Petunia's Cafe

Petunia's Hummingbird Cafe - Ornamental Cherry Blossom Breakfast
Petunia's Gardener Cafe - The best Saturday morning spot (view above)! Errr...sorry we didn't wait for you (coffee below).
While we're not sitting outside today, we have the same nice view of the trees from our inside table (the trees you can see behind the chairs in this summer shot, above, are the cherry trees).
A shot from the side in the sun with a little blue sky too. The rains have been hard on the blossoms this year. You can compare to last year, here.

Cloaking Catnip

I've noticed little catnip leaves working their way out of the ground. I'm not the only one that noticed... evidence says a certain gray shedding furball has also noticed. In order to give the catnip a fair chance of growing large enough to handle the kitty visitors, it's been cloaked!Ms. Emily, having a good roll last summer. The poor plant was pretty pathetic looking by the end of the summer. That's why I'm so happy to see the new leaves this year. Has anyone tried catnip tea?

Hummingbird Feeder Follow-up

Here is little Nikko pondering what type of treats (for her) go in this funny dish. In this post, I commented about this feeder, and the KC MO Garden Guy asked me what kind it is. I have also tried different styles. This one is easily cleaned and it doesn't leak. This photo is the 16 oz size. The earlier posting was the 8 oz. which is a better match for the bird traffic here (though neither needs to be filled completely, so I use them both).

It is made by Aspects. I found it at a local store some time ago, but here is the webpage about it: http://www.aspectsinc.com/2_Hummingbird.htm

The nectar is one part sugar mixed with four parts boiling water. Dissolve, cool and pour in. Any nector I'm saving for the next clean nector replacement goes in the refrigerator.

To answer Julie's question posted in the comments, I've never used food coloring. This feeder is colorful enough! If you have a feeder without color, you could hang something bright with the feeder to help the hummers find it the first time. Once they find a good source, they'll remember it!

Beware of Baby Tomato Tricks

Sweet little (tricky) tomato seedlings...

~March 3 - sown and soon sprouted.
~March 17 - inspired me to add a fluorescent light in the garage and they moved out with the other seedlings.
~March 22 - shivering, purple tomato seedlings come back inside (I think they held their breath to turn purple and get their way...)~March 24 - potted up in good potting soil, and a little kelp meal to see if that will help their phosphorus deficiency...

~March 25 - two came inside, one stayed out in the garage to see if it was just the lack of food or the low temperatures that was causing the purple.
~March 27 - the one lone baby in the garage is more purple this morning:
So now all three are snuggly tucked inside the house! We'll try again when it warms up more. At least the peas, broccoli and lettuce aren't complaining about life in the garage.


Reminds me of Emily, the stray cat that moved to our deck, then the patio, then the garage, now the house (but she still likes having her own room in the garage). Apparently, we're softies.

Welcome, Little Barn Guest

Always room in this barn. Heck, we might even turn the lights and music on for you. This female Rufous Hummingbird (I think) showed up in the barn last night. It was going to be a chilly night so Dear Husband wanted to be sure she had something to eat too. She didn't wait long to take him up on it. (this is the best hummingbird feeder - it's cleanable & doesn't leak!)
She kept flying around the ceiling, even though the doors were open. She'd land in one of the vent cut-outs and hang out there for a while, then fly around some more. We finally decided to leave the doors open a little and let her stay. Maybe she was our garden bird from last year (see photo here). I saw the first hummingbird of 2006 while the cherry trees were blooming so I've been on the watch for them.

Tonight, she seems to have moved on. Maybe she was just passing through and needed a spot to keep warm. After seeing the frost this morning, I didn't blame her.

Seeding-Round 3

It's the year for seed experiments for me. Last year was the first inside seeding I'd done in years. Those cute baby basil seedlings hooked me so I'm back for more this year. With one round of garden seeding and one round of inside seeding so far this year, here is the next round.
Angie posted about winter sowing here and here. I wondered if cool season varieties sown this way might be less inclined to grow so leggy, plus move more easily to the garden. I'd sow some directly in the garden under a cloche, except it is too wet to be digging in the beds and the sweet gardener might melt in the rain. So, these 4 containers have trials of lettuce, spinach, broccoli, Swiss chard, catnip and chamomile (both old seeds), nasturtiums and columbine. If my labels dissolve, this might be interesting to sort out later. Thanks for the great information, Angie. These are the latest seeds in the "oven" (the cabinet under the kitchen sink that is warmed by the heating vent). Tomatoes (current 3 seedling are just not enough), the basil from Germany that sprouted so well last year, spicy globe basil (grew beautifully in AL, we'll see about WA), and anise hyssop. I believe they all like warm spots for sprouting, but then will be happy in cooler spots as seedlings. I'm still using up the planting pellets I have so that's what's inside this box.

Next up: Baby tomatoes threaten to split if not transplanted immediately. Gardener complies.

Spring (Inside)

These are the Cherry Tree clippings I brought inside on Wednesday. Go here to see the limbs that I cut them from, laying on the ground where they have been laying for about a month. This is great! Blossoms in the house and I don't have to cut the living trees to have them. I'll be bringing in some fresh clippings tomorrow.

Which way?

Which do you think is the path most followed? I pass this way quite often (on one of the paths) and always stop to look at it. In these spring days of being pulled/going in many directions, this photo came to mind. For those of you still seeing white, sorry I cannot find the snow version photo right now.

The rest of the story: The path less followed is the big path (for big feet). The little, well defined path...? It is from hundreds & hundreds of ant feet! I have to stop and watch them every time I'm on the big feet path.

Pre-Spring Pause...

Here at Petunia's Garden, we'll welcome Spring soon, but not just yet. A little cool and gray today. The cherry trees out the kitchen window have a few early blossoms open but most are still wrapped up. Even the robin I can see sitting on the gate to the garden looks like (s)he's not ready for the party yet either.

This gardener is home early after a long dentist appointment, but not really up to accomplishing much. A good day to read my first Thompson & Morgan catalog that just arrived! Not to worry, we'll give Spring a worthy welcome soon.

More blossoms here, but there is something special about these.


They are on limbs cut from the trees a month ago! I clipped some branches and brought them inside to see if they'll open.

Garden Stars

First bloom of the Star Magnolia (hope that's right).

On Sunday afternoon, I did a little trimming & weeding around the pond, the patio and the shade bed under the cherry trees. Due to certain plants that came with the house, I'm always trying to figure out what should just be removed rather than maintained (i.e. somewhat invasive ground covers...). Sure, it looks better than nothing, but do nothing to control and it, and it will take over. I'd rather weed the garden than edit landscaping. But, that's enough of that for now.

Other garden stars kept me company on my trimming job. Frog was hiding in some of the pond overgrowth and gave me threatening looks before finally jumping into the little pond. Follow this link to see frog last year (& what he also looked like on Sunday). I did leave some overgrowth for him and I'm happy to say he (and another) are out there singing tonight. Last year (see that link above again), it was in late May when frog and a friend had a singing competition.
Of course, Emily kept me company too. This picture is late in the afternoon when she was hoping to convince me that we were done.