May 1, Friday

The rain gauge tells me we got just under an inch Wednesday night and Thursday, so I'm not watering today. Possibly a mistake with seeds sprouting. We'll see. Maybe a dozen sprouts coming up, mostly in places where my map says I seeded. And mostly around the salad greens, which went in Monday. Some may be weeds of course. No way to no until they grow a bit. And in the mesclun area, probably no way to know at all. If I end up with weeds in my salad, let's hope they're clover.

Sprayed a few dandelions that were dumb enough to stick their yellow heads up in my back yard. Some looked kind of sickly, so I had probably sprayed them Wednesday. Not one in the front yard. Meant to spread corn gluten to stop new weeds from germinating this Spring, but I never managed to buy it and I wasn't sure quite when to do it. Supposed to be when the forsythias bloom. As I don't have a clue what a forsythia is, that's not very helpful. Memo to self: plant some forsythias for next Spring. Last night the very hearty-looking lady on Wisconsin Gardener said the 2-week window for spreading corn gluten passed in April. And if it's too late in Wisconsin, it's certainly too late here.

Raked a fair pile of tree branches out of the front yard. In addition to masses of helicopters and masses upon masses of leaves, my lovely maples also shed a great deal of wood when the wind blows. Also tried my new thatch rake on maybe a 5-foot strip of the front yard. Not super hard work, but makes my back howl enough that I'll probably do it in little bits. Seems worth doing. My lawn has heavy thatch. An awful lot comes up (tho not nearly all of it), and I can definitely see more soil thru the grass. Need to figure out why my thatch rake has two sides with slightly different teeth. And I guess I should spread some grass seed where I've raked.

Then decided to finally cut back prior years' growth on some perennials in the bed in front of my house. Last owners put them in. Aside from some ornamental grass and spring bulbs, I have no idea what these plants are. And I didn't pay enough attention last Spring to see which ones need to be cut back and which definitely should not be. This year it's more clear. Some of them are quite pretty. I could take better care of them if I knew what they were. Altho they survived a year with the house sitting vacant and another two years of me pretty well ignoring them, so I guess they don't need much from me.

Finally, soaked some peat pellets and started my pepper and eggplant seeds. Plan to plant 2 of each, so I started 3 peats with 2 seeds each for both vegetables. Hope I'll have plenty of healthy seedlings to select from. I've got them in the oven with the door ajar and the light on for warmth to spur them on. Also remembered to label my containers so I'll know just what those little seedlings are.