I have put aside any interior decorating, painting or renovation and my focus has shifted outdoors.  Its April and I have a lot to do in preparation for May’s flowers.

April is for starting seeds.  The solarium is already filling up.  We currently have 21 trays, each holding 24 little hot pepper plants grown from seed.   I’m sharing nursery space with my good neighbour Gary.   We have trays of Thai, Jalapeno, Hungarian cherry, Tepin, Congo Black, Scotch Bonnet, Marzetti, Jamaican Red Mushroom, Bhut Jolokia and some Yellow Cayenne peppers.  Its thrilling to watch these little sprouts poke their heads above the soil, and unfurl their tiny first leaves.  Gary and I have been thoroughly enjoying misting water on them and generally being attentive mothers.  It may still be cold outside but the sun warms this space and the temperature controlled windows keep it at a constant 70 – 75 degrees.  Its lovely in the solarium this time of the year.

In a few more weeks I will start my other seeds.    I have a variety of heirloom tomatoes:   Ludmilla”s Red Plum, Rose de Berne, San   Marzano and  Tegucigalpa.   I also have some herbs seeds ready to be started and several flower varieties: e.g. new expensive Zinnias called Whirlygig.       Tres expensive but promising to be exciting.

Outside the solarium I have a very large project on the go.   I want to pick up where I left off last spring and finish the front yard.   Last year I pulled out the overgrown shrubs.   I also enlarged and shaped a softer line in the front bed and planted new shrubs, some hosta and sedum plants.  I then ran out of steam.  I had a lot of other projects to attend to.

This spring I want to deal with the horrible constricting railway ties running along side the front walk and both sides of our driveway.   They are so unnatural.  They are so overgrown with grass.   I hate them.   My plan is to transplant their valuable perennial contents into another garden and then pull the ties out.   I want to eliminate these gardens completely and just have simple flowing lawn right up to the walkway.  All the garden action will be around the back where I prefer to hang out.

This is the way it looks right now.  Brace yourself the overgrown grass in these ugly beds is disturbing.

Before we can start this demolition I need to create a new garden to transplant the lovely lilies, Iris, and hosta that now live in the railway tie beds.  I plan to have the new space all ready to go; the hole dug and then move these plants over dry root.  I do not want to mistakenly transplant any of this unwanted grass to the new bed.

All winter I have been stewing over the location of these new gardens.  I want two long narrow beds in a place where I can see them from a distance.      They will mostly be filled with tall cutting flowers so they need lots of room and full sun. I have decided to create a sort of destination healing garden.  It will be located half way down my property and break up the openness of this space.

My Cosmos, Zinnias, Marigolds, Butternut Squash, Dill, Oregano, Sage and Cleome seeds will be planted directly into the new outdoor bed in mid May, and I will shortly start to transplant the front bed lilies and irises.

Yesterday Gary brought over his  rototiller and the new beds took form.

Tomorrow we are going over to the Highline Mushroom plant and buying two trailer loads of their wonderful compost.    It is all coming to fruition .