Monday, March 05, 2007



Cold seeds in the garage. That's a thermal blanket (mylar) in there bouncing the light around behind them. And the junk on the sill are various trinkets I have pulled out of the flower garden below it. Gotta love old farmers and their expansive notion of "garbage heap."

So for the most part, I have judiciously restrained myself from seed-starting. Thusfar I have not quite given in to the call of the dirt, having only planted those seeds notoriously long in germination, and even then, I have done so grudgingly. February 12th is a long way off from planting things around here, but February 12th is what parsley and onions require.

Things changed on Sunday, somehow. I was feeling quite the same about the whole process on Saturday, the day I actually started some flower and pepper seeds (for indoors) and cold salad stuff (mache, claytonia, spinach) that typically takes its sweet time in the unheated garage. Yesterday, though? I was ANTSY. I wanted to dig, I wanted to kneel, I wanted to give in to the agricultural process.

But I didn't. I only mucked out the coop and started another (the 4th) compost pile. The kid helped, kind of: she shepherded the chickens to the one snow-free spot on the lawn so they could eat their grass. It was a nice day in the upper 20s and we spent lots of time outside. It felt quite lovely. We even got a little sunburned.

3 comments:

meresy_g said...

I'm itching to garden as well. I went to a garden show yeasterday and bought a bunch of plants (primroses and two houseplants) and bulbs and just wanted to come home and do stuff outside. But that didn't happen. 30 mph winds and temps in the 30s just kind of quashed that flame. Soon though, soon.

Dancingfarmer said...

I think it's easier to "restrain" yourself when you have 20 degree weather and snow. Lot's harder when it's hitting 50 to 60 during the day and there's rarely ever snow! Of course I only have a bit of room--looks like you have more space. Besides as much as I am itching to plant something like a... pumpkin seed---it would take over the house before I could get it outside :-D

rooster said...

i can relate to finding junk in the garden...our land is full of 'treasures'. only occasionally is it something nice like an old, old bottle or a small tool. we have an entire stone wall to excavate someday as someone decided to bury it with the remains of an old barn. they literally shoved the rubble up over the wall--wood, glass, metal, all circa 1940s.