Somehow it's already the beginning of April, and time is being quickly count down. With only three weeks before I'm off to Europe again for work, time will pass increasingly quickly and checking the most important chores off the list will become more and more crucial. For now, Jordan is away on a dirt bike trip and race, something he's had on the calendar three years in a row, but was only able to attend (finally) this year, thanks to our kind sister/sister-in-law/brother-in-law who are babysitting the animals while I'm at work.
Preparing for the garden has already taken hours of labour. We decided to plant seedlings indoors seriously this year (and keep Georgi away since he ate ALL the little sprouts last year!) using plastic trays and the soil blocking method. Some are small, others larger, and some trays are better as loose soil. It's been three full days of work to prepare these trays so far, and we've just finished the first set. One down, one to go. So I really hope we get good germination and healthy plants as well as have good luck transplanting! Oh my fingers are crossed!!!
I did receive my copy of Floret's book, which I love, but then, like many sources of information on the farm topics we are interested in learning more about, find them to be more inspiring than applicable to our climate. However it's a great source (best available as far as I have found) for growing cut flowers and as with everything else we can think outside the box, like with the rabbit boxes, and those have made all the difference! And inspiration is actually quite compelling. It's certainly helping drive me when I've already popped out 1012 mini soil blocks and I need to do it all over again next week, sigh. Once those little seedlings sprout though, I'll be so pleased!
It seems soap and gardening have been eating up the time I've had to make things to eat up. When I manage to turn out a tasty treat, there's no time to take any photos before we've inhaled them. We've had a few batches of cookies, some brownies, and then a very quick cake, plus healthy foods, with some effort to include healthful spices and herbs. I wish I had more time to take care of my home! So much I want to do never happens, and even the things I consider the most important are getting thinned out... I'm just dreaming of the house being vacuumed, bathroom sparkling, kitchen floor just cleaned, and an array of fresh, seasonal, plus other interesting ingredients on the counter just waiting for some creative mouth watering arrangement. And no stress or exhaustion!
I've realized having my frozen Swiss chard in a freezer outside of the house is harder to remind myself of than if it were in my kitchen, and now I am challenging myself to use it up before the spring/summer greens arrive. Maybe just don't tell Jordan. We've had some delicious spanakopita type pie, with bacon. Very tasty with sour cream. I need more ideas, though. So far I'm just hoping to make a type of dandelion pesto with it, hopefully to go on fresh pasta, but if I only make the sauce, I'll be quite happy.
The snow is finally melting off our to-be orchard area... maybe Spring really is here! The dandelions are stretching and the grass is showing a little green when inspected closely.
Due to some technical internet issues, a whole week has passed since I was hoping to post this, which means I've actually finished all the pre-planting! That's a total of 62 trays! And approximately 30 hours of toil. But all on schedule. I must ask myself if it's worth the time investment. Of course I ask myself many times, about everything on the farm, if I'd do what I'd done again, similarly, precisely the same, or dramatically different. Only time will tell in this case, as gardening doesn't provide immediate gratification. What would you call it instead? Longterm-earth-relationship-investment-gratification? In any case, I might just be trying plant cell trays next year. Despite the cost of the trays. Time is money! Or so I've heard it said...
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