Some of the seeds we planted directly last time have started to come up so we should have some spinach and radishes pretty soon. Some of the seeds we planted indoors and transplanted to bigger cups are waiting patiently for it to get warmer out.
Many of the other seeds we started indoors will soon need to be transplanted to bigger cups as well, probably by the end of the week. Truly we should be waiting until Mother's Day to plant these outdoors. I refused to listen to such wisdom for many years and lost many a crop because of my stubbornness.
So we filled the two new boxes with soil and cleaned up the other boxes a bit to get rid of the dead growth from last season and check closely on some of the plants that seem to want to make a comeback. There is one Brussels sprout plant we are especially keeping an eye on. We also checked for grubs and worms who gave us some trouble last season.
One of my favorite crops to grow over the years has been potatoes. Everything tastes better when it is fresh picked from the garden, but there is something really amazing about digging in the dirt for potatoes and the flavor of them right out of the earth is like nothing you have ever tasted if all you know is potatoes from the store. The other bonus is that if you miss any they come back again the next season.
Today we also started putting together the pallet composter (sorry no photo this time) and once we get it lined with wire mesh we can start using it. The small rotating composter we have been using is doing a good job (no bad smell and it is making "compost tea") with a lot of the scraps from the Culinary Arts classes and will act as a good catalyst for the larger pallet composter.
We then finished our time today at Middlebrook Farm School planting some other seeds such as carrots, lettuces, peas, and beans.
Our next steps this week are going to be to build some more boxes and get them ready for all those seedlings we have indoors. Between now and Mother's Day we can hopefully hold off on planting them but also get them outdoors soon on the rolling rack to get some exposure and harden them off before they go in the soil.
Be sure to visit if you are in the neighborhood and check out the rest of our Middlebrook Farm School blog posts at www.middlebrook-farm-school.blogspot.com
