February Plantings, so far . . .

At this point, we have planted various tomatoes and peppers, cilantro, parsley, and basil, several types of kale and chard, and onions, in that order.

THE PROCESS:

Making soil blocks, first tiny ones, and placing tiny seeds in the depressed center of each one —

—

Soon the tiny blocks will be placed within a hole provided in larger blocks, but not yet . . .

The process is intricate, and not exactly suited for my tremulous 79-year-old hands. So I carry wood in for the stove —

— and did get to mix soil during one of our work parties (two each week, 10 to noon, Tuesday and Friday). 

On one of my trips to get wood during last week’s unusually cold spell, I noticed that goldfish are surviving the winter, under the ice, in one of our tiny ponds.

During that same cold spell, we brought lots of trays inside rather than keep a fire going in the greenhouse all night, and probably over-sprayed them, and maybe shouldn’t have put dark covers on them, for a bit of white mold had appeared on tops of the soil blocks. However, Daniel (our new garden manager, who used to run the IU Gardens) looked it up, and discovered that white mold — though we obviously need to dry them out a bit — is not bad. It’s green or black mold that you have to watch out for. 

Here we are (Aya, Annie, Daniel and Marita) discussing the situation, having brought the trays back out into the greenhouse again. 

Rather than using popsicle sticks to identify where and what seeds are in the trays, this year we decided to tape names on the sides of the trays.

Plus, Joseph is keeping notes . . .

It looks like we’re going to be planting more flowers this year. YES!

Meanwhile, it’s still only mid-February. Gardens fallow . . .

Here’s a shot of what the greenhouse looks like this morning. Nice and toasty in there, and notice the heat pad under the seedlings —

which are thriving to the point where we’re going to have to remove the covers of some of them soon.