Sweet Local Farm

True signs of spring just around the corner.

Snowdrops in bloom on the south side of my house:

The fish pond has thawed and the fish have grown, multiplied, and are very active:

Forced Daffodil bulbs in bloom:

Pretty spring branches that I forced:

Tofu loves the flowers:

A Cold House is a greenhouse that relies only on solar energy to create heat. We built our Cold House last summer with four season gardening in mind. In the fall we planted arugula and spinach. We ate that through December and then it stopped growing for the bitter cold months of January and February. Today, we noticed it has begun to grow again and is doing quite well.

Luke and I weeded out the spinach and arugula:

We decided to experiment with early plantings of more spinach, arugula, and radish. So we went to work and prepped the bed:

We saved the seeds from our summer arugula last year. Here is Luke planting those seeds:

I am “tucking in the seeds” or pressing the soil around them:

Watering in our new seeds:

The temperature in the Cold House on this early March day is approximately 53 F. It was about 20 degrees cooler outside, and much more windy.

We had fun getting our hands dirty!

About a week ago I started my kale and eggplant seeds. It was important to get them in before the full moon as it seems to help with germination of upward growing crops, as in not root crops like carrots or onions. The kale sprouted quickly on my seedling heat mats. Within a couple days I moved them under the lights.

I had to build a second light rig to accommodate all the seedlings. I got this utility cart from Home Depot:

I set it up next to our old one:

This is one of the three heating mats I am using. They help maintain a warm environment near the seedlings which is important for good germination and root growth. It is chilly in the basement so these are necessary.

Some seeds and labels:

A spray bottle works well to mist the thirsty seedlings:

A loosely wrapped layer of plastic wrap works well to keep in heat and moisture. After germination I removed the wrap for proper air circulation:

The seedlings today, 6 days after planting: