FRETTING

I can’t help myself, but this time of year, I do a lot of fretting. Some people say worrying, some get stressed, I just fret. I am fretting thinking if I have enough seeds planted; I wonder and fret if the weather will be too cold to put out tomato and pepper plants; I fret whether I should water or not water; I wonder if the weather is not right for pollination of the fruit trees; I fret about thinking if the bees are able to get to my trees in the wind; I wonder if I will have enough produce so that my CSA members will be happy with the baskets when the season begins; I fret thinking about what the gophers will eat. Makes a person a little crazy at times but pulling weeds sure is good therapy, hoe work really helps break down the fretting too. I also knit in the evenings and that is always calming to me. Such is the life of a farmer, fretting and worrying is part of the being actually an employee of Mother Nature and self doubt does creep into your thinking. Once the erratic weather is finished and my plants really take off, I am sure I will feel more confident, I think!! But I can’t help but be amazed and wonder of nature when I stop fretting and see nature doing their thing in spite of all the efforts and fretting anyone does. I am sharing a few photos of some flowers and plants showing their beauty in the yard.

I have been running a “guess this bloom” little contest on Windmill Farm’s Facebook page. It has been fun and I hope my farm, “friends” are enjoying the game. You win a free pound of produce or a dozen eggs if you guess the plant or bloom.

My greenhouse is wonderful, I just think I should have purchased it a month or so sooner (but didn’t have the finances) as I had needed to start the tomatoes and pepper plants much earlier. I guess I may end up purchasing actual plants but that sure is costly since I have to purchase many more than most backyard gardeners. I did plant out more lettuce yesterday from plants that were sown in the greenhouse. I started seeds in the greenhouse and seeds in the ground and the greenhouse plants are twice the size of the ones in the ground.

I started cleaning up my sorting shed in anticipation of using it in a month or so while Frank tiled the floor in the sorting shed little bathroom. I am looking for some old barn wood to put it on the inside walls if anyone who happens to read my blog, knows where I can find any. I plan on white-washing the barn wood to lighten it up since the size is as big as a bathroom is on an airliner plane.

WE HAVE OWLS in our owl nesting boxes that Frank built. At night, the hooting is so loud; it even woke us up the other warm night as we had the windows open. Makes me happy to know they are helping us with the rodent issues, all part of the sustainability farming that we use. We have a couple left that Frank built that we are selling on Craigslist if anyone else wishes to try them out in their orchards, gardens or fields. They really work. We also have several families in our bluebird nesting boxes too.

We hosted the Garden Club that I belong to, here at Windmill Farm this month. The day was windy but our members and friends braved through it to take a tour of the yard and to talk a little about plants, trees, weeds, whatever gardeners find delightful to talk about. Our meeting went well and it is always a joy to surround myself with people who enjoy working in the yard as much as I do. And we always learn so much from each other and share new yard implements; new composting tricks; new places to tour gardens. I can’t wait until our next meeting in June that will be hosted at Robert and Paddy Bateman’s gorgeous yard. If you are interested in joining our very friendly and non-structured garden club/get togethers, just give me a call or email me at windmillfarm@sbcglobal.net.

So, I have decided to just keep plugging along in my vegetable fields, I will keep hoeing, knitting and weeding and will try to stop worrying. I will just give my frets to a higher person to do all the worrying for me. Besides, he is in control of everything anything, not me. Sometimes I just need to remember that. Happy Gardening!