in april it gets a little tough to be a member of my household. Space, always at a premium here, becomes in demand by the resident gardener in a way that tends to annoy the family . With no greenhouse to start seeds and such, the need for growing space  requires  me trying to form a tricky balance between available sunlight and a place to eat your breakfast.

I start my many of my dahlia tubers in April so I will have at least a few blooming in June , and although at this time these very big and thirsty plants only need a small pots to get going in,  the pots need sun and that means they get a place in front of my sliding door where they will get lots of it, and as a bonus make coming and going difficult as well creating the added challenge of getting anything out if the baking cabinet . 

Our big window in the living room is another great source of all day sun, so several trays of seeds will circulate in and out of there, and the plants that are overwintered there , like the very large and thorny bougainvillea , will get moved closer to the chairs so TV watchers can enjoy the occasional poke .

In years I am starting many new seeds ( which ,if we are honest, that is every)  trays and pots  take up every window sill, and some take a prominent position on the hearth  under grow lights .

As if things were not bad enough , I need to clean and organize the trug that holds my day to day tools ( soil knife, by-pass pruners, gloves, etc) so that is sitting on the kitchen table patiently waiting for me to find time

new plants that need hardening off cycle in and out of the kitchen 

the plants that summer outside are chomping at the bit to get out into the sunshine

many of them need cuttings taken  , and some already are overdue for potting .

eventually all the mayhem gets to a point that it even bothers me, luckily by then it is usually time for everything to head outside

as soon as we near the end of our “3 kids in college at the same time”  years, I am starting my campaign for a greenhouse.