La Belle's Hobby Farm: Weathering the Storm

My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view. 
~ H. Fred Dale

 

L

ast Friday, a huge thunderstorm roared through here, knocking out our power for most of the night, and tearing all the blooms off the crabapple, apple, and cherry trees.  Fortunately, the lilacs held strong; as for the other, I was able to get pictures of all of them before the storm hit.

Apparently, sugar snaps love storms, because when I went out on Saturday to inspect the damage, they had shot up a few more inches since last week: 

As for my wee pots, the both types of broccoli and tomatoes are already sprouting. *Claps excitedly.*  They were actually outside when the storm hit, so they got a tad flooded; we ended up soaking up the excess water with paper towels because I learned my over-watering lesson last year.  Learn one lesson just in time to make another boo-boo.  When the storm hit, only the broccoli has sprouted. 

Temperatures dropped that night, so I brought them in.  A day and a half later, the tomatoes sprouted.  New lesson learned: getting your seeds to sprout requires a little more care and attention in terms of temperature regulation, a fact I didn’t pay quite as much attention to.

This prompted me to wish I had purchased grow lights.  Which then led to me wishing I had a small greenhouse.  I have a ton of old windows stacked up outside ~ might as well use them.  After all, recycling is part of the organic and sustainable lifestyle.  However, that is a project for later in the summer. 

For now, I’ll just enjoy watching my veggies grow up.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

La Belle's Hobby Farm: Garden and Seed Update

In my opinion, if 100% of the people were farming it would be ideal.
If each person were given one quarter-acre, that is 1 1/4 acres to a family of five,
that would be more than enough land to support the family for the whole year.
~ Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution

F

riday I took advantage of the warm weather and finally planted my “start indoors” seeds.  The weather here in Virginia has been so weird: snow one day, eighty degrees two days later ~ I’m not too worried that my wee seeds won’t be ready for the move to the big kid playground come May.  They will be hardy transplants by then.

I bought organic biodegradable pots, so they’ll can right in the ground and some organic seed starter:

and with some plastic containers (ok not the best idea ~ no drainage holes) and some old popsicle sticks (this does not mean I condone my mom’s hoarding tendencies!), voila!

In other news, my little sugar snaps are growing up so fast!  Hooray! 

You have to understand ~ I am always late putting these babies in the ground.  It was a rush to the finish, but I did get them in early enough to enjoy the cooler spring weather.  Now we’ll just wait and see if they produce pea pods.  Even if they do not, the greens are delicious in salad.

Also, the lettuce Pearl planted also popped up:

as well as what I thought was spinach but now I’m not so sure:

Any ideas?  This is why staking the name of your crops is important: not just so you know what you’re harvesting later, but also for crop rotation.  Obviously, my garden plan was more of a garden suggestion.

In the end, it’s all good.  It’s all deliciously good.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

What seeds are sprouting up in your garden this week?