Rainy day.

Lovely fragrant Stock

 

It is a rainy day. This is good for the plants. I read yesterday that cucumbers don't like the cold. That explains why my once-healthy cucumber seeds I raised indoors have currently shriveled up or snapped in half. I am learning so much.

The apple tree overnight is bursting with pretty pink blossoms. I enjoy learning about the seasons, and attributing age-old symbols to life around me, like fruit-tree blossoms, which you find rendered in art or included in things that have to do with spring. I know now how to identify the blossom. In fact, I just saw it on a magazine cover.

I finally thinned out the foxglove seedlings last night. It is a good thing I care so much. It is like jewelry-making work to only use my pointer-finger and thumb to gently remove small growth. I have big man-hands. This was no easy task. Plus, it was depressing to kill off literally hundreds of perfectly healthy foxglove. But that is what I get for being impatient.

I bought seeds for Datura last night, and I read that these are difficult to grow. I doubt it.
I also bought seeds for stock and beets. I have recently taken a liking to both. For one, I did not know that stock was incredible. In fact, I walked past it constantly and wrote it off as "non-descript". Everything changed, however, at Lucky's of all places. Outside they had a display and the fragrance was so overpowering it magnetized me to it. A month later, my purchase has doubled in size, and doubled it's fragrance. This is a fragrance I anticipate having in our garden.

Beets, which I always thought looked weird, have recently been something I've craved. At the cooking school I work we broiled purple beets. They were cooked badly, but they still tasted delicious. I opened a can of beets and ate it all (I'm a big eater)! Since I have succeeded at growing everything from seeds, I want to grow beets.

Datura, I must say, I'm most excited about growing. I have already bought three brugmansia and I'm running out of room. I have heard Datura, a close relative of Brugmansia, gets large as well. All I know is I'm returning to Regan's to buy a few Brugmansia when they get them in April. I love that plant.