Almost planting time ,,,

Just a reminder, if you garden by tradition, that next Friday, Good Friday, is the prescribed day to plant potatoes. While I don't think the museum Grounds Committee intends to add potatoes this year, Jim did till the Heirloom Garden this week --- so we're set to go. That's the garden in the foreground here, with the Blacksmith Shop in the distance.

Another long but more gently tilled stretch of ground just below the garden, nearer the woods, is the prairie patch. I've told that sad story before. The prairie was planted some years ago and was just beginning to flourish when the city replaced the sewer line that runs up this valley --- basically destroying it during the construction process.

The area just sat there looking weedy for a few years as invasive grasses and imported weeds took hold. Now we've gotten harsh --- the invaders are being killed off and a cover crop will be planted. Hopefully, in a few years the prairie will be re-established.

Atop Museum Hill, lilacs --- cut back sharply last year because they'd gotten brushy and non-productive --- are getting ready to leaf out. And bulbs are sending up foliage all over the place --- but no blooms yet. So it's beginning to look a lot like spring after what has seemed like an awfully long winter.

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I'm headed to Corydon today --- thanks to an invite from Brenda and Dale --- to attend a quarterly meeting of the State Association for the Preservation of Iowa Cemeteries at Prairie Trails Museum, hosted by the Wayne County Pioneer Cemetery Commission.

The Association came into being in 1996 after the Iowa Legislature authorized the 99 counties to create cemetery commissions to locate, conserve, preserve and often maintain the state's oldest graveyards. Currently, there are 27 commissions in Iowa --- Lucas County's Pioneer Cemetery Commission is one of the oldest; Wayne County's one of the newer. 

So I'm really looking forward to the report from Wayne County, which will be a feature of the meeting.

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If you're not attending that meeting, please plan to attend the Lucas County Genealogical Society's day-long seminar on the conservation and preservation of personal artifacts --- those items passed down through the generations in our families.

Jay De Young will present tips on how to deal with documents, photos and other paper heirlooms at 10:30 a.m. and metal and fabric heirlooms at 1 p.m. Admission is free and the location, the lower-level meeting room at the Chariton Free Public Library.

Garlic sprouts in the Heirloom Garden.