Wednesday 10 February 2010

Mimosa in the rain, and winter again

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The weather isn’t very spring-like this week, but the mimosa is still flowering despite heavy rain which lay in puddles between the rows of vines, and filled the ditches and the cistern at the top of the hill above the garden.  We hope that soon the stream will start to flow again so that we can get free water for the garden when the weather gets warmer.

At the market this morning there were a few snowflakes in the air and a biting north wind.  Apart from leeks and cabbages and a few salad plants we have little in the garden at the moment, so we bought some vegetables and fruit from the market stall.

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Now it’s time to sow our tomato and pepper seeds – we’ve put out the seed starter box from last year ready to use again and Lo Jardinièr is making some small cloches that we can put the germinated seedlings in, in the sun on the balcony (more on these later).  Last year we found that our pepper plants germinated very quickly but then we couldn’t keep them warm enough so the seedlings went into a state of suspended animation for weeks.  This year we’re hoping to keep them warmer.

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8 comments:

HappyMouffetard said...

The mimosa is a delight to see - such bright colour for this time of year.

Stefaneener said...

I'm often startled at how much feeding pepper seedlings want. It's the only time I go non-organic and water them with diluted liquid fertilizer once they have true leaves. Picky little rats -- but it pays off.

I finally got some seeds put in. What a relief!

easygardener said...

It is very tempting to do early seed sowing only to find lack of light or warmth slows everything down. Can't help myself though.
Lovely Mimosa.

Kate said...

We also had this same problem last year but left them to their ways and we got a small crop of good capsicums.... Like Stefaneener though, I would give them liquid feed this time too. There are plenty of organic ones to buy or make.

impoftheyard said...

Beautiful shots. The mimosa is lovely.

joco said...

Hiya,

Mimosa.......ahhhhhh.
Epitome of Spring.
You say 'still flowering',
when does it start in your neck of the woods?
What luxury.

Jan said...

Last year the bell pepper plants could have done with liquid feed, but the other sorts went mad in spite of the fact that all they had was some horse manure that I found! Maybe I was lucky.

Andrea said...

Hi i am new here, been reading your old posts, been awed by the expresso machine of different sizes, how i wish i bought 1 in Rome during my only travel there! How i wish to have 1 like that, even just the 3 or 1-cup capacity.

I am glad to have found the yellow flowering tree which you call Mimosa, i thought it is one of the Acacias. I have a photo of it from Turkey but still wonder what it's name, thank you for this lead. I am inviting you to also browse on my tropical photos esp the older ones. thank you.