Herbs growing inside

Today I planted some small pots with parsley and oregano seeds. These herb seeds are so small it was difficult to count how many I was putting in each pot. I hope to grow these plants by the middle of April so they can be put in bigger pots and used for centerpieces for a conference of human concerns committees of Catholic parishes. With predictions of warm weather coming next week, hopefully I can germinate the plants and get them started. I used a mix of enriched compost, coir and some purchased starter mix. I was hesitant to use the purchased stuff, and only used a little, but did so at the advice of someone at Growing Power that said that would speed up germination. I used all the oregano seeds but had more parsley seeds. I put the leftover seeds in a small dish of water overnight and will plant them tomorrow. According to directions on the packet soaking will speed up germination. I think I will plant a few more early-bird herb seeds tomorrow in some pots. The temperature in the sunroom stays around 60 all day so it should be good for germination except for the hot weather herbs like basil. Herbs are my favorite plants to grow since I use a lot of herbs in cooking and I find them easy to grow. My chives, mints and a few other herbs are perennial and will be back in the spring. I am not real good at knowing what herbs to use when cooking but by trial and error I am learning. Also the use of herbs helps me cut back on the use of salt in cooking and making salads.

I had the brochure printed today that we have created for Dawn’s housing for the disabled, Foundation Dwellings. Most of what is on the web page as of now is in the brochure. Tomorrow I will put the brochure on the web page and in near future put additional material on the web page about Dawn’s housing. Dawn is the D in the DMZ gardens, and she has a nice quote on the brochure. “My people will live in a peaceful neighborhood — in safe houses, in quiet gardens.” (Isaiah 32:18) Hopefully some of the people who live in this affordable housing will work with us on the gardens and enjoy the organic, affordable food in the DMZ gardens.

The coffee shop that was providing me a regular supply of coffee grounds stopped putting them out and started throwing them away again when I had not been there for a few days last month. I talked with the manager and she said that I would need to pick them up every two days for them to put them outside again. I started to go every two days but only got what they had on hand and had not thrown away. So I stopped coming so often. Today I talked with one of the workers who said she would talk with the manager again about leaving them out with the condition I would pick them up every two days. If this works out and we can get a regular supply of wood chips dumped at Dawn’s we would have a good supply of two essential ingredients of compost, carbon (wood chips) and nitrogen [[coffee grounds.) For the DMZ garden to work with the Growing Power method of building mounds we need much more home grown soil. We do not have enough right now and cannot afford to buy it from Growing Power at $75 a cubic yard. We really could use some retired person, besides me, who would go around collecting good waste. Any offers?

Before the herbs can grow, one needs good soil. Before one can grow good soil, one needs compost. Before one can have good compost, one needs good waste. It goes from Waste to Herbs.

Time: 11:21pm, Office Temp.: 64, Sunroom Temp. Average: 59, Outside Temp.: 24, KWH: 48.46

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