Bonnie's Barefoot Journey: It's a Spring Thing

Yes, yes, I know, it's only February, but my Spring fever has been burning strong since January 2nd, and in the seed starting world, spring begins when your seeds need to sprout! This winter I researched plants that had the longest growing season, just to be able to get my growing on as early as possible. I started with artichokes, that have a 180 day growing season, and asparagus, both on the first of February. The asparagus are a perennial crop, and will not be harvest-able for three years. Right now, my tables are crowding in with red and yellow onion seedlings, lavender babies, artichokes, asparagus, and a lettuce bowl, along with other various oddities that I am keeping alive through the grey winter days. This coming week I will be starting celery seeds (that's them soaking in the clay pot base), amaranth, and a few varieties of peppers.

Who says you can't grow donut holes?

My seed collection is out of control, and try as I might, I can't not add to it every year. This year's focus is going to be on vegetables I can preserve and can (which, I suppose, is pretty much everything if you visit some of these great homesteading group pages on Facebook), and a cutting garden. My sunflower bed brought me so much happiness last year that I just have to keep that going, adding sturdy flowers for bouquets such as zinnias, stock, cosmos, snapdragon, calendula, amaranth, and heliotrope. Anyone who knows me well knows I am a sentimental sap, and while browsing Baker Creek's seed catalog I came across an older heirloom flower called Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate. The flower looks like a bright pink lavender spray, and I am excited to add such a lovely, whimsical flower to my cutting garden this year!

Growth is so important, body, mind, soul, and of course seed. Last year was such a transformative year for me, and this year is proving to be more of the same! Perhaps not so much transforming, but putting down roots into all the endeavors I began last year. I am currently studying to take my Certified Nursery and Landscape Professional (CNLP) exam in two weeks, gearing up to begin my position as a staff horticulturist at Graycliff, continuing my gardening service business, and of course, starting as many seeds as my seed room will hold. I am using both grow lights and heat mats this year, with the lights on approximately 16 hours a day. I have noticed much more uniform germination overall as opposed to last year using only the heat mats. I have several seed packets that are years old, and those I am trying the soak method with to be ale to track which seeds germinate rather than waste soil and container space. Plus, it's so much fun to open the baggies and see the seeds breaking free and starting their growing journey.

Studying Woody Plant ID for CNLP

Don't worry, baking is still very much alive as well- I have found a new eager set of taste tester's in my Lowe's co-workers, and I will be conquering more recipes for their taste buds to approve. This spring I will also be getting back to my bees. As some of you may know, after losing my hives two years ago, I took a break to concentrate on other (less expensive) endeavors, but my empty hives are calling! I will be ordering two nucs to install this spring.
I have to tell you, one of my favorite things about the off-season job I took in the lumber department of Lowe's is the interesting people I meet. I took the job to learn about a skill-set I had little experience in, so any chance I get to ask contractors, farmers, or just savvy DIY'ers questions is a treat for me. I met a local beekeeper who was building a barn for his bees- he had decided that in the winter, rather than trying to cover, wind break and protect around the hives, he would bring the hives in for shelter during the cold months. We got to talking about the year I lost my bees, and I told him how I was still uncertain, but carrying guilt for not properly caring for them and, in turn, losing them.

The beekeeper told me of a national study (don't ask me for a reference, I was helping him load 2 x 4's at the time) that connected the severe loss in winter of 2016 to the drought the region experienced the summer prior. The study concluded that due to the drought's high stress on plants, the pollen that was produced lacked sufficient protein for the bees. This in turn caused the bees to produce brood that lived shorter lifespans than would normally be produced for winter. You see, most of the loss for that year occurred the week after Christmas. If you can think back (I have trouble remembering last week, so don't hurt yourself!) we had a particularly warm and wet winter- with a day or two in the 60's early January. That is when I discovered my bees had died. Actually, that is when most of the bee loss was for that year, and scientists found it just too coincidental that a major loss would happen across a region all around the same week. It was still a devastating loss, but interesting to learn the chain of seasonal events that most likely caused their demise. Such is the life of a beekeeper- and a gardener for that matter! We plant, we nurture, we watch, we hope, and although we may not always reap what we sow, we always end up with net growth, even if it's just a lesson for next year.