Jump Start on Spring

Here in North Carolina, with daytime temps barely hitting 40 and nights way below freezing, we are still deeply embedded in winter. The ground is frozen (have you ever walked on frozen grass? it's an odd sensation) and the wind is biting, but when you look out the window and see the sun shining it's hard to not start thinking of those seed catalogs promising bountiful gardens to any who so chose to lift a spade. Over the weekend, my trusty man servant and I tore down the remains of last years garden and prepared for a whole new year of real food. That's what a garden gives you ya know, REAL food. Earlier in the winter i had begun my garden plan but with the knowledge that spring was still far away I tucked it in the recesses of my mind, ready for when spring knocked on my door. That is until i happened to pull out my journals and realized that i needed to plant things NOW! What?! my mind screamed as i glanced outside at the still frozen landscape. I must have looked a sight sitting at the kitchen table with my books spread out in front of me staring dumbfounded at the pages. But it was true, if i was to set out healthy plants come spring i needed those seeds started yesterday! Okay, so i know a lot of you fellow gardeners are wondering why i am freaking out. This year, in my continuing quest to learn biodiversity as part of our sustainable life, i want to plant by moon phases. The Farmer's Almanac website (http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates) has a great feature that allows you to find out when the best time to start seeds for your location is. So back to my rising panic. Next week is our annual ski weekend. We take it every year, but this year is extra special. My best friend from ninth grade, whom i haven't seen since then, will be flying out with her husband to join us. We will be back home on the 25th, which also happens to be the last moon favorable planting date for my tomatoes and peppers. And i wasn't ready, at all, or so i thought. All year i have been saving our toilet paper rolls and every clear plastic container that had a lid and top. Think of those plastic containers of spinach, rotisserie chickens, deli prepared foods, etc.
If we brought them home, i saved them! While the kids were settling down for the night with their books, us adults were busy cutting toilet paper tubes in half. I soaked a bucket of planting mix, thankfully i grow herbs indoors all year so i keep a big bag in the ready, and searched the junk drawers for something to press the soil into the tubes with. I found the perfect tool in a couple of 1" pvc end caps, leftover from some project we can't even remember now. Then we started filling the tube halves with soil, pressing the dirt in until it was hard packed, then filling the trays.

I have placed our ironing board, which we NEVER use, i mean c'mon...ironing???? in the dining room and had my trusty man servant hang a shoplight from the ceiling. I placed two heating mats (remember safety, its not wise to use regular heating pads since they aren't made for this purpose) on the board and placed the seed flats on them to warm overnight.

This was two days ago, last night we planted. In case you are wondering, you don't have to turn the lights out and plant by the light of the moon. I did actually ask that question! I feel a great relief at having that task out of the way. But then i remember that on the day we get back from our vacation, we will be planting seeds in the garden, which isn't ready. Another method of biodiversity that we are trying this year is animal plowing. We are allowing the chickens to turn the soil in the garden plot rather than mechanically plowing the area. not only will we save the labor of doing it by hand or the money by renting a machine, but the chickens get to eat all the bugs and seeds they want and they leave us extra manure in the process. Manure that i don't have to shovel! nobody had to tell me twice which choice to make. Great as this is, it still takes time. And we sure don't have much of that! By our calculations, if we let the chickens roam the garden area every day until Saturday, then on Sunday we can plot out some rows for the early crops of peas and onions, that way when we return all we have to do is stick those seeds in the ground. We will still have quite a bit of manual labor as the garden grows, but that's the case of EVERY garden. No matter how well planned and plowed ahead of time.

Another project of mine that i didn't plan very well for is baby chicks. The sample set of eggs, 4 of them, are due to hatch this weekend. Why do i always seem calender dyslexic? Check back for updates on that......

Cheers, Nyn