porch party

Dear Readers,

Finally, we had a few warm days, and could move the seedlings outside! Porch party!

Meanwhile, Jascha and our friend Curtis (check out his amazing paintings here) were busy building a greenhouse. Watching them work is both inspiring (they are a great team) and exasperating (they work very methodically in comparison to my impulsive inclinations). My contribution is to bring the beer.

It's really too cold to have the seedlings out at night, but once the greenhouse is built, we can use it to shelter the little baby plants from the elements, and we can use heat mats to keep them warm at night.

But until then, we spend lots of time moving the flats inside at night when it's too cold, and back out during the day when it's sunny and warmer. There was a super warm day last week and guess what: I did the first planting of 2015! Sweet peas!

I used zip ties to attach hortanova netting (the white plastic stuff) to low metal hoops. The netting is important because it acts as a trellis for the pea vines to climb on, and the hoops are necessary because of the end goal, which is:

Agribon, the white cloth pictured above, keeps the moisture and heat in so that the plants don't get frostbite when the temperature dips below freezing. I checked on the sweet peas today, and they're looking good! (Knock wood.)

Let's all do a Spring dance to bring on the warmer weather! Chanting optional. I wish you all a tulip or two...

Laura Beth