Daily Archives: March 27, 2011

Mar 27 2011

Gardening in the Snow

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This morning we woke up to snow and ice, so we decided to plant some seeds! Anya helped me mix up the peat moss and perlite and put the soil mixture into the seed trays. Luckily, Andy had mopped the floor yesterday, so it was nice and clean for us to put dirt all over.

I planted the seeds while Anya and Andy used the label maker to…make labels. I’ve tried all sorts of things in the past to keep track of which seeds are where (popsicle sticks, maps, bits of whatever set on top, my memory {hahaha}), but it seems like things always get mixed up. Maybe the labels will work? Andy spelled the words out, and Anya typed them into the machine. After the labels were printed, Anya trimmed them, peeled off the back, and stuck them on the trays where I pointed. She was a very good helper! She also got to plant some dill and cilantro because those seeds are big enough for her teeny fingers.

So, what did we plant?

Peppers: Alma Paprika, Sweet Bell Mix, Relleno, Espanola Improved, and Cap’n Leigh’s Dragon Peppers (developed by Andy’s father over several years)
Tomatoes: Mexico Midget, Aunt Ruby’s German Green, Speckled Roman, Black from Tula, Beam’s Yellow Pear, and Crnkovic Yugoslavian
Herbs: Black Cumin, Cilantro, Dill, Sweet Genovese Basil, and Opal Purple Variegated Basil
Other: Purple Tomatillo

The newest seeds we had were “Packed for 2008.” The oldest, 2004. I threw in three or four seeds in each cell and hope that at least one will grow. I should probably just toss most of the seeds, but I can’t. They are baby plants! I can’t toss them! I could give them to people, but they are up to 7 years old. I don’t think anyone would want seeds that old when they can get new ones for a dollar. I suppose I could toss the REALLY old ones in the compost, and then they would have a chance to grow, so it wouldn’t be like I was throwing them away? Decisions, decisions.

In the meantime, the plant room (aka scary bathroom) has its first occupants. I just need to write a big note, so that I don’t forget they are down there.

Mar 27 2011

Welcome, Spring!

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Anya’s school had a party to celebrate the start of spring. I was a bit concerned about going seeing as how last time there was a celebration, I ended up with a broken foot. The party started off with a Marshmallow Challenge where each class was given a few pieces of dry spaghetti, some dental floss and masking tape, and a big marshmallow. They had about 20 minutes or so to build a tower using the supplies and with the marshmallow on top. Anya wasn’t very interested in this, and decided to camp out in the Quiet Corner of her classroom.

After that was finished, we all went outside to sing and dance. First, though, we were sent out into the woods to find something special to put on the Spring altar. Anya found a large branch, and I found a piece of bark with a mossy thing growing on it.

The people leading the dancing and singing had starting playing drums, and we all gathered back, put our items on a large mat of felted wool, and sat in a big circle.

Most of the little kids weren’t very interested in the singing and dancing, and they ran off to the sandbox. I used Anya’s leaving the circle as my excuse to sit out the rest of the songs. It was just a little bit too much singing and dancing for me. I did enjoy watching the others, and I took a lot of pictures for the school to have. The afternoon ended for us when Anya was chasing a little dog someone had brought (we aren’t supposed to bring dogs to school, but inevitably someone does), and she tripped and fell and scraped up her knee.

Later in the week, Anya’s class went to visit Ed’s farm, one of the founding fathers of the school. We got to see baby goats, baby chickens, and baby frogs.

The kids had a great time, but I think Ed had the most fun.

Finally, back home, we had a few nice days when we got the berry bed mostly cleared out and mulched and some pea and carrot seeds planted. We need to improve our fencing around the berry / pea bed because right now all that we have is a two or three foot chicken wire fence. We put it up last year to discourage the rabbits from eating the strawberry plants. Other than that discouragement and keeping little Anyas and neighbor dogs out, the fence isn’t very useful. Deer scoff at it, birds think it is a nice place to land, and rabbits mostly like to stretch their legs jumping over it.