Lettuce started in PT: Tennis Ball (new), Ruby Leaf, and Black-Seeded Simpson

Got the Tennis Ball seeds for free last year. Why not give them a try.

I meant to start these all sooner, but didn't get around to it.

Cardinal (f) at tray feeder, ate nutrisaff and millet! then on ground for a while

Yay yay yay!  I finally put back the feeders a week or two ago.  Hadn't seen much action other than some shell peanuts mysteriously disappearing.  Then today, a female cardinal partook of some nutrisaff and, surprisingly to me, millet too.  Maybe had some of the other items too, couldn't tell.  (Also in the tray are peanut pieces and shelled sunflowers/pieces.)

Then she hopped around the ground for a few minutes.  Then she went and rested on the ground of the north wall, by some of the rocks.

Fun!

Bird bath set out (with heater due to cold weather)

I had brought it into the basement many months ago when I needed to remove the feeders.  Figured it was time to set it out again, what with the song sparrow coming by, and hopefully more birds on the way.

Minus 15 tonight (!!), tomorrow/day after the highs will be in the negatives, so put the heater in.

Song sparrow ate millet from light tray! Only occasionally singing in tree (roaming?)

I was glad to see that he was comfortable being on the screening part of the tray.

Snow all gone from west and north beds

The only reason there's still snow in the central bed is because that's where I've been piling up the snow dug from the paths during the winter.

WS-potted up sprouted chard and round 2 Waltham broccoli

So, for the Waltham broccoli, there is round 1 indoors which continues to all look horrible (while the indoor piracicaba still looks all great) -- and now this PT-sprouted-then-directly-potted-up-for-WS round 2.

When more of the chard sprouts I'll do up some for indoors.

WS-potted up sprouted kale: White Russian & Premier Forge

Now that they all sprouted in PT, transferred them all into various WS jugs.  Will keep them inside overnight when it goes down below zero (eg tonight and tomorrow night), but daytime temps this coming week are in the +3 to +14 range so should be good to be outside.

Also potted up 3 White Russian kales for inside, to see how they do inside since it's a new-to-me variety.

Broccoli Waltham round 2 started in PT

These ones I'll do as WS as soon as they sprout.  (Round 1 waltham broccolis ALL look equally horrible whereas the piraciccaba all look great.)

Kale (White Russian & Premier Forge) and swiss chard started in PT

Many seeds of each.

First time trying the White Russian -- it says it can deal with wet conditions, so I might try some under the eaves, just to see.

Weather forecast is looking great next week for potting these up as winter sowing-style to be raised outside (once they sprout in the PT).

Using two-year-old Premium Promix bag for potting things up

For potting up, have been using the two-year old huge block of Premium Pro-Mix, which I didn't use last year because I wondered if it was the cause of all those diseases in the 2020 season.

Since this year's seed selection has really focused on disease resistance, figured I may as well use it up.

Stevia and forget-me-not potted up

4/4 forget-me-nots sprouted!

3/4 stevia sprouted, and I accidentally forgot about the last one so it's trash now.

Stevia and forget-me-not started in PT

4 x stevia (from bought seeds)

4 x forget-me-not (from last year's prime plant)

Pirociccaba broc looking great; Waltham broc shriveling up same as previous years

Seeing a big difference between the two types of broccoli I started a few weeks ago.  The Waltham broccolis are small and their leaves are shriveling up one by one -- just like last year and previous years.  Whereas the piraciccaba are looking great!  Bigger than the Walthams, and no leaves shriveling yet.