Itching I tell ya -- ITCHING!!!

I can believe how flippin' cold it is on Holy Saturday...4/7/07---no sun, windy and about 30 degrees!!! Ahhhhhh.....I'm so itching to get my hands into some dirt.

So, to get my fix, I'm trying some new 'early-spring' plants--this will force me to expand my gardening skills well beyond my usual tomatoes, basil and assorted annuals.

So, not being much of shopper...I make the best of a cold Saturday in April...heading to Binny's for an Easter (& personal) beer run and then to the nursery--spending about $50 at each...well spent $$$.

At Binny's, I of course am sticking to my no-American-main-stream beers for the year and maybe for life! I bought the best of the best:

Spaten (De)
Fischer Amber (Fr)
Czechvar (Cz)
Pilsner Urquell (Cz)
Stella Artois (Be)

I ask the staff about the small 11.2 oz bottle of Westmalle (Be) --wanting to know if they have the larger (24 oz?) bottle that I received from Marius this week...they do sell it, but it sells out fast. The small bottle is $5.50! This stuff is like liquid gold...better be good! It's chilling as we speak...I'm thinking it will be good. Better get myself on the preferred list when that large bottle comes in...my beer tastes just got more expensive--& I've not even tried this one...but you can not go wrong w/ anything from Europe.

All right, back to gardening. Arriving at Pesche's Nursery, I quickly notice that I'm about the only shopper...personal service from the staff...all good! I know that I'm limited to some basic early-spring items, so I pick up some short sprouts of pink & lavender tulips and some yellow daffodils.

After seeing the beautiful blue hydrangeas at Church this morning, I ask the guy about them and he says he has some but that the endless summer should be coming in the next week or so...he gives me some advice on obtaining the blue color--acidic soil, but says that's not so good for the soil...well, I want BLUE, so on my next visit to Pesche's, I will pick up a plant to two and get the fixin's for acidic soil.

Got to get something into the veggie garden as well...so I ask the staff about some of the onions sprouts for sale and get some good info on the candy and walla-walla items--he notes that he's just updated the Garden Rx site about how to grow big onions!

Well, that's it for today...a bit of beer and garden shopping. If the sun is out tomorrow, it may be time to get some of the plants in the ground. Cold-spring--won't get me down!!!

PS: I bought some potting mix, thinking I'll seed-start some hot-peppers, and try tomatoes as well...we'll see how that goes.