SPELLING BEE

BY BEA WESTERBERG

Spring is on order

It’s getting towards the end of March and the highlight of the month, St. Patrick’s Day, has come and gone. It was a bit more interesting in Hastings because of the person who decided to walk over on the bridge arch instead of walking or driving on the flat surfaces. Maybe he wanted to check out if the pigeons are still nesting up there.

The snow is leaving town like crazy and we can see most of the gray, brown or black surfaces left behind. Spring fever will make us want to paint those surfaces into green and many colors of the rainbow. I think our joy of spring coming has been somewhat changed in the last several years with Covid 19 pandemic and world wide events popping up. We have been hearing about Covid 19, vaccines, China, inflation, food shortages and what is true in our newspapers and on TV. War in Europe is prime news now and the other issues seem to have gone away on those fronts. We still have a lot of the past issues in our everyday life, especially when we go to purchase almost anything from gas to Rice Krispies. Dare I even mention car and home purchases? Maybe we have to put extra effort into looking forward to warm weather, a good growing season, and extra prayers for common sense to take over the world. Now, more than ever, PEACE ON EARTH would be a true gift for all.

The Easter Bunny may already be shopping for some new outfits for the event this year. Back in my childhood days, getting a new outfit for Sunday church was a must. Sometimes it happened but most often it did not in our family. We did have several church members that did provide viewings for the day. There were 2 sisters that were always on top of the fashion trends and they would always come to church in matching outfits. It was interesting because one sister was tall and thin and the other one was on the shorter side and lets say she covered more space than her sister. This was in the Central Minnesota area and the sisters would go to the “CITIES” to shop! No Sears or Wards catalogs for them! Of course the outfits got a lot of critiques after church. We did have some class and this was not done around the sisters, but around the family Sunday dinners later that day. I can look back and remember the time they had bright animal feather hats and matching handbags. The question was asked over and over again as to how many birds it would take to make 2 big hats and 2 bags. The sisters never sat together as one would be an almost front seat person and the other halfway back. That gave good viewing for almost everyone in church.

Back to the time line of 2022 and the gardening season coming up soon. If you are going to start your own tomatoes, peppers, and other plants, now is the perfect time to start. I used to always use Daughter Nissa’s birthday of March 25 as the date to get my seeds in the planting material and under the the lights down the basement. Don’t be in a rush to get them outside. A week of nice warm weather has fooled more than one gardener to put things out too soon and then have them freeze. We have been known to have some deadly frosts on Mother’s Day. Memorial Day is still a good time to aim for planting out tropicals such as the tomatoes and peppers.

There are a number of “cold weather” crops that do need to be planted out earlier than the tomatoes and peppers. Usually the seed packages will use the words “plant out when soil can be worked”. Some examples are peas, cabbage, kale, broccoli, leeks and lettuce. If you have a raised bed system you will be ahead of other gardeners as the beds warm up faster and are ready for planting sooner. Lettuce is easy to grow in almost any big planting container, plus you will be able to move the planters around from sun spot to sun spot.

I will say goodbye for today with a quote by Jesse Jackson. “We must turn to each other and not on each other”.