Change in the weather.
A huge amount of snow and near-record cold temperatures headed straight for my garden, probably with the sole purpose of wiping out the colony of crown imperials (Fritillaria imperialis) getting ready to bloom. It’s starting to snow right now.
Or maybe it’s headed for Corydalis glaucescens ‘Pink Beauty’, which was already shivering from the cold, as this so-so picture indicates.
I got my hummingbird swings from Pop’s Hummingbird Swings. The hummingbird sits on the swing, and swings, hence the name. The reason why the picture is kind of fuzzy is that it’s a picture of a swing, and it’s swinging in the wind, even without a hummingbird on it.
Since the title of the post has something to do with seed frames, might as well go look at them now. There are seeds in pots all over the garden.
Before we look at them, it’s interesting to note that most of the seeds sown are of dryland plants, which, once they’re establish in the garden, I intend never to water them, but the current watering restrictions do not allow me to water them in the seed pots except on Saturdays and Wednesdays, and yet if I grew annuals or vegetables, I could water those by hand every day. Such is life.
Anyway, there are seed pots on the patio.
And seed pots in the frames. The frames are on the patio my wife never finished. They were covered with snow for three straight months, more or less. When they weren’t covered with snow, they were about to be covered with snow, so that’s why I say more or less. There are occasional periods when it isn’t snowing here.
The rope attached to the frame on the right is so I can lift it and water the pots (only on the permitted days), and gawk at seedlings.
The frame on the left, with the screen rolled back (for no reason), has seed pots which were sown in January of 2012.
Astragalus detritalis germinated a week or so ago:
A penstemon, I forget which species:
Penstemon acaulis. This is a big deal to me. These round pots are B.E.F. Growers’ Pots, polypropylene, cost 25 cents each about 25 years ago, and have been outdoors ever since.
And finally, Aquilegia jonesii. Three seedlings visible in lower right, and one by the twig, upper right.
I got another picture of the white-breasted nuthatch, a favorite here, always worried that it won’t find enough food, and so skittish it flies away when it hears me thinking about taking its picture.
the miserable gardener 