Weeks 16-17: April 13-26, 2025
In the latest newsletter I mentioned that 2025 has been an “interesting” one so far. Here’s an excerpt from the newsletter:
“Last week was particularly eventful. In the midst of losing power in the wind storm (and having to hire a private company to restore power), relocating thousands of seedlings due to said power loss, and losing our back-up generator, I topped it all off by spraining my ankle. I’ve been told by several healthcare professionals that I would have been better off breaking my ankle. Having never experienced an injury like this I had no idea that, recovery wise, sprains are actually worse than breaks. Who knew?
On the bright side, I am feeling better than I was last week. I’ve already been to the physiotherapist, the swelling has reduced considerably and I’m able to get around without too much difficulty. I have help with the tasks I shouldn’t be doing right now, and I’m finding a good balance between rest and staying on track with tasks.”
Fast forward almost two weeks and…we’re moving on. Brighter days ahead, surely. The tulips and daffodils are coming up quickly with the recent rain, and we’ve since hooked up the water which means no more carrying heavy watering cans from the house to the greenhouse several times per week. Hurray! Hauling water to and from the greenhouse rates high up on my list of least favourite things to do (right after picking rocks, of which we’ve picked “a few” here at Rocky Acres.”).
Luckily there wasn’t a lot of seed starting scheduled during the power outage. I did sow the first round of zinnia seeds: Oklahoma salmon & pink, as well as one of my favourites, Queen Red-Lime zinnia. The rest of the season’s zinnias will be direct sown. Admittedly, in years past direct sowing a flower I depended on for subscriptions made me nervous, but last year I decided to put more faith in the process and I was greatly rewarded. About two weeks before the ‘White Lite’ sunflowers were ready for harvest I direct-sowed ‘Oklahoma’ Carmine zinnia in between the rows. This worked beautifully. The seeds had plenty of warmth for germination and bright but filtered light for growing up. (Sometimes direct sown plants can get easily burnt, but the canopy from the sunflower leaves provided just the right amount of light early on.) This particular variety was ready for cutting in early September, and was one of the last plants standing when the first frost arrived in October. My direct-sown ‘Wine’ zinnias also did beautifully in our lower garden.
Other tasks completed in Weeks 16-17 included:
Last succession of strawflower (white, apricot-peach, cranberry rose)
More ammobium sown (mostly for dried purposes)
Phlox/salpiglossis seeds sown (one 128-cell tray, 50/50. Both varieties require darkness to germinate so I like to save some space and sow these together.)
Fertilized ranunculus
Five crates of Roselilies planted (20 per crate)
‘Sweet Neon’ purple/white dianthus planted out
‘White Lite’ sunflowers planted out for late June bouquets. (Yes, sunflowers can be transplanted out weeks before the last frost! I cover ours every night with 6 mil for a couple of weeks, and on the nights the temperature drops to near freezing (or below) I add an extra layer of Agribon frost cloth, just for added protection.)
More Eucalyptus and Lavender potted up, thanks to my amazing mother-in-law, who came to visit and help. (If you’re reading this - thank you Babi!)
All perennial beds cleaned up (courtesy of my MIL!)💕
So, despite the injury there was still plenty to do around here. It’s easy to forget that I have to take it easy when I’m wearing an air cast, because I don’t feel any pain. (I’m learning the body does protest, eventually!) Looking on the bright side, at least the injury didn’t happen in the middle of “tulip season.” I’ll have some time to rest and recover before the tulips start to pop, which I think is about a week out for the first varieties.
See you next week.
~ Liisa