Aaron Eaton

Last night the whole family got out to make some more soil blocks. We started a few parsley and cilantro as well as two whole trays of shelling peas. Peas are typically direct sown since their roots grow out so quickly. Soil blocking helps mitigate that issue by reducing root binding and disturbance during transplanting. Plus, you can put one seed per block, reducing the amount of seeds required. Something is very satisfying about a fresh tray of blocks.

I don’t think the soil blocks are getting enough water. Even if the tops are staying wet, the bottom half seems to dry out. Adjustments will have to be made. You can just barely make out the dry soil in the picture below.

Later tonight Becca and I started on a project that’s been on my mind for a while: Organizing all of the seeds. In total we have 42 varieties. After a season or two of abuse, the original seed packets start looking a little worse for wear. I purchased a box of 4”x6” metal clasp envelopes and we placed the seeds in those.

Now to build a box to store all of these envelopes.

I finally received the last of my seeds in the mail yesterday. This package was from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. It had Detroit Dark Red beets, Danvers carrots, some bunching onion, cilantro and parsley. Well, I thought it would be the last of the seeds I needed. Turns out I forgot to add snow peas to my cart before checking out. I’ll have to hunt down those seeds locally.

Fun fact about ordering from Southern Exposure: They wrap your shipment in pages of their old seed catalogs!

Now that I had all but one of my seeds, I set out to plant what could be direct-sown in the beds.

• 1 row bunching onion
• 2 rows of red beets
• 1 row of golden beets
• 2 rows of turnips
• 1 row of French Breakfast radishes
• 1 row of White Icicle radishes
• 3 rows of Danvers carrots
• 1 row of Dragon carrots
• 1 row of parsnips

It’s the time of year that the sun is setting earlier, so I had to break out the head lamp. Becca snapped this pic of me and JP planting in the dark.

Now that I had the head lamp working again, I figured I didn’t need to wait for the sun to come up to do the morning chores. The seeds in the soil blocks are still looking great!