The Flicker Haven Farm Files-It's Sow And Go Time!

It's going to snow Saturday. Blech.

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But, it won't stay, and the prospect of a dusting of late season floof isn't dampening my spring gardening is upon us spirit, NAY! I will not succumb to bad vibes matter how freaking cold it is right now, nor how much snow pukes on us from up above.

Sorry, probably had too much coffee this morning...

Anyway, yesterday was beyond a totally productive day on the farm!

To start with, I really needed to transplant my little arnica seedlings into larger pots. That job took about five minutes with my trusty pencil, recycled red plastic cups, and some soil. The little arnica seedlings are so delicate, and I am so excited to get them into the ground later this spring because I have salve creation plans for the healing powerhouse!

After the arnica was rehomed, it was marigold time. Every year I try to plant a bajillion marigold seeds because they are just cool. I love the color they add to everywhere, plus they are super hardy. Who doesn't love that?

That said, I had a good chuckle as I read what my grandma wrote on the bag of marigold seeds that she gave me this past Christmas:

And right Grandma is, there truly is enough marigold seeds in there to plant twenty acres! Good seed overload grief!

And that isn't the only marigold seeds I have and planted either! A man whom I have adopted as my grandpa, and who is a magnificent gardening guru himself, gave me some of his stock for Christmas too! I am going to have Christmas marigolds everywhere!

Plus, I had a bit of this variety of marigold left over from last year, so I planted some of those too:

It's so going to be marigold magnificent around here this summer, and this is just my first wave of flower seeding!

After finishing with the marigold madness, I moved onto seeding a few ground cherry plants, I am super excited to try them, as I have wanted to grow them for years!

It was as I walking to the bathroom to place the freshly seeded ground cherry pots onto the grow shelf that the first cat assassination attempt for the day occurred. As I strolled purposefully through my bedroom towards the bathroom, Mama Cat, AKA Dogcat, AKA Khajit, AKA Heckin Chonker (She has a lot of aliases), exploded out from underneath my bed and whacked me right in the shins. I flew forward, but as I chose to believe that my cats actually love me and their tripping attempts are done as a form of balance training, I caught myself and trotted almost gracefully into the bathroom.

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I felt pretty pleased that I didn't spill an ounce of potting soil either!

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My eyes fell upon the tomato seedlings, which are growing like they have been injected with something I swear, and I smiled like a fool who had just serendipitously cheated death.

It was then time to bolt outdoors into the glorious sun and seed some early spring, hardy cold weather crops.

Before you could say frostbite, I had sown a patch of chives in between a some volunteer onions, two rows of Asian greens (pak choi and Pai Tsai Fun Jen), and two rows of kale (White Russian, Red Russian, and Blue Curled).

It felt so good to be out digging in the dirt, and the condition of my garden soil made me want to swoon. Last fall we tilled in a ton of manure. Probably more than a ton because my garden is a bit on the large side, and after a winter of chilling under the snow pack, well, let's just say my soil is bussin. (Sorry, I live with a bunch of teenagers, at least I am not saying Bruh every sentence.)

Before leaving I took a minute to marvel at the garlic's growth progress. I can taste the garlic scape pesto now, just looking at the photo. July can get here promptly so I can eat some of the stuff, pretty please!!

And then came the highlight of my day, last fall my dear friend gave me two hops plants. One of them was in an iffy state when I got it, so I spent quite a bit of time making sure it got love and care so it would root before the hard frost. Plant number one was always strong, so I squeed in glee but not surprise as I spied the little hops buds protruding from the ground as I inspected the plant. However, my squee became a joyous aria as I spied the lone bud poking out of the ground from the less vigorous plant. YAY!

On the way back to the house, I peeked at the rhubarb's progress, marveling at how resilient rhubarb is. Not to mention tasty and prolific, if only all plants could be so.

It was after I happily crossed my back door threshold and started down the hallway that cat assassination training assault number two went down. To my shame, I wasn't expecting it, for up until today, the attacks were singular in nature. Dogcat's granddaughter, a delightful tabby whom we call Baba Yaga, flew out of the laundry room and masterfully tangled her in heat form in my legs. It was a tactical attack and I almost went down on one knee. Almost, I am pretty quick om my feet still even if I am getting old, and Fred Flinstone would have been proud of my twinkle toes footwork down the hallway.

That yowling hoyden didn't even look remotely repentant. I had half a mind to spray her with the lavender hydrosol bottle I keep in the dining room for house smell good purposes, but then I remembered she was in heat and probably miserable anyway. Sigh.

A few minutes later I plunked down into my little recliner by the woodstove. I love my nook of coziness and was ready to get some serious computer work done when my carcass felt like it was being judged.

I looked up to this scene:

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If I don't ever post again, it's because the corgi teamed up with the cats to eliminate me. That or I am spending time loving on them all in a last ditch effort to preserve my life. Either way, I think I am in trouble....

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And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's still amazed it hasn't been crushed into the ground along with the author after countless cat ambushes over the years iPhone. The text divider image was made in Canva.

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