The Joy of Dirt

The greenhouse has been a busy place lately. I’ve got most of my veggie seeds planted.

I even have my first tomato seedling. This is one of the Dirty Girl seeds I saved from last year’s plant.

Ali came over on Monday and Tuesday to plant seeds, and our neighbor Mike joined her yesterday so he could get his started. We have plenty of space, plenty of pots and trays, and the sunshine is free. I am delighted to share. We will all have lovely gardens this season. I plant my seeds in a 50/50 mix of potting soil and compost and that combo seems to work well.

I did a Costco run Monday morning and was thrilled to see apple trees for sale!

Costco used to have fruit trees for sale in early March. My State Fair, Honeycrisps, Red Wealthy, and Lodi apple trees all came from Costco about 10 years ago. (I also had a Sweet Sixteen but it died.) The Costco trees did much better than the bare root ones we planted at the same time and have produced steadily for the past five or six seasons. Costco either stopped carrying trees or had them for such a short time that I missed the window. When I saw these, I grabbed one each of Cortland and Winesap. They also had Northern Spy, but Susan has one and says it’s a late apple and hers hasn’t flowered yet. We’ll get these planted along with the Northern Lights and Seek-No-Further that Susan has for me, and I should have a very respectable selection of apples in my orchard.

I am curious to see if we get peaches again this year as it was a fairly mild winter.

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I finished quilting the purple and green quilt. I had done loopy flowers in the middle section, intending to do something else in the borders, but I wasn’t happy with the small bit of border quilting I tried. I took it out and ended up doing more loopy flowers. I think that was a good choice. I don’t need to be fancy on every single quilt, and finished is better than perfect. The quilt needs a binding and then I can write the pattern for that one, too. (I am waiting for a cold and rainy day.) I’d like to remake that quilt in different fabrics. It’s a fun and quick design.

I hope that allergy season slows down soon. I am really struggling this year. The problem isn’t so much respiratory as it is itchy, watery eyes and itchy skin. I forgot to take some allergy medication Monday morning and by dinner time, I was miserable. I may look into doing a low histamine diet for a couple of weeks to see if that helps. All the foods I like to eat—spinach, yogurt, cheese, etc.—are on the high histamine food list, and I have been eating a lot of cooked spinach lately. (Go figure.)