Old Man Winter is giving it his best shot as he blasts us with a final cold spell before Persephone emerges, bringing us the gift of new life and months of sunshine. It's been on average 20 degrees every night for over a week and the daytime temps haven't been much above 40, even with sunshine. The bird songs this morning remind me that there is hope we will soon shed off the cold and receive our long anticipated season of spring.

I've begun the process of transplanting 5 week old tomato plants to their teepee homes. So far so good.

We made a push this weekend to tackle some projects in preparation for a spring and summer production. We had a bit of sunshine on Saturday and the creek water was almost back to normal for early spring levels in the valley. Our friend Hillary came out on Saturday and together, the three of us made several hundred soil blocks, transplanted flowers into almost 50 hanging baskets, and filled 36 Wall O Waters in preparation for our earliest tomato transplant yet.

I did a little reading to see if I could find out what's going on with my tomato seedlings, but alas, I can't find any pictures or descriptions that match their symptons. Could it be as simple as edema?  I have several tomato seedlings whose lower leaf undersides have little bumps, are purple and curling up. I have watered them regularly, but not heavily and fed them initially with the ingredients in the soil blocks (blood meal, aragonite, compost) and when they were a month old, I gave them a liquid fish/seaweed fertilizer, but the problem was evident prior to this 2nd feeding. It seems like it might be affecting only specific varieties and starting on the lower leaves.

Happy March! We have made it through the winter, and though we sometimes get snow in March, the end of the cold season is in sight! The daffodils, bleeding hearts, tulips and winter aconites are all pushing their heads above the cool soil. I saw my first robin of the season today... spring is on her way!