Let the Growing Begin!
The Olympic Games commence with the words, "Let the games begin." On our farm, you can hear the words, "Let the growing begin" when the beginning of March rolls around. The greenhouse is officially running. Yesterday, even though it felt warm enough to plant outside, I spent the day seeding my first vegetable and flower transplants.
March has turned into one of my favorite times of the growing season. After many months of indoor work, I am finally playing in the dirt again. And the best part is that even if it is cold outside, I have my own little personal summer inside the greenhouse.
All of the vegetables and annual flowers, with the exception of the corn, beans and pumpkins, are started in the greenhouse. Tiny transplants, started from seed, are grown in 50 or 72 cell trays. Each week, we start a new set of transplants so that we have successive plantings throughout the spring and summer. For instance, we do 6 plantings of tomatoes, 8 plantings of squash, and 18 plantings of sunflowers. Charts are carefully maintained to keep track of the seeding schedule. Once the weather gets warmer, and the transplants are big enough and tough enough to leave the ideal conditions of the greenhouse, the plants will be planted in the fields.
To me, watching these tiny seeds turn into the plants that produce the delicious fruits and vegetables that we enjoy in the summer is nothing short of a miracle.
