Strawberries planted

The Burpee bare root bundle turned out to contain 26 'Albion' strawberry roots, one extra. I planted 11 of them plus the 'Montana' plant in the east bed (pictured), 10 in four hanging baskets, and five in two grow bags. The grow bags are the backups if some of the others don't thrive. I'll check the plants tomorrow before I spread the straw.

That leaves the six Supertunias to put in four baskets. Some of the clones seem to be thriving, especially Royal Velvet, so I may be able to augment some of the baskets with them. Blue Vein is definitely getting at least one Royal Velvet clone. The six tunias in the garage closet all look good under their grow lights, but I can tell that getting them into the baskets and hanging them in real sunlight inside the greenhouse will be good for them. The weather will remain cold through Tuesday, but I'll at least get the baskets ready before then. It was warmer in February than it has been the past few days. (Low on Feb. 7: 40 degrees, 20 degrees warmer than recent lows.)

I have to decide what to do with last year's petunia pot. I thought there were only three plants in there but now it looks like there were six. I just took out one that was dead, and several others aren't looking great. Maybe a couple of them are worth saving, or I might just start over in a pot with new soil, the two big clones (same purple-veined blooms) and two or three volunteers including 'Red Lodge Red Vein'™.

That will take care of most of the planting for a while until the various seedlings are ready. I'll pot up the tomato seedlings to 4" soon, and maybe some others. The next major project is setting up irrigation, which will be interesting with 14 hanging baskets (6 tunia, 4 strawberry, 2 geraniums, 2 peas/cucs) and miscellaneous pots in addition to the four main planting beds.

I just ordered another Epic 6-cell see starter from Botanical Interests, Epic Gardening's seed company. No limit free shipping. I don't know that I need another one this year, but these things are built like tanks and I will use it in the future. Speaking of Epic gardening, I'm cool now because I have joined the strawberry club and I say "strawbs" just like Eric.