I’m usually pretty good with To Do lists as long as I have some sort of deadline. When I’m on the ball, simply putting “Friday” as the cut-off works. When I’ve been rather out of it, as I have lately, I need something more poignant. I had a one-week To Do list I wanted completed before our trip to Portland. I threw in some things that were very easy to accomplish just so that on rough days, I would have something to cross off. I also threw in some doozies just to see if any would get done. As of tonight, only two things are left and one was the biggest doozie of them all. I doubt that one, recaulking and sealing the kitchen sink so that it can cure by the time we get back, will not be completed, but I’m okay with it. I got ALL of the others done (once I drop some things into the mail).

A couple of wrenches were thrown into the weekend plan. The biggest and hardest for me is that the dogs will not be coming back from “summer camp” aka the kennel until Tuesday instead of Monday. Apparently not enough people would be picking up their dogs on Memorial Day, so ours have to stay one more night. It kicks me in the gut just thinking about it.

Otherwise, we just have to pack and we’re all set. If it doesn’t rain tomorrow, I will water everything not on a sprinkler one more time. By the time we get back it should be good gardening weather. Maybe I can kick butt on garden projects that are easier to do when I don’t have two schnauzer supervisors inspecting everything I’m working on…very closely…as I’m working on them.

Hi Gardening Michelle 2011,

It’s me again, GM 2010. I’m writing to remind you of a few more things to make gardening easier and hopefully more successful.

You’ve got enough iced mocha cups now, both with and without holes on the bottom. Remember to put the ones with holes into the ones without holes, but make sure the ones without holes have a little water in them. This will let you water from the bottom, which is better for the roots and will also reduce the frequency you need to water. Plus, if you use fish fertilizer, the top cup will block most of the smell and your house won’t smell like a pond. Just make the holes a little bigger because I’m not sure the water is getting soaked up as regularly as it should.

The plastic salad bins worked great as a greenhouse for the eggplants, consider getting at least one carnivorous plants for the gnats that may appear again (name it Audrey III), get the italian veggie seeds at Rail City and remember to start only half of your flower seeds indoors. Start the rest of the flower seeds outside, once you know what the seedlings look like. That way, you’re not pulling up poppy seedlings because they look like dandelions.

Oh! Before I forget, your lilac is going to look all fallen over as it did this year for the first time. Either remember to prune or trellis it somehow, because it looks like crap.

Smooches, GM 2010

Today was the long-awaited plant swap. Unfortunately, one of the other ladies didn’t show up so it was just the hostess, Shannon (who I brought along) and myself. The hostess, Kris, and her husband Bobby were very nice. Unfortunately, the only downside was that I didn’t get any plants out of it. Kris had prepared goodie baskets for the two people who were posting on the forum that the swap was first suggested on. Shannon’s seedlings were too few to share since she is starting her first garden, so I told her she was more than welcome to offer some of mine since I brought a ton. Came home with maybe half or a little less.

After running errands with Ralph, I consolidated what was left in the living room and was able to fit them all on window sills. The card table was put away and the plant holder is now back on the porch. I fed the compost bin, tried seeing if I could root some cuttings from the winterberry bush and started cleaning up some of the nursery pots to store away for next year. I’ve learned so much this season that I’m already looking forward to next season.

That’s right, snowed. So needless to say I’m not outside in the yard. I did give the seedlings indoors a bit of fish fertilizer because some of my eggplants were getting yellow leaves. I ended up pulling out a handful of seedlings that looked too beat up to even bother with. I figure that, since I have packets of seeds, I could pick out the ones that I had extra seeds for.

Of the two tomatoes I started (black zebra and Tula black seaman [no joke, that’s the name]), the zebra started slower but is now looking more developed than the Tula.

Ralph has decided to only use one of the Topsy Turveys this year for his Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, so I may use the Topsy Tree for some of my seedlings. I also have a pot that a now-dead indoor tree used to inhabit. I will probably fill it up with sugar snap peas. In previous years I would only plant like 6 sugar snap peas because the plant quantity seemed like a good amount, but the average harvest was usually only enough to use as garnish (5-6 pods per plate). In one of the garden beds, I’ve planted 10-15 sugar snap peas, but this will allow me another set to harvest and to move in the shade if needs be. Plus, if it has a decent yield, I can always take out what’s in the bed for other plants.

After the fish fertilizing and seedling thinning, I think I have some better ways of starting seedlings for next year if I have to do it indoors. I feel like I’m blabbing.

I spent just enough time outside to water things. My Disney rose bush is looking pretty bad. I’m already determined to go buy another one, but I will wait and see what happens this week. 3-4 more tulips bloomed. I thought these were in an area I only planted friteralia in but I could be wrong since these are solid.

I didn’t realize the plant swap was so soon. I thought I had at least another 2 weeks. I’m not sure my offerings are looking too healthy right now. Might post that on the forum and see if others are suffering the same fate. We’re all in the same area, so there is a chance that it’s not just me having a black thumb. I’ll make sure everything is well-watered and then bring them all out in the sun tomorrow. It just feels like a bad gardening day.

A blue jay decided to build a nest above one of our back patio lights; the one closest to the grill. Between a metal patio roof, light fixture and grill, I’m worried that the eggs will cook rather than incubate. Ralph thinks we should move it before eggs appear and the bird get territorial.

Onions look like they are getting stronger after an iffy transplant. Not all of them, mind you, but a decent amount for my first try.

I mulched the Disney rose bush because it’s looking pretty bad. I hope, hope, hope it survives. If it dies, I’m going back for another. I absolutely love the blooms.

I think I figured out what is happening to my blackberry lilies. Either doves or quail are doing their butt-imprints and snacking on them…including the ones I just planted. If any are left, I’ll be very surprised. Two of my 5 dahlias have fallen over. I’m half tempted to think that the doves or quails had a hand in that as well because it looked like somethings tried to uproot my tulips, too. Might it be raccoons?

Had to replant some things for the swap. Since I hate the wind, I didn’t go out and peek at the seedlings I left outside to harden off and they dried out.

Other than that, I’m at a point where I just want to see if what I have and what I’ve planted are going to get to a good start from here on out. This is the last night in the next ten days at least where the night will be in the 30s. The lows are projects to stay in the 40s for most of the week with low 50s showing up by next weekend. *crosses fingers*

So, as I’ve said, I’ve been creatively burnt out for at least 3 years. All my quick/local efforts to rectify this don’t seem to help as much as I hope. That’s why I’m looking forward to Portland like someone with a bursting bladder panically runs to the bathroom; relief and knowing that everything will be alright if I can just make it there.

That being said, I’m finding that I’m losing my patience with clients where I normally wouldn’t. I would never let them see that, but when I’m alone I do sit and grumble, rail against indignities and claim to cut them off after the current project is completed. But, as I soothe myself with the thought of “it’s almost Portland time!”, I wonder if it’s just me and my burnt-out state. Granted, there are one or two clients that I know I’m getting my chain yanked by, but what about the rest?

Am I literally at a serious breaking point? Can it be fixed, healed or mended whether or not I actually reach that point? Do I let the dam break in a non-client environment and just see what comes out of the wreckage? I’m trying so hard to not let the seams burst, but what if bursting in a “controlled environment” will do me more good than trying to keep it all together? Does it sound stupid to just have a good cry right before the trip so that I let it all out and go on the trip with a clean frame of mind?

This all sounds so silly, high school and trite when I say or write it, but I know what I’m feeling does not feel right. I’d rather try all the possible options rather than just let it eat at me until I lose all love and passion for creative work. I never want to lose the high I feel when I’m doing something creative. I do want to lose the guilt I feel when I see all my art supplies or see the portfolios and projects of others.

It’s worth fighting for, and if fighting means allowing myself to crash & burn, break and/or bawl uncontrollably like a baby so that I can bring myself back up, I’ll do it. It scares the hell out of me, but I will. 22 days until Portland.

Dear Michelle 2011,
Has 2010 taught you anything? I hope so. For instance, I hope the first seeds you sow are your cool-season crops on or around St. Patty’s Day, as is the tradition in Reno. If you order seeds online, I hope you remember to give them to Ralph when they arrive so that he can hide them from you until Tax Day. You hear that? TAX DAY.

If you forget and you sow early, you totally deserve the crowded areas around your windows, the gnats you detest so much that you forewent indoor plants for so long to avoid, the sad-looking seedlings that look like they won’t make it, the pain of hardening off too many plants that you didn’t winter sow (in and out, in and out, in and out), the realization that your Spring Cleaning efforts are almost all for naught after one weekend of said hardening off, the legginess of more than half of your seedlings because you don’t have a grow light.

Isn’t that what you should be doing right now, instead of fussing over seedlings? Spring Cleaning, finishing up any indoor projects before the warm, non-windy weather beckons you like a siren and doing more of the personal art projects I hope you accomplished in 2010. On nice early Spring days, did you spend the time to amend your clay soil in the front yard? The soil that make planting any new plants or seeds a pain in the ass? Have you at least mulched?!?!?!?

Please remember that late April through most of May is windy, and you hate the wind, don’t you? You’ll neglect things outside on the really windy days and realize that you may have to redo a lot of what you have already accomplished because you started too soon.

If you’ve found a way to create a hoop house, cold frame, cold tunnel or other contraption to lengthen your growing season, do not forget to only start with seeds you know you can replace/resow if they don’t make it your first year using your newfangled thingamajig.

DO remember that you liked using iced mocha cups for starting eggplants and tomatoes and that baggies over red plastic cups (for Sugar Baby watermelon, lemon cucumbers and zucchini) will only work if, as soon as the plant is big enough to not fit in the baggie, it should be near planting-out time. Beans grow fast and do not need to be started indoors.

Remember to try wintersown gardening. If you forget your reasons, look at token’s blog for 2010. He had hundreds of plants that were hardy and good-sized to work with.

Exercise patience, don’t use the generic Ace soil in the white bag and remember to order & use the nifty spray you found that reduced the clay-i-ness of your soil.

Best wishes,
Michelle 2010

I planted the Disney rose bush and two bishop’s weed. We’ll see if I regret the bishop’s weed in the coming years. It can be invasive but is such a nice-looking ground cover that I hope I won’t. That’s the hard part about ground covers, finding one that will spread a decent enough area that you don’t have to buy a million plants. Maybe that’s why I like my lamium so much. It grows about 18″ wide and then stays that size. If you cut some out to transplant, it fills back in. Of course, it’s a gorgeous ground cover, too. One of my lamb’s ears is not looking so hot so I moved an urn-shaped planter that was next to it in case it just wasn’t getting enough sun.

I wish I had more to report on the veggie gardening. At least I’m down to just one window (with a card table) of seedlings still indoors. I left a good portion of Plant Swap seeds and seedlings outside. Figured I can start the hardening off process for the future owners.

I still need to plant my pieris. I hope to do that this weekend, if not sooner, so that the plant doesn’t die in the pot. Each year, there seems to be one plant that suffers that fatality. Watered everything and it looks like half of the dianthus and poppies that were put in ground might make it. Keep your fingers crossed because tonight it’s supposed to be cold.

Had a date with Cody last night. We went to dinner and then watched “How To Train A Dragon” in 3D. He’d already seen it before but was more than happy to see it again with me since we’re both dragon lovers. It was a cute movie. Afterward, I stopped by the grocery store on the way home to pick up ingredients for tonight’s dinner (I’d promised Ralph meatloaf on Thursday and, due to a meeting running longer than expected, didn’t have time to make it). Having a date with Cody, shopping in an empty grocery store and driving home at night all hit me with a wave of nostalgia. Of a time when I would spend a lot of time out of the house to avoid my mother, or, when I was living on my own, living without so many obligations that I could just roam a grocery store at night. Of course, coming home I still had to work on jobs for clients and the normal day-to-day stuff, but the feeling didn’t leave me for the rest of the night. I don’t long for those single-life days, but I do miss a lot of who I was back then. A more creative, freer spirit. That’s what I’m trying to recapture again. I need to let a lot of the mundane things not weigh so heavily on my shoulders. I don’t know why or when I let things weigh on me so much, especially the little things.