Inventory is arriving daily.  The first three shipments of trees and shrubs have arrived, and the second shipment of perennials arrives tomorrow.  Onion sets are in, and onion plants will be here by next weekend.  The new employees have received training in customer service and are ready to help you.  We are ready for you, are you ready for us?

Written by Lynn on the slope of Teasel Hill, where it is sunny and 60 degrees.

Bob and I just returned from an interesting (snowy, slippery) trip to Morgantown, WV.  The reason for the trip was to attend the White Coat Ceremony for our nephew, Aaron, at WVU School of Medicine.  100 or more of the area’s finest young men and women receiving their white coats, preliminary to starting their clinical rotation in the actual teaching hospital.  An impressive ceremony, loaded with proud parents, family and friends of the medical students.  Definitely worth the trip.  Congratulations, Aaron Michael Ferda! I remember when you were a toddler, and just look at you now!

I’ve never thought of robins as the harbingers of spring.  Give me a red-winged blackbird every time. And they are back!  Now I wait for the spring peepers.  When they arrive, I’ll know spring is here!  I just learned from the Wikipedia link (above) that in Martha’s Vineyard spring peepers are called “pinkletinks.”  Oh, those wild and crazy New Englanders!

Bob worked outside today, cutting back grasses, and straightening bluebird boxes.  The bluebirds are staking out their territory and will begin the mating season any day now.  Bob and I love watching the bluebirds, and feeding them live foods (meal worms) when they have young.  We order the meal worms from an Ohio company called Grubco, and have them shipped in.  You can get them from bait stores, of course, but if you feed the birds a lot, that can get a little pricey.

We are awaiting the drying out of the sales lot.  We are rearranging the display gardens to allow for more sales space, and we are anxious to get started.

Written by Lynn on the slope of Teasel Hill, where the day is sunny and the temperature is 50 degrees.

There is actually a wikipedia definition for mud season. I didn’t know that.  I know the season exists, of course.  The season between winter and spring, when the snow melts and tries to sink in, but can’t, leaving a layer of muck sliding around on top of the frozen underlayer.  Treacherous for walking/hiking, messy for floors, and discouraging for gardeners standing with trowel in hand, ready for the ground to be ready.

I walked around Teasel Hill today, assessing the damage and the promise.  The darn deer have even munched on the garlic tops, for heaven’s sake!  They hate garlic!  They have sampled the crocus foliage, of course, and are searching for tulip tops (none visible yet.) They have decimated the azaleas, pruned back the magnolia and trampled lots of perennials.  Time to respray with Liquid Fence, available from Ferda’s Garden Center.

More goodies have arrived.  Miniature roses are here, and will be potted up soon to grow on for spring.  We have some beautiful miniature tree roses in stock, too.

I walked into the greenhouses today, looking for Patty, and the sun and moisture warming the potting soil just brought those spring feelings right back! It is coming!

Written by Lynn on the slope of Teasel Hill where the day is sunny and the temperature on the patio is 50 degrees.

Time Magazine’s current issue has as its cover story an article about making the decision between eating organically and eating locally. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1595245,00.html  Give me locally every time! And the best way to eat locally (I may be prejudiced a little here) is to grow your own where possible.  Second best way is to support your local farmers’ markets and CSA farms.  If we don’t support these small local farmers (here I climb onto the soapbox) they will go out of business and we won’t have a choice but to buy from the supermarkets and big boxes.  It’s not that I have anything against most of the supermarkets in my area, they do a fine job of providing our basic staples.  But isn’t it nice that we have a choice? Wouldn’t you feel somehow cheated if you didn’t have a choice?

Check out the availability of farmers markets in your area.  Seek out CSA farms (and if you find one in this Ohio Valley area, please let me know about it– I’ve searched for one in vain for several years.) And then support them! Don’t just think how cool it is that there is a farmers market available to you, and then never get around to going and shopping there. 

Check out the Time article for more information.  Then look out back for a flat sunny area that you can till up to plant some lettuce, and some tomatoes, and some red peppers, and some herbs and….

Written by Lynn on the slope of Teasel Hill where the temperature has dropped again and it is snowing.