Weekly Update From Your Local Botanist

 Calling myself a botanist is a longshot, but since I'm constantly stuck in the vortex of blog titles, I sometimes have to embellish my titles just a smidge. I mean, not having a botany degree aside, I do have a wide array knowledge pertaining to plants and gardening in general, so it's not too farfetched.

Well anyways, what a day yesterday was! I feel like I got hit by a bus, then had to walk home 15 miles in the rain. Gardening season is in full swing, so as soon as I got up yesterday it was time to start planting. We did a row of potatoes and a row of green beans. If you don't garden, then you don't know how difficult it is to constantly bend and squat and walk back and forth with water buckets, plus picking up and discarding any straw rocks that might be in the way. 

I was outside close to two hours watering, digging and planting, then ventured down to the chicken coop to awkwardly stare at our new rooster for a few minutes - collecting eggs for the incubator was also on the menu. After that, I had to go water (and check on) all the sprouts. We have two UV lights set up, so the trays have to constantly be rotated, which I did. Then after feeding the gliders and other critters, it was time to cook dinner. 

Not long after dinner, my sister and I decided to go over to the graveyard to walk. Mind you, this is the first time this year that we've gone, so saying I'm out of walking shape is a given. PA work is so much different than standing and walking around for 8 hours a day, so I'm really not used to being on my feet whole lot anymore, which is why I'm in so much pain today, lol.

I always brisk walk, so after a few minutes I'm really huffing and puffing. I looked down at my watch after about 15 minutes and my heart rate was 167! I was like omg, I don't think I've ever got my HR up that high before. By the 20 minute mark I slowed things down and quit just after 30 minutes. I racked up 18 minutes of cardio and burned 515 calories in just 30 minutes, so I definitely accomplished something there. 

Walking, in combination with gardening, really hit me hard. Definitely a downside to not standing and walking all day at work, but it's just the beginning of spring, I'll get back into it eventually. Not today, of course. It's nasty out and supposed to storm here before too long, so I don't think walking is on the menu today.

Well here are the pics from the past few days. I tried to cut them down as much as possible, but there's still more than 20. Enjoy!

All. The. Seeds.

Onion bulbs.

Tomato plants.

More tomato and some pepper plants. There's watermelon hidden in there too.

Potatoes to plant.

It's hard to see because it's so washed out, but the two spaces to the left are the planted rows.

Our new Dark Brahma rooster!

He really is a pretty boy.

And apparently pretty young, I think the people said he wasn't even 6 months old yet, which is great.

He's a very radiant Dark Bramha.

Cucumber plants for days.

They're all doing very nicely, though.

My pepper sprouts that I'm OH so proud of!

I dried these seeds myself, which is why I'm so excited, lol.

I love their curly little leaves.

These are my Alyssums that I planted in the old Moscow Mule mugs.

They're coming along quite nicely.

A little sparse in places, but overall not bad.

I can't wait until they start to flower!

Very much a country kitchen window.

Nothing to be ashamed of, I love it.