I potted up some house plants outside yesterday, and brought in a bunch of stuff before they get too cold. I noticed my cympbidium is sending out a new fan... hopefully we get flowers on it again. And I am wondering how long the begonia and lantana will keep flowering this year... last year they flowered a bit all the way till Thanksgiving, but didn't make it to Christmas.

Cool! It always nice to know you won't have any leaks this winter!

I got some planting in Saturday. Yesterday was beautiful in the Portland area! Crisp, cool temps, sunny, blue sky.

if you are looking for a recycled, home made pot stick... old yogurt/cottage cheese containers can be cut up into strips to use for pot labels. I use a hard ball point pen and press hard enough to imprint the lettering into the plastic itself, so that if the ink fades (it almost always does) the impression is still readable. These go brittle after a season or two, but for veggies and annuals you only need to get the label through the summer with, works well enough.

One trick with the usual sharpies to make them more sun fade resistant- do the labels ahead of time and let them sit over night inside before you set them out with the plants in the sun. Makes a world of difference, for whatever reason. Or use pencil, which doesn't fade from sun (but will if from fingers sliding over it if you are one of those that is constantly fiddling with the tags, lol).

Do you have a greenhouse? Seems early to be starting those... but I don't do seeds, so what do I know? lmao

It is too early to plant beans. You want to start them within weeks of the planting date. A good timeline that will help is at West Side Gardener Tomatoes you want to start in late February early March give or take. :)

Hope this helps!

Today while it was sunny for a minute, I dug up the last of the parsnips.I planted garlic last fall, but it didn't come up before Christmas, so I had given up on them, but I finally noticed them all in a row 4 inches apart. I just found Travis Saling's Vegetable Garden Timetable, Chrissa, you might find it very helpful
Look up: www.westsidegardener.com/quick/timetable.html
he lives in Sumner, WA and is a good source for local gardenening information.

I'd say the ground is too cold and would come as a real shock to those beans, and the growth is too tender to survive winter weather. I'd consider this batch an experimental trial run. The good news is that no matter what you'll be able to do a second sowing in a couple of months.

Today (well yesterday) I planted some peas in a pot on the deck. Just to satisfy my own spring planting lust with the intention of harvesting some early tendrils. Garden peas to go in soon!

Chrissa, you have to wait at least until May before getting those beans in the ground. However you can consider this your first experiment and see how long you can grow them in pots. I usually get my beans in at the end of May first of June and not before I feel the soil is warm enough for them. They grow so quickly. In the meantime you can sow another legume--peas--as Sherri mentioned above.

Just for fun, I also planted a little container on my kitchen table. Will never come to anything in terms of a harvest of course, but really perks up the kitchen. Think of it like a spring bouquet, it's looked good for a couple of weeks.

Today I bought trowels. Three of them. And gloves. I'm ready.

Possibly dangerous. If you are slug, I am in a dangerous mood. My primroses have been nibbled...

I killed the beans. Darnnit. They froze - they were in pots, but up against the house. Well, I still have bean seeds so will try again appropriately. Gosh, they were pretty, though.

I have some peas and sweet peas started, and will probably graduate them outside soon.

I bought a new trowel and hand claw thinger.