Wheelbarrow Starts

     

Summer starts can be challenging. First, most seeds that I plant after the summer solstice do not sprout. Those that do sprout—planted, usually, on June 20^th, need extra care. Spring starts thrive in the greenhouse. In summer, it’s too warm—and it is occupied by my classroom plants, who need the blast of summer sunshine after a long winter on the north side of the building.

                Summer starts need to be right where you pass by several times a day, so you can check on them. For years, I kept them on a rickety table/bench, under the plum tree, right on the path to the tool and bike shed. They had strong morning light, dappled afternoon light, and a stable space above the munching level of the rabbit. The jays came down and inspected them occasionally and the bees loved drinking from the damp soil. When I needed the table, I moved them. It was pretty perfect—but the bench was slowly breaking down. When a friend moved the plants to sit down and I yelled “Don’t” in the middle of a Pie Social, I knew we needed a new system. I tore down the bench, turned it into firewood, and looked around.

                The starts can’t sit on the dining table—it’s too hot in the middle of the afternoon. They can’t sit on the ground—the rabbit would eat them. They can’t rest in a garden bed because they are all packed with plants right now. The greenhouse is too hot unless I check on them constantly and one hot afternoon would fry them at the bases. It has happened.  Then I found an old, still functional wheelbarrow. It’s shallow with a wide, flat bottom, perfect to hold six packs of plants. It has a few holes in it already for drainage. It is above the head of the rabbit, even when he raises himself up to check it out. It is moveable. I am already using wheelbarrows for strawberry plants…. The starts moved in. I park it in the same area as the old bench, but I shift it around, depending upon the weather. Cooler days, it is in full sun; days above 90 degrees, I move it into dappled shade.

                Right now, the wheelbarrow is holding all of the starts, some of  which need to be bumped up, as well as some cuttings that I am hoping to root. They will stay until they outgrow the pots, when I will push the barrow over to the fall garden bed, pop them in, and return the barrow to the lineup against the shed.