84-Lancastar Farming, Saturday, February id, 1994
On bet
a farm
-And o
hazar
Joyce B
We’ve heart it Repeatedly.
“I’m SICK of winter!"
And, we’ve all probably said it.
Repeatedly. “I’m ready for
SPRING!”
Well, hang in there. We are
long past the halfway point in the
winter solstice. In fact, we’re now
two-thirds of the way to that
March first-day-of-Spring calen
dar goalpost. (Uh, we just won’t
even think about what March did
to us last year, OK?)
Anyway, on yet another morn
ing of slipping between the house
and the bam, another morning of
thawing loose those bucket
shaped ice blocks from the calf
pens, another morning of running
a hose to heifers whose water
fountain line might thaw out by
about May 15, another day with a
cancelled meeting I decided
that I had had it. Enough.
After spreading another round
of sunflower seed and com for the
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birds and our burgeoning back
yard squirrel population latest
count is ten I made decisive,
anti-winter, counter-attack against
February.
I marched into the basement
storage area and made a beeline
for the plastic container in which
the garden seeds are stored. The
time had come to take inventory
and finalize the seed catalog
orders. Those catalogs have been
kicking around here now for close
to two months. But until I knew
what was already in hand, page
flipping was merely catalog win
dow shopping and now serious
write-out-a-check business.
Inventory proved interesting,
by gosh. There are seeds there I
forgot I’d ever bought Like the
packet of Big Girl tomatoes, with
the glow-orange, ten-cent price
tag. Obviously acquired at some,
close-out, end-of-season sale.
Wonder whose?
Two packets of red beet seeds?
We ate a few of the red beets
planted last year in die garden,
before they more or less got for
gotten behind all the other fresh
things we like even better. Come
to think of it, there are still a cou
ple of giant, oversized beets still
back in the garden. Well frozen,
no doubt. Hey, Mom, need a pack
et of red beet seed?
Why do I have this brown bag
with multiple ounces of radish
seed? A little radish seed goes a
long way. I powdered that, mystery
for a couple of hours before the
“light bulb” came on in my
memory.
The bag of seed was purchased
ages ago. I wrote “radish” on it a
season or two ago. when I looked
in at the tiny, round black seed.
But now I remember planting a
patch of radishes in the fall of
1992 and having a wonderful
crop of turnips grow there.
Cross turnip seed off the “to
order” list. And cross “radish” off
the bag.
Into the trash went another
small bag containing cucumber
seed. Old cucumber seed. The
place of its purchase has been out
of business for probably five years
- and there are two packs of
cucumber seed of much newer ori
gin on hand.
Right behind it went another
old packet of dill seed. Also pur
chased at the site long-since out of
business. Thinking back, that
probably explains why the dill I
planted last summer never came
up. Gardening is too labor
intensive and harvest precious to
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Children Study
Conservation Tips
NEWARK. Del. "Turn of!
the water while you brush your
teeth. Turn it on when you are
ready to rinse.”
“Use a bucket to wash the car.
Use the hose only for rinsing.”
Hundreds of Delaware school
children are learning these and
other important water conserva
tion tips, thanks to a University of
Delaware Cooperative Extension
booklet “Our Water Supply and
You.”
Under the direction of Exten
sion water quality specialist Tom
Williams, Debbie Short, an
agriculture-education major,
wrote the eight-page booklet.
Geared to students in kindergar
ten through third grade, the book
let has been used in New Castle
me to waste time with question
able seed - especially when seed is
a relatively inexpensive part of the
whole effort.
Seed inventory complete, I
grabbed the pruning shears and
slid (literally) across the backyard
to the pussywillow. Tips of the
furry, white catkins are already
pushing through their tight, pro
tective bud covering. In a vase in
the warmth of the kitchen, they’ll
swell out to full, fluffy bloom in a
week or two. A branch of forsythi
a is already in full, yellow bloom
on one windowsill.
And in a thumb-your-nose ges
ture at winter, I’ll begin sterilizing
soil and taking plant cuttings.
If I can get enough ice chipped
away from the greenhouse door to
get inside.
This Is
Rugged:
Speed;
ir Corn,
Feeds,
ir Bales.
County by the 4-H “Ag in the
Classroom” program. And in Sus
sex County, youngsters received
the booklet this fall while touring
the woodland classroom at the
Research and Education Center in
Georgetown, reports Extension
renewable resources agent Dean
Belt. More than 1,200 copies have
been distributed since March,
when the booklet was printed.
Williams has long seen the need
for a booklet of this kind, designed
specifically for young children
and their families. Short was an
able part-time worker, eager to
tackle the task fo researching,
compiling and writing during the
fall ’92 semester. She also com
piled three booklets that cover
drinking water, waste disposal and
water conservation for the 4-H
program. These booklets are used
by 4-H leaders for children ages 9
and up.
“We all need to learn to con
serve our water supply, and kids
can do their part to help,” says
Short. “Simple things - like kids
turning off the water while they
brush their teeth - can make a big
difference.”
Williams notes that the booklet
is very “kid-friendly.” It even
includes a page of water word
games. He also says that the book
let can be used as a stand-alone
resource in the classroom or in
conjunction with other projects
and materials.
Interested parents, teachers or
youth group leaders can receive
copies of “Our Water Supply and
You” by calling Williams at (302)
831-2468.
CLOSED SUNDAYS, NEW YEAR,
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