Signs of Lilly Life

The lilly family is showing signs of life. The two garlic cloves planted from the fridge are up and growing. I wish I could say the same for the cloves from the Seed Savers Exchange. However, to be fair, they note on the documentation they send that it may take four weeks before anything happens. I'm not going anywhere and nothing else is competing for their space right now. If worse comes to worse, I have more cloves in the fridge.


What is even better from my perspective is the evidence of life among the Long Red Florence onions. The seeds have sprouted. I haven't counted the rate of germination, but I estimate it above 90%. The critters have evidently had little impact, with some of the seed sprouting in the midst of the critters burrow.

I plan to follow through in the next few days and plant additional seed in the blank spaces. Perhaps I should actually do a count of seeds that didn't sprout; then I would know.

The challenge I will have now will be weeds. The bed with the garlic and Long Red Florence seems to have a lot of weeds sprouting. Weeding is easy when the plants are small, but does require diligence; the place where most of us fall down. I think a daily morning ritual is called for.

I have to comment about the weather. We had a two-day storm that must have dumped at least 6 inches of rain. I'm sure that will help with all sorts of things, including the sprouting of seeds. Before the storm, I watered daily, but it isn't the same. A good drenching rain soaks the bed all the way through.