The Official Framboise Manor "First Day of Spring 2016" Celebration Day!

(it's so official that i even used capital letters in the title - did you notice?)

the morning was bright and beautiful!



we decided to go all out and party - woohoo! the day started with a hottub dip admiring the greenhouse that we'll be starting a variety of lettuces, spinaches, kale, swiss chard and brassicas in this week.



we had our version of a V-8 for breakfast. jambaloney choked his down - i've been gagging it down all day!



why did we choose today to be The Official Framboise Manor "First Day of Spring 2016" Celebration Day? good question. there are a variety of reasons.

first off the pond is almost melted!

our pernnial herb garden containing mint, chives, sage, thyme, rosemary, bee balm, lemon balm and anise held up well over the winter.

especially the sage, rosemary and thyme lasted throughout the winter. the rest will come back on their own.

the chamomile bed is showing signs of coming back.

the white and blue borage bed we let go to seed last year and then knocked all of the seeds onto the ground. they will be coming back soon.

we planted our tulips! woohoo!

we got our tulips last fall and just didn't have the time to get them in the ground. and we have no idea where we wanted them to live. so we put them in a box and left them in the cool, dark basement. and what do you know - they all sprouted. it was so much fun to get out in the greenhouse and plant something! as we still don't know where we want to make a tulip bed - we planted them in pots.

now kids - you all know that when it comes to partying - we don't hold back. we go full throttle! so we got out all of our seeds that we have acquired over the years, sorted them and realized that guess what? the only seeds we need to buy this year are hops. jambaloney is going to try to start making beer with our own hops.

then we got out our bags of saved seed from last year. there are a ton more but the table is only so big.

there is something so special about feeling like you planted the seed, you grew the food, you saved the seed - and then you will plant that seed this year. imagine - the only seeds we need to buy this year are hops!

we sorted about 1/3 of our seeds, bagged and labelled them. we'll finish all of the rest during the rest of this week.



and nothing goes to waste! when our plant seeds are dry enough we don't gather the seeds we just cut the stalks and stick the stalks and the seeds in a variety of bags that we have been using for 5yrs now. re-purpose, recycle, re-use. so when we actually separate the seeds from the stalks or pods, all of that goes into a big bag to be brought out to the compost.

it's a full circle/cycle. we plant the seeds, eat the produce, save the seeds, save the stalks for compost and then the circle/cycle starts again. we love that feeling.

and isn't it awesome when it's 6pm and the sun is still high in the sky???

well, even though we're pretty sure that by announcing The Official Framboise Manor "First Day of Spring" Celebration Day that we are almost guaranteeing that we will get a pile of snow dumped on us before the end of march - it doesn't matter! today we planted things, we sorted our seeds and planned this year's garden! that to me makes it official.

and the fact that it's St. Patrick's Day when everyone wears green and drinks green beer and such - well nothing screams spring louder than green stuff!

Happy Official Framboise Manor "First Day of Spring 2016" Celebration Day - and Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you!

we're going to keep the party going on all night. jambaloney has 10 million wires and tools and all kinds of stuff spread all over the floor - stuff that he is working on for his contract. and i am writing this post, responding to email and then hitting up your blogs. then it's off to watch a movie and a few more "brooklyn 9-9" - it's a pretty funny show and we laugh our guts out at it.

then to bed by 10. we'll be worn out - but hey - you get worn out when you party like us! bahahahah!