My last blog was February 19 - there is a picture of seedlings in my office, basking in the sunlight streaming onto them through the window. As I type this, only 12 days has elapsed. Those baby seedlings have been outdoors - completely skipping the grow light-in-the-garage part of the process. They are showing true leaves, in most cases. It is time to transplant....but though they may be ready, I am not!
Seedlings sunning themselves on March 3, hardened off, full sun, showing true leaves.
Quick inventory of what is blooming: daffodils, azalea, spirea, flowering cherry tree, hellebores, forsythia, quince....all four of our indoor "Christmas" cacti (yeah, right...Christmas!). Confused? The plants are. And, I suspect, we gardeners are as well.
The trip to Michigan and event at Dow Botanical Garden (the Know and Grow seminar, at which I got to share the stage with Barbara Damrosch and Bill Shores) was wonderful in every way imaginable. I am now getting ready for the avalanche of events to come, with the Organic Growers School at UNC Asheville NC up next. I've booked flights to Pittsburgh, Huntsville, and Hartford. Power Point will be my friend for many evenings to come. Please find details for all of my upcoming events here.
A few of my wonderful hosts at Dow
Audience professing their love of tomatoes just before my morning workshop
I hope to get a newsletter out in the next week or so, where I will spend a bit more time detailing my upcoming events and progress on my next book, as well as initial plans for my garden this year. Lots and lots of seed packets went into the mail over the last month, as our Dwarf Breeding Project continues.
As for what is next for the seedlings....we are due for a few frosty nights, so in they will come (it is much easier to move 4 flats of seedlings than dozens and dozens of trays of transplants, hence my decision to delay transplanting until next week). I can't wait to separate out some of the dwarf project mysteries, seeking some of the leaf shape or color combinations hoped for.
Three main flats of tomato seedlings getting sun, but out of a stiff, chilly breeze on March 3