Week 7: Feb. 9-15, 2025 (or, the week that technology broke me)
I’ve run into several technological “snafus” lately that were, quite honestly, so frustrating I had to walk away from the computer for awile. When it comes to technology I’m guessing I gave up somewhere around 2015. Things just seemed to move faster than I could keep up with, and nowadays I sound like some oldtimer bemoaning the loss of the “good old days.” (Because, they kind of were, weren’t they? You might see it that way, too, at least if you were born anytime before 1980.) When I hear other growers talk about planning their crops using these elaborate software programs, or some app on their phone to track data, it’s all I can do to stop my right eye from twitching.
If you follow us on Facebook you’ll have noticed I mentioned in the last post that I’d be deleting our page in the coming weeks. It’s February 24 and the page is still up, and not for lack of trying. Turns out it’s not as easy to delete a Facebook page as one would think. (There was that three-hour rabbit hole I decended into, following Facebook’s sneaky little bread trail that, surprise, all ends in me still having a Facebook page.) And then there was the issue of trying to create new listings for dried products here on the website, to allow for local delivery. After getting in touch with customer service, adding and deleting pages and pouring over various help guides, I think I’ve figured out the problem. All this to say, when things of this nature happen, I tend to want to step away, to take a breather from working on things that cause such enormous frustration.
Luckily, while I turned my back on technology temporarily, there were other things to concentrate on in week seven. I had trays of perennials to start before moving on to hydrating those funky little ranunculus corms sitting in a box in the basement. But even before that I had to tackle the ONE tray of eucalyptus I’d sown the first week of January. Remember when I mentioned heavily seeding the entire tray, because I wasn’t sure of germination rates, and I was also trying to save space on the heating mat? Well, turned out the germination rate was amazing, but what this also meant is that, come February, I’d need to carefully thin out all the extra seedlings and transplant them into new trays. For reference, the centre photo below is a 128-cell tray that’s been completely filled with the excess seedlings from just 23 cells! I’ve sinced filled another 128 and I’m not even halfway through the original tray. Time estimate: 6-7 hours.
One of my nieces recently asked me how I fill my days, given that it’s the off-season. (Fair question!) January and February are typically the slowest months of the year, as I’ve mentioned. There are a lot of tasks to accomplish, yes, but they come with a lesser sense of urgency than those of March, April, May and beyond. There are tasks that are time sensitive (starting seeds by a specified date, for example) and tasks that need to be accomplished in a general timeframe (website updates, dried floral inventory, income tax, etc.). I always find it helpful to keep a weekly to-do list during this time of year, for those tasks that are necessary but less urgent. (I’m great at working under pressure, but that doesn’t mean it’s preferable.)
For this week coming up, for example, my weekly to-do list includes the following:
Write and post week eight blog post (all about starting ranunculus)
Upload dried flower inventory/pricing/photos to website
Start first successions of statice, bupleurum and strawflowers, as well as dianthus and snapdragons
Finish thinning eucalyptus tray
Soak remaining ranunculus/anemone corms, begin sprouting in trays
Post to Instagram
And that’ll be week nine in a nutshell. Once March hits I switch to daily to-do lists simply because the tasks feel more manageable. Soon our bare-root perennials and shrubs will arrive (and need to be potted up), dahlias will arrive soon after (and need to be divided) and our ranunculus will move out to the greenhouse, where I will baby them, day and night, for almost two months.
Spring is inching closer. I can smell it in the air when I’m out for my daily walk. I think of the long days ahead, of my hands in the soil, the sun on my back, the feeling of having accomplished something worthwhile at the end of the day, and all the beauty that awaits us.
For now, winter is still here, and I am grateful for the respite, for the opportunity to see the season ahead with fresh eyes and a renewed sense of purpose. As for technology…
~ Liisa