Running on Two Cylinders

So the Green Fair at the church was a success. The community plot for growing food for local food banks (Healthy Food for Healthy Families) received good interest and people have signed up for week long responsibilities for weeding, watering and harvesting. We were also able to construct a second compost bin for the church, and have had some interest in a smaller version :) If others are interested let me know!

My wife is getting on me regarding sticking to topic... I tend to dwell into details. Here's the various front status: The Home Front - raspberries have been pruned mid-Feb. to encourage growth and dead canes have been pulled. Lettuce has been planted in ground and in cells (though the in-ground hasn't sprouted and the cells have) carrots have also ben planted. Tomatoes, mystery squash and spinach have been started indoors, and we have also invest in a baker's rack on the screened porch to move the seed starting outside.

On the church plots: prep work in turning over the soil has been worked on for the personal plot - as it had more weeds. An inherited clump of onion family plants have been divided and replanted in the prepped soil. The HF4HF plot has been expanded with additional soil area being turned over and the previous year's garlic has been weeded (you can see it to the left of the compost bins above).

Again probably focusing on details, but there's alot of work still yet to be done!

Placing Seeds

So... the Cherokee Purple tomatoes doesn't look promising. The Red Currant, Pineapple and Romas have pretty much all sprouted. The Super 100's were in a coating and are taking a bit longer, maybe.

We did start what we're referring to as the mystery seeds. My daughter has a habit of keeping seeds in order to plant and she doesn't label them. Hmpf! Well those sprouted and were in danger of lifting the lid within a week!! Looks to be a squash of some sort. In about 75-80 days we'll probably know.

This last weekend we repotted the peat pots into 4" pots and placed them in the cold frame on the back porch and brought in some of the others to set over the heat pad. MAGIC!

On the other front - our church is having a Green Fair and my wife and I are participating. She'll be drumming up volunteers for the community plot and I'll be giving a demo on the compost bin by constructing a second one for the community plot. Others will be showing how to make your own reusable bags, mindful eating, productive landscapes (I've been placed as a resource there too, thanks Jeanette! ;), hopefully communicating which plants are started in the church greenhouse, and getting people to sign-up for a grounds work-a-nanny day. Should be fun.

The starting of the seeds!

So we might be a bit behind Jeanette, but we finally started some of the ordered seeds. The cold frame has spinach, butter lettuce, parsley, dill, and trying coneflower - but it still might be a bit cold for coneflower? We also have heated seed starter that we'll try to start our tomato plants in. Stay tuned - there may be tomato plants to adopt!