Ground Hog's Day

At the crack of dawn, a lone man fights through heavy drifts of snow, often waist deep and digs until sunrise to free the greenhouse door.  As the first rays of the sun cut over the foothills he crosses the threshold and pauses, breath held, and lights a single heavy duty kitchen match.  Tension is high, as he holds it near the gas jet, a small whoosh and a tiny blue flame appears, cutting through the darkness...behold!  

It is spring at Bindweed!  Let the work begin.

Even in the deepest cold the tulips are sung in their beds.  Sensing the warmer air they begin to emerge.

 

A new shipment of plants arrive and we set baby snaps, poppies and stock into newly prepared beds.

The soil is warm and my senses wake to fresh air, moist and fecund, smelling of soil and plants.  Air that does not give me a brain-freeze or frost the hair in my nose.

The wind rages outside, throwing snow against the walls of the greenhouse.  It sounds like another blizzard moving in, but I peel off my work coat and finish the last flat of seedlings in my sweat shirt.  Our knees creek and our backs reaffirm our age, but it is good to be out in the dirt.

Earth Day

Did you see the Google Doodle for Earth Day?  I get a kick out of the doodles but especially today's little rhyme..."roses are red, violets are blue, for Earth Day this year, let's all plant a few".  At Bindweed, we took this to heart--big time, planting over 6000 little posies and not just because it was Earth Day.  We do this every spring.

You know, it is so fun ordering plants in the dead of winter.  There is such hope, such promise, envisioning the possibilities and it is just dang fun to think about filling a space with luscious color...  but when the orders start flooding in it can be totally overwhelming.

Tuesday afternoon we had visits from UPS and FedEx.
Here's the list:
     500 crocosmia bulbs
     1300 lily bulbs
     600 phlox bare roots
     5000 assorted annuals

It is important to get everything unpacked, hydrated and into the ground as soon as possible so we turn the little barn into a staging area and plan our strategy.  The weather forecast sucks for the next three days, high winds and cold temperatures with rain.  Total bummer, but farming is not for whimps.

 

The bulbs and bare roots come packed in peat moss, wrapped in large plastic bags, nestled in crates, that are housed in cardboard crates.  The cardboard crates are then stacked inside larger boxes for shipping.  Yes, we do recycle--so a big Earth Day shout out for Bingham Curbside Recycling! 

 The annuals come in plug trays, like the six packs you buy in the garden centers, but these trays contain hundreds of cells holding hundreds of seedlings.  (I nearly cry each time I unpack trays with 392 cells--they are killers.  The seedlings are usually small and delicate and it takes a long time to plant 392 seedlings.)  The trays are covered with  netting, like a sexy little red fishnet stocking, to secure the seedlings for shipping.  Then each tray is covered with bubble wrap.  Each tray rests on a cardboard flat with sides that fold up to create sides at the right height to protect the plants.  (More recycling.)  The trays are then stacked in boxes and shipped.

   

 Typical April day, cold with HIGH winds.  RT, my hero, took the dirty job planting outside.  

Lily bulbs ready for planting--roots down, pointy end up.

A row of lilies ready to be covered in.  The black line down the center is drip tape, buried with the bulbs so that the water is directed to the roots.

Inside the greenhouse the wind was not blowing 30 mph, lucky me.  I filled the spaces Carey and I cleaned out and prepared last week.

My good friend, Brenda, helped me plant in the afternoon, what an angel.  We filled the greenhouse with hundreds of seedlings--snap dragons, matricaria and bells of Ireland.

It took us two and a half days to set in all the plants shipped...and then when the weather turned warm.  That is so Idaho--so we did some direct seed planting.  RT planted cosmos, dill, fox tail millet, orach, and sunflowers.

We have this great little planter that drops the seed at perfect intervals based on the size of the seed. 

As the seeder is pushed it causes a disc with holes to rotate like a Ferris Wheel, collecting the seeds one by one.  Then they are dropped into a shoot set at the proper soil level.  A small chain drags over the furrow created by the shoot, burying the seeds and the back wheel compresses the soil.  Ingenious! 

Now it is just a matter of walking the seeder down the miles and miles of rows.

Four huge days, we are exhausted and feeling our age but in a few short weeks we will be reaping the benefits of thousands and thousands of beautiful flowers.

 
Happy Earth Day!

Planting

We have such a short growing window that instead of direct seeding all of our plants we order seedlings in plug trays. This gives us a six week jump on some tender annuals and a good head start for perennials. Our plants need to be seeded and started weeks before we plant and there is a high demand for seedlings each spring so we must make our orders in the fall. Second guessing the weather is the real challenge, we check the long term weather forecast (ha--may as well consult the Tarot deck), look at prior years, pick a shipping date and hope for the best. This year has been a real crap shoot and seedlings have been arriving daily in the pouring rain. UPS and FedEx trucks roll up and down the drive leaving boxes and boxes of plants--seedlings, annuals, perennials and shrubs.

A new shipment of seedlings from Bluebird Nursery.

Upon arrival I unpack the boxes, water the trays and hope for a break in the weather. The forecast is good, but the ground is so saturated we cannot work it.

Unpacking nursery shipments is always exciting--I'm challenged by some of the creative packaging, thrilled with the contents of each box and curious to where it will all go!


Plug trays--plastic trays filled with seedlings packed in finger-sized plugs of soil--watered and waiting to be planted. As you can see by the shadows, we have sunlight!

RT, the maestro, gets creative, re-purposing space in the green house and hoop house for some of the new seedlings. Planting plugs is low work--I crawl, squat and duck-walk down the rows planting seedlings in the support netting. (As the plants grow rows of netting support the stems and prevent the plants from foundering.) Carey, our new wonder woman helper, makes the work go much faster. We start out stiff and chilly but soon the sun has warmed the hoop house and the work goes quickly.

An excellent shot of the support netting, the plug trays and Carey, our new wonder woman!

Carey and I are planting snap dragons. The seedlings are very small and the plugs themselves are only the size of the tip of my finger. They must be pulled gently from the tray and then set into the soil. The snap trays hold 250 seedlings. In no time we have set out planted several trays-whew!