Brandon Moeller

The mass transplanting begins

On Sunday, I moved all of the seedlings and put down newspaper over what will become an extension of the flower bed. Another part of the extended flowerbed had already been dug, after I transplanted some of the grass from there to other parts of the yard.

In this spot, I dumped some new garden soil and transplanted some cosmos, my top gun tomato and a new eggplant that I could not resist when I saw it at Lowe’s when I bought the new garden soil. The soil in my yard is so clay-like, amending it when I start a new bed is the best way to kickstart it. I’ll post more about the eggplant – and what made me want one – tomorrow.

I also went through all the seedlings, and separated the ones that did not sprout from those that did. I dumped the excess soil into the large pot where the Top Gun tomato was, and it filled it! Then, I transplanted eight coleus there. All said and done, I had at least 50 empty seedling containers when I was done. I packed them all up in the garage.

Here’s a shot of the extended flower bed that hasn’t been finished yet.

And to think, there used to be at least 50 more seedlings than pictured here.

Sunday through today, I have transplanted the strongest of the blanket flower, half of the portulaca, most of the Cosmos Happy Ring, some of the Cosmos Psyche mix, about eight bachelor buttons, a cut flower wildflower mix here and there as well as the previously mentioned coleus.

I transplanted at least eight cosmos between Kim's flower bed and the new bed.

Into my bed, I dropped at least 11 blanket flower, five zinnia and two wildflowers.

From left to right, some marigolds, some what I think are zinnias that I direct sowed a few weeks ago and the newly-transplanted blanket flower.

Corina’s sixth birthday party

This past weekend, we invited friends and family over to celebrate Corina’s sixth birthday. The week before, I bought her a new bike for her birthday – every six year old needs a bike, even if it still has training wheels. We’re working on it.

Great friends and family came over, ate some barbecue and showered her with gifts. A great time was had by all, best I know.

For the second year in a row, we splurged on a bouncy castle. Why not?

Week Four

Photos from the fourth week in the garden are up, spanning April 4-10, and have been tagged "Week Four" in my Gardening 2010 album in my Picasa Web Albums.

I started transplanting cosmos this week. Pictured here are some Happy Ring cosmos.

This week, I transplanted four of Kim's jalapenos to my beds. And then I told her about it. — This week, I transplanted four of Kim's jalapenos to my bed. And then I told her about it.

Eight legs and still trapped

I found this guy in one of my seedling starter cups. I startled him, and then I watched in amazement as he tried to run away – but couldn’t. The next day, I thought I saw his crumpled dead body in the cup, but then a few days later, I found him in another cup – and so I let him out. In the rose bed. Anybody know what kind of spider this is?

No Carefree embargo here

HoustonGrows blogger and longtime Houston Chronicle editor Molly Glentzer has a post tomorrow about the Carefree Beauty rose, and in it, is a picture of her large Carefree Beauty bush.

It was great to read about the history of the rose that’s thriving in my bed this year, even though she inadvertently posted the post a day early and it hit my RSS feed. I know it was posted early, because when I tried to add a comment, MovableType had a cow.

So, I’ll just comment tomorrow.

Now, this sort of thing happens to me all the time. Especially when I’m writing yesterday’s post today … because I’m trying to write a post each weekday, sometimes life forces me to cheat. NOT the same type of cheating Tiger … oh, nevermind. There really is nothing more I can add to THAT conversation.

But, today I can post the picture of my Carefree Beauty rose that I just happened to take a day before Glentzer accidentally published her blog early.

The Carefree Beauty fully opened this week. I did blur out the background in Photoshop.

A shot of the Carefree Beauty bush earlier this week, as it enters its second year in my flower bed. The blooms hadn't fully opened when I shot this one.

I also searched my Google Reader and Mr. McGregor’s Daughter has some great photos of her Carefree Beauty, and a nice story about how she succumbed to have a rose – but just this rose – in her garden.

Neon Cowboy rose

Yesterday, I had a reason to celebrate and a vacation day from work so I went down to Frank’s Nursery in Richmond near one of those large master-planned communities on FM 359 and I bought myself a Neon Cowboy rose, with Kim’s help, of course.

Orange-red with a yellow center, I've never seen a rose quite like this Neon Cowboy.

For a while, I was kind of undecided between the Neon Cowboy and the Gizmo rose, which looked very similar, but this one in particular looked the fullest and healthiest, so I went ahead and chose it. That, and it has a funnier name.

The Neon Cowboy right after its purchase.

So, right away I transplanted a few seedlings out of the way and dug a nice, big hole and dropped the Neon Cowboy down into my flowerbed in the space where the mystery rose that I bought from Needville was (it died last year in August, if memory serves me well). The cowboy is now between my Carefree Beauty and Marie Daly, both of whom have performed wonderfully so far this season.

The Neon Cowboy hangs its hat next to the Carefree Beauty.

Easter eggs everywhere

This year, my daughter was really excited about Easter. As soon as the Easter decorations came out, her favorite game was hiding the eggs in the living room and forcing anyone who she encountered to find them.

The day before Easter, we dyed eggs.

Corina said she had never dyed them before – maybe that’s my fault. To me, it’s always been about the candy, and you can’t stuff it into a hard-boiled egg.

But you can do plenty of other fun things with hardboiled eggs, like throw them at each other. And then, when they crack, you can ask if you can take the photo.

Corina holds a cracked polka-dotted egg.

Easter means a lot of traveling. We went to church, Kim’s aunt’s house and my aunt’s house. Our day started early so we could make 7 a.m. mass.

Some of us were awake for this pre-mass portrait with the camera timer.

Aside from seeing so many great people, Easter is about new awakening – and traditions.

We started a new tradition this year of building a nest for the Easter bunny. The nest is made out of wildflowers and rose petals. The bunny delivered!