January 25, 2026

I have to admit, I veered from my original plans to do a lot of cuttings and instead dedicated this past week to cleanup, mainly because I wanted to stay active during the cold weather to keep warm. I organized our high tunnel, cleaned up a big part of our sunny sales area, took inventory of our shady sales area, worked on plant tags and bench cards, and even tackled our attic. A lot of tea was drunk this past week—warms the hands and the heart, but not the toes so much.

Joe cleared out a ton of branches from the roadside, reset a portion of rock wall he had grubbed out earlier, worked on a new length of fence, and worked on getting the dam ready for spring. Unfortunately, along with the branches he cleared out, he also cleared out the usual round of roadside garbage, mostly beer cans and food wrappers this time, nothing too interesting. To the person who tosses those beer cans about every mile along the road we live on: it might be time to rethink some life choices.

My oldest kid created a Notion teamspace for me, which is quickly becoming my favorite tool. It includes a plant database that I’m filling in and will use for my tags, bench cards, and plant care articles. It also includes a task list and an inventory database with a view that show what plants need what care, and another view that shows where all our plants are. It’s pretty amazing and goes way beyond what I was able to achieve in Excel.

February is almost here, which means March is almost here, which means spring is almost here. Busy time is upon us!

This coming week is supposed to be a little warmer and a little rainier, so I’m hoping to get a bunch of cuttings done. There’s nothing quite so calming as sticking cuttings in the high tunnel while listening to the rain hitting the plastic (and not me).

Keep on growing!
Andrea