Because I was not able to start seedlings until the end of April this year, I was going to have to see what I could find at the local farmers markets and farm stores. I had 6 places I planned to go to. My intern was going to drive and we set out at 8:30 on Saturday morning.
Our first stop at a farm store netted us:
Collards 12
Broccoli 12
Yellow onions 12
Beets 12
German Winter thyme 4
Catnip 1
Winter savory 1
Portulaca 6
Lupines 4
Next we went to a farmers market that had just opened for the season. There we got:
The above purple wandering jew
German Winter thyme 4
Juliet plum tomatoes 2
Ashwagandha 1
Lemon verbena 4
Holy basil 6
Walla Walla onions 12
Next we went to another farm store, our local coop, but I didn’t see any plants I needed and did find Amish Paste tomato seeds. I’d bought the Juliet plants as insurance.
Then we headed south and went to our local produce store. They often have nice organic plants. But they didn’t have many, there’s to be a sale for Mother’s Day next weekend and I expect they will bring them in for that. I only got some dianthus (6) and a French tarragon.
We had done far better than we expected and I was getting tired. So we skipped the last farmers market and headed to a nursery. I’d seen organic artichoke plants there 3 weeks ago. We got 5 of them.
We headed home for lunch and unloaded the car. We sorted the ones for the cold frame from the ones that had to be inside a while longer. Then I used my new hot outside faucet to make warm water to water them all in the cold frame.
This tray has (l – r): 4 lemon verbena, portulaca, ashwagandha, and the Juliet paste tomatoes. They will stay inside until after May 1.
Artichokes and Walla Walla onions
As we went back and forth with the plants, I noticed the New South garden is starting to need a weeding. It will have to wait. The big push on Monday will be getting peas in the ground, weather permitting.
I sat down to rest for a while. Then I got to thinking about lawn mowing on Sunday, and how the big rocks had not been raked out of the lawn edges yet. I hadn’t mowed them last time because of this. So I went out and raked this section down to where the pasture starts.
I’d found fiddleheads at the first stop and had gotten some. I’d thawed out some wild caught sockeye salmon and that was supper.