Meaning, what we had decided to do, we couldn’t: terraform in a few places, but the soil outside had frozen overnight.  So . . . okay, well we can still get soil ready for Tuesday (Valentine’s Day), when, according to our biodynamic schedule, we will begin to plant seeds.

As in the past four weeks, both Ben and Ningyao (finally got her name right!) were here, hoping to learn from us how to do permaculture. They’ve been working with us to us clean and organize the greenhouse the past few weeks — sweet of them, but that’s not what they signed up for! And we had a new person with us, too, Mathew, who also wants to learn permaculture by doing it.

So, here’s Marita, about to tell everybody what goes in our soil mixture.

We use a mini-block recipe from Eliot Coleman’s The New Organic Grower. The page obviously earmarked . . .

But . . . abrupt U-turn again. Why? Because everybody was eager to not just get the soil ready, but to get their hands in the soil, learn how to use the soil block tool, and hell, let’s plant some seeds! 

 

And since we had already-mixed soil in this container, leftover from last year, let’s just use that, and mix soil for the rest of the greens and herbs next Tuesday. 

Newcomers quickly discovered that you have to get the exact amount of water mixed into the soil so that it will both stay in the soil block tool, and yet not be too wet.

Mathew and Joseph, squatting. Much better than stooping, especially if you’re tall!

(A discussion ensued about the virtues of squatting and that it was how humans used to “sit” before we had chairs).

I’m the only one who didn’t plant, since my hand tremor makes it impossible to work with such tiny seeds as those of basil, arugula and chamomile, all of which we ended up planting in mini-blocks. This next pic makes it obvious. And BTW: the tiny seeds below are ours! From our harvest last year. FINALLY, we’re collecting our own seeds, mostly thanks to Joseph. (I know I’ve said this before in this blog; but it still excites me!)

Next, Joseph and Ningyao. Joseph was the one who decided to see if flower seeds would grow this way, and now, mid-February, Used a mid-sized block, rather than the itsy-bitsy one, to plant zinnia, nasturtium, and sunflower — the large ones, which, surprisingly, didn’t come up last year. Hmmm . . . did he use our sunflower seeds for his planting? Hope not. I know we had packs of store bought seeds left over from last year.

Ben, stooping, having trouble getting his eyes to work with the tiny seeds.

So that’s how we began using biodynamics — on the very first day of the actual gardening season — by impulsively and joyfully starting to plant seeds three days ahead of our carefully chosen (according to the Moon) start date. 

We took all the trays inside one of the houses, next to the window, so they won’t get cold and we won’t have to start a fire in the greenhouse at night. We will keep them moist by spraying them regularly. The tiny seedling blocks get transferred into mid-size blocks when the second set of leaves sprout.