Forecast: Almost warm enough. Maybe.

After a warm spot in the weather here (growing zone 7/Memphis, Tennessee, to be exact), it's gotten cold out again. Right as I was planning and replanning the best spots for everything -- the flowers, fruit, and herb garden to come. But I've gotten a little extension from the ever-changing weather around here. It's too cold to put out that tomato plant I brought back from Jackson. After searching around for good varieties for containers, I chose the Husky Cherry Red. Still, it sounds like a great wrestler name to me. So it deserves a chance to live by waiting to plant it in a few days, when it's finally warmer.

I've also chosen a few packets of seeds to plant around in containers -- I'll start with Heavenly Blue Morning Glory. Morning Glories always make me happy because the seeds enjoy a warm soak overnight, and then they like being thrown around like Jack's beans for the magic beanstalk. They don't tend to be choosy -- they'll come up in surprising places without much attention. So I'll soak those tonight and start by planting some around in the barrel of ivy left behind, and I'll even throw some off the balcony just to see if any make it around the ground floor apartments.

Guerrilla gardening is fun. So in that case, I'll throw some around the chain link fence around the back of the apartment, too.

Two other flowers I've chosen for The Yarden are a packet of Columbine (Harlequin Mix) seeds and Alysuum (Snow Crystals) seeds. After sitting out on the porch last week during the warm spell, I sketched and thought and re-sketched until I really just took all the fun out of where I can plant these, light-wise and spatially, with that blasted, two-ton, immovable half barrel full of ivy out there from the late 1980s. But I am just going to start somewhere, just like anything else, to see where it grows.

Another cool seed I found that looks cool is Lunaria (Honesty, Money Plant). I have no idea how to grow it, but it says it likes partial shade like I have here, so why not. It looks like a bouquet of white butterfly wings on the seed packet, so why not.

Maybe the most important growing experiment of the year will be seeing if I can grow a tiny, essential herb garden for my cooking addiction around here. I have had a huge success with growing basil in containers and in indirect light, so I picked up some Lemon Basil seeds. I've also got Italian Parsley and Chive seeds to try. It'll be interesting to see what grows (besides the immovable ivy) in this indirect light/partial shade environment.

That's all for now. Off to soak some Morning Glory seeds, and I'll be back soon to plant my wrestling tomato plant.