SIGNS OF SPRING

Overnight my taters have popped up. Boy are they pretty. I've always been a gambler at heart, so I think I'm gonna gamble and go ahead and try to get a jump start on the growing season. I know there is always a chance of frost before Easter gets here, but I think it's worth the risk to have some early fresh peas.

I'll start with some black-eyed peas and butter beans. As you can see in my picture I have plenty of seeds! I get my seeds for peas and butter beans straight off the grocery store shelf. Dried peas are seeds, and they're cheaper than buying them at the feed & seed store. Same thing with the potatoes. I just buy a bag down at "Hubbard's" Grocery Store and bring them home and put them on a shelf for a week or two unopened. When they sprout eyes, open the bag and let them go another week or so till the eyes are up good. Then take your pocket knife and cut off a plug of tater with an eye on it and plant them, eyes up.

My tomatoes and peppers I'll start in old styrofoam coffee cups and noodle soup cups I've saved all year to recycle. I compost so I already have my own homemade potting soil. We save our vegetable scraps ,egg shells, and coffee grinds. During the year I pick up bags of grass clippings and leaves for the pile. The last few years we had a cow, I saved the manure and add it to the pile. We have rabbits and during the year I top dress in between the rows with their manure to help fertilize.

They say "HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL". I am hoping for a bumper crop!!

See ya'll later,

Jim Cobb Coleman.