Hutchinson Farm News Vol. 16, No. 1

Another year, another winter has come and gone (okay, it never really came), and another growing season has begun. I hope that this first newsletter of the season finds you and your families well, invigorated, and ready for another year of growing beautiful things in your gardens, and eating really yummy things (I'm thinking heirloom tomatoes).

2012 finds the folks on our farm quite well. Alexander is almost taller than me, Rebecca has adjusted well to her new school, and if the dogs would quit eating stupid things, us adults would have no worries!

We've got lots of exciting things upcoming this year, and I'll be telling you all about it upcoming newsletters, but for this issue, I thought I'd give you a taste of what happened in our greenhouse during the March Break.

Ready, Set, Go
8:00 am

The previous days were spent cleaning and sterilizing the greenhouse, we've filled the hanging baskets with soil-less mix, now we're just waiting for the plants to arrive!

They're Here!
11:15 am

John just got back from picking up the cuttings from our suppliers, 42 cases, about  10,000 cuttings in total. Enough to keep us out of trouble for a while!

The Unboxing
11:46 am

The fun part is opening the box of course! Here we have some of the exotic "Graffiti" series geraniums.  This side up really does mean this side up! 

Planting Party!
1:35 pm

Deb, Wendy, and Lana planting, planting, planting, planting... most of the cuttings go in 4½" pots, the rest are going in planters and hanging baskets. We hope to finish by Friday afternoon.

Tags
1:37 pm

Rafael came up from sunny Mexico last week. We tried to save some snow for him, but....
His family is all well, but there was a severe drought in his region -his corn crop only grew 8" tall. Here he is putting the little tags in the pots.

A Dog's Life
3:30 pm

Planting geraniums is exhausting work for a dog.

 Tea Time!
6:10 pm

After a day of planting, a cup of 'tea' hits the spot!


I had great intentions of sending this newsletter out during the March Break. Well, that didn't happen, but we did get all those cuttings planted, and they're happy growing in this beautiful weather. This week we're planting another lot of cuttings, this time more geraniums and SunPatiens. The challenge we're facing now is keeping the greenhouses cool! Usually we just have to worry about keeping them warm! Yep, crazy weather indeed, but even though it feels like June, we don't have any strawberries yet!

Bye for now,
David