Senator Mike Knapik has been offering free seeds this year to the people of the Hampden and Hampshire area.
“There is a national organization called America the Beautiful. They provide seeds from last year at a low-cost, which I use to give away to various organizations and classrooms, in order to promote the beautification of America,” said Knapik.
Senator Knapik came across the organization fifteen years ago and, every year since, has purchased approximately 2,000 seeds to give away to his constituents, various organizations such as WIC, and classrooms at schools all over the area.
In order to obtain seeds, the Knapik’s office recommends calling 562-6454 or accessing his Facebook page and requesting the type of seeds you want, whether it be flowers or vegetables.
Many people wonder if planting will be possible at all, given that this past winter yielded little to no snow and barely any precipitation has fallen so far for the spring.
“It’s certainly meant irrigating crops before schedule. Usually we begin irrigation in July, but we‘ve already started irrigating strawberries and blueberries” said Susan Kosinski, co-owner of Kosinski Farms. “Some snow was needed to protect the roots in the ground. We also didn’t have severe low temperatures either, which might be a problem for the season but we’ll just have to wait and see on that.”
Of course, gardening is still possible this year. All you need to do is make sure of a few things. One of these things is make sure that overnight, frost is not accumulating on the ground. If this is still occurring, you might have to hold off a bit with your plants or cover them overnight to make sure that none of your plants end up freezing.
There are other things you need to watch out for this season as well.
“Water your seeds almost immediately after planting and make sure you do so every day.” said Kosinski. “Monitor your soil moisture every single day, otherwise the plants will start germinating and you do not want that. It will also be very weedy! Be prepared for lots of weeds.”
The most important thing to watch out for?
“It’s going to be an early harvest season. Be sure to harvest earlier than normal.” said Kosinski.
