I made this impromptu Snowman from the snow that fell on April fools day. The raised beds had been completely clear of snow for almost a week. The day before I had stuck my hand under the tarp and the soil was nice and warm and very workable. I got so excited that I ran inside and started a whole tray of lettuce to plant out in a couple weeks.

 None of us was very happy to see all the snow. Oh we went out and played in it but we would have been much happier digging in the dirt. I think Pablo has actually taken up sulking about it. He goes around the house finding any bit of sun he can find to lay in. I think he is jealous of all the seedlings. He sits there on the couch just watching me water and move them around, thinking they are getting more attention than he is right now.

The seedlings don't seem to mind that it is snowing out. As long as I keep feeding, water and having the light on them they are very happy to stay inside where it is warm. I think I may have started some of them a little too early like the Cosmos & the Marigolds.                

 The Impatiens have already started to bloom. A lot of the flowers are ready to be put out when the weather starts cooperating. I will have to start potting them up soon if I can't get them out. Hopefully the nights will get a little warmer and I can put them out on the enclosed porch.

The tomato plants have all been potted up once to 3 inch pots. I will pot them up again in another couple weeks. I keep putting the fan on them to try and get the stems to be  little sturdier this year. We took a trip to Longfellow's green house the other weekend and got this little shelf. It comes with a plastic cover so I can keeps some plants outside on the porch even if the weather is a little colder. Maybe in another couple weeks I will give it a go. For now we will keep the lights on and continue to feed and water the little buggers. As always continue to THINK SPRING!!!!!!

 

Still waiting for spring.......

  

As you can see I’m still waiting for spring. I had such high hopes that we would get another early spring this year. Given that this last storm dumped yet another foot of snow I’m starting to worry that Mother Nature is playing a cruel trick and will never let spring in. While outside the house looks like this.

 

                SNOW AND MORE SNOW!

The inside of the house looks like spring;

    

 So you can see my dilemma, if Mother Nature does not play nice and let spring in soon, I’m not sure where I’m going to put all these plants. I’ve actually adjusted the planting schedule a little bit but this month I have to start the veggie seeds.

   I have started a new project this year it’s called Vermicomposting.  My compost bin and my tumbler freeze up every year and I end up throwing out the food scraps & plant trimmings into the trash and it drives me crazy. So I did a little research and decided on getting Pablo a little competition, I got some red wigglers. Now most of all the food scraps and plant trimmings go into the bin and the littler wormers munch it up and poop it out and PESTO! I have worm compost for worm tea to water the seedlings with and they love it. It is the ultimate recycling program. It is really easy to do. I went to Wormmainea.com and the guy (I call him the worm guy, his name is actually Mark) raises these red wigglers and sells them along with other products he makes including bins for the worms and worm tea (compost tea). He also does a blog, sort of a “how to” for worm composting but it is also very educational on various types of ways to go green. We all know that green is good. I’ve had the little guys for a couple weeks and they have already munched their way through a couple pounds of food scraps.

  

We were going to name the little buggers until we found out that there were about 1000 worms to a pound. They live very simple they like it dark, cool and quiet, so the basement works out perfect and I don’t pick at them everyday down there.

 

Their home is a little blue tote with holes cut into it and some shredded paper (from work) as bedding. The food scraps add enough moisture to keep them happy. In about 3 months I will have enough worm compost (poop) to use as some fertilizer and to also make some Worm tea.

  

This was my first batch of worm tea. Tammy was not happy when she saw I was using one of the kitchen utensils. I offered to give it back, she told me to buy her a new one. Picky, picky, picky! After the tea steeped for 24 hrs I watered the seedlings with it and wow they really seemed to like it. They really took off and grew a lot. That is awesome I think, I still don’t know what I’m going to do with them all if spring doesn’t hurry up and get here!