Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Spring Get Away April Fool!

I'm usually much better at keeping up with posting entries. My goal is at least one per month, yet it's been almost three months since my last one.

I blame the weather...

We've had an incredible winter. It's been super mild which isn't great for our snow pack and water supply. But, it's been great for gardening. I even took the risk of seeding my lawn a few weeks ago. A bit of seasonal denial. I am fully aware at any moment we could enter a cold snap as we haven't passed our frost free date yet. And if we do freeze, I worry about every plant out there that is blooming or finished and leafing out as though it's May!

I found my invoice and letter from CR Lawn of Fedco Seeds, one of my favorite seed companies. His letter analyzed seed orders as of January 19, 2015. While seed orders have been slow, they had an increase of their tree orders (sorry, you have to be local in Maine to take advantage) by 20%. His reasoning is that people think long term and there is an increase in permaculture resulting in more tree sales.

Their biggest seller is Swiss Chard 'Bright Lights' followed by cilantro 'Caribe'. CR Lawn can't but help make a political jab connecting a poor selling spinach 'Donkey' to the GOP's motives.

This is the first year Fedco designated codes for their seed sources. It was too early to tell at the time of the letter, but it will be interesting to see if the codes affect the seed sales.

I realized today, it being the last day of March, I better get on to sowing! And...oh...wait! I forgot to place my order with Kitazawa! Argh! Maybe this is a good thing given my eyes are always bigger than my garden. It will help me narrow down my choices. Do I want to try again with winged beans and edamame? Probably not. Should I try something new like corn? Go back to growing kohlrabi? Yes and yes! I love broccoli raab but have struggled with bolting so I'm thinking of trying 'Zamboni'. Oh and of course our beloved 'Odoriko' tomato.

Hope you're all taking advantage of this weather...seasonal denial or otherwise!