Here in the Horticulture Project, we are in the busiest time of the season with our plugs! I don't mean your 50w screw-in bulbs, I mean those teeny, tiny, little plants that are just a few weeks past being seeds. It starts with a huge lorry navigating the car park to deliver one or two trollies loaded with our precious cargo, which arrive in trays ranging from 200-350 plugs per tray. Once the trollies are unloaded, we get our hands dirty and carefully unload the plugs from the trays and place them into pre-filled pots of compost.
From there the plugs grow happily into plants which then go out for sale and hopefully into your gardens! These next few weeks are when we see deliveries of 4,000-5,000 plugs a week. Thankfully, this busy season comes after a slow start to the year, where not much can be done except cleaning pots to recycle and reuse or clean and tidy the greenhouse, ready for these deliveries. It is a welcome change of pace, albeit a busy time of the year.
Our other exciting project that is in its infancy is our Growing Garden. This garden will be completely for the Horticulture Project and its growers....so nothing will go out for sale, everything will go back to the beneficiaries. We've restored and painted some old raised beds over the winter months, and are in the midst of preparing the ground for this garden area, located behind the greenhouse.
It's early days, but many people have sown seeds for this outdoor space already, including onions, tomatoes, sunflowers, dahlias, marigolds, and basil. Each member of the Horticulture Team will be able to grow something from seed, water it, re-pot it, weed the area, prune what is necessary, and then take home the final product. Everyone is looking forward to having the greenhouse full of colour once again, and the new garden! Some days when sowing seeds we have at least one person say
"Isn't it incredible how this tiny seed can turn into a huge, colourful, plant?"
and I always agree, it certainly is! Isn't it amazing how our Heavenly Father designed things to grow? How His hands work for, and within, His creation? It's absolutely marvellous. I am so thankful to be a part of the CFL family and have these conversations with such precious people.
