Starting Plants

Spring is in the air, and in the house!   Starting plants is always fun.  We have broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, kale, kohlrabi, tomatillos, tomatoes, peppers, lavender, and collards.  We are trying a new variety of Tomato this year.  It's called the Cherokee purple.  It has won numerous awards for taste across the country.  It's an heirloom variety that was supposedly developed by horticulturists in the Cherokee tribe way back in the day.  For us so far they have been great germinaters and are doing well under the lights.  We'll be starting herbs soon and I'll be experimenting more with potpourri and tea making.  I'm very excited about that.  I hope my little lavender plants will work out for me.  I've had a hard time growing lavender in the past.  There is really only one variety that can handle the winters around here, it's called munstead.  So far they are looking pretty good.  When they first come up they look just like basil. 
      We are in the process of transforming our yard into our little piece of heaven.  Last week we had a wonderful surprise.  Our yellow lady slippers survived the winter.  Last summer a friend had a plant in his yard and he had cut the tree down that was shading it so it started to die from too much sun.  So we dug it up and planted it under our maples but with such a dry fall last year it withered up and looked dead.  Well, I guess it wasn't.  This year we have three shoots coming up.  I can't wait to see if they bloom. 

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