Making Seedling Cones

Snow last night, and it is cold and sunny and windy today.  We got just an inch or two. The plug for the heated birdbath stopped working last fall.

I spent yesterday trying to build the protective sleeves for the sunflower seedlings that I want to plant out in the meadow.

The idea is to direct sow the seeds, then cover each emerging seedling with a tomato cage wrapped in mesh.  I used bird netting and planned to clip it on with little plastic orchid clips.

Well, it was a bear to work with the netting.  It caught on everything, was hard to see, tangled . . . . aaaagh.  The clips worked great, except I only bought 3 dozen, and each tomato cage needed about 15 to hold the netting on.  So I ended up tying the netting on with twist ties, then clipping only where the fabric was bunchy or loose.

The whole thing was awful to construct, and I have 4 more to do (10 total).  Would chicken wire work better?  Why do the cages have to be awkwardly cone shaped, why not straight cylinders?  Why isn't there a pre-made product out there like this?

It's nice to see the snow coating everything now.  It's been so bare and brown all January so far.  The blueberry bushes are so easy to see now, with their branches against the snow.  In summer they are overtaken by the amsonias.

Really need to move them!