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Springtime!

Posted on Apr 23, 2013 in Bookshelf, The Fam, The Homestead

In springtime, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.
— Shakespeare

Oh, what a beautiful morning! Oh, what a beautiful day. I’ve got a beautiful feeling everything’s going [our] way!
— Curly in Oklahoma! [the way I sing it with the kids]

Wake up buttercups and daisies, wake up violets dear,
see the grass is peeping peeping, see that spring is here!
Wake up tulips gold and crimson, wake up from your sleep.
And the dandelions bright golden, from the grasses peep!

Spring poems require exclamations!  Spring is here!  Surprise!
Happy Earth Day (yesterday), everyone.  This is a (long!) post about dirt, growth, farms, and general sunshine merriment.THE GARDEN HAS BEGUN.
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Geeking out on germination.
I got this super cool germination station for Christmas and tried starting seeds indoors with the heat mat and “greenhouse” top…somethings sprouted. some things died. and then I succumbed to the reality that I am a work-hard-only-in-spurts aka LAZY gardener.  And I don’t have patience to baby the slow and fragile seeds.  Alas, I am sure I will try again because I’m a farmer’s granddaughter and I just can’t help it.
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Geeking out on dirt.
I have been to unmentionable amounts of websites, Sunset magazines and books (my annual routine). Which means I already feel LATE and OVERWHELMED by all the gardening decisions to be made.  But I am not late. I live in California with a very long growing period ahead of me.  This year I’m investing in my dirt. Yes, it always baffles me that I pay REAL money for chicken poo, but I have drunk the koolaid and I believe this combo will force me to have neighborhood garden dinners every weekend this summer to keep up with our bounty.  The math: equal parts of compost/peat moss/vermiculite.
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Geeking out on Squares.
Have you heard about Square Foot Gardening (or SFG as the in-crowd calls it, of course)?  Well, the soil combo is part of it, but the rest is this grid of putting your plants close together (but not too close) in raised beds…more plants, less of a yard footprint.  So far I’ve planted some tomato starters, a few of my seedlings, and a few types of seed in my left-most bed.
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Both kids had appointments yesterday and so have some stats to share.  My gargantuan 18month old is the average height of a 26-month old (35″) and weighs 28.5 lbs.  Sweet Whitney was 34.5″ and weighs just under 26lbs.  The other day a friend slipped and referred to them as “the twins” … pretty much.  They are little copycats, and best friends.  AND, Whitney saw the cardiologist yesterday and was declared completely recovered from her surgery.  No more caution necessary.  Woo hoo Whitney girl!
And for those of you who know what it takes to get toddlers to stand still and think I hit a photo miracle with that featured one here’s what the other 99 photos look like… photography is one part luck, one part persistence, and one part Photoshop.
Growth
Blog4-23AND, we had a field trip with school to Emma Prusch Farm in San Jose on Friday….I love this place.  Real pigs!  🙂  The kids are afraid of the “Loud” (a.k.a. Rooster) but are obsessed with chickens and other fowl and loved pumping water.  The other best part about this place is it’s free!
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  1. Counting With Produce | laughodil - […] perfect piece of nature-science sense…this year’s summer garden did not live up to my springtime eager expectations.  I geeked…
  2. Gardening Geek-Out 2014 has begun. | laughodil - […] some spring plants from seeds using my Germination Station (seedling tray with a heat mat) from last year.  So…

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