dappling of shade

Hopefully you can see from the picture that there is still snow on the ground and the flurries are still falling as I type this post. I get the hint that others in the neighborhood are just as fed up as I am. Even with fresh snow on the ground last weekend, no one was taking their sleds out. Probably they are like A and I, stuck at home with colds and trying to save energy to Starkbierfest it this evening. Nevertheless I’m determined to start my garden and grow some strong seedlings for the coming spring. Repeat after me: “Betcha by golly, Spring IS coming!”
 
It was time to invest in a decent greenhouse or Anzuchtschale (as apposed to old Langnese ice cream tubs) and some sterile soil since last year my babies took a bit too long to get ready for the balcony chaos. For 12 Euro I got this plastic greenhouse at Samenhaus.de and 20 pellets from coconut husk. We will be again trying to grow flowers, an herb garden and see if we can’t increase our yummy tomato and baby pumpkin yields this year. The flower seeds going into the greenhouse will be Portulakröschen or moss rose because we’ll need flowers that tolerate my forgetfulness. The next dry loving plant is the African Delosperma – Hardy ice plant or in German, Mittagsblume. I seem to get along well with succulents. The more attention seekers will be the Violets/Pansies (but I’ll call them violas, yay! in German: Hornveilchen) and the blue Forget-me-nots or in German, Vergißmeinnicht. We’ll see if I remember the names in both languages. I was very mindful that this year none of these flowers reach a high above 15 cm and cause our neighbor below to birth a cow at my front door.
 
Whether the sage, thyme, lavender, and oregano survived this year’s winter is still up in the air. I know I killed my jalapeño two weeks ago by accident after I left it in freezing temperatures on the balcony over night so its seed brothers are going under the dome along with more cilantro, thai basil, and tarragon. I hope this year will be plentiful.

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