Took a bit of a covid break

Turns out I caught covid despite being vaccinated and boostered. I probably should have been more diligent in avoiding crowds but since it’s the holiday season crowds are a bit unavoidable unless I stay home entirely, which I clearly didn’t do, so that’s why the activity here has gone through a bit of a slowdown. Still feeling weird and coughing up a lung periodically. My wife is totally unaffected so at least there’s that.

Speaking of crowds: A local growing group (Toledo Grows) announced the date of their yearly seed swap for 2023. Same location as last year on February 25th, noon to 3. I went for the first time last year and was shocked by the sheer number of attendees, it was the first time post-lockdown that I had spent time around a crowd like that. I plan to attend this next go-around and will be bringing a pile of Blue Berries tomato seed packets to trade in, and I plan to get there early because the gymnasium where it was held was surprisingly packed.

In sooner news, the Flame Willow has continued to grow at a decent rate. I’ve ordered the stuff that I will need to get it planted in pots to grow in during winter inside until I can finish insulating the shed for my seed starting endeavors. I’m going to mix coir with planting mix in one gallon pots to see how that goes. So far I’m quite happy with how the willow is turning out, since all I really need is a single cane to make it to spring so that it can get planted outside. There it will grow to be around 6’-8’ tall and I’ll coppice it down and plant the rods to start actually propagating properly in 2024. Remember that the goal here isn’t to create a long term Flame Willow bed (though that may be what ends up happening) but to get the willow propagation to the point where I can share it with other people and to start building my fedge.