Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Back to work

While my back continues to dampen my enthusiasm for outdoor activities, we have an order of plant starts to fill for tomorrow. The weather also insists on remaining an issue as well, peppering us with sleet and a fair amount of rain. With a couple Extra Strength Tylenol under my belt, I went out to the greenhouse to do what needed to be done.

I’ve been going a little stir crazy the last few days. Eggie has been a good distraction but I think I’m getting a little ahead of myself by posting a new chapter every day. The story needs to stew a bit more, plus the next few days will find me attending to other things, so you may not see another installment for a bit. We’ll see.

As soon as I stepped outside, my mood improved. There is something about the air here. Often just by smelling it I can tell what farmers are doing, cutting alfalfa, spreading manure, burning brush piles, and sometimes I think I can even smell the river a mile away. Other times it’s just plain old good, clean country air, and today is such a day, the rain doing laundry.

The order I had to fill is again on the small side, yet bigger than last week’s. Next week is the big plant sale, and a lot of what we have left will be delivered sometime next week for that event. The plants are filling out nicely, despite the lack of sun these last few days, with both the peppers and tomatoes ready to be transplanted. As is always the case, not every seed that was planted germinated, but I believe we have enough to make a good showing, and in some cases, more than enough. I did a lot of transferring starts to make full six packs for tomorrow.

About halfway through filling the order the rain started to come down pretty heavily, so I beat feet to the barn to wait it out. A local alternative radio station was cranking out some awesome jazz, so I just went with the flow. Meanwhile, the plants that were already outside on the draining rack had their first taste of non-well water. I’d say they tolerated it fairly well.

Here’s the order:


(left to right) One flat of Detroit Dark Red Beets; One each flat of Dinosaur kale and Russian Red Kale; one and a half flats of Blue lake Bush Beans; one flat of Tomatillos Verde; two flats of Jubilee Sweet Corn; one and a half flats of Nasturtiums; and one flat of Calendula