Seedlings

I’ve started planting seeds and seedlings. One of my favorite things is to see seeds sprout, to watch that baby plant establish itself, and to take care of it and see it grow.

Here’s a tomato, just germinated, so tender and fresh. I planted 220 tomato seeds, which seems like a huge amount! Not everything germinates so I plant a lot to have some confidence I’ll get enough plants. I plant the seeds in tiny soil cubes and then transplant the viable ones into bigger cubes or cups.

Here’s some of the grid of cubes with lots of little sprouts. We take the trays outside into the hoophouse during the day, where they can get any sun that’s shining and are out of the wind. If it’s really warm and nice, they can sit out on the deck. At night we bring them indoors. It gets a bit tedious moving the trays from place to place two or three or more times a day, but this phase only last a few weeks.

Over the last few days, lots of things have gotten planted in the garden. Our friend Chuck grows seedlings every year and offers them at his local farmstand. From him, I got broccoli, chard, parsley, and cabbage. They went in yesterday during a brief spell of beautiful spring sunshine. I also bought leeks and shallots, which are sitting inside for now. From Dixondale Farms in Texas, I got onion plants and planted nine rows today with Sam’s help. It looks like it will be raining over the next few days, so I’m glad I got some things in the ground.

Indoors, I’ve been jumping around from project to project. Unsettled. I did a little spring cleaning. I incorporated my mom’s sewing stuff into my own, a meaningful exercise that called for some reflection and consideration. I set aside things from her that I won’t use (rug braiding paraphernalia, for example). I organized my threads so that they are all together in a large cardboard box lid. Now they are disorganized in one place, which is progress I guess. I can take the whole lot to a table as a unit and find threads more easily.

I finished the box weaving. The brown silk weft really reminds me of soil. I plant a lot of things in rows like this. Although I do have a tendency to want to broadcast certain seeds merrily in a patch. The yellow represents the sunlight. I need to do some stitching on this to stabilize it before I take it off the box (loom). I don’t have any use for this in mind, but it was fun to make. I have lots of fabric strips for some reason, so there may be a lot of cloth weavings in my future.