Thursday, February 9, 2017

Seeds

This morning -- a blustery, chilly morning -- I thought it would be fun to read my farm posts from this time last year. How fascinating to see that so many of the things we started early (January or first of February) in the hoop house, didn't do well.  Potatoes, ginger and turmeric, broccoli, wax beans, etc. Perhaps it's good that we're not starting anything in the greenhouse quite yet.
The tomato seeds we ordered arrived in the mail yesterday. We ordered fewer varieties, eliminating many types from last year that didn't perform well. As soon as I have shelves in the greenhouse, I'll start these, but Adam has to recover from his pneumonia first before he can do that work.

Reading the old blog posts reminded me of what did do well at this time year: herbs. I started cilantro, dill, thyme, and parsley in the greenhouse, and they germinated quite well and transplanted into the garden beautifully. For the first time in my life I have abundant thyme that's overwintered. Cilantro self-seeded and is popping up randomly. Today, instead of starting those herbs in pots, I decided to strew some of last-year's leftover seeds right into the dirt of the herb garden, giving it a little covering. I did this with some leftover thyme seed and some dill seed. Adam needs dill for his pickles.

One thing I need to get into the ground as soon as possible, is peas.

Adam is frustrated at being too sick to work outside. He is sitting on the couch drinking coffee and writing in his hand-crafted books. Last year he started tomato seeds under a light in the barn office, but they didn't germinate well because of the cold, and I had to redo them in March. It's important to learn from previous years on the farm. I'm glad I have this blog for that reason.

Today is perfect for packaging my two batches of soap that are in the middle of curing.
 Lots of tea tree oil soaps, some with oatmeal, 3 oz. - 4 oz. per bar.
Here's a pretty, large bar, nearly 6 oz. in size, wrapped just for Valentine's!
Keep warm out there, folks. Spring is coming!

3 comments:

  1. I used to have a gardening blog and it was useful for the same reason. It also inspired me vecause I wanted to have some great photos. My garden hasn't been looking too good lately. It needs a big revamp. Is that because I stopped the blog? Keep yours going!

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  2. Sorry to hear Adam has pneumonia! I'm envious because he actually writes in his handmade books. I think I would make them and they would just sit on a shelf; too precious to make a mark in. Sad! :) I noticed the pricing on your soaps. Do they sell well? I should learn to do some of that sort of thing. It might be fun to hit a farmer's market now and then. Maybe I could sell some paintings? It will be interesting to see how you farmers decide to do things this year with all you've learned.

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  3. A project that I have yet to start on is a book in which I keep records of birds and the garden... it doesn't need to be too detailed in my case. I've been writing notes in my all-purpose journal but I would like to glean that category of jottings and copy them into a journal dedicated to that purpose. I have a big notebook that since my new landscaping has become outdated...

    I'm looking forward to all your garden logging on your blog. :-)

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