A Little Early for Seeds..

I know, I know it is a tad early for starting to plant vegetable seeds for the garden. But I can not resist thinking about it lately. The thoughts of fresh fruit and veg. are constantly on my mind. Now that I think of it, so is kicking back on our deck in the hot sun with a smooth Canadian beer… sigh! This morning I pulled out some of my leftover seeds from last year to decide what I would like to plant and maybe what I did not like growing so much and will try to avoid this year. This is the fun in gardening – the decisions on what to plant, where to plant it and the constant discovering of new flavours – new likes and dislikes. A personal favourite of mine is growing my own tomatoes – anyone can do it, from the most experienced gardener right down to the newbie green giant, you just cannot fail! Well you can, but trust me, it is hard to do. The reason I like to grow my own tomatoes is that you can order heirloom seeds online and you can pick from all kinds of really strange but lovely varieties. It is great to watch them grow daily and the flavour is out of this world, they truly deliver an Muhammed Ali knock-out-punch to the normal grocery store tomatoe. For anyone that is interested in starting a veggie garden this year, you usually sow your seeds indoors about 6 weeks before the last frost date (this six week window differs from vegetable to vegetable, but it is a good general time frame). The last frost date in our area is anywhere from May 9 – to about May 24. I am a garden nerd, so of course I will be taking my chances and going with the earlier May 9th date,which means I really should not even think about planting these seeds until end of March – but right now is a perfect time to order seeds. So far,my favourite place to get seeds online is Terra Edibles. Terra Edibles is a seed distributor in Foxboro, Ontario. They have a great website where you can download their catalogue so that you can peruse at your own pace and decide what you want to grow eat through the summer. Another amazing place to visit online for information and to even buy heirloom seeds is the Seed Saver Exchange program. They started this exchange the year I was born – 1975, so they have a huge selection to choose from and are a wealth of knowledge to any gardener. Their mission is to preserve heirloom seeds from year to year so they do not get forgotten or lost and we can keep enjoying them for decades to come. If anyone knows any other great places to get seeds, please share with all of us!  Read More