Today, April 10, the broccoli; cauliflowers; and iceberg lettuce went into the garden. 

broccoli in the foreground; cauliflower in the background

iceberg lettuce

There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling.  ~Mirabel Osler (English writer; author of A Gentle Plea for Chaos)

Here is the current status of the seeds we stared on March 1. This photo is taken on March 30.  

On the right are cauliflowers; the left are broccoli; and in the bottom left are iceberg lettuce. These will all go into the garden on about April 10.

Today we started our tomato seeds. They will be ready to go into the garden by about the last week in May.

“Of all the wonderful things in the wonderful universe of God, nothing seems to me more surprising than the planting of a seed in the blank earth and the result thereof.”
Julie Moir Messervy  (prominent New England landscape architect).

Last Saturday, March 12, 2011, Mustard Seed sent a contingent of our kids to march in the White Plains St. Patrick’s Day parade. Sister Susan Merritt, RDC, President of the Sisters of the Divine Compassion congregation, of which MSMM is a sponsored ministry, was Grand Marshall. Fortunately, our offical “We are one family” T-shirts were the proper color green for this occasion. 

No doubt many of our loyal followers in internet land are wondering how the seeds that we planted on March 1 have progressed. Very well, and thank you for asking. Here are the little broccoli and cauliflower plants as of March 15.

I have a rather extensive garden and a greenhouse and I like to get some of the seeds started on March 1. And I did get them started on a timely basis this year. I start cauliflower; broccoli; and head lettuce on the 1st. I start my annual flowers on about the 15th, and the tomatos; peppers and eggplants on March 30. This pattern is well suited to southern New York state, where we are located.

I received a letter in the mail today from Sisters Fran and Pam. The letter had several illusions to the planting of seeds in the spring, including the quote: “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap…but by the seeds you plant.”

Further quoting from the letter: “Here at Mustard Seed so many seeds have been planted by you during these 20 years – seeds of hope for the children who come here to enjoy their childhoods and, hopefully, to grow along the way into caring adults who will plant their own seeds of compassion and connection and thereby contribute to the realization that we are indeed one family.”

So…get your seeds planted. The time is now.   JM