Oliver and the Seedlings

The seeds Oliver and I planted have sprouted and we look at them every day, watching their slow progress. Oliver likes to help water them but I must say that it's caused a couple of disasters. He likes to rearrange the pots in the bay window, and his complicated reorganization of the containers sometimes leads to droppage. We've cleaned up quite a bit of dirt. But .... I keep saying to myself that the seedlings that survive Oliver are likely to be more resilient than those that don't. We got more seedlings when we visited the Farr's recently --- they had too many young herbs for their overflowing greenhouse so we stuffed a bunch into baggies to bring home. They survived the car trip and the transplant and seem to be doing nicely - we've now got a ton of basil, chives, sage, cilantro and parsely. We even got a few tomato plants. They look pretty rough right now, sort of like the abused refugees that they are, but I think they'll be all right in the end. With our own cucumber seeds germinated, some dill, and more basil ... we just need to plant a few more vegetables to be well on our way.

Visiting the Farr Farm

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My sister-in-law and her husband have a greenhouse business in upstate New York. We visited recently and got to see their greenhouse in its early glory. They've got an amazing jump on things and I was thrilled to walk through up and down the warm and humid rows, looking at the flowers, herbs, vegetables and berries. We looked at the raspberries and strawberries they have in greenhouses separate from the vegetables and flowers and, while we were there, they were taking in loads of sand and topsoil to raise the ground level so it wouldn't be so wet. Soon they'll be planting their vegetable garden inside and from the looks of their cucumber plants in pots, they'll be eating fresh salad sometime in May. I love visiting their small farm, they've always got projects going on and the ambition of their plans never fails to encourage me to get home and work in the outdoors.

Seed Time

Last week Oliver and I planted some seeds to get them started indoors in hopes of getting a jump on the growing season. He's only two but he was pretty helpful with planting, covering, tamping and watering the seeds. I can't wait until the seedlings start to pop up and he can see them growing. I'm eager to see if he'll understand and to see if he's as fascinated as I am with their growth and progress each day.

Warm Weather

We just experienced some record temps for April - hitting 70 and 80 for a couple of days. It felt wonderful, but weird at the same time. In just a couple of days the change to the trees, grass and gardens was amazing. Of course, it can't last, but it's a sign of things to come and I for one cannot wait. Here's a picture my brother took that sums up the blue-sky, bud-bursting weather we've had.