The Milkweed Diaries

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Pushing the Babies Out of the Nest

Saturday and Tuesday we had our first plant sales with seedlings from the hoophouse.


Saturday was a leisurely all-day affair at our home -- friends came by to visit and pick up plants, and we sent hundreds of babies to their new homes in gardens in Asheville and environs. MT, LJ, KT, and LK stayed for much of the day, along with Sadie the dog, and we all weathered a brief thunderstorm together up under the porch roof.


Butternut Squash seedlings


















Heather R. and her friend Beka win the prize for Most Harrowing Yet Triumphant Journey to the sale, surviving an encounter with a snapping turtle in the driveway with all unscathed. 

Red Ursa Kale


















We ended up selling quite a lot of starts despite or perhaps because of the relaxed atmosphere. And we bartered some too, trading plants for plumbing and broadforking hours, both sorely needed in these parts.

Edmondson Cucumbers













Burgundy Okra














Waltham Broccoli












The aforementioned visiting.















Lettuce


















Herbs


















Tuesday we had a smaller, more business-like evening sale at the WWC garden.  We packed up a bunch of flats and trucked them over to the college garden just next door for a sale for students, faculty, staff, volunteers, and other college-related folks.  It was a gorgeous evening and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with the WWC community.  There were numerous gardening tips exchanged, and a number of customers took their babies directly from the sale to their community garden plots and put them right in the ground.  Quite satisfying for everyone involved.

Scenes from the WWC plant sale:






























It is surprisingly not hard at all to see the babies go after all of these weeks of nurturing -- perhaps because I know they're all finding such fabulous homes and because I'm READY to let go of the responsibility of all of these thousands of tiny plants!  

So thanks to everyone who took home seedlings, and happy gardening!  

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey I was thinking about yall on Saturday. I wished we lived closer so I could have just trotted on over for an hour or 2. But alas, we are practically out of town friends and I couldn't justify coming down there to buy plants for the garden I don't even have! (Actually I have a "container garden" with 5 chard plants, 6 onion bulbs, 2 habaneros and some flowers. Oh, and straw bale potato bins). But anyways, I wanna come out and do some some winded project for a day or so this summer. And of course it probably needs to involve some ice cream making.
Keep up the great work, yall and don't forget to sleep once in a while! Love you'uns. Dana