Thursday, March 17, 2011

The Light Stand and Greenhouse Trays and Mats are Here!

I ordered a 4 ft light stand and some little greenhouse trays that are going in the furnace room for the tomato, pepper, broccoli, cauliflower and eggplant seedlings. I have an order ready to go to Tomatofest. Monday that will be sent with payment in advance. I wish some places didn't charge so much for shipping, but that's life for me here. End of the line.

There are local places to get seeds too, so I am not too worried. I know the appliance/hardware store JD (the husband) works at has a LOT of seeds and some spring planted flower bulbs. They like Burpee seeds, and they aren't bad, just have to get the organic and/or heirloom varieties.

The plan is to get 3 beds ready in mid April (Yay! only a month away!) which includes tilling up the existing beds, raising them with 4x8 ft 2x8's, developing the soil and amending like crazy and adding two more 4x8 raised beds with the same process. The two new beds are going to be for the tomatoes and peppers. It will need lattice as a wind break and some shade since they are going in on the lilac side of the clotheslines.

The sprouts have been going wild! Love them and the tibi and the kefir!! They must know it too, since they are all doing well. Broccoli sprouts are going to be available year round. They are amazingly good for a person.

The snow this year may have helped but these high winds are killer again this spring. Everything is going to need protection. Lattice, need to find some that someone has junked and give it a good sanding to get down to the wood and then coat in beeswax. That would be a good cure since it would protect a bit, but still get the sun and there would be air movement to prevent disease.

I am going to put up one of these and see how it works for the longer season tomatoes. They could come into the garage at night. That propane heater would be perfect for them to stay warm on the cooler nights. There will be a couple of container tomatoes, I want romas and they need to come in and be warm at night to get the rich flavor as they ripen. This will serve them well. Now back to looking up roma seeds that could work in a container.

The sun is warming the northern part of the planet. The earth is receiving that warmth and little green things are coming up here and there. The wind has dried up a lot of the water, sad really, it could have been useful on the ground on a slow melt, but more snow will come. It's the wet heavy snow season that could just as well be rain (and it is at a lower altitude :-)) and it does soak into the earth, but our ground is bottomless, glaciated nearly all rock. Amending is so important and so is composting. Reviving the earth is my next project and getting good compost going is most important for that project. I can add the Pot o' Gold compost mix to everything, but without good fresh stuff to add in the soil is going to return to powdered granite.