I Wet My Plants

Full blown indoor seed starting is in full swing in my living room and basement.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a 3.8 cu.ft. bag on Berger germinating mix at Richmond Nursery for $38.95 plus tax – I figure it’ll last me at least two season’s worth, if not three.  In the past I used Home Gardener’s Organic Starter mix in 10-litre bags, however, it was expensive and the quality has gone significantly downhill in the past couple of years (I’d find numerous 2″ twigs in almost every bag).  I really like this new germinating mix as it’s very light and fine and has an even consistency when wet.  Unfortunately they didn’t carry the organic line so I’ve had to make do.

I also set up a wire fence around my small home garden.  I picked up a vinyl green 2′ x 50′ 16-gauge fence rolled up in a bag for $29.99 and six 3/8″ x 2′ fiberglass posts at #3.19 each for a grand total of $55.52.  Since the ground is still frozen a bit in my garden, I could only knock them down as far as I could.  This will keep the dogs out of the garden – they’ve already dug a couple of holes and torn up the tarp covering the garlic.

I finally organized my grow-op in the basement, clearing away trays and pots that still need to be washed with a solution of 10% bleach.  This is my least favourite task as it’s killer on the lower back.  All 8 fluorescent lights are set up, two on each shelf, and three flats of leggy seedlings are now under them.  No photos as of yet as my camera’s memory is shot.  New snaps of the set-up will come soon.

Current seedlings are as follows (number of seedlings in brackets):

Brussels sprouts:

• Balbriggan (4)

Cabbage:

• Gortahork (5)

Chives:

• Garlic
• Nira

Greens, green:

• Persian broadleaf cress (8)
• Suehlihung No. 2 (9)
• Sylvetta arugula (6)
• Tres fin marchiere frissee endive (5)
• Vitamin Na (9)

Greens, red:

• Garnet Giant (9)
• Red Giant mustard (5)
• Ruby Streaks (9)

Kale:

• Red Russian (1)
• Red Ursa (8)
• White Russian (8)

GREEN LETTUCE

Butterhead:

• Ermosa (8)

Looseleaf:

• Green Star (4)

Summer Crisp:

• Barbados (5)

RED LETTUCE

Oakleaf:

• Jamai (2)

Romaine:

• Outredgeous (9)
• Sweet Valentine (9)

This year’s Seedy Saturday was packed as per usual.  We got there at 9:45 AM and people were already milling about the seed trade table as well as buying all sorts of goodies.

I brought my parents this year as they are starting a bunch of raised bed gardens in their backyard and wanted to buy/trade some seeds.  I had packaged up enough seeds for all of us to pick and choose what we wanted from the seed exchange table:

Here are my seed packets in the mix on the table:

I figured out that I’d put together over 180 packets of seeds.  At roughly 10 seeds a packet, that’s over 1,800 seeds I counted!  Next year I’ll make a note to start earlier as I had just finished packaging the seeds that morning before going to the event.

In exchange, I picked up the following:

• Sweet red pepper
• Triamble squash
• OSU Blue tomato (my prized trade!)
• Odawa beans, dry
• Six Nations beans, dry
• Painted Mountain corn
• Romanesco cauliflower (2, one for Mom)
• Cayenne hot pepper
• Eastern columbine
• Gojiberry
• Red columbine
• Scarlet runner beans
• Mini garlic bulbs and
• Deptford Punk dianthus armeria

I met up with local blogger/gardening friend, Veggie Patch Reimagined, at the table and we did some side seed trading.  That OSU Blue tomato seed I scored?  That came from her and I think I may have actually snatched it out of her hands when she showed me.  So rare!

We checked out the vendors and I ended up buying some white creamer potatoes from La Ferme de Bullion and some Colourful Carrot mix from the Cottage Gardener.  Here’s my one shot of the event:

This year’s attendees were:

• a bakery whose name I couldn’t figure out
• A Pinch of Penny’s Kitchen
• Beaver Pond Estates
• Capital Worm Ranch
• Charing House Gardens
• Community Gardening Network of Ottawa
• Eastern Ontario Gardener’s Tour Guide
• Eco Ottawa
• Eternal Seed
• Fair Trade Chocolate
• Greta’s Organics
• Ground Soap
• Heritage Seed
• Honey Pie Hives
• Hunt’s Wholesome Honey
• Just Food
• La Ferme Cooperative Tourne-Sol
• La Ferme de Bullion
• La Vie En Rose
• Maison Tucker
• Ottawa Valley Food Cooperative
• Ottawa Valley Native Plants and Wildflowers
• Project Tembo
• Pure Shea
• Seeds of Diversity
• Square Foot Gardening
• Steward Bags
• Take Charge Tea
• Terra Edibles
• The Cottage Gardener
• The Green Collection
• Urban Harvest
• USC Canada
• Worm Factory
• Yuko’s Open Pollinated Seeds

It was another successful and fun Seedy Saturday!

Seedy Saturday is tomorrow and I still have to get all my seeds for the seed trade table ready!

I’ve got a bunch of different tomato, pepper, dill and pole bean seeds to give away and have been rushing to get them ready in their little packages.  There’s 10 seeds in each package.  Look at how cute they are:

I bought the plastic baggies from the dollar store and measured the inside pouch area to help me create the labels.  Last year, I printed labels on stickers and stuck them to the top of the baggie which was expensive and annoying to get straight on the baggie.  This year I decided to print on paper and cut them out to stick in the baggie.  Genius!  Here’s my Word document I’ve been frantically working on this evening:

I found the pictures on an image website and I downloaded two types of font: Hand of Sean and Harabara.  Looking at the printed papers, I think I should have skipped the Hand of Sean font however it’s too late now.  I also skipped the Notes field that I included in last year’s seed table giveaway – it’s too much to do in this little time I have.

Of course I didn’t have enough baggies and will have to stop by the store to pick some more up this evening.  I still have a bunch more seed packages to break down into 10-seed piles:

More from Seedy Saturday tomorrow from 10 AM – 3 PM at the Ron Kolbus Lakeside Centre in Ottawa!

This year I’ve decided to try my hand at starting flowers from seed.  Over the last few years, I’ve collected and bought seeds then never really tried to grow them.  I think my main problem is that some, like impatiens and lavendar, take so long to germinate and other require special care like darkness, soaking and chilling.  Since I’m coming up to 11 weeks before my last spring frost, I’ve got lots of time to sow even the longest-germinating seeds.  My problem is that there seems to be a variety of start dates for a particular seed.

Somewhere online I read that alyssum should be started indoors 8 – 12 weeks before the last frost and then I read that it was 4 – 6 weeks somewhere else.  I looked around and couldn’t find a definitive guide to start dates for flowers.  Looking on the back of the package didn’t really help either as some companies put more information than others.  Then I wondered if there were different rules for a short growing season like I have here in my Canadian garden.

Checking my myriad of gardening books (mostly on vegetables, unfortunately) I found my Seed Sowing and Saving book by Carole B. Turner.  I really recommend this book if you’re just getting started in learning how to sow and save your own seeds.  It covers over 100 vegetable, herb and flower seeds and really breaks down the special treatments some seeds need to germinate.  It gives you instructions on when/how to sow the seed indoors and outdoors, special considerations, hints for success and what to do to harvest and save seed.

It’s the best book I’ve got on how to start plants from seed, however, it doesn’t cover all types of plants.  Anybody got a more complete resource?

I’ve finalized my list of tomato varieties that I’ll be offering for sale this year.  You can see the list here or on the right side bar.

Last year I offered pre-orders on plants around late April, after I had already started all the seeds.  This year, I’m offering pre-pre-orders whereby I will sow seeds by request on top of what I would typically sow at the end of March.  I figure, this way, those who know what they want will get what they want instead of whatever I have left over.  Let me know if you’re interested!

(also, I think I’ll just call it “pre-order” from now on)