May is go-time! Seedlings are hardened off, the soil is warming up, and everything is fabulously green. At the start of the garden season, everything feels possible. So much potential in all these little baby plants.
I always have extra veggie starts (because it’s always better to have too many rather than too few, right?) and so this time of year I’m looking to trade with other gardeners in the area for things I haven’t grown myself. One such opportunity is the Alger Sunday Market garden swap, which happened earlier today.
I took my extra tomatoes, and came home with strawberries, mustard greens, walnut tree saplings, and bamboo (cut lengths, not plants)!


I decided to plant the strawberries and greens in the greenstalk vertical planter, and utilized some of the remaining romeldale fleece from last year’s Wonderful Woolies sale in that task-

I used a layer in the bottom of each tier, and also to fill the center area. Voila! Fertilizer and filler in one.

Also planted out cukes, melons (in hoophouse), delicata squash, shallots, zuchinni and cabbage (outside).
On the woolly side of things, I’m getting fleeces washed, and taking another stab at collecting lanolin from the washwater. Here’s a batch of Fiona drying outside-

And here is the lanolin that I’ve skimmed from the washwater of Fiona and Daphne fleeces so far

It’s currently a paste-like consistency. I’m thinking that once I’m done washing the wool and collecting the lanolin, I’ll alternately heat and cool it, and see if i can get the remaining water to separate out. But maybe let it sit open and evaporate some first.
So that’s what I’m up to. Will sign off Dottie and Fiona sharing a broccoli plant from the hoophouse
Have a good week, folks-