Hi! I'm very interested in some of these seeds, but I'm just starting to get into seeds. Are there any tricks to having good success with these? I'm interested in all of the seeds listed. Specifically, the Larkspur, butterfly weed, Peony Poppy (single red are fine, as well), and Gas Plant. Do you know if the Cleome self-seeds? Or do you sow it directly into the ground in the spring? I've thrown some zinia seed around the vegetable garden years ago, started some columbine seed this year & had a couple of other successes, but don't have the time or patience needed for high-maintenance seeds! :)

Texas, your little plant in the crack is absolutely charming! Unfortunately, my columbine gets to be about 2 to 3 feet tall, and is in the middle of my patio! Actually, this year I noticed the roots are finally starting to move the pavers, so I guess it really is time to move it. I searched back for a photo of it, *knowing*, jus tknowing, that I have one that shows it growing out of the patio, but I just can't find it. I did, however, find a photo of the blooms, and luckily, it was labeled. It is a Woodside variegated columbine (although I doubt that a bit since it is NOT variegated...?) I think perhaps I either mislabeled the photo or didn't put enough info. Anyway, here is a photo of the blooms. I'm also going to post another photo of it with some deutzia that was growing in a pot on the patio next to it. The only reason for the second photo is that I loved the combination, lol! Dee

Hi daisy08 and gardendaydreamer! I agree with how much fun it is to see all those little seeds sprouting... I was so excited when I learned about WS in the fall that I put mine out in November and then worried that I did it too soon but thankfully many of my pots have sprouted. I would have never thought to do something like this and I'm grateful to all the members who have shared their experiences (and reassured us first timers)

Busy1, Your GW name fits you so well because you're always so busy. That's a long list of projects you have to tackle the year. My garden is a mess and I tackled some of it yesterday. I had rototilled it about 3 or 4 weeks ago and then got busy with a couple of new garden areas we're building north of the barn and northwest of it. While I was busy in the new areas, weeds and winter grasses were sprouting and growing in the recently rototilled areas. Yesterday I hand-dug bermuda and Johnson Grass out of a pathway they got into last year...by creeping in underground and traveling right up the pathway. Today Tim and I are going to rototill the entire rest of the garden except for the beds that already are planted, of course. It is supposed to be almost hot today (71 degree forecast high) but windy, so I guess we'll keep our fingers crossed that the fire pagers don't go off and we can work in the garden all afternoon. Our weather is so goofy. Our low was forecasted to be 29 but only dropped to 39, and our RH is only 51% this morning. I don't like starting off a "hot" spring day with such low humidity because that may mean it really bottoms out at a low number this afternoon. I've been worried that the Fri-Sat rain storms, if they materialize, would dump too much rain here (too much in terms of it interfering with planting), but our chance of rain here is only 20-30%, so that doesn't seem real likely. By the end of this week I hope to have all the cool-season garden plants in the ground. Although the recent weather has been colder, I still don't think we'll have a long, cool spring. I bet when it finally heats up, it will go from too cool to too hot all in the same week, so I'm still pushing as hard as I can to plant early without planting so early that stuff freezes. Unfortunately, my soil temps didn't get the memo entitled "let's plant early!", so I am waiting for them to warm up. Our only really big projects for this year are to paint the house (was on last year's list and we never got around to it) and put up a fence around the new garden plot north of the garage. We have most of the fence up around the other new garden area, so I have that one half-way marked "completed" on my mental list of Things To Do. Oh, and we are going to dig out the water lilies and move them to a different pond and then fill-in the lily pond in the back yard with soil and turn it into a flower bed. I love the lily pond but am fed up with the snakes. For the last 4 summers, water moccasins have migrated to the lily pond which sits about 15' from our back door. We didn't have much trouble with them in past years, but with all the ponds and creeks drying up every summer, naturally they are going to migrate to any pond that still has water in it. After too many close encounters with water moccasins (nothing like looking into the pond and seeing one looking back at you from a foot or two away), I am done, done, done with the pond. Dawn