Seeding Tomatoes and Peppers

Well, we're behind schedule (if you know me, this shouldn't really surprise you). Tomato and pepper seeds should have been cozily tucked into their flats around March 15th (about 8 weeks before Fort Collins' official last frost date) and they still haven't been. In fact, we don't even have the pepper seeds, because we didn't get around to ordering them until last Wednesday.

Plan B was to seed at least the tomatoes this past Saturday, the 26th, but that didn't happen either because the hothouse we're using was not available. Soooooo now we're hoping to seed the tomatoes today, but I don't know whether the hothouse will be available or not. The alternative is to seed them and keep them in the apartment I share with Chris for now, but I'm not sure whether Kaly (Chris' cat) would want to use the flats as a litterbox. Although the extra nitrogen could potentially be beneficial, I'm not going to take a chance on whether she would disturb the seeds as they're trying to germinate, or eat the seedlings once they emerge. The upshot is that we're just going to continue to be behind schedule unless Drew (the man with the hothouse) can fit us in today.

Let me be clear that we're very grateful that Drew is letting us use his hothouse! Especially since we have none and since a lot of the crops we're growing should be started indoors and then transplanted. Plus, tomatoes are generally so vigorous that two weeks' delay won't be a huge setback, if we're lucky. Here's hoping the same holds true of the peppers.

I can't wait to start growing things!

WOG out.

Acknowledgements

I figure I should probably give a few people some credit, since there's no way I will be able to do this by myself. So, I'd like to thank:

My parents and my brother, for supporting me and at least pretending to be interested when I ramble about farming.

Marie, for always listening and for being a wonderful best friend.

Chris, my boyfriend, for helping me balance my wild ideas with a gentle dose of reality, and for all his support and help.

Anne Marie, my dear friend, for coming up with the idea for WOG and for providing most of the resources!

Ben, for being so creative and enthusiastic about the whole process.

Rod and Amy, for giving us so much advice, and a tour of their fantastic garden, and for believing that we can do this.
Drew, for offering to let us use his hothouse to start our seeds, and for giving us so many of his extra seedlings.
Sue, for giving us raspberry transplants and more seedlings.

Brice, for understanding when I need to ramble and dream about farming! and for his advice early on (and I'm sure we'll need him the whole way through).

Frank, for being a great adviser and source of information, and for supporting me in this project.

David, for his help with the rototiller.

Bigfoot and Nick, for their enthusiasm, help, and support at ReSource Fort Collins.

And to anyone who reads this blog, for taking the time to do so!

I'm sure I'll have many more thanks to dole out later in the season, so this is just for starters. Stay tuned!

WOG out.

The Lowdown

Westmore Organic Gardens is a real place, or will be. It's in the planning stages right now, but we hope to be growing real, live veggies soon! And not too long after that, we'll be enjoying fresh, organic, as-local-as-can-be produce. And for dirt-cheap, too. But perhaps I should backtrack a bit.

My name is Kristina, and I'm a student at Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, Colorado. My major is Horticultural Food Crops Production with a focus on Organic Agriculture. I am going to be a senior next fall (yay!) and I am in the University Honors Program (whoop-de-doo) - combined, those two things mean that I have to create and carry out an honors thesis. Well, Westmore Organic Gardens - WOG from here on out - is my honors thesis.

I will give full credit to my friend Anne Marie, an instructor in the Honors Dept, for coming up with the idea for WOG. Last fall, we were discussing ideas for my thesis, and the idea for an NSA just popped out of her brain. An NSA is very similar to a CSA, except that it stands for Neighborhood Supported Agriculture instead of Community Supported Agriculture. Anne Marie offered me the use of her yard and funds, which was just incredible, because I am a poor college student who lives in an apartment building in downtown Fort Collins.

We won't be doing a full-blown NSA, though, because the process of growing the veggies is far more important to us and to this project than is the idea of revenue. However, we do want to make sure that community has a place in the project, so we'll do our best to involve Anne Marie's neighbors, be that through begging for their volunteered assistance with weeding or through selling some veggies to them.

One important thing to note is that WOG is going to be a permanent establishment, at least in the foreseeable future. Although I'll be graduating next spring (yay!), I might stick around town for a while before heading back home to the East Coast, and in that case I'll surely be helping with WOG, Round Two. Even if I go directly back East, without passing Go or collecting $200, I have heard it directly from Anne Marie that she wants to continue with WOG. Good thing too, because I doubt anyone is going to want to put all that sod back on her yard.

Well, thanks for reading! More to come soon.

WOG out.