Travels, Dreams, and Spring

First, thank you for reading my posts.  This past week the Cohocton River Rock Micro Farm blog has been viewed 350 times.  Thank you again.

Last week I travelled to Maine to visit with my family.  My brother works for The Root Cellar, a neighborhood outreach in Portland, Me.  He is planning a using gardens to help teach neighborhood kids about healthy eating, vegetables, and growing food.  It was really fun dreaming and talking about his garden plans.  I am looking forward to hearing about all that takes place this coming summer.

Two weeks have quickly past and the seedlings are growing well.  I am surprised at how well some of the older seeds are growing. So far I am happy to see how they are all doing.  Only one pepper variety has not come up yet, but peppers can take a little more time compared to tomatoes.

Coming home, from my trip to Maine, and seeing many of the plants coming up was very exciting.

When I put this set up together I was not sure if it would work.  All the plants are doing well now so if I make any changes it will be next Spring.

With another foot of snow on the ground it is hard to believe that I will be working the ground again soon.  Spring is in the air, though, with one sunny day like today the snow melts very quickly.

Stay warm.

In the Ground

Yesterday was a big day.  My friend Dylan and I planted most my crops for next year.

My friend Dylan helping put soil into the packs.

Last year I commandeered the kitchen table for my seedlings.  However, the kitchen table has a couple of problems. The first problem is the sun.  The kitchen faces south but I regularly had rotate to plants. Also, it does not get a full day’s sun. Second, the kitchen gets a lot of people traffic and the seed packs were easily abused.  The third problem was we were not able to eat on kitchen table.

This year I have a fluorescent light set up in the basement.  It is connected to a timer set to be on for 16 hours a day.  I also have a small ceramic heater running to keep everyone warm.

Fluorescent light and heater set up

Dylan and I planted the seeds and labeled everything.  This was also a lesson learned from last year.  Last year I labelled on the clear plastic top. As time went a long and I moved the plants around and I ended up having to wait for everything to grow  to know what they were.  I planted two types of tomatoes and tomatillos and had to wait until they produced fruit before I actually knew what they were.

It may look confusing but everything really is clearly labeled

Dylan and I planted: Salsa Tomatoes, Beefsteak Tomatoes,  Jelly Bean Tomatoes, Purple Tomatillos, Green Tomatillos, Pickling Cucumbers, Green Peppers, Red Peppers, and Dill

We were able to get almost all the seeds under the plastic canopies

Dylan and I worked for about two hours to get everything done well.  Dylan also learned a lot about the seeds we were planting.  He was a great helper.  We also cut some plywood that will be used to build to base of a cold frame, a post that will be coming up soon.

Dylan after we had completed planting and get everything set up

The weather is still not giving any specific indication about when I will be able to get out into the soil.  I do know it will not be long.  It is good to see and feel the sun setting later in the day. I hope you are getting as excited as I am to put seed and plants into the ground.

Stay warm.