still here

my paradise fish- this would have been a great photo, finally caught in an alert pose in decent lighting with good color- except for the reflection across his flank and tail.

Of course when I tried for another he would never stop moving!

ruffly coleus

All my second and third set of cuttings were long due for a potting up- they have roots! I potted about a dozen of them earlier this week. Here's one of the crazy 'rodeo drive' coleus, it looks so much lighter and gentle, how the colors have transitioned indoors.

some green outside

Surprised to find the bit of thyme left in a pot, actually has some life:

Chives are shooting up new growth; its first pot I've put back out on the deck for spring

Collards in the garden are leggy with the lower foliage cut and eaten,

but the tops a lovely fresh green

Still eating them, and swiss chard too. I think I'm going to change part of my gardening calendar. Make a real effort to plant new collards, chard and lettuce early fall, see if I can bring them through winter and have fresh greens extant through spring. When they die of summer heat, it will be their end of season with a fresh start in fall again. My collards and chard certainly lasted well this winter, and I bet lettuce would pull through if I fitted the coldframe over them. Plans!

basement dwellers

Checking on the plants that have overwintered in my basement window. I lost the sweet potato vines, bah. But the citronella

and lemon-scented geraniums are doing great

and my fig is breaking into new leaf!

I've started putting them outside for part of the day, bringing in again at night again until acclimated.

lenten roses

I think my hellebores have reached maturity. Tons of blooms this year!

I have a few pale pink ones-

two rose pink-

one white- and the flowers then turn green haha-

and three dusky purple, which are a year behind the others, less foliage and haven't quite opened up yet

Have plans to move the seedlings to the front bed where they can overhang a ledge under the loose boxwood shrubs (not sure how it will look though)

new plant house!!

I have been working on this project off and on over the past few weeks. I took that wood pallet my garden bricks were delivered on last year, sawed it in half to build a better coldhouse:

It's two feet by three and just over five feet tall. Five shelf levels- middle one in place there. I'm particularly pleased with the door, which is much sturdier and hung straighter than previous attempts I've made. It's still not completely square, did need a bit of extra reinforcing with screws and corner braces. Built from scrap materials we had laying around, purchases were minimal: a strip of wood for the roof peak, bucket of weatherproofing wood stain/sealer, a cheap brush, knob for the door and some wire shelving. Here it's open-

and shut. (Yes, I did take the liberty of photoshopping some clutter out of the background).

Getting sanded and painted with the sealer right now. Then I'll move it up to the deck and skin it. Spring is advancing on me too quickly!

little mishap

Spilled the tray of dill seedlings, it dumped completely upside down.

I gently plucked all the plantlets out of the dirt and resituated; they seem to have recovered okay, because two days after the first true leaves began to show-

sad violet

My largest african violet has suffered. It leans to one side, lower leaves wilting.

I trimmed off the dying foliage and completely repotted it, in a smaller container with new soil. The stem below soil level had a lot of white crust on it probably deposits from our hard water. I don't know if that was part of the problem, though.

I put it back in the same location by the guppy tank, but it might need to live in a different spot.

two flowers

one underwater, one above. I didn't get a picture of the new buce when it was fully opened, now the petals are disintegrating quickly:

My little thanksgiving cactus is blooming anew

and one of my african violets is budding now too. But the other, largest violet is in bad shape, I need to trim and repot it as soon as I can.

seedlings!

A few pictures- early ones are from a week ago now. Tiny plants cheer me. The little collards are my favorites, I just find their rounded leaves so charming. First one up:

More soon followed:

They're a bit leggy because spent several days in a window instead of the coldhouse

Kale on the left, collards on the right-

Lettuces sprouted only a day or so after sowing the trays but I didn't check on them soon enough, so they emerged under the lid and were bent-

However every single lettuce seed germinated, so it doesn't matter at all if I loose a few

You can see the one that came up later, in center, hugs the soil nicely- because it emerged straight into the light of the coldhouse.

No matter- they're starting to show first true leaves; soon enough I can move them into pots and bury the exposed stems

I've also got Dill-

Leeks-

Sweet peas-

Leaf beet chard-

and Amaranth- although these are struggling. I think it's too cold yet for the amaranth, will group them in my second or third sowing next time.

setbacks

My house has been having problems, which means the tanks have been ignored except for a feeding and quick check once a day. I did manage to I do a fifty percent wc with gravel vac on the tenner after the prazipro treatment. The guppies all look fine and are eating well. The two females in the 20H look well and their tank floor is littered with normal brown-colored waste so I hope that's all better now, too. It will take some more observation to be sure though. I spotted some new guppy fry- again! fifth batch!- but I think most of them got eaten. I only saw three later, but perhaps the moms are not done birthing and there will be a few more. I have been unable to do the usual thrice-daily feeding with extra cleanings in the fry box so they have to just take their chances this time.

The dose of levamisole on the window tank was a few days later than it should have been. I covered the tank for three days but have not done the large wc to clean up after- so I am dismayed it was probably not effective. Laddie is eating well and has good color, but I see he has clear/white poo again so he still has the parasites and I don't know if will every shake it.

The angelfish tank and shrimps still appear unaffected, so there's that.

text only

I was waiting until I had time to upload some pictures to accompany new posts, but that's not going to happen soon. Here's a few updates so I don't forget when things happened. All my first seedlings came up except the chives (but the overwintered pot is sprouting new growth so maybe that doesn't matter).  Lettuces were up a day after sowing but I didn't check on the tray for two days so they got leggy.

They're spending most time in the coldframe house now. Which will soon move into another gardener's hands (hopefully) as I've built a new one! out of another wooden pallet that was lying around. It's larger, sturdier and the door fits squarely in the frame so I won't have to deal with leaks off the roofline all the time. 

Early february it already felt like spring was here- rain and muddy ground, tulips are poking up in my front yard a month early, hellebores are heavy with bloom and forsythia is already brightening the neighborhood. I need to go out and plant the carrots, beets and peas, and start a second sowing indoors.

My fishes are getting a third round of treatment against the parasites in tanks. 33L and the 20H got another dose of Levamisole, which finished it so I used Prazipro in the tenner. I don't know if the worms are all gone. Some of the fishes still have white feces. But the angelfish tank is still unaffected and Laddie's appetite is back, so I'm glad of that.

tarragon

Wish I had more, but I eat it! Maybe will buy a second pot this spring.

end round two

Uncovered the tanks and did all the huge water changes. Fishes all look fine. There's more normal (instead of white) waste on the bottom of the guppy growout tank, Laddie chased up and down the front glass eager for food, and the guppies in the tenner literally swarmed the front when I came near. I had the light strip propped up sideways unplugged the past few days and when reconnected it switched on with the timer before I put it up top again. The lighting from the side was neat so I started taking photos.

Most of the plants look better than ever, probably because near nil light for 72 hours (twice now) has eliminated algae. Only the stems and windelov fern appear to have suffered. Crypt lutea:

Anubias has a new shoot!

Tiny new windelov ferns below that:

Buces 'isabelle' are growing back visibly on the skull:

'Wavy' and 'Selena' below:

They're getting overgrown by the subwassertang, but so far I think the mingling looks nice:

Finally got a decent photo of a guppy!

first sowing

I made a start on the 2020 garden today. Leeks, dill, chives, amaranth greens, two kinds of collards, russian kale, leaf beet chard (aka perpetual spinach), five kinds of lettuce, and an attempt at rosemary.  Sweet peas are soaking. Cutting labels to stick on the seedling trays:

Ready to germinate in my warm spot, top of the fridge. (Except the rosemary, which I put in sun).