Getting Green

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Farmer John needs a shave! Today I was on the run all day! It's 9:00 PM. Twelve hours since I stepped outside to work today. It was all mad effort in the greenhouse. Plus I voiced 2 commercials in the studio and supervised an ISDN session in Santa Barbara.

Dandelions add color in the garden. They also let me know I am way behind in weeding the asparagus and mowing down the grass! They're pretty though.


I worked up my own planting mix for filling the flats we use to start seeds in the greenhouse. I added organic fertilizer to a premade organic mix of mostly peat. Nice and light so small seeds can break the surface easily. The soil temperature is only about 50 degrees F. It's too cold to direct seed many of our plants into the ground. Optimum germination for many seeds is 70 to 80 degrees F. The greenhouse gets plants established at warmer temps and gives us a head start. It got up to 90 degrees F inside today. Outside air temp. was about 60.


Here are some of the dill seeds I harvested in the greenhouse this week. I planted some in flats. They look better than the commercial dill seed we bought. This is Hercules Dill - and heirloom we bought from Richter's in Ontario.

YAY! The beds are turned and composted and the shelves are full of newly seeded flats. I'll take another snapshot in a couple of weeks so you can see the greenhouse when it really is green! My friend Will Oakley and I built the green house several years ago. It's become a really important part of our production.

Here is the view looking out into the yard.

I have so many more projects that all need to be done yesterday. Spring is a very demanding season. Fortunately, it's still too cold for mosquitos. But I was visited by a few of those nasty little black flies today. They are small, but they can draw blood. More bats please!

I saw a bat fly out of the barn in daylight the other day. I hope it was going to get some friends.
They eat pests like crazy!

The CBC radio is currently airing a long form program on Korean Shamans. Wow, I wish we better radio in the States. It's good company.

Well, I have to get ready for bed. I'll be up at 6:00 AM. (That's 2:00AM in Santa Barbara!)