Spring Fever Paid Off - Big Time!

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Country Style Homesteading : One Thread

Okay everyone - my "spring fever" attack paid off - BIG TIME! You know those big cans of popcorn Wal-Mart sells around Christmas time? And you know how big the regular size Wal-Mart plastic bags are, right? Well, after my "trip" to Wallyworld the other day, my dear mother gets to remembering and looking around for seeds she "knows" we saved from last year. She tells me she has some seed and for me to wait to buy anything else until she locates the can of seeds we already have. Of course, I'm thinking "coffee can" and hoping for the three pound size to have some kind of a selection of seeds we can start with. Was I ever SURPRISED!!!

I get in from doing some running around a day or so ago, and in the middle of the kitchen floor sits this big popcorn can and three or four of the infamous blue Wallybags. I didn't pay it much attention until my mom points to the heap and says, "There's the can of seeds I was telling you about. And I found some others I'd put in the bags!" W-O-W!!!!!

We got beans and peas and sweet corn and okra and collards and beets and turnips and carrots and tomatoes and radishes and more herbs than I have room to list here and spinach and cantalope and watermellon and cucumbers and squash and onion and merigold and - and - and ... I'M IN HEAVEN!!!!! :-) Someone remember to ask me about my attitude after I get through planting all this (grin).

-- Phil in KS (pemccoy@yahoo.com), March 12, 2002

Answers

I love seeds! My trouble is I always run out of row, before I run out of seeds!!

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), March 13, 2002.

Wow that so nice of her Does she need a daughter???? Just kidding Like Christmas but better huh Enjoy and I hope your as sore as I will be when I get done planting mine..

-- Jacque (bojaq@alltel.net), March 13, 2002.

Phil,

Sounds great. I am a bad one about spending $2 on 1/2 price ten for a dollar seed packs at the family dollar at end of season. I'm still using 1999 season seeds and have three gallon pickle jars full for future seasons that I keep sealed and stored in the dark cabinet with my wines.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), March 13, 2002.


Spring fever is best celebrated by: 1)Spending endless hours pouring through seed catalogs, picking out all your desires, for a wish list. MAYBE even order some;) Then: 2)Going through, methodically, of course, your jars and cans of seeds from year's past, saved seeds, newly acquired acquisitions...THEN: 3) Planting existing seeds for the coming year's tomatoes, peppers, etc. in your conservatory, large or small. THEN.... 4)Plotting out where in the world you will plant ALL OF THEM! THEN: 5) Finally the Spring thaw comes, you get to work;)) Have the best gardening season EVER this year, all! Smiles, Linda

-- Linda (lindabe@ywave.com), March 13, 2002.

Today was SOOO beautiful here. After we took care of what running around we had to do, I went to work in the garden on the raised beds we're doing for the first time this year. Folks, I hurt where I never knew I had muscles that could hurt :-)! Planting this stuff is going to be the easy part - making those raised beds is what's gonna make me or break me!

My mom was out helping me today and I just know she thought I was going to complain when I said, "I'll tell you what ... when I get through with this project I'll (hesitation) have lots of muscles!" She just smiled and went on spreading mulch! Not a bad day, and tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer! Hope you all have a great one!

-- Phil in KS (pigfarmerphil@yahoo.com), March 14, 2002.



You wanna compare sore gardening muscles?! I don't know how I'm going to chart at work tonight - don't think my hands will close tight enough to grip an ink pen! My arms...my legs...my back... Whine, whine, whine! Maybe if I'd get off my butt every once in a while in the winter and go do something like work, I wouldn't be sore sore in the spring!

What luck for Mom to find the seed hoard!! I was looking for something in the pantry the other day, moved some rarely used stuff and found a coffee can and a small box of seeds - mostly flowers (somehow I always find time to plant the veggies) but a few tomato varieties that I didn't already plant this year. I can hear Pop yelling now!!

And speaking of the older generation - isn't it amazing how some of them can work circles around us young pups?! Pop (73) and Unc (64) just keep on working when I've tuckered out and gone in the house to make lemonade. 'Course now, I always carry a glass out to them and then they sit and take a break; so maybe they've just got this figured out better'n me!

I've really got to get a system figured out for these seeds that I save from year to year - I've got this years seeds in alphabetical order in a couple of plastic shoe boxes; with index card dividers in between the species. Maybe I'll have room for all the leftovers in those boxes once I get the garden planted. I'll have to make sure I hide 'em good though, or next spring Hubs will try to tell me we don't need to send off any seed orders!!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), March 14, 2002.


Polly, I am so-o-o-o-o glad to hear that I will probably keep on going after age 60, 70 and even 80. I took my mother backpacking when she was 72...she did fine. I almost killed her, but I did bring her back alive and still walking, LOL (big family joke now). Since I hit beyond 50, I have worried about weather I can keep up, but then I remember Ruth Stout and her mulch gardening in her 80's. I hope I can look forward to lemonade in the berry patch too. Thanks for brightening my day. Love,

-- Susan in Northern Mitten Michigan (cobwoman@yahoo.com), March 17, 2002.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ