Farm Report

by Bobby Blair

Don't look now, but Mother's Day is but a mere six weeks away and Memorial Day but eight weeks down the road.

With the price of food hitting new all time records, folks may well take a renewed interest this year in growing some of their own vegetables. For those first-time gardeners the price of seeds can be a bit of a shock. Now is the time to start those tomato seeds in a south facing window. In several weeks when the ground can be worked, lettuce seeds can be sown. Leaf lettuce can be grown in our area successfully. It's also time to spread that compost pile onto the garden bed before you turn over the soil. Portions of my soil are still frozen, but given the sun's lengthening rays, pesky weeds are already making an appearance.

To make spring arrive just a little more quickly I visited MacArthur's greenhouse on Concord Street, the day after Easter. The 3,000 tomato seedlings which were just thumb high four weeks ago are a foot tall and ready for transplanting into a front greenhouse. Hothouse tomatoes should be ready by Memorial Day. While MacArthur's had potted lilies and tulips for Easter sales, they won't officially open up till the weather warms up. Helen MacArthur said it's still too cold to put the pansies out.  "They'd freeze," she said.

Inside the greenhouses, small plugs of every variety of vegetable and flower stand row by row soaking up the morning sun. Peter MacArthur said that he's been going through about $1,000 worth of oil per week to heat the greenhouses. That will increase in coming weeks as more greenhouses are opened up with newly transplanted seedlings.

Tulips planted by the Downtown Marigold Project along the front of the Congregational Church are breaking through the ground, but the daffodils have yet to break the soil. Marigolds for the annual downtown display will be started shortly here on School Street, and summer lily bulbs should be arriving within two weeks. Check out those seed racks at your local stores – it's later than you think.