught my eye and I want it, til I read bugs love it, and my interest wanes a bit til seeing the next glossy pic in the garden catalogs.
It's a sickness... and the seed companies know it, and they keep feeding the addiction with the color enhanced photos of flowers that I want, have to grow that never do quite look as brightly intense in my own garden. But it doesn't stop me, it just seems to drive me more.
This past week, I actually found myself annoyed while out shopping....Where is the garden seed? Why isn't the garden seed on the shelves? Don't they know gardeners have to start seed early in doors with lots of stuff. I was disappointed, I was peeved, no garden seed.
So I came home and looked at the catalogs again. Goodness knows I will have to order seed now, I need seeds to start indoors for stuff, never mind the fact that by the time I place an order and it gets shipped the seeds will most likely be stocked on the local shelves by then. ....I keep repeating that mantra to myself....just wait....it will come...But it's been hard, all this waiting.
I pick up a new catalog and spy more stuff in the meanwhile....Ooooh siberian iris... I have to try siberian iris, and I might as well get it in a couple of colors. Just a couple I tell myself, and then I have to force myself to just walk away from the catalogs. Yesterday didn't help when our temps hit near 60 degrees and I was tearing the garage apart to find the sprayer to spray fruit trees... I never did come across the sprayer but I did find the dormant oil. Wouldn't you know the temps have plummeted again with promises of rain or snow in the forecast this next week.
So I thought to myself, I won't order anything just yet....(well except for two new trees ordered last week)...I will get some feedback from the rest of you....who do you order from? Which catalogs? What are you going to grow if anything? I will admit that I have been lurking around a bit on Dave's garden site, particularly at The Garden Watchdog with it's assessment and imput from others on the different catalog companies.
One thing I do plan on trying this year is heirloom tomatoes, or just some different tomatoes that I usuallly pick up. No more better boys, beef masters, celebrity, romas....I want to try something different. So of course I have been closely peering over the Totally Tomatoes catalog for varieties and it's a bit overwhelming. So far I am leaning towards Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter (Mopsy's fault for blogging on them last year) and maybe an Italian plum tomato.
(Sigh)...it's overwhelming and addicting, and a bit of daydreaming of warm temps, bright flowers, and just having something green growing outside my window.
I spot another item and I tend to go a little glassy-eyed....Ooooh peppers! Not just ordinary green peppers either...I should try new peppers too...... anyone ever grown pimento peppers?...
Yeah, I am definitely in the mood....
Hey! I grow mold...
ReplyDeleteJust so long as it isn't growing on you Suzi (wink) lol...
ReplyDeleteLuv luv luv this blog, Vic! After I read it about ten more times, I will comment. LOL
ReplyDeleteWell with the extra land & garden area, we want he youth from church to plant a garden for the local food pantry......we would supply the seeds, water etc, all the youth would have to do it the weeding & watering . I was thinking potatoes onions, watermelon, zucchini, butternut squashes and tomatoes. After they were finished we would have a BBQ and they could go swimming......All we need is someone to take charge of it.
ReplyDeleteI just came in from a couple of hours work in my veggie garden. I leave clean-up til early spring, so I just pulled and cleaned all my tomato stakes and bean poles, took down two bluebird houses and cleaned them and raked up quite a pile of leaves and dead weeds. Whew now I am ready to surf a bit.
ReplyDeleteI'll have you know I have a fine crop of mold...I'm quite proud of it...
ReplyDeleteA gardeners head's-up...if you leave a bag of lettuce in the back of the fridge hiding behind a gallon of tea, it liquefies....
I grew a bunion once.
ReplyDeleteLMBO @ Zeebz!
ReplyDeletePsssttt...Zee, we need to behave, I think this is meant to be a serious blog...
ReplyDeleteOH !! OK....lets take our bat and ball and go play outside Suzi. ( Or vero and Vic will spank us)
ReplyDeleteWonderful blog. Do you grow Conelfowers? Black-eyed Susans? Wish I could send you some seeds.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Vic, I think this blog could be published in a gardening magazine. *smile*
ReplyDeleteYour a trouble making rub it inner.
ReplyDeleteWonders to whom Mac is speaking.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun thing to do on a winter's day. We're having a warm spell and it makes me want to see flowers in the yard and in the pots on the patio. Come spring, I'll ask you how your garden grows!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the blog and good luck on the garden ;o)
ReplyDeletewell i thinks we all in da mood - lol kissen and huggin be ok too though - but first think I thought of seein u ppic and title - was chocolate came to my mind rofl
ReplyDeletemmmmmmm chocolate covered peppers mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
ReplyDeleteGood job you do not get to watch the shopping channels with SL. QVC have been running their garden programme, which is very good, twice a week for some weeks now. Loads of plants to tempt you which are mostly grown on Guernsey in the Channel Islands, it enjoys a much milder climate than we do. Our garden is still covered in snow so my thoughts haven't even wandered in that direction.
ReplyDeleteI'm talking to Viccles with all this seed catalog talk and wanting to get the dirt under the finger nails talk, lol.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that every day I get a different catalog. I think it's a master plan of slow torture. I think the seed companies and the stores are all in cahoots with one another.
I bought so much stuff online from one certain seed company last year. Paid the shipping expenses. When the weather warmed up the Home Depot had the same items from the same seed supplier and charged about 20% less than what I had paid and no shipping. Grrrrr. I won't mention the name Burpee.
Excuse you then Mac......LOL
ReplyDeleteOMG - you're already getting all set up for gardening - (fans myself) -
ReplyDeleteI planted tulips last fall and boy oh boy am I ever keeping my fingers crossed they come up before those wild wiley rabbits come and eat them all.
My vegie garden drowned last year, I may have to move it this year and start all over again. No pimentos but I love green, red and yellow peppers.
Great post Vic, I'll check in now and then and see if I can get some helpful hints from you along the way.
Yes I Have both,..... in one of the catalogs I have been looking over they have a cherry red rudbeckia (black-eyed susan)...and of course I am tempted to get it,lol
ReplyDeleteCan't believe you are thinking about Spring and gardening, when Winter is still with us.
ReplyDeleteMy green thumb lives next door. I ply him with cookies and in turn I get fresh tomato's every summer. Last summer I ate BLT's for a week straight and never tired of them. I am stocking up on mayo, as he says he will have a bumper crop if all goes well this year.
ReplyDeleteI love the smell of fresh soil and when I water my house plants I sit on the floor beside them and just inhale the smell of the soil. My cat is right beside me and we purr for the rest of the day.
I save seed (mainly veggie seed) from one year to the next so I can get that early start :) and our local animal feed store already has seeds for us early starters. I hope you try those 'mortgage lifters' they were the best variety I have grown here and they canned really good. With the economy as it is and although I complained at the time... I am so glad that I learnt how to 'can'!
ReplyDeleteI think I have grown about every tomato that exists and for all-around performance, my choice is Park's Whoppers... developed by Park's Seed Company. It is reliable... blight free... indeterminate... has loads of tomatoes on each plant... and seems to do well in any weather with very little fuss.
ReplyDeleteSome of the others might taste a bit better but have other characteristics that make them harder to harvest consistently.
Park's copright has expired now so you can find them on the open market (I buy the seed from them and grow my own)
hey Vic,i have grown pimento and other peppers,they are the easiest thing in the world to grow ,so give it a try and Mopsy,im glad to hear someone else believes in canning,yes i complain sometimes too but its well worth the effort,i live in SW GA and we dont usually have snow but i usually put seed in the ground on march 1st every yr and always feel like i should plant sooner but im afraid of losing them if i do,i try to plant early so the hummingbirds will have flowers as well as sugar water lol,zinnias are my favorite flowers to grow because they are so easy and beautiful and i think they will grow anywhere under any conditions,i also love poppies,but the blooms only last a day sometimes,anyway there gorgeous ,i love all kinds of bulb plants too,right now its daffodills and hyacinths and paperwhites,which are great because they come back yr after yr and mulitply like crazy,well you all enjoy ps we planted potatos for the 1st time last yr and now im addicted,i will try to grow them every yr till i die haha because you havent lived till you taste a fresh potato right out of the dirt love yall and happy gardening deb
ReplyDeleteWritten like A TRUE GARDEN ADDICT Vic! LOL! Hey...the sweetpeas are noooo problem! The weather here is quite like there....Plant the seeeds...EARLY...like 2nd week of April. I put mine in corners in the veggie garden..couse there's tons of loom in there too. Then I plant beets, lettuce, spinach...alll early stuff. Later when that's spent, I pull that out, and the sweet peas are stickin' their heads thru, and I plant something else...by end of July and on...the sweet peas have climbed up the fencing, and are cascading over the top of the fencing, and they are "ever soooooo" fragarent!!
ReplyDeleteVic, I gotta trumpet vine, the bugs don't bug it at all...Cept, every couple of years it dies down, and sprouts again, which is fustratin as #@!$...the thing should be a monster right now for as long as I've had it...I planted that by a telephone pole in the yard...Those catalogs sure do get yah thinking spring!!
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm....can't cha just smell it!!
ReplyDeletehey Morgan i plant beets and lettuce too,i tried spinach one time but i think i waited till it was too hot for that,and i love the sweet peas too,my trumpets die back every yr too,oh well yall enjoy,we love to play in the dirt too see ya
ReplyDeleteWonders what peppers would taste like with a chocolate fondue?
ReplyDeletehere we go with the chocolate addicts again lol
ReplyDeleteno spinach here since i been growin swiss chard it grows heck of a lot bigger and regrows after u pick it - it taste better too - my fav is swiss chard /or spinach scrabbled eggs and liver with bacon mmmmmm now dats good eats
ReplyDeletei tried swiss chard one time,didnt do well,like my spinach,i think i was outa season ,we got turnips,mustards and rutabagas and sugar cane ,gotta have my greens,anyway u make that swiss chard sound so good i gotta try it again lol see ya deb
ReplyDeleteHey Yar, (nudge) this is a liver-free blog page,lol....(blech!)
ReplyDeleteVic, you have to post a sign, no liver and no spinach!!! Well, no canned spinach anyway.
ReplyDeleteI'm also in the mood to plant but am doing it with tree's. This town needs all the tree's they can get planted after that ice storm last year. I got 14 on order now but no they aren't all going to be planted in my yard...I'm sharing with my daughter.
ReplyDeleteyou do know that if you wait long enough, you could get transplants instead of seeds
ReplyDeleteI'm still waiting for my sweet peas to flower I planted them late and have never grown them before so I hope they do flower. The days are closing in here, its autumn or Fall 1st march so not long to go and it will be your spring. No wonder you have the mood developing..........cheers
ReplyDeleteI don't have a green thumb everything dies,but i'm going to get me a hanging plant& see how that does Do i keep them inside or should i keep them inside?
ReplyDelete