Raining Again.

Yup, wet weather here to stay again.  Thomas, hope you and your garden are not falling under the "flood watch".  I still have yet to catch up on my seed sowing.  I did manage to pot up my two Polbig seedlings this weekend out in the cold, cold shed where they gave off steam as soon as soon as their toasty roots were exposed to the frigid air.  Into the cow 'poo pots' they went, the pots don't smell anything like manure, but they have a bit of an unpleasant odor when sniffed (I can't help it, I smell everything).  It is so exciting to have something that looks like a tomato plant growing.

I have seeds germinating in coffee filters that need to be transferred into soil blocks, I really must try and accomplish this task today.

This past weekend we were busy trying to finish up the re-do of my son's room.  I needed to break down a 30 gallon aquarium and downsize it into his new 14 gallon aquarium, which was placed on his new desk.  Then my darling husband removed the radiator covers off the walls and scraped, sanded, and washed the walls and ceilings that have not been painted already.  It is amazing what years of saltwater drips/spray can do to a room and it's contents.

We laid down hardwoods and painted one half of the room over the last month or so, then moved all of his new furniture over....so now we are working on the second half.   Here is the 'old' half, followed by the proud new owner in the 'almost done half':

We love salty critters here in my house, and my son and I both have some new aquarium inhabitants arriving tomorrow which will be fun but time consuming since the fish and invertebrates require such long acclimation times.........seed sowing is on the back burner again.  I am going to be really sorry when I have no Sorrel and Arugula to eat in May!  (oh, and as a side note the seedlings under the hoops stayed toasty during our cold spell, though they were a bit purple from the lower temps.  Is it phosphate they can't take up in the cold that causes the discoloration??  I can't remember.)

*&*^$!

We are pulling the plug on cable for the remainder of the year, if not indefinitely.  This unfortunately means the thieves will be charging us $55.00/mo. for high speed internet.....uh, no they won't. (Funny how they charge you more when you don't take their TV channels too isn't it?) So come Monday you may not hear from me often, I may be going to coffee shops and such in order to read your blogs, and try to do a post on mine every now and agin.  I was OK with the TV sacrifice since we have been discussing this move for a year now- but I was NOT prepared to give up my high speed internet.....you all know how long a blog takes to load on dial-up.  Sigh, it has been a fun run and hopefully I will find an alternative to the cable company's highway robbery.

C-C-C-COLD!

We are getting ready for a little blast of winter here in Massachusetts.  We have reached the 50% probability mark for a frost in the 28 ℉ range as of tomorrow, and we are going to see it!  My poor garlic is  in for a shock, along with all the tender seedlings recently transplanted out.  The buds have begun to break on all my fruit trees, hopefully they will make it through unscathed.

I will most likely cover the garlic with straw, and maybe some row cover or plastic mulch.  The hoops could really use a heavy quilt, but the forecast is calling for 80% precipitation which may come as rain and/or snow.  Snow would be much preferred by me, at least it is insulating.  That cold rain is not welcome here in my garden!

Yesterday I sowed the remaining peppers, deciding to do it 'coffee filter style' in order to keep on top of the germination.  For some reason (I am assuming from overhead watering) the seeds in the previous soil block sowing fell way into the blocks, I had to dig around to find them after it appeared as though they weren't germinating, so this time around I am playing it safe and will transfer them over to a block once they have sprouted.

One of my little helpers giving the next batch of seedlings a misting.   Those two Polbig tomatoes on the right are just about ready to be potted up, despite being outside in real sunshine last week they are still looking a bit leggy to me.  Maybe my fluorescent bulbs need replacing.   By this time last year my tomatoes were HUGE.  We just have too much going on this year to baby tomatoes inside for 4 months, though it bums me out to know I won't have early tomatoes this summer.

I lost my pea seedlings to all the recent rain, the container they were in was badly clogged and holding three inches of water.  I dumped them and need to start all over today, although Friday's lows have me rethinking that plan, maybe I should just wait until the weekend......the peas will be so far behind anyway.    My kids were very upset to hear the news, they have been looking forward to picking since I ripped out the last crop in 2009.  Just figures right?  It is the only thing they are guaranteed to eat out of the garden!

Happy Gardening!

Got Rhubarb?

There are numerous varieties of rhubarb out there, though Victoria seems to be the most prevalent in my corner of the world.  Others I sometimes see include Mammoth, Macdonald, and Strawberry.  (Pardon the fuzzy leaf on this stem at left. With a "feels like" temperature of near freezing (34℉) I didn't bother taking more than one shot.)  Stalks can be more red or green, and varieties vary greatly in their tartness.  Rhubarb is happy when grown in the North as it requires a cold period to break dormancy.  Full sun will turn out the largest yield, but partial shade is generally tolerated by this plant; it also prefers a rich, well draining soil and a pH in the 6.0 - 6.5 range.

Like asparagus, this perennial is best obtained as a plant (rhizome) rather than grown from seed if you are looking to harvest it in it's first years of residence in your garden.  I have read to "pull" the stalks from the plant rather than cutting the stalk at the base in many sources, yet others still insist a harvest via the knife.   (I find this contradictory information annoying, but probably not harmful to any great extent.  I guess I will just have to wait and see what works for me, what methods do you all use for harvesting?)

Once harvested Rhubarb should be used quickly or frozen.  To temporarily store in the fridge first wrap the stem in a lightly moistened paper towel and seal in a plastic bag.  If there is any leaf fragment remaining on the stalk remove it before storing.  There are more culinary uses for rhubarb than I could possible mention, though my favorite last year was Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble, the recipe can be found here at the Got Crumble?  post.  I find a generous pinch of cloves to be the deal maker in that crumble.  Yummm.  Here is a bit on the medicinal uses and folklore on Rhubarb:

From herbalist.com:

 Overview:

Rhubarb Root is an ancient and gentle, but extremely effective, laxative. It supports good colon health by cleansing it and treating constipation, and in smaller doses, its astringents have eased Diarrhea, Bleedingand Hemorrhoids. Rhubarb Root is considered a wonderful cleanser for the intestines, bowels, liver and blood, helping to rid the system of accumulated toxins. It is also an anti-microbial, antibacterial, and antibiotic and antiviral, and it may even help to improve your digestion.

 Medical Uses:

The tannins in Rhubarb Root produce astringent properties, and when taken in small doses, the tannin activity in Rhubarb supersedes the anthraquinone activity, thus leading to a lower water content of stool, and this action has been effective in relieving Diarrhea. Moreover, the pectin content in Rhubarb Root is also thought to work well with tannins as an anti-Diarrhea. As an effective astringent, Rhubarb Root has been used to alleviate Hemorrhoids, internal Bleeding and inflamed mucous membranes.

Rhubarb Root is considered an "alterative" or agent that helps to gradually and favorably alter the course of an ailment or condition. It helps to modify the process of nutrition and excretion and restore normal bodily function, acting to cleanse and stimulate the efficient removal of waste products from the system. As such, it not only cleanses the intestinal tract and blood, but it is also thought to cleanse the liver by encouraging bile flow. The herb is said to enhance gallbladder function and relieve both liver and gallbladder complaints by releasing an accumulation of toxins.

The bitter principle included in Rhubarb Root is said to stimulate good digestion and improves the appetite. It is considered a "stomachic" that relieves gastric disorders, improves the appetite and gives tone and strength to the stomach. Rhubarb Root is thought to be particularly effective in treating atonic dyspepsia, helping the digestive organs when in a condition of torpor and debility. In addition, the herb is also believed to encourage gastric flow, which also aids the digestive process.

Rhubarb Root is considered an anti-microbial that has been used to treat internal pinworms, threadworms and ringworms.

Treatments:

Rhubarb Root is thought to possess antibacterial, antibiotic and antiviral properties. In vitro studies, the anthraquinone in Rhubarb exhibited virucidal activity against HSV I, measles, polio and influenza virus; and the rhein component showed antibacterial activity against Bacteroides fragilis, but thus far, no conclusions have yet been published.

Rhubarb Root may be used externally to fight inflammation and infection (skin eruptions, boils and carbuncles, etc.) and to promote healing (wounds, Cold Sores and burns, etc.).

WHO KNEW?!?  ☻

I snuck the camera under the hoops this morning to see how all the garden babies are doing in their new home, all seem to be well!  I also peaked in on the sprouts in the Wintersown jug and per Rebecca's suggestion I checked the leaves out....basil.  Hmph.  I have yet to have any tomato other than Sungold seed from Johnny's germinate.  This is making me nervous, especially of the Wintersown SASE tomato seeds.  Those suckers had warm weather all last week and didn't budge.  Not good.

Why do you do it?

I have noticed some new followers lately, WELCOME!  I try and stop as many blogs as I can in a day, and love to check out what others are doing in their neck of the woods....so here is a question for anyone who may be reading this blog:  Why do you garden?  Is it for a relaxing way to decompress after a long day at work, or is it for practicality only?  Food security?  Or maybe you don't actually have a garden, but dream of building your own one day.  Tell us what makes you tick in the garden and how it all got started.

***

This was my house a couple of years ago.  We had just finished adding on an additional bedroom after baby #2 (which pushed off my garden plans for an extra year), and it was FINALLY garden time!  It's odd to see a barren lawn in this photograph, it seems to be now that the garden has always been there.  My husband was in Ireland on a business trip and I madly sketched and toiled fence and raised bed arrangements for a week straight, staying up late at night changing my mind 10 times over waiting to have my midnight chat with my husband.  I eventually gave up on nailing down details and ordered a fence that could go up quickly (though not inexpensively), and with that we were committed.  He came home and got right to building me beds and we haven't looked back since.  I love my garden.  It gives me a sense of accomplishment which I crave as stay-at-home Mom, and of coarse the fresh produce never hurts.  I don't eat spinach if it isn't from my own garden much anymore after the contamination scare many years back.  That event and wanting my kids to have memories of eating from the garden (as I do) were my main motivators for becoming a vegetable gardener.  I find seed hoarding to be a sort of an addiction, why do I insist on buying more than I can grow?  A garden provides constant dreams, and lessons in humility & patience.....what is there not to love?

***

The cold rain has resumed, even the squirrels are soggy!  We didn't quite as far as I had hoped this weekend in the garden, but even still, progress was made.  Hubby made a 20' long raised bed for the blackberries, added another post to the grape trellis,  and a couple of my rhubarb went into the foundation plantings on the side of the house.....no clue where I am going to house the other three, though luckily they are not here yet so I still have time.

The majority of my seedlings (Kale, Onions, Hon Tsai Tai, Pack Choy, Chard, and Red Sails lettuce are out under the newly acquired hoops, boy have they made covering the bed easier!  During the last 2 warm days I have left the row cover on for a bit of shading from the sun as they transition, and at night and during cool days (like today) some plastic is added for heat retention and protection from the elements.

Future Blackberry patch on left, then extended grape trellis; I hate having the garden

 'half done' and a mess.

I took some soil temps yesterday evening, the raised beds were running about 60 degrees, the soil under the hoops was holding an extra 5 degrees of warmth, and the newly layered beds were reading eighty degrees.  Not nearly warm enough, I am hoping to see them heat up more than that before planting time, not sure how long it takes for all of these compost layers to "get cooking".  I also caved and ordered Leeks today, I have not managed to sow any of my seeds yet, and I am behind on my peppers as well which will take priority.  Half of them were sown this weekend along with the tomatoes.  The final tomato list is as follows, tough to narrow 40 varieties down to 20 or so plants......what is scary is that I only grew 2 of these varieties last year, I hope I am not in for a year of disappointments!

1. Mortgage Lifter
2. Moonglow
3. Amazon Chocolate
4. Green Zebra
5. Cherokee Chocolate
6. Black Krim
7. Sungold
8. New Yorker (DTM)
9. Rutgers (DTM)
10. Polbig (DTM)
11. Sibirskiy Skorospelyi (DTM)
12. Isis Candy
13. Black Cherry
14. Green Cherry
15. Bupree's Big Boy Hybrid
16. Pink Brandywine
17. Costoluto Genevese
18. Juliet
19. Principe Borghese
20. San Marzano
21. Amish Paste

(The cherry varieties were sown in the milk jugs, and most have failed to sprout so far despite the warm temps this past week.  I have either tomatoes or basil growing in one container, to soon tell which it is.  I emptied out the other container into a seedling flat in attempt to thin the soil and hope the seeds would germinate, but then I forgot about and left it out uncovered in the cold rain last night.  OOPS! Now I have surely done them in!)

Happy Gardening!

Spring Has Sprung!

Yesterday was spent mulling over how to fill the new garden beds.  I started with a thick layer of cardboard, followed by straw and peat with a sprinkle of alfalfa meal, then any combination of manure/compost/used potting soil (from last years's containers) and/or topsoil I could find.  Then I ran out to pick up some dog and rabbit food.  This in theory will help my layers heat up and break down faster....so more straw and a sprinkling of corn, gluten, soy, and alfalfa rich pet food went on top.  I only had time to finish off one of the beds; a mix of compost, peat, amendments, and vermiculite went next, and all was topped off with some black plastic mulch.  This will most likely be the sweet potato bed.  I need to finish the other 2 off today, but hubby needs to get me some loam first.

Here are the two unfinished beds, with a dog hovering...they are being tortured by the dog food in the beds.  Amusing to watch them try very hard to get their muzzles through the fence and into the straw.

The finished (for now) bed is seen here on the right.  I will need to top it off with quite a few inches of soil before planting.  My Wintersown tomatoes can be seen in the background inside a frame, the jugs are in bags for an extra layer of protection.  There has been no sprouting yet which seems odd since it has been very warm here.  I am afraid the little seeds got jumbled around and are too deep or something.  It is very tempting to break in there and dig around, I may just have to today.

I also need to turn my coldframe around at some point, it is facing the wrong direction, and now that the fence has been expanded it can face the proper direction for maximum sun exposure and be opened!

I saw on another MA blogger's post yesterday that the honeybees were out.  It seems too early, but sure enough, they were buzzing around my crocuses as well.  No bumbles though- and they are usually the early arrivals.

This bee had nice big pollen baskets.  We caught him and watched him under magnification for a few minutes.  He was quite distraught, but the kids thought it was cool to check out the busy bee up close.




This other little fella was hovering around as well, not sure what kind of bee it is.  But seriously, where are the big bumbles?

Cheese Pumpkins and Chili

My husband has always wanted to grow pumpkins.  For some reason it seems to be his farm fantasy, but with a SFG it is just not an option.  Still, I decided to give them a try this year....not sure where to sow the seeds since I believe the pumpkins will be too heavy to trellis.

With so many choices out there, I eventually settled on the  "Long Island Cheese" variety for a number of reasons.  The name has always intrigued me, they look cool, they are of the c. moschata family - and therefor hopefully borer resistant- , and they are rumored to give good puree.  Turns out Libby's (my favorite canned brand) uses the cheese variety of pumpkins for their orange goodness in a can.  For an interesting read on pie pumpkins, go here.

I have some of Michele's Crock Pot Chili going in the kitchen, and DANG!  I made a few substitutions along the way to utilize what I had on hand.  Firstly, I cut up some eye of round steak; then I cooked up some dried pintos and made a chili slurry in the blender as a partial substitution for the chili powder (which I ran out of and decided it was best to not use the coffee grinder to make some, great call on my part by the way);  the last bag of garden fresh tomato sauce from the freezer was subbed for canned.  The pinto's and dried chilies came from Rancho Gordo.  They have some of the best dried beans I have ever tasted, and man are those chilies hot!  As I am writing this my husband just asked me if I knew I had more steak in the sink.  *&*#, I thought the meat content was looking thin...seems as though I will be browning up more steak bits before the night is over to toss in the pot!  Anyway, there is a shot of the still simmering Chili, thanks to Michele over at Give A Girl A Fig for sharing such a great recipe with us.  (This batch is going to require some serious sour cream and beer to tame the heat!!!)

Harvest Monday (On Tuesday)

A nice spinach salad with dinner fresh from the coldframe.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

The animals are pairing up here in Massachusetts, the yard is flooded, people are losing power, and wet-vaccing their leaky basements- what a mess!  Torturous after the tease Mother Nature gave us earlier last week.  I am dying to get back out into the garden....my wonderful husband whipped out my new beds yesterday so they are waiting to be put in their proper spot and filled.  The shed is finished (and now needs to be stained), so we are well on our way to a productive 2010 season!  (The beds are one 2' x 18', aka 'Tomato Alley' , and three 4' x 4'. )

I tried my hand at making soil blocks yesterday with organic seed starting mix from Lowe's, and it went quite well.  This came as a surprise after reading many people's tales of trouble getting the right consistency for the blocks.  I don't know if I got lucky or am just not being as particular.....the true test will happen when I transplant into the garden I guess- hoping the blocks will hold up!  The VCC mix I ordered is still not here since NOFA totally screwed up my bulk order, but that should be resolved by week's end, so it is all good.  I was all jammed up with the labeling though, my giant wooden sticks would split the blocks, I do have smaller plastic labels coming...but will they break apart the blocks as well?   For those of you that do them, how are you all labeling your blocks when you are only sowing a few of something and can't put a sticky on the flat for the whole row?  (oh, and FYI- Lowe's has potatoes this year.  Yup, now I have more.)

Next:  a confession.  I actually tallied up my tomato seed varieties yesterday, and somehow I have accumulated the seeds of 40 different tomatoes.  It was the recent Wintersown order that put me over the edge, I think I ordered 20 of those little packets.   So what you ask?  Is too many tomato seeds a bad thing?  No, but I can only grow 20 plants (ha, "only"), so choosing which to try is proving difficult.  I know many of the varieties I have won't perform well here in my zone or in my soil so over the next couple of season's I will need to experiment and see what is happy here in my little kitchen garden.  I have read to grow something for at lest 2 years before deciding it doesn't work for you so that may push this process of elimination out to 2014.  Maybe a Tomato Variety list will be going into my sidebar to record any thoughts this season, I know I can't depend on my memory!

Today's Sowings:

• Pistou Basil
• Lemon Basil
• Lg Leaf Italian Basil
• Thai Basil (Thanks Thomas!!)
• Easter Egg Radish
• Chioggia Beets
• Burpee's Golden Beets
• Extra Dwarf Pak Choy
• Bunching Onions
• Florence Onion
• Bright Lights Chard
• Red Sails Lettuce (one of my favorites!)
• Hon Tsai Tai

I keep re-arranging my garden layout.  Ideally vegetable families should be planted together for rotation, BUT, I keep reading all these great gardening magazines, and they have so many SFG layouts with everything all mixed in together, and they have me wanting a "Salad Garden" and a "Salsa Garden" instead.  Thoughts?

Garden Expansion

We are adding square feet to our gardening plot this year.  The fence perimeter was expanded over the weekend, and hopefully I will have at least one new bed built by next week.  The shed build is also in full-swing- FINALLY-  this is very exciting stuff to people without a garage!  It will provide much needed storage.

Here is the before of the recently cleared section of our lot.  This used to be the home of my cold compost pile.  The boys moved it with an excavator and it is now full of rocks and debris from cut trees. Oh well.  Lots of screening in my future.

Here they are erecting the post and beam frame, it went together very quickly.

Progress as of yesterday afternoon.  I am hoping to get my potting table set-up asap!  The siding is/will be board and batten.

Now onto the expanding garden.......

A long narrow bed will go along the back side for trellising, and three 4x4 beds will go over on the right.  Two of the six beds are currently planted, one with asparagus, and the other with garlic.  Kale, spinach, and peas are in the coldframe which needs to be turned around now that fence is no longer blocking access.  Just outside the fence to the left is the grape trellis.  One of the lovely gals at my husband's office is giving us a cutting from her father's grapes, so with that and the one I have on order we will need to add another section or two to the trellis as well.  Not so attractive in winter brown is it?  Boy am I looking forward to green!  Meanwhile, the garden clean-up continues......

Meet George

Don't you just want to belly up to the bar with him and have a Guiness?  He is mighty swell.  I met George at the local farm yesterday, at first I thought he was the Planter's Peanut.  He says he gets that alot.  After much consideration I decided to bring him home and see if he would sprout, he seems so good natured and all doesn't he?

(A note on George:  George is likely a local, though an immigration status is a possibility.....will this influence his ability to sprout?)

Garden Happenings

(Written yesterday....)

Last year's first pea, doesn't it look good!?!

Today I sowed the early Polbig tomatoes under the proper fruit time according to the Biodynamic calendar.  These will go out extra early under greenhouse-like conditions.  We also sowed some tomato seeds following Wintersown.org instructions, the milk jugs are set out in the garden along with the spinach and kale that went into the coldframe today.   I wonder, how quickly will the seeds germinate in those milk cartons?

A last minute trip to Home Depot last night for Dormant Oil Spray and a tractor cart resulted in a Yellow Delicious Apple tree, 2 yellow raspberries, 2 bags of strawberries, and some extra Victoria rhubarb coming home with us as well.  YIKES!  The tree is labeled as "dwarf", but without knowing which rootstock it is on this could end up being one big tree.  I am thinking of calling the nursary to pin down answere on that one......dang impulse buying!  My other two apples are not due until Fall, and what I really needed was a Crabapple to act as a long season pollinator.  I just hope it is labeled correctly, and is indeed a dwarf Yellow Delicious.

On that note, the new apple tree got quite a pruning and they all were treated with Dormant Oil spray.  I had wooly aphids in the Fall, so this was a necessary spray to help the trees get off to a good start when those buds set.  I also ordered some limb spreaders to increase the crotch angle of the limbs and encourage horizontal branching.  This apple tree stuff is complicated, I hope I do well by them!

My upcoming Biodynamic sowings for the month of March are as follows:

• 15th-16th- indoor sowing for lettuce & basil
• 18th & 19th- indoor sowing of tomatoes and peppers
• 20th- Florence onions
• 26th (after 10am)- 1:00 pm 27th- indoor sowing of tomatoes and peppers

I have my peas soaking, and then it occured to me that their designated bed (future home of peas &  tomatoes) has not yet been built.  Hmm...I was going to germintae them indoors, but where will they go after that?  This could be interesting.  Looks like I better find a large container, and fast!

Harvest Monday

This is my first ever Harvest Monday post, it is a fun one since we came across many more untouched carrots while 'digging for worms' yesterday.  My daughter kept yelling "potatoes" joyfully every time she came a cross a lump.  I guess a carrot with it's top missing buried underneath straw and dirt seems like a potato when you are 2.  Lol, and better yet, my son stated that he loved gardening with me.  Hmph.  Maybe he will actually help and learn this year, which would be lots of fun.

That says 1.83 pounds.  Very, very cool (the scale and the harvest, the scale is a recent purchase).  These are mostly Mokum or Bolero, I never remember which.  All I need now is that jar of peanut butter.

Mr. Sun is Shining!

Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, please shine down on, please shine down on, please shine down on me!

Anyone else humming that tune this weekend?  It is GORGEOUS here on the SouthCoast of Massachusetts.  The soil in my beds is dark and crumbly.  The worms are plentiful.  I peaked under the bed of straw in the garlic patch and the aroma of garlic hit me almost immeditaly.  The little sprouts are still poking up in rows, I am so excited to have home grown this year!

Some Ichelium Red peaking out of the garlic bed.

I have a handful of Short N Sweet carrots from a late Summer sowing.   My husband got quite a kick out of this.  The Napoli sowed in late Fall were just pencils, what was left of them anyway.  Some creature kept getting under the plastic to dig them up.

The Winter Rye (cover crop) has filled in nicely.  I think I will turn it in along with the straw and leaves now, and top it with an inch or so of compost in a few weeks.  I planted the rye to use as a green manure of sorts, turning it in now will provide a bit of nutrients come summer.

It is time for most of the seedlings to go out into the cold frame.  The Red Russian Kale and Spinach will be planted out this week along with some pea seeds that I will likely germinate indoors first.  The greens have sized up nicely.  It is amazing what some fluorescent light and occasional feedings will produce indoors isn't it?

Here are the onions.  The larger are from my original sow date, and the smaller are the red variety that I had to replace due to zero germination.

Lastly, these tiny Orange Thyme seedlings were even tinier when just a seed, I could barely see them with the naked eye.  They were sown just over a month ago.

This is going to be a busy week out in the garden.  Today we are expanding the fence to make room for the new beds.  I also need to prune and spray the fruit trees and bushes, clean up the asparagus bed, and finalize the year's layout so I can start direct sowing those early Spring crops.  Mmm, I can't wait for those first peas!  Happy gardening everyone, I think I officially have Spring Fever!

I'm Still Here!

Life has been busy lately, and the camera has been out of commission.  And by busy I mean cutting down trees, pouring footings, diagnostic tests at the hospital (me), 22 teeth being pulled (my dog), lost dog turning up at the penitentiary (my other dog, not the toothless wonder), ripping up carpet and laying down hardwood floors, the re-organisation (or further mess making) of every closet and cabinet under my roof,  you get the picture.

The good news is everyone is home and healthy, AND the camera is back in action.  My seedlings are huge.  HUGE.  I will show you soon I promise.  I am very excited to see March on the calendar, the garden will be in full swing in no time.