sad fish

Or, just me sad for a fish- I don't know how he feels. My little blue betta doesn't look well at all. His head has gradually been turning white- first it was just the gill plate on one side, then all that side of his face, now nearly his entire head.

His fins are ragged and loosing color.

I have checked his water parameters (nitrates regularly around 10 ppm), raised the temperature in his tank a few degrees, cleaned his filter and am trying to be more meticulous about siphoning the gravel on tank maintenance days. He's started refusing food- won't eat any kind of pellets anymore, only flake, frozen foods or bug bites. Spends most of the day hiding in the plants, just comes out when it's food time.

Sigh. I've had him six months, which means he's probably over a year old, and who knows how long someone else owned him before me, or what he went through before. I thought at first the white on his head was the marbled gene- the black on his fin edges has changed dramatically, after all. But it looks like he has fin rot and is loosing weight. He's been gradually deteriorating for a while, until even my kids noticed.

This will be my last betta. I'm not going to go through the difficulty- extra water changes, stress, worry over a diagnosis- to attempt treatment with medication. Clean, warm water and the best food I have, that's all I can do right now. I just have to decide how long to let him linger into suffering before I decide to euthanize. It's a decision I hate making and don't want to do anymore.

chilly

Cold snap today. All my seedlings are tucked into the greenhouse.

My parsley is up! Tatsoi and peas pictured here- 

Collards getting bigger! In a few days when the freezing temps are past, I'll consider planting them out.

green on the deck

Spring appearances. I'm always relieved when I see new growth in my pots- they made it through winter! Mints are regrowing

Chives have shot taller 

Kale I planted out is doing well- eaten it once already

Stevia spent the cold season indoors, just lingering on the whole time but now with more sun- spending a few hours each day outside- its leaves are getting bigger again.

The other day I brought home a lump of ginger root from the grocery, planted it in my shallow pot again. I missed not having ginger in a pot the last few years.

today is cold and damp

Perfect for digging and moving things. I dug up nearly the entire perennial herb bed (sparing only the corner where bunching onions grow) and raked in three scattered layers of broken rock. Leftover fragments of stuff my husband brings home from fossil-hunting trips. It was a heap on the back patio and now it's dug into my herb bed. Because I've read that they prefer rocky soil.

The sorrel was getting quite large so I took some divisions off the sides of the clump, but also accidentally broke off nearly all the leaves. However it seems pretty robust and I think will grow back quick enough. It's now in the far corner alongside the onions. Lemon balm replanted to its right.

The middle is rearranged- left here it's winter savory and tarragon, sculpit in the middle, two sage plants on the right.

Most of it doens't look like much right now, but the winter savory (which got a trim) has tiny leaves sprouting in its tangle of stems,

and the sculpit is only scraggly because I've been eating it.

Lavender replanted on the other end.

I tossed a finally layer of broken rock over the surface after replanting, and then tucked all the leaf litter back in place- because we have a temperature drop again this week, with nights just below freezing. 

more things sprouting

Dill and chervil in the seedling trays.

Lovage outside in the garden.

Lemon balm

Catmint has been up for quite a while, now getting more lush.

Both clematis have spring leaves,

and the pink one a few buds already.

My garlics are doing great!

pot of hyssop is thick with new growth

and the rhubarb (not yet pictured) is showing above ground again. I might actually eat it this year.

up quickly

Snap peas, shelling peas, tatasoi and tokyo bekana sprouted in just a few days. Tatsoi pictured.

feels like spring

Or even warmer- just over seventy today so the lettuces I just planted in the garden yesterday might start bolting already. More stuff is springing up and sprouting new leaves- the clematis, sedums, daylilies. My hellebores are blooming but I haven't got any photos yet, though I did cut a few flowers to float in tiny jars on the kitchen windowsill, so pretty.

Today I started more seed- dill, chervil, parsley, a few more leeks, snap peas (both 'golden' from a packet and saved from my own garden), shelling peas, tatsoi and tokyo bekana. Outside I direct-sowed detroit red beets, golden beets, turnips and turnip-rutabaga in the garden. Sowed four types of carrots in eight large pots on the deck. Soil nice and loose, the roots won't run into any rocks, I don't have to dig over a garden bed, and there's more space down below for something else!

Note to self: end of my packets beet seed. Must buy more next year.

Also stuck four twigs in the ground, their flowers have fallen and green leaves are sprouting. Cuttings of 'white forsythia' a friend gave me (It's really Abeliophyllum distichum). Sounds like it roots just as crazy easy as the common yellow forsythia, but I think late summer or fall is better time to grow cuttings so don't know how these will do. I put two by the mailbox spot, one near the vegetable garden, and one on an edge of the rear perennial bed. I was at her house when it was blooming- lovely little starlike white flowers with an amazing scent. It reminded me so much of lilac. The rest of the year it will just look like a plain green shrub, but I think those early spring white flowers would be lovely around the mailbox, ready for something different from the celosia and borage perhaps.

March snowfall

Too cold in the mini greenhouse outside today!

So all the newly-potted seedlings are sharing space with my houseplants indoors, crowded by the windows. When I get more seedlings started, I'll have to set up the tiers of benches.

For now there's some on the floor-

Yesterday these collards and chard were wilted from transplant shock, this morning have perked up quite a bit.

One tray of arugula is on the worm bin with the coleus plants.

potted up

My first set of seedlings have outgrown their trays-

I potted them up today. Kale: 

Leeks:

Arugula: 

Collards: 

and Leaf Beet Chard:

corn plant smell

My large dracanea in the corner is in full flower again- and fills the house with perfume at night. It's almost too much, on the verge of sickly-sweet.

on lean water

Another new tactic this year- I am trying to use only meltwater from snow and ice outside, or collected rainwater, for my succulents and tender plants. Some of them really don't like tapwater. Like the spider plant. I think it's the flouride content. Others- the succulents- do poorly with the rich nitrate content in the aquarium wastewater I use. Most of them seem to be doing better now! 

My blue-green "ponytail" plant- I trimmed and replanted in the same pot most of the trailing stems, and it looks much nicer now. Wow, how it's grown.

Zygo (thanksgiving) cactus is still small, but has doubled in size again:

Still don't know the actual name of this pale green one in the crassula family. It frequently had leaves that withered and dropped, before I started using the meltwater.

Surprise! I still have a remnant of the echeveria- two small plantlets- I keep them very dry now. The one in red pot sharing space with some babies of the blue-green 'ponytail' which fell there of their own accord.

Madagascar palm the only one that doesn't look happy yet. Too much draft? Not enough warmth? (it's near a door so there's some draft). Not sure. I might give up on this one soon.

Other plants that I usually give lean water now too, or mixed with just a small portion of tankwater: creeping charlies, sansevieria, peace lilly- which has grown a lot!

and now even has new baby shoots emerging-

and my spider plants- no more burned leaf tips! This pot has several offspring from

my original plain spider plant- still vigorous and with new baby offshoots growing all the time