Happy Spring Readers!
Colorado is know for it bright sunny days. Most years we average 340 days of sunshine. Yesterday was one of those rare days we not only didn’t see the sun, we got more that 2 inches of rain. It was WONDERFUL! The plants and tree are almost singing today.

I have mentioned before that I help out part-time at a small farm. Frank, the owner is out of town so I needed to take care of the place for a week.
Yesterday I brought a camera with me. Everyone gardens and farms differently so I thought I would show a little of how we do it.

For the last month we have been starting seed in the basement of Franks building.

This is a picture of some of the cold hardy plants. We started these in the basement and they are hardening off for a week or so before we plant them. These are red cabbage, broccoli, leeks, cauliflower and I can’t remember what else.

Oh see those two white pots in the upper left corner? Those are zinnias. We started those by mistake (opps, I started them by mistake) and we don’t have room for them. I put a couple outside to see if they can handle the cool nights and-yippy! They are doing great!!! The other hundred or so will be joining them outside this week!

We fertilize with compost tea. In the summer we make it in large batches out in the shed, but in the spring we don’t need so much so I make it in the basement and bring the amount I need to where I need it. It has to aerate to wake up the biobugs. This is a picture of the compost tea “aerating”. We store the tea in detergent bottles so sometimes there is residual soap and…thus the foam…oh well, don’t panic it’s organic!

This is a baby kale that was planted on Monday. Can you believe how wet it is? This is NOT typical Colorado weather!

This is a picture of of Frank’s seeds! We have flowers, veggies, culinary herbs as well as medicinal herbs.

Here are our “babies”…ahhhhh

We bottom water with compost tea thusly. Those are artichokes on the left and two half flats of I can’t remember what….Look at the difference of germination. These were planted togeather and you can see the artichoke has about 80% germination the one on the top right more like 90% and the bottom is either a slow germinator or more like 10%.

This is a picture of some tomato seedlings. A friend of mine had a really tasty tomato last year called Bloody Butcher tomatoes, isn’t that a horrible name? But they are some of the best tasting tomatoes I have had. She saved the seeds from a tomato last year and had germinated them in paper towels to see if they were viable. She had extras so I took some…zounds!! Do we have Bloody Butcher tomatoes now or what?
PS I really muffed up on spacing, I know. They were stuck togeather in the paper towel and I thought they wouldn’t all take. I was wrong!

More seedlings….

Now just for comparison (lol) here is my humble first attempt at raising seedlings on my own. I was given some very unique seeds from England so I am excited to see how they do.
I had an aquarium that wasn’t being used at the moment so…..

Close up of my babies

So there you go. Very humble beginnings, eventually to the table: the process unfolds.