I finally got the peas and lettuce and spinach planted a week and a half ago, far later than my usual third weekend in March. It’s been cool and wet here, not good gardening weather at all. But finally it seems to be turning into spring. The radishes and the lettuce are up. I may lose the peas: heavy rains washed most of the seeds up, and the ants have been eating them. I did rebury them once, but to no avail. I have enormous quantities of tiny lettuce and spinach seedlings though: the seeds were several years old, so I just dumped them all in. And the strawberries have buds!<\/p>\n
Yesterday was lovely, sunny and dry for the first time in ages. I spent the afternoon outside: some light pruning, cleaning up the front flower beds, and giving my new mower a whirl. I’ve used a reel mower (the people-powered kind) for as long as I’ve had a yard of my own. Same mower, which was getting rather aged and no longer so functional. I upgraded to a Fiskars reel mower. They make great cutting tools; I figured their mower would be just as good.<\/p>\n
I was right. If you read the reviews online, people who are used to reel mowers love the Fiskars<\/a>, while people who aren’t don’t. Reel mowers are<\/i> more work to use, but they’re quiet, don’t smell bad, and don’t release any greenhouse gases. The Fiskars mower is heavy and hard to turn, but cuts amazing well, even in tall and thick grass. It may take two passes, but my previous mower wouldn’t cut those areas of the lawn at all. <\/p>\n Today, though, is rainy and cool. I’ve done a bunch of dyeing, and am now cutting tablet weaving tablets for a big order. I thought you might be interested in seeing the technology. I use a computer-controlled cutting plotter: anything I can draw on the computer, it can cut. That’s how I can offer such a range of sizes and shapes<\/a>, and even custom tablets. <\/p>\n