First Plantings for the New Year

Spring is in the air or at least we hope.  One sure sign for us of spring is the beginning of our seed plantings.  Some of the first plantings for us are herbs.  They seem to take the longest to develop and need the most care.  Today we cleared out our back office and decided to make that our early spring nursery this year.  We also cleared it out as we are getting ready to repaint the room so the bride that will be using the farm this summer has a nice place to prepare.  In years past we have tried a lot of ways to get our seeds started. grow lights in the basement, placing flats on the radiators in the rooms of the house.  This year we will probably have them still scattered through the house on radiators.  The steam heat warmth really kickstarts the seedlings.  We will then transfer them to the office which is well lit and warm and once the hoophouse is warm enough(it is unheated) we will transfer our seedlings to harden off and finish getting ready for sale there.  We have increased our varieties for sale this year.  We will have new varieties of tomatoes, more melon and watermelon varieties, a whole bunch of herbs and some new sweet pepper varieties.