after the equinox (march reflection)

this side of the spring equinox looks much different than just a few weeks prior. the spring garden has been planted with seedlings (and seed potatoes!) and is picking up the pace each day. the greenhouse is stuffed full of tender annual flowers and herbs to go out in april. bees and butterflies are out, the sunlight is stronger (and so is the pollen).

turning 2.75 cubic yards of compost from neighbors' food scraps

march has been a month of getting new projects done while trying to juggle potting up and transplanting, and then the demands of weekly weeding. from planting 12 new apple trees, to installing a 400 square foot berry patch, as quickly as i finish a project, several more take its place.

300 seedlings in 3/4" soil blocks ready to be potted up in early feb

february, on the other hand, was full of anticipation and excitement, but the to do list was blessedly small. seedlings were crammed in around grow lights as the weather was extremely erratic and quite unseasonably cold. we had snow at the beginning of the month (late in the year for our area), an ice storm, lows in the very low teens -- all unusual events happening at the same time. i took advantage of the later cold temps to prune roses and all our fruit trees, as well as plant a couple new honeyberry shrubs and move some trees and shrubs around in the garden.

spring seedlings catching some rays on a warmer february day

now that the weather is staying warm, i have lots of eggplant, peppers, chilis, tomatoes, and cutting garden flowers getting ready to move out into the garden. every day it seems something new is blooming - from the golden alexander in our native flower garden to the sugar snap peas in the vegetable garden.

the greenhouse tomato experiment is going very well - all twelve of the test plants are thriving in the warm conditions and half of them are flowering. two plants have small green fruits and it looks like we will be eating our first tomatoes in april this year!