How does your garden grow? Not!

 This has been an unusual spring here on the farm, the end of March was nice for the month of March. April was awesome until about the third week in, then it turned cold, windy and rainy. Even the beginning of May was cold with some snow. The weather has finally changed and this week is warm and sunny.

 Last night I was able to sleep with my upstairs windows open, aaaah fresh air, so nice plus the gentle sound of frogs in the distance. Spring has finally sprung. People have been asking me if I am going to be sowing a garden this year. I planned to because even if I'm able to sell the farm, it's no big deal to leave it. I would feel bad if I didn't have a garden and couldn't sell. Now however it almost seems urgent to sow one, I keep hearing about food shortages and climbing grocery bills. Plus having to go to the store less often is a huge bonus, maybe even life saving to be honest.

 Today I'm going to try planting a few things, unfortunately there is a shortage of seeds, many people heard seeds were selling out and panic bought seeds, even though they have no idea about gardening. Seeds around here are like toilet paper, somewhere there is a frumpy woman named Karen with a closet full of seeds that she is hoarding. Thanks a lot Karen!

 My house spinach is coming along nicely, I'm going to try planting some outside to see what happens. Others I'm going to keep growing in the house to eat. I prefer spinach to lettuce. 

Below is the spinach five days after I sowed it, that's interesting to me because outside it takes about two weeks before it appears.

 Now nine days later and they are coming along nicely, however the plants are getting too big for their pots so I have to do something with them today.

 I also have potatoes to sow, I always have potatoes left over from the previous year and I find they do better than anything I buy. I need carrots and onions, I'm going to really miss those if I can't get any.  Also tomato plants and maybe green peppers.

 Unfortunately with the warm weather comes the hoards of blackflies. For those who don't know what that is, they are tiny flies about the size of an apple seed, they bite you for your blood and they form a black cloud around your head and attack. Not as annoying as mosquitoes but the numbers can be overwhelming. Fortunately they will only be around for three weeks or so and then usually die off. The trouble is they come when our outside work begins. Yesterday I inhaled one, that's almost a given, every year I inhale two or three, lucky for us they don't taste that bad.