Let's Get Planting!

It's that time of year. The days are slowly getting longer, the sun is peaking out a wee bit more and I feel the bloom of spring just itching to burst forth from the soil *grin*.

I know, it's barely the middle of February and we could get snow and frozen temperatures at any minute but I can't help myself but want to will spring to come now. So to fill the time until it finally does appear I pulled out my box of seed packets to see what I had, what is needed and to sort out all of my tomato seeds because it's time to get planting :)

Our growing season is wet, cool and rather short so anything I can do to help things speed along a little quicker before it's time to get things in the ground outdoors is always welcome. Last summer you probably remember that Hubby built me a little greenhouse and it will be perfect for growing an early crop of tomatoes in. So I pulled out what I had left of my little jiffy seven peat pots and soaked them in some nice hot water to puff them up for planting.

I planted Bonny Best, Italian Paste, German Red Strawberry, Polish Paste, and Rocket so far but I also need to start some Black Krim which is a wonderful meaty heirloom variety that we love for sandwiches.

You can find some of them in my favorite seed catalogues like West Coast Seeds, Seeds of Victoria, Salt Spring Seeds and of course all of the wonderful ones I find every year at the various Seedy Saturdays (click for listings) scattered over the island :)

With my little seeds tucked away in a nice dark spot itching to sprout they will be all ready to harden off in the greenhouse nice and early so we can make the most of this summer. I can't wait!

Hugs,
Rosina

Seed Tape Update

Okay so I told you I'd update you on how the seed tape making was coming along and it is working fabulously!!

It didn't stick to the table like I had feared with all of the wet newspaper and the seeds stayed put *grin*. So tonight we started another batch and I came up with a genius way to get the flour paste on! Instead of brushing it on with a paintbrush which was a little tedious as the paste is so sticky and doesn't spread especially well we used a squeeze bottle.

I had an old bottle that we used to take camping for putting ketchup in that hadn't made it into the junk box yet and I thought that I would just see if I could get the paste to squeeze smoothly through the spout. I made the flour and water paste the same as yesterday, the consistency of pancake batter making sure that I got as many of the lumps whipped out as I could and it flowed through the tip perfectly.

What a time saver!! Now we can just whip a strip of paste down the strips of newspaper in mere seconds and sprinkle seeds to our hearts content *grin*. We're heading out rain or shine tomorrow to start planting them in the garden :)

How about you, what are you up to in your garden right now?
~ Rosina

Making Seed Tape

I don't know about you but it seems that every year when little hands help plant the vegetable garden there is an inevitable spillage of seeds. Most of the time it's the carrots... those teeny tiny seeds you can barely see once they hit the dirt. There's not much you can do once it happens but wait for a rogue patch of Nantes to poke up in the middle of a pathway somewhere *grin*.

This year we're going to experiment and make our own seed tape :) I ran across a blog post somewhere out there in bloggy land (sorry can't remember which one) where they made a paste of flour and water to *glue* the seeds to newsprint on little dots of paste.
So we got out some newspaper and using my Fiskars cutter K sliced one inch strips of paper that we spread out all over the kitchen table.

For the glue we mixed 1/2 a cup of flour and water together. I don't have an exact measurement for the water but I just dribbled in water and mixed until it was a nice sloppy consistency similar to pancake batter. How's that for mental imagery! *grin*.

To spread the paste we used a large paintbrush and rubbed the paste down the lengths of newspaper making a thick layer of it down the center and then placed the seeds on top of the paste. So far we've just done some of the beet seeds as a trial run. I didn't want to do to many just in case something horrible happens like the newsprint glues itself to the table or all of the seeds end up falling off *grin*.

They're still wet so I'll have to update you again tomorrow on how they turn out and if all goes well we're going to have these great strips of seeds to just lay on our rows for planting in the vegetable garden! Can't wait to update you on how it works out :)

~ Rosina

Seedy Saturday Is Upon Us

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Okay spring fever has officially hit *grin*. There are seed displays in every garden market, grocery store, hardware shop, dollorama... you name it and they've probably got some. Not to mention the half dozen seed catalogues that have arrived in the last month :)

You can't escape it! Not that I really want to as it's so rewarding to grow your own vegetables but the cost can become astronomical if you don't watch your pocket book. That's where the 'Seedy Saturday' comes in!

Seedy Saturdays are a fantastic way to get heirloom, organic, untreated, non GMO seeds at great prices or for free if you have saved seeds of your own to swap with others :) The wealth of information is unbeatable to! These seeds are tried, true & tested and the guy or gal behind the table can give you the ultimate low down on how to raise up some mighty fine veggies *grin*.

This weekend there are nearly a dozen different swaps that I know of going on across Canada and I'm heading out to one in hopes of finding some new potatoes to plant, a few strawberry runners and whatever else catches my eye :)

Have a peek at the Seeds of Diversity website and see if you are close to one of the many swaps happening this weekend and on through the month. You won't be disappointed and even if you don't buy anything check out some of the seminars they're hosting or pick the brain of your local seed savers chapter and find out how you can hang onto some of your favorite seeds to.

See you out there!
~ Rosina

The Seed

This is the neatest video. If you've got 2 minutes you should check it out! It's a fun take on the life cycle of an apple seed using really cool stop motion paper animation along with drawn animation. I would love to learn how to do this :)
~ Rosina

The Seed from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.