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Where I was raised in Jersey we call snow in April total bullshit.

In Vermont, they call it poor man’s fertilizer. As a gardener, I finally understand why.

The phrase “poor man’s fertilizer” refers to snow, which is believed to contain nitrogen and other nutrients that can benefit plants, particularly in the spring as it melts and releases these nutrients into the soil. 

Poor man’s fertilizer is also a reminder that the 72 degree day we had last week was the third fake spring.

I predict we will have one or two more applications of poor man’s fertilizer before true spring weather finally arrives by mid-April.

I’ll always be considered a flatlander who lives in the green mountains of Vermont, but as a gardener, I am beginning to think like a Yankee.

Being a homebody, keeping to myself, and wishes I could live in a hobbit house in the middle of nowhere also has me thinking like a Yankee.

Who the fuck ever would have thought? Not me that’s for damn sure. Am I glad? In Jersey terms, you bet your ass I am.

I completely forgot when I wrote the update and expansion blog post to write about my new greenhouse lights.

The are solar powered multi-colored flower lights that I got for $10 bucks at DG.

I’m surprised the whole town didn’t hear me squeal with delight when they came on the first night!

I’ll tell you what, it doesn’t take much to make me happy when an idea I have in my head comes to fruition.

Every night I look out our back room window and peek out at the flower sun powered lights.

Every night I ask Nelly who is usually sleeping on the loveseat, “Nelly, aren’t they flower power lights soooooo cute?”

Nelly opens her eyes and yawns but I know she is saying, “Yes, mama julz! They are very cute!” 🥰

My garden evolves every day. In the green house, I’ve been potting up the seedlings I planted first to bigger pots and holy shit do they grow fast!

Each day, I spend time potting up various flowers, herbs and vegetables. It’s so much fun!

I look forward to working in the greenhouse and get all my other stuff done so I can get out there.

The greenhouse is my favorite place. It’s warm no matter what the weather and I love the earthy smell.

I’ve mentioned before that I am a smeller, so is my son Sam, when I open the door I take a big sniff and always smile.

I get lost in there for a couple of hours where day practically. I have a strict no-phone policy whenever I am working outdoors or in the greenhouse.

I need to protect this time I have carved out for gardening. This time is precious to me and I don’t like to be distracted; everything else can wait.

Today, we finished putting together the garden beds we picked up on sale last year.

My original plans changed when Marty and I discussed the garden expansion. I realized my plan would take too long and the garden would never be ready for planting.

We laid out two large tarps. Next, we laid out the new galvanized steel beds. We tried them a couple of different ways until we were happy with how they looked and would function.

Then we took three large food safe barrels we got from a local food manufacturer which Marty cut in half and figured out the the best place to put them as well.

Finally, we moved the 6 robin’s egg blue raised beds into place. I finally have a solid plan what will be planted and where now.

We began filling the beds with all the cardboard and egg cartons we saved. Then I started looking for more fill besides twigs and sticks.

Then I turned around and remembered the eyesore on the backside of the packing room of the production kitchen.

Years ago, Marty filled this space with crumbled pieces of an old concrete lincoln log fire pit.

He also threw in lava stones from a different fire pit. Three concrete blocks he was once used in an old outdoor train layout found their way to this spot too.

I didn’t see this area since it is hidden from the deck, pool, and house. Well, now my garden is there and I knew it had to go.

As soon as my brain made this decision, I saw the space loaded with of lots of different sunflowers filling in the blank space at the back of the building.

I began removing the rubble until I had a wheelbarrow full. That’s when I stopped since I wasn’t wearing gloves and my hands were getting sore.

I used the rest of the nice day to plant more seeds in the greenhouse.

I started some pest control seeds of different varieties. I did a lot of research on this in the last few days.

It’s 5 pm and I just came in. Wow! What a super productive day!! We got done a lot more than I imagined.

Marty was a tremendous help to me today! Thanks hunny! The rest I can manage on my own.

I’ve got that good exhausted feeling and my body feels like it got a great workout. I am starving and so happy I planned a simple dinner.

Thinly sliced grilled steak in a salad with veggies, onion, bleu cheese, and balsamic dressing are on the menu. Yum! I’m drooling.

Of course Nelly & Roxy were outdoors with us. They loved playing on the big tarps. They played ball, wrestled and chased each other for hours.

Oh, it’s going to an early night for all of us I can promise you that.

Have a great night and a good week guys. I’ll talk to you soon! 🩷

Today started off stormy and it was forecasted to continue all day. Then, the rain stopped and the sun came out! Yay!

This afternoon I worked outside on my garden for hours! It was wonderful and warm out.

I had plenty of chores to do in the house but those things could wait until tomorrow.

While I was working in the greenhouse, I opened the door and had the fan going. It was nice and warm and I loved it.

I planted potatoes today, yukon golds and red, white, and blue ones. I also planted a blueberry and strawberry plant in pots.

It’s very exciting each day being able to tell who grew overnight or popped through the soil. Yes, I talk to all of my plants, seeds, and seedlings.

The tomatoes, eggplant, broccoli, and brussel sprouts are ready for bigger pots already along with several different flowers. Yay!

I got a chance to continue to work on the expansion of our garden late in the day when it was still gorgeous out.

The expansion is a big undertaking but I still have until the end of May to have it done and ready for planting.

I’ve only completed two raised beds which are set over cardboard to kill the weeds and any grass that is left.

Next, I layer tons of large wet egg cartons from our business. I mold them inside the bed to not only fill the space but to keep the weeds at bay.

When filling the types of raised beds that we are using it would cost a fortune to fill the bed with all soil.

After the egg cartons, I layer the empty bags from the flours that we use to make the spätzle.

The next layer will be twigs, sticks, and leaves. I have to do this to all 6 of the new raised beds. I still need to put together three of them.

Putting these raised beds is a bit of a struggle for me since my arms aren’t long enough to get down to the bottom to attach the nuts and bolts.

Finally, the bed will be filled with soul and cardboard will be put down on the whole area including in between the rows of beds which will be covered in mulch creating walk ways.

Today, I ran out of the cardboard and egg carton trays I had been saving. Shit, I am going to need a lot more!

I cleaned up some of my raised beds on Sunday while I was recuperating from exhaustion from the Gluten Free Expo on Saturday.

The event went well, it was a lot of work and a very long day but we had fun. I plan to write about it this week.

That’s it for now, goodnight.

This morning Sam mentioned his flight crew from Friday had their photo snapped celebrating their medic Frank’s 350 flight.

I am so impressed by the company he works for Air Methods and Lifenet NY. Yesterday, he was at the Johnstown, NY base 7-2.

Safety and teamwork are the two most important things when it comes to their profession.

They count on each other to make everything go like clockwork and saving lives.

The photo above was posted on Lifenet 7-2’s Facebook page. I like that they give their employees credit where credit is due!

As an employee the most important thing is being appreciated and I think his employer is doing a great job at this.

Yes, u am proud but besides that I haven’t posted anything about Sam since the summer so I thought I’d give you all an update.

Every year, right after the first day of spring, winter makes a comeback. I told you we had a fake spring!

Guess what? I am predicting that we will have another one from the beginning to the middle of April, too.

I wanted to share the good news that all of my seedlings and plants survived the night in the greenhouse!

I was worried all night about it and checked my phone three times keeping a watch on the temperature.

When I woke up this morning, I saw snow on the mountain and jumped out of bed with a loud, “What the fuck!”

Yup, everything was covered in a light coating of snow. Everything except for my greenhouse! 🥳

Nelly and Roxy knew that winter returned the way they woke up all curled up together. After their breakfast, they snuggled up together again on the heated blanket.

I had to go to Saratoga this morning while Marty was working one of his second jobs to make two deliveries and pick up ingredients for production this week.

I also picked up my new progressive glasses. I was shocked at how good I could see! Wow! I adjusted to them right away and drove home wearing them.

After I got back, I brought the rest of my seedlings out to the greenhouse this afternoon after I planted more seeds of basil and different flowers.

I needed the grow rack upstairs with the heated mats in our warm bathroom.

When I checked on my seedlings that I put out there yesterday I was shocked how much they grew and looked so much stronger.

I don’t know the proper terminology here and I didn’t have time to go back to find out here’s what I learned..

Seedling growing under grow lights get 400 whatever you call its. Seedlings in a greenhouse on a rainy day get between 500-800 whatever’s and 1500-1800 on partly sunny days.

No wonder why they grew. I also figured it’s going to be cloudy this week so the full on sunshine won’t shock them.

Now, I get to watch the springtime and old-fashioned mixed flowers, sweet peas, asters, and alyssum germinate and come to life.

There are still many veggies and herbs to start in the next couple of weeks as well. I love gardening so much and seeing everything!

Goodnight! 😴

This is my third year as a gardener. I decided in the fall that I would grow everything from seed this year.

I got many of my seeds from farmers on Etsy, where you can order as few as 10-25 seeds of veggies and flowers.

We don’t need more than that since we aren’t a farm. We are halfway homesteading at this point, meaning no farm animals.

I’ve considered chickens but tabled that until next winter to ponder. It would be nice having chicken poop as fertilizer for days.

Farm fresh eggs would also be awesome for our home use only since we use A LOT of eggs for the business.

As I said, that’s next year’s decision.

I started some flower seeds in mid-February, and they have been doing well.

I planted vegetables and herbs the first week of March which are also coming along.

I had to transplant one flower variety to bigger pots. This is what I want to happen but I realized quickly what gardeners said on YouTube that you will run out of room sooner than later.

I quickly ran out of grow light shelves and sunny windowsills. We talked about getting a greenhouse last weekend, and we did.

I saw one small 6×8 greenhouse that I liked, and it would be perfect for my needs. I found one online from Harbor Freight.

We watched several YouTube videos on reviews of the greenhouse I chose. Some gardeners had theirs for 6-8 years and were still using them.

They all said the same thing, it sucks to put it together, and the instructions are shit. Ok.

I went back online and I kid you not, there was a $129 dollar coupon on the greenhouse reducing the price to $229. Yay.

I drove to Bennington and got the greenhouse. I drove home and we started putting it together a couple of days later.

Putting it together was such a pain in the ass! We took advice from the YouTubers when they said don’t tighten anything since you will have to unscrew things several times.

It took us 2 days, the same time as the YouTubers.

We have experience when it comes to doing projects, I can’t imagine how difficult it would be for someone who isn’t handy.

When we finally got the damn thing built I installed the floor using patio pavers we used last summer.

These stones will help retain heat in the greenhouse at night. Marty did find a still in the box greenhouse heater on Facebook Marketplace in Latham, NY.

Today, Marty build me two shelves using all recycling materials we had from previous projects.

It was a chilly day here in Vermont but the sun was shining brightly. The greenhouse got to 90 degrees inside. I brought out some seedlings and the herbs that survived over the winter.

I had to open one of the vents to let some heat out. It felt so good in there. The shelves were perfect and my herb table fit between the shelves with less than hair length in between.

When things like this work out, I feel I have the “other side” helping us. 🙏

We set up the smart heater which I can control from my phone and receive notifications if the temperature gets too hot or too cold.

If things go well in the morning, I’ll be relieved that it actually worked. Fingers crossed that everything survives.

So far, I love my new greenhouse and that it was only a $229 investment which will pay for itself when the garden starts producing food.

I am super excited and nervous at the same time that I have success.

Our girls, Nelly and Roxy loved being outside with us while we were working on the greenhouse.

They don’t care what we are doing as long as they are with us. They soaked up the sun and laid on the greenhouse box.

Nelly and Roxy both entertained themselves putting their balls inside the big box and in between the frames that we were putting together.

This week we will have our foot on the gas as far as our business goes. We are vending at a gluten-free expo at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut.

It’s a big deal doing this expo with a lot of product to make to take with us and keeping up with our regular wholesale orders from stores and restaurants.

I had two anxiety attacks last week and finally decided that whatever we do, everything always works out in the end.

I’ll be taking photos of what it takes getting ready for a big event and at the event itself so I can write about it when it’s all over.

Have a great week, this may be the only time you’ll hear from me until next Sunday.

I haven’t made a traditional St. Patrick’s Day boil dinner for years, and this year was no different.

Don’t get me wrong, I grew up eating the traditional corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes, and I loved it.

I loved the leftovers more. The year I realized I didn’t have to eat the boiled flavorless version to have the good stuff the next day was huge.

It made me question all the traditional food I made through the years. Yes, I’ve changed other stuff too.

This year we had corned beef sandwiches on mock GF rye bread, caramelized cabbage, cole slaw, and doughless knishes.

Mmmmmmmm!

I went through my memories on Facebook and was pleasantly surprised there were no photos of the traditional boil dinner.

Photos of me were shocking, showing how differently I looked through the years. Yikes!

When I looked at some of the photos, memories flooded in—some bad recollections, especially from 2014.

This was the St.Patrick’s Day after my adopted mother, Eileen’s stoke in November 2013.

My face was swollen along with my eyes from crying, stress, guilt, and exhaustion.

The month of February I spent cleaning out Eileen’s apartment since she wasn’t ever going home.

It was a enormous job. It sucked. I thought I would never get through it, but I did somehow.

I prayed a lot to not completely lose my shit every day. I drank like a fish. I felt alone working on her apartment every day.

I went through and touched everything she owned. I kept looking for a folder different from the one with her legal paperwork I needed the night of her stroke.

The folder I was looking for contained my adoption paperwork and all of my biological information.

My mother promised me she had this information for decades. She used it like a carrot dangling in front of a horse.

She told me she didn’t want me to have the folder until after she died. I never found it.

I laid on my back in her living room in her clean and empty apartment on the last day of February, also my birthday, sobbing.

The realization that Eileen lied to me all of those years promising me she had all my birth information.

Well, she didn’t die, but she was dead to me when I realized what a lying bitch she was.

I was in complete disbelief that there was nothing. Zero. Zip. It was like a bad dream I couldn’t wake up from.

This may have been the biggest blow I have ever received in my life. This was worse than anything I could ever think of.

I wouldn’t wish that heartbreak on my worst enemies, not that I have any I know of.

She ripped my heart out, stomped on it, and threw it to the fucking curb. How could a mother do that to her child?

For the next nine years while she was at the nursing home, I pretended being her daughter, looking after her like I promised my father I would when he was dying.

I didn’t think that one through when I said it that’s for sure. Lol.

All I could think of was now I would never know where I came from , who my birth mother was, what were my nationalities.

Did my birth mother ever think about me, especially on my birthdays? Did I have any siblings?

I walked around in a daze, drinking heavily at night and cried my eyes out for weeks. I was in a deep state of depression.

Well, the good news is I got my shit together and I divinely found my birth mother the next month and everything I ever wanted to know was answered.

Yes, she always thought about me on my birthdays. After all the years I spent crying and wondering about that on my birthdays, this made me so happy.

The rest is history and I never said a word to Eileen about it. It did make pretending to be Eileen’s daughter easier after I found J.

Gosh, in the photos, my hair went from red to black, and now my natural color brown. My eyes were like slits from drinking so much.

I was 52 pounds heavier than I am now. I felt like shit all those years. I was unhappy, I can see it in my eyes. It breaks my heart now looking back.

Back to St. Patrick’s Day, as a child I dreaded St. Patrick’s Day and not knowing my nationalities.

My mother upset me every year telling me I was allowed to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day because everyone was Irish on St. Paddy’s Day.

As an adopted child, I wanted to feel like I fit in, and this, “you’re not Irish” thing made me feel horrible like she was rubbing it in that she knew she was.

That made me madder and madder through the years. After I found out my nationalities I never told Eileen I was 78% Irish.

She didn’t deserve to know but I felt smug as hell every St. Patrick’s Day after finding out.

The end of last March, I forgave Eileen for everything she put me through. It made me who I am today.

I am finally free of pain, agony, hurt, and disappointment. I can live in peace and finally take care of myself.

This St. Patrick’s Day is the best I have ever felt mentally, emotionally, and physically. It’s really quite unbelievable to me.

I am grateful where I am but I am even more grateful I never have to go through those degrading St.Patrick’s years again.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day guys. ☘️

***For the record, I didn’t intend for this blog post veering off the subject of corned beef.

However, after I looked at myself in the St. Patrick’s Day photos things changed.

I never know where a post will take me until after it’s written.

I’ve lived in Vermont for almost 30 years and know that the spring-like weather we are experiencing will not last.

Usually, one or two fake springs get people’s hopes that spring is here.

Gardeners know all too well that winter isn’t over until it’s over. Last year was an exception with an early spring—a true gift.

While the weather has been nice, I’ve seen signs of spring in my gardens!

Our garlic and onions we planted back in November are popping up through the leaves. How exciting.

The wildflower garden bed wearer better than I imagined over the seasons.

The slanted edge I put in last spring did its job and kept grass and weeds out of the flower bed. Time well spent.

This year it will be easy to put a clean edge on all of my flower beds. I’m pretty happy that the effort and hard work weren’t done in vain.

I have many seeds germinating and some are getting like crazy. I’ll be transplanting to bigger containers for some of them sooner than later.

At the end of last year we picked up 6 long and thin raised beds which will go in the new veggie patch.

Raised beds are the only way to go for us. We have a big problem with moles digging tunnels everywhere in all of our yards.

We also have a large bunny that isn’t phased by anything. That was the baddy that ate my morning glories last summer.

I’ve given up the idea of using these six beds to try to grow something to block the view of our neighbor’s unmowed, neglected, and full of broken plastic toys & vehicles scattered every few feet up against our fence.

I’m not putting any more energy there. It is what it is and I’ll live with it. I’m done.

I pruned the hydrangeas and our pear trees before it was too late. They were out of control!

To say I am excited for spring is an understatement but time is passing by too quickly so I’ll be patient and take each day as it comes with gratitude.