Outside of the grocery stores, they've started to set out little starter plants: herbs, flowers, even tomatoes and peppers. I was only there to go to the deli to get soup, really, but had to stop and look. I chose a six-pack of a viola color combination I've not had before: Viola cornuta 'Penny Orange Jump Up'. I filled a couple of empty small pots with these, and will take a picture for next week's post. Hopefully snails/slugs/bugs won't attack them in the meantime.

I hosted a Women's Book Club Gathering at my place on Sunday, so the previous weekend and most of Saturday were devoted to tidying up the house and yard. Steve mowed the lawn, and I pulled dandelions out of it. He trimmed the privet, bottlebrush, African daisy and boxwood hedges, then I raked up leaves and swept the pathway, having moved my container plants temporarily out of the way. Re-arranging them once we were done with hedges, I discovered that the Rieger begonia was blooming quite nicely! It was dormant for so long. I'd had it under a plant stand, behind other pots, so I moved it to a more visible spot.

While tidying the pots that are clustered around the front porch, I recalled that a container which only seemed to hold nasturtiums and grass might have daylilies coming up underneath the other growth, and sure enough, I found short clusters of lily leaves. I pulled out the grass to give them more space and light. I'm looking forward to giving additional containers a closer look and finding where I planted other lily and gladiolus bulbs in the past.

Continuing with early-season planting, I've now got all the dahlia bulbs stuck into good soil, most of them in a shallow rectangular planter box. I moved a white daisy bush out of there, into a tall blue ceramic pot, but it's likely to need even more space eventually and could be best suited to being planted in the ground.

I have lots of seeds: recently purchased packets and those saved from last year, so I plan to spend time during the next few evenings and the coming weekend in getting those planted as well, starting with mustard, parsnips and the wildflower mix. I'll have to work around the expected rainshowers. But I think it's finally warm enough at night that young seedlings will be okay outdoors. I'll continue to experiment with the Envii fertilizers, treating most of my seedlings with them, while leaving some un-fertilized as a control group.

When indoors during dark or rainy times, I want to make more batches of potpourri. I found the little net bags I'd been buying at Beverly's Crafts are also available at the Dollar Tree, so I bought several packages of them for the potpourri. In addition to the flower petals from my own garden and the bouquets we buy, I've gathered blossoms from the lovely pink-blooming plum trees at my workplace. I think the scent of these will go nicely with lavender and sandalwood essential oils.