Seedy Saturday

I went to last year”s Seedy Saturday. A Seedy Satuday is a fantastic way to spend an afternoon perusing tables and attending workshops where you will find all kinds of hard to come by seeds, as well as all of the usual standby varieties. Every seed you need, all shapes and all cultivars under one roof. There is even a seed exchange for those willing to save and share. The very first Seedy Saturday started in Vancouver, Canada on a Valentine”s Day by Sharon Remple in 1989, go Sharon! ‘Come Grow with Us’ Seedy Saturday Saturday, March 19th, 2011 at Carling Heights Optimist Community Centre 656 Elizabeth Street,(formerly Wolseley Barracks) London ON entrance off McMahen & Elizabeth Street 10 am to 3:30pm Admission: $5.00 per adult Featuring vendors of seeds, plants & environmental friendly garden products. This day will include workshops & demonstrations by our Master Gardeners on ‘Starting Seeds’, ‘Attracting Butterflies’, ‘Composting’ & ‘Soil Food Web’. Featured Guest Speakers: 1pm – ‘Invasive Plant Species’ 2pm – ‘Organic Vegetable Gardening’ For information go to www.londonmiddlesexmastergardeners.com Contact Jennifer Grant at 519-652-2734 or jgrantplants@sympatico.ca  Read More

The seeds have arrived!

I am happy to announce that my 2010 seed selection has arrived! I will also tell you that when Sean brought the mail in yesterday and I spied the brown kraft envelope tucked under his armpit, I started to jump up and down (just a little). It was like Christmas all over again. This jumping and excitement came to a quick end when he called me a Farm Nerd! I then ripped the envelope out from under his armpit, tore it open and made sure they were all there. They were all there and accounted for, and Farm Nerd or not, I know that all of you will be interested in knowing what a fellow gardener has planned – you all understand, right? So, without further ado – here is what I humbly have planned: Tomato – Gourmet Mix (small) These tomatoes are promised to grow forth in assorted sizes, colours and shapes. Similar to that of small cherry sized tomatoes. Tomatillos I grew these last year for the first time. They were super easy and pest-free and were also unaffected by the late blight that raced across the area and did in my tomatoes at the end. I made about 6 jars of super spicy, super delicious salsa verde with my crop, so this year I plan to grow even more! Sweet Basil I put basil in all kinds of food-stuff through the summer, I wish I had more basil around when August came eventually for making pesto. This year, I will! Chard – Five Colour Silverbeet I grew this beauty last year and the year before – and we hardly even ate it. I actually was quite happy to just admire it out there in my small but mighty garden. I am growing it again to look at,but also plan on eating a lot more of it. It is so good for you. Carrot – Tonda di Parigi This is a carrot that grows in a ball shape,kind of stunted. I thought it looked intriguing and I can probably freak some people at work out with it in my lunches. I cannot wait to see it take shape in the garden. Tomato – Gourmet Mix Medium Same thing as the small tomato gourmet mix mentioned above, but these are the larger ones, for sandwiches and main dishes. Drool…need I say more? Carrot – Dragon This is a fire-breathing carrot. Just kidding, but you can see (or you will see), why they call it a dragon carrot. It is promised to be dark red in colour and I have heard it has a very light pepper taste to it. We will see. Tomato – Black Giant Its Giant, its black, its a tomato! A very good friend (Hey Nancy!), dropped off 3 beautiful black tomatoes at my door step late last summer. They were so delicious tasting and so intriguing that I decided to grow some myself and maybe I can return the food gift this year. Fingers crossed for no blight for the region this year! So, that is what I have planned so far. I do also plan to head out to the seed exchange that is happening in London this weekend with Stacy, so my collection may grow a little – or a lot! What about all of you? What do have planned? Have you purchased any seeds yet? Did you save some of yours from last year? What are you plans?  Read More

A sad haul and a sad day

Let me set the scene. It”s a few days somewhere in the middle of last week, there I am, pulling weeds and old dead plants in my little garden, deciding what is food and what.. well.. just wasn”t! I ended up pulling the last few tomatoes and these greens (beet greens and rainbow chard) pictured above. This marks the end of my garden for this year (insert very large sigh here!). Why am I rambling about my garden? Well, I want you to know that vegetable gardening will make you happy. I post these pictures for you in defense of veggie gardening. It”s fun (in a dirty way.. heh heh) .. no, really now.. its satisfying – now don”t make that dirty! You will not know the joys of pulling the last things out of your garden until you do it, so just do it – next spring that is. For now, I leave you with an amazing link to a place to buy seeds, http://www.terraedibles.ca/ they deal alot in heirloom varieties – meaning that the seeds are not common and they are old breeds – they were popular before modern large-scale agriculture. More importantly – when you decide to grow an heirloom plant you are ensuring its existence for another year and as a bonus you get some really interesting and gnarly looking things growing that taste out of this world delicious! If you want to know more about heirloom plants and vegetable growing and seed exchanges, go here: http://www.seedsavers.org/  Read More