Seedy Saturday/ Sunday - Day 1

FINALLY

I hauled pots & trays and bags of dirt out.  I've been henpecking around my seed package binders for the past month ... organizing & reorganizing them in planting order and in order of years (yup this is my third year so I can say that now) ... getting each packet back to where it should be - luckily I found the final seeds planted in the garden last year neatly placed in sleeves of a little book almost right where they should have been ... after almost unpacking the entire garage and I found what else I was looking for exactly where I brilliantly put it - so no I didn't foolishly pack my heating mat way at the back of the garage behind a ton of things - it was right on the treadmill (where I should have been during the past month and where I should have found it immediately).

I'm learning.  This year I poured the soil and water into a big dish and used a trowel to scoop it into deep cell pots AND the whole mess was done in the tub so after it was all done I just took the hand-held shower and sprayed the tub clean!  It certainly looks like I posed the Conversations with My Gardener by Henri Cueco book on the side of the tub but no - it's where I was last reading it - in the tub ... when I realized it was there I figured it should be in the shot.  And of course, you all know why I didn't take a before shot - huge clumps of brown soil doesn't translate well in a bathroom photo, etc.

I also wrote out my planting plan with a little legend at the bottom ahead of time so that there was no searching for missing pen & paper with muddy fingers not coming back to the pot and mistaking what went where when, etc. (third year gardening - remember)!  From left to right, I planted two rows of hot peppers (cayenne and jalapeno); two rows of sweet (california wonder and buran sweet); two rows of eggplants (black beauty and bianca rosa) and the last two rows are all chippolini onions. 

  

And now my little warm wet seeds are all snug in their cells.  I put 4 into each.  I'm hoping two will survive and that I can transplant one of the two survivors into a second tray (of course nothing living will get kicked too far off the island).  Oh - and I marked the bottom lower left corner of the actual deep cell tray so that if I flip it around during watering I won't be making any mistakes about which plants are hot peppers and which are onions!


Gardening has really been creeping into these past couple of weeks.  Wednesday I attended a lecture at the Toronto Botanical Gardens by Mathew Wilson called How to Garden in a Changing Climate. Saturday we got our shelves at the greenhouse.  Today I went to Seedy Saturday on a Sunday.  This week, Wednesday, I'm looking forward to going to Lulu Lounge and getting a copy of Grow Great Grub for the greenhouse at Gayla's book launch.  Saturday I'm attending a plant a-long at the greenhouse and helping finish our cold frame (if only just to put Kyla's book in the book bin). 

Seed Buying Spree

I've spent the better part of the day on-line looking at old posts and scouring seed catalogues. I know I have to start planting some seeds soon so I decided I'd make sure I wasn't sorry later for not having done my research on time.

Looks like I'm just coming in under the wire for somethings (ie, I think pepper seeds could have been planted last week)! I won't get any done until at least next weekend but at least I'm not too far behind some of the other obsessives!

I really wanted
Koralik tomatoes
again for my roof
(I got this plant
from Julianna
last year and it
was packed with
decorative clusters
of little red cherry
tomatoes).


I found Koralik seeds at http://www.tomatofest.com/ ... and I wanted Whippersnapper because it's a really early tomato (Julianna was eating hers in May last year). I was glad to find it at http://www.terraedibles.ca/ (the rest of the order just happened - I'm a shoppa-seed-a-holic and there is no cure - thankfully).

$45.40 Tomatofest - 2010 Tomato Order

Koralik $2.95
Costoluto Genovese $3.95
Fargo $2.95
Fuzzy Bomb $3.95
Piccolo $3.95
Pink Accordion $3.95
Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe $3.95
Red Fig $2.95
Sweet Pea Currant $3.95
Tim's Black Ruffles-Tomato Seeds $3.95
Yellow Ruffled $2.95

Subtotal: $39.45
Tax: $0.00
Shipping and Handling: $5.95
Grand Total: $45.40

$32.15 Terra Edibles Tomato (and Chard) 2010 Order

All seeds were $2.50/package.

Black from Tula
Bloody Butcher
Cossack Pineapple Ground Cherry
Hillbilly
Isis Candy
Riesentraube
Sicilian Saucer
Whippersnapper

Chard - Five Colour Silverbeet

Shipping: Mail - Canada: $5.95

GST Tax: $1.42
PST Tax: $2.28

TOTAL $32.15

2010 Happy New Year

I am starting the year opening an aerogarden parcel delivered from http://eco-source.easystorecreator.com/items/indoor-gardening/indoor-garden-accessories-and-replacement-parts/aerogarden-starting-tray-agst-detail.htm located in Ottawa. I put a special instructions on the order to not leave it on my front step but they did (fortunately I have a neighbour who looks out for me and took my package in while I was in Florida visiting my parents for a week. I suppose it is the post office that wasn't following instructions. The 2'x1'x9" package was placed underneath my welcome mat ... WTF?

I have new grow lights and 3 packages of seeds to grow herbs and lettuce. The main reason I placed the order was so that I could once again get the seed starter kit which will let me to hydroponically grow 70 different heirloom seedlings organically for my garden. I wanted to grow herbs but I think they will be peaking when I need to begin to grow the garden seedlings so I am wondering if I should wait on this.

making leafmould

http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/factsheets/making_leafmould.php

HA - I knew it (no I didn't) ... but I just found a site on making leafmould ... I've been making it in the driveway, in plastic bags for the past month ... thought I'd be able to fit it all into my car when I brought it to the allotment but about 3-4 bags didn't quite fit (so I thought I'd take it down later & later's never come) ... now this ... HA

Collect autumn leaves. All types can be mixed together
Water them, if dry, to help them rot
Pack leaves into a suitable container
Ignore them for a year or two
Use the leafmould

Now I want to take all the bags that are on the street waiting to be picked up (I'll have to take them out of paper bags - or wet them & put plastic bags over top of them) ... and/or I could also do this with them ... not exactly sure what the gardening 'nude' thing is - I'm thinking it's like Jamie Oliver's the 'Naked' Chef ... about being transparent, etc

http://www.gardeningnude.com/gardeningnude/2009/07/get-yo-green-on-tuesday-compost-101-how-to-compost.html

leaves for the garden - a good thing

Prepare for next year's vegetable garden now http://bit.ly/4uMSsW

Garlic Planting through to Storage

I've been waiting to begin gardenbre3 ... now that garlic planting is here I think it's a good time to start as it will be the first planting of the 2010 garden! First to learn 'how to' do ...


Preparing Garlic to Plant


Planting Garlic


Garlic Harvesting


Garlic Cleaning (for Storage)


How to Store Garlic

end of year -

Don't forget to begin planning to bring in houseplants before temperatures dip ... hoarders - this means Fall Cleaning (especially if Spring Cleaning fell by the wayside))!

Some wonderful tips from Margaret Roach on her website, Away to Garden, that I pulled off a Tweet. today, 8 October 09.

http://awaytogarden.com/brrrr-overwintering-tips-for-tender-plants

As well, Gayla has been bringing plants in already ... woops (I looks like I really need to get my peppers inside ASAP)

http://www.yougrowgirl.com/thedirt/2009/10/06/the-first-plants-to-come-in/

Year Three - Organizing Info http:www.seeds.ca/mbr/member.php

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