Finally!

Finally, seed starting season has arrived. I got 2 of each variety of sweet potato that they had in stock at Whole Foods to do round 2 of my sweet potato slips. Those are planted up. Generally they take forever to get going so I don’t expect to see any movement from them for weeks.

Trying out the seed snail planting method this year. I had saved a bunch of feed bags in anticipation but then last minute swapped them out for some heavy duty brown paper mailers that I got from a shipment of bulk soap. I’d rather avoid adding any more microplastics to my soil if I can. We’ll see how the paper holds up to the process. The internet assures me it can be done but the reality of the internet and my reality are often at odds. A pretty recycling/ upcycling friendly project, as I was able to use the rubber bands I’ve been saving off of vegetables all winter that my wife judges me for saving.

Planted ->

Onion -> Yellow Granex PRR (new seed 2026)

Cabbage -> Earliana (2025 seed)

Carrot -> Black Nebula (2024 seed)

Onion -> Walla Walla (new seed 2026)

Broccoli -> Purple Sprouting (2024 seed)

Cauliflower -> Clementine Hybrid (2024 seed)

I’m still sitting on some older seed from 2020-2024 so I’m going to try to prioritize using that up. Its crazy how much the prices of seeds has gone up since 2020. Seed packets that cost $2.98 in 2020 cost $5.98 this season. Still worth throwing some in the ground though. You could definitely get cheaper seed I just like trying some unusual varieties.

Redid the family calendar in the kitchen, now I just need to add my seed starting dates. Peppers and Tomatoes next weekend I think.

Threw some Good King Henry seeds out near the compost too. Letting them cold stratify themselves so I don’t have to do it. There’s some seed ginger, tumeric and Jerusalem artichoke hiding in the back of my fridge that needs to get potted up also.

I also think I managed to fix the dishwasher so it doesn’t fall on you when you use it. Results pending. It was kind of a wonky fix because our (misguided 70’s DIY) kitchen cabinets aren’t uniform size so when you try to add appliances (all uniform size) into this kitchen nothing sits flush. The inch gap between the top of the dishwasher and the bottom of the counter is 1. apparently a great place where mice want to live 2. makes it impossible to anchor the dishwasher the way the appliance company intended. I pulled everything out, replaced the chewed up shroud (big cottony stuffing type thing that reduces noise?? or something??), covered the entire top of the dishwasher with steel wool (not the kind with soap -> the previous residents seemed confused about that, I was finding SOS pads everywhere when we first moved in) then bent the anchor into a L shape so I could silicone glue it AND screw it into the cabinet. It’s not very pretty but if it keeps the dishwasher from dumping dishes onto my feet at 5am when I’m trying to quietly start my day, then its a win in my book.

You may be asking here – ” what about those men you paid to install this equipment and renovate your kitchen?”

Your guess is as good as mine. Probably they’ve never done the dishes in their entire life and it didn’t occur to them how incredibly annoying and dangerous it would be to have a machine dumping dirty knives into your legs every time you opened it. Alas, we are an all women household and both my wife and I manage to look extremely young and impressionable and are treated as such. My tolerance for workmen in the house is at an all time low.

Except the plumber, he’s great. He has grandpa energy.