Fittingly, today was the spring planting festival. There were plant starts for sale, free gardening classes, and sheer delight.
I've heard that the good plant starts go really quickly at these things, so Josh and I were sure to get there right at 10 AM, when it opened. Unfortunately, it was clear that we had gotten there a little early, because there were only one or two vendors set up and only a few more shuffling in.
We decided to have a look around anyways, because heirloom strawberry varieties had been specifically advertised, and I was really eager to get a couple of those.
I was feeling really nervous about being there, and it took me a moment to figure out why.
I want to get into this community. I want to go to farmers markets, plant swaps, and gardening classes. Eventually, I want to be a major contributor to these events. So in a sense, this felt like I was finally coming out into my society, "look at me plant people! I'm here, we can be friends now!"
Realizing this didn't make me feel any less awkward, of course. There's just something inherently nerve-wracking about trying to decide if a bunch of green onions is worth three dollars when the man who grew them is standing right next to you. I hope I will become more acclimated to the situation as time goes on.
There were no strawberry starts so Josh and I decided to come back a little later.
I did buy the green onions as well as a little chamomile plant.*
We came back to attend the beekeeping class, which turned out to be disorganized and bumbly, but still entertaining. I noticed that they were filming the lecture, so I'm going to try to get ahold of some of the recordings to watch the other classes.
There still weren't any strawberry starts. Maybe they came and left while we were gone.**
Overall, the spring planting festival was fun, but a little dinky compared to what I was hoping for. I ended up having to go to a commercial nursery for everything I was actually planning on getting.
On the bright side, I learned that there's a Utah seed exchange group. I also learned that there's a small permaculture based farm up in Orem that gives tours every Thursday.
Date night anyone?
*I'm suddenly fostering hopes of growing enough to make tea.
**or maybe whoever brought them last time decided they would rather have another table with nothing but tomato plants.
My mothers day gift is a little green house we got from a discount store for just $79. Paul is still working on putting it together. I am so excited and want to grow tomatoes and strawberries. I lose these every year to the birds and the deer and our days are not warm enough for tomatoes to mature until it frosts again. Hopefully I will be more successful this year.
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