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Photo Credit: Vermont Farmers Food Center
Today at the Farmer’s Market we were just about to walk out the door when I spotted it…the table selling seeds. (Must be my gardener’s instinct). Lots and lots of different kinds of seeds. When I walked over and spoke to the mom that was with the kids at this table I learned a lot and thought that I would share for a very good cause.
The table belongs to a group of Shrewsbury homeschool kids that are conducting a fundraiser for the Vermont Farmers Food Center (a/k/a The Farmer’s Market) selling Fedco seeds. These kids –Silas Hamilton, Seamus and Avery Martin, Cedelle and Emmett Sirjane, and Manolo Zelkin with the help of parents, Licia Gambino Hamilton and Martha Sirjane are hoping to raise $3,500 to donate to the Center.
Since I’m not writing for the Rutland Express anymore (since they stopped publication) and I miss that ability to connect the cool things and people that I come across with people that might not know about them, I thought that I would post here about this group and their efforts in the hopes that folks in the area who plant their own seeds would take advantage of this fundraiser and help these kids with their goal. These kids are selling a variety of Fedco seeds (over 30 different types) to raise money for the Farmer’s Market to help with the work that remains to be done in and around the building and grounds. The kids have a table at the market and have set up and designed their own website http://seedsworthsowing.webs.com/ and Facebook page where they can be found at Seeds Worth Sowing. They’ve even hand stamped (in multi color, mind you) each and every one of their seed packets. Making a very delightful display as you can see.
You can purchase your seeds in person at the Farmer’s Market, or you can order them by mail and you can pick up an order farm locally from Pierce’s Store or Mount Holly Library. You can also download an order form while in your pajamas from the comfort of your own living room from their website (for my very lazy friends). If you mail in your order form, you can pick up your seeds from Pierce’s Store on March 21 from 3-6 p.m. or at the Mount Holly Library on March 24th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. or at the Rutland Farmer’s Market on March 16th or April 6th from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. For the charge of mailing ($1.95 to $15 = $3.95 shipping fee; $16 & up = $5.95 shipping fee) they will even be happy to mail your seeds to you so you can just walk to the mailbox for your seeds. So, friends of mine that are not in Vermont and want seeds, go to their website, download the form, mail it in with your payment and wait for your seeds to arrive via the postal service from our lovely little state of Vermont.
The group extended its original order deadline to March 31st — so I encourage you to take advantage of getting some good seeds to get that garden started and help out an industrious group of kids with their ambitious (and totally doable) goal of raising $3,500. After all, any of us that shop at the Farmer’s Market will benefit from their hard work in raising these funds.
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- What Kind of Seed Are You Sowing? (phenum01.wordpress.com)
- sowing seeds (balconyberlin.wordpress.com)
- What to do in March (digginwivdebb.wordpress.com)
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Tim decided to update our side door. He wanted to put a flower bed in next to the stoop. Here is the way that it looked BEFORE.
After a few hours of digging up the driveway rock, moving dirt and topsoil, separating and replanting host this is the AFTER
It is certainly nice having him around. I love the new bed!
The other day I was on my hands and knees literally crawling around in the dirt, planting transplants and seeds in the garden. I took a break and stood up, out of the corner of my eye I saw something right next to me moving.
It was this guy
Who chose to slither its way right past me and through the garden.
Needless to say, these are the times that I believe my guardian angel was looking over my shoulder. If I had been on the ground when it slithered within inches of me I would have: (1) screamed and (2) jumped which would have scared the crap out of both me and the snake. I am quite sure that nothing good would have come of that. Instead, I was standing, able to grab my Iphone and take these pictures — all without the screaming and jumping which while entertaining I am sure as it would have been to my husband who was somewhere in the vicinity… it would not have been good. Nope. Not at all.
A few minutes later I walked to the opposite end of the garden where I had stacked some big rocks to get one and guess who was there? Yup. The snake. Gosh, that guy is quick. Otherwise, there’s more than one and I just don’t want to think that. So, yes, he is one fast snake. Yup, that’s it.
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So, Sunday was a beautiful day. My garden was tilled (thank you Justin) and ready for planting. I put in two whole long rows of potatoes (from ones I had kept from last year) and a row of shallots and onions from seed (yes, I know, onions from seed grow really slow — but if it’s a warm fall I’m set, if it’s not, it was only a couple dollars worth of seeds I already had lying around). I also planted two long rows of various lettuces, iceberg, simpson, romaine, different types of mesclun mixes including fire lettuce as my neighbors’ boys call it. Much more to do, but it was a good start. Creme was watching me the whole time, they love the garden because they get the weeds and the bolting lettuce.
To give you an idea of how nice it was, here is a picture from the porch — did I mention that I love our porch?
Today, this little one was hanging on the screen door all day long. I have no idea what it is, but it is quite colorful. Anyone have a clue?
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This is what the first tomato from the garden (and from TJ’s biology project plants) looks like.
Isn’t it just beautiful???
While I had the camera out to take the picture of the tomato, I thought I’d take some pictures of the other things happening in the garden.
Tomatillo Flower
and a little tomatillo
Here’s okra flowering
and the little okra
Took some pictures in the garden this morning. Things are finally starting to take off and grow like crazy. We are harvesting small snow peas from plants on the patio, the tomatoes are doing well and the peppers are actually growing this year. Amazing. The funny thing is that the basil is not doing well, at all. Can’t figure out why, just doesn’t seem to want to grow. Anyone else having that problem or is it particular to my little piece of earth?
Here are some pictures of the garden — it is growing and the combination of showers and sun is working its biological magic since each day the plants are bigger and stronger. The tiny tomatillos seedlings I set out a couple weeks ago are ready to be staked this week.
We’ve accomplished a lot in the past weekend and now we’re off to have some fun for a few days before the boys return home. It should be a very relaxing next few days — no chores that need or “should” be done, just spending some time hanging out together.
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Sometimes, taking your time and really paying attention pays off. You see things that you would normally breeze right over if you were operating at your normal speed. The other day, we were straightening things up on the patio for a party we were having and we went to move my pot of lettuce seedlings. Lo and behold, nestled in between the teeny tiny seedlings was a tiny toad. Seriously while he may look gigantic in this picture the little guy is only about an inch big. He was in the lettuce bed yesterday day and on the patio steps today. While I was watering he was jumping along next to me. I think that I might have made a friend.
Another little treasure I found while I was weeding and watering was a partial light blue robin’s egg. The occupant of this particular egg evidently has literally flown the coup, or at least I hope since the shell was on the ground.
Look’s what growing on my little shelf. We’re going to have to make a “little” stir fry.
I feel such a sense of accomplishment.
We made a lunch run to drop trash off at the transfer station. We were gone 25 minutes tops. In that time, utter destruction ensued. My months of seed growing, my onions, scallions, leeks, lettuce and flowers which I had tended to so carefully over the past weeks was reduced to this
The most mature of the plants, including our berry bushes which I had transplanted were trampled.
As heart wrenching as this destruction to my pre-garden seedlings and plants is, even more disturbing is what caused our dog, which never has gone near the plants before –ever– to trample through the plants to get to the sliding door and whatever was on the other side of it — whatever it was caused the dog to go nuts and trample through the shelf with my plants on it to get to the door…..now I am off to clean up and salvage what remains there might be…..sniff, sniff.
Okay, so technically it’s not really even in the garden yet. Geez, give me a break. Up until about a week ago, there was still snow in these parts. But, this technically is the first bounty from what “would be” the garden, if in fact it were already in the ground.
I trimmed my onions, shallots and scallions and used these trimmings to season a soup since I didn’t have any full grown scallions in the fridge.
Since I am growing my onions, shallots and scallions from seeds, as opposed to onion sets, it takes quite a bit more to get them going. Trimming the seedings when they reach about two inches high forces the plant to put more energy into developing the bulb, which is what we really want to grow anyway.
