Today (April 1st) was the 3rd and final session of the cut flower production class that I took through the Community Education program at our local junior college. The first two sessions were on the main campus, but this one was in the lab. Most of the class today was about seed starting. We did a little exercise of planting a tray of seeds. The woman I was paired with thought that I worked very quickly (!). I actually heard one of the instructors say something later (during the presentation about harvest and packaging) about how you have to work quickly so you can get more done. 😉

After my inactive morning, I was excited to start prepping my strawberry bed by hoeing the grass off. The soil is still too wet! It was smearing. Our soil is a “sandy clay loam,” and it seems to me that it is a lot heavier than the name implies. I am concerned about my strawberry crowns (bare root plants) since the fridge they are in is only running at 55ish degrees. That should be fine for storing cut flowers overnight, lol. In class, one instructor asked me if I had a cooler. I don’t remember the school farm having had one out in the field, but we were looking at the one that’s there. My answer was: “Ha!” I wish we could invest $10k or $15k into the garden this year. We’d really be able to do a lot.

I tried starting some seeds today. I planted Dino kale (4 sixpacks, iirc), Red Russian kale (last summer I had White Russian- is that more of a summer crop, I wonder)? – this reminds me that I need another green curly kale), cabbage, broccoli (though it is a fall variety but I can’t resist a broccoli that’s named after the town where I grew up and went to college), some poppies (perhaps too late?), zinnias, lavender, rosemary (mine didn’t make it through the winter. iirc i want to companion plant this with my greens), scallions, and I forget what else. T “helped” and only spilled 90% of the contents of one seed packet on the table. It’s lavender- I would like to be able to try to broadcast it under the pear trees in the garden… Wish me luck with my seedlings, please! I couldn’t get our little cheapo greenhouse’s door to zip closed, and that means that the raccoons could just knock the buckets blocking the door out of the way and check out my trays. Z thinks he got it fixed. I hope so! It would be so cool to grow my own seedlings.

I went to school at the JC fulltime from 2010 until 2012, when I got my Associate’s Degree in Sustainable Agriculture. I took a bunch of Animal Science classes, too, but when I got pregnant I stopped taking classes. It’s interesting to see the changes that have taken place in the garden over the years – things like occultation and the use of broadforks are brand-new from the last year, I think. I also saw some red plastic out there! I wonder if the strawberries are in a new spot…