Notes From The Garden

All of my tomato seedlings I planted February 10th have finally sprouted and are really starting to take off. I was a little worried when only half of the seeds sprouted in the first couple of days after planting and even a week later many had not yet broken through the soil. My seeds are quite old but they all finally popped out of the dirt and their true leaves have appeared. In the next couple of days I'll get them transplanted into larger containers, burying their stems deeply so new roots can grow where the stem is now covered.

The last four inches of snow that fell last week has finally melted and I can get out into the garden and start digging again! I can't complain though. The freezing and thawing helps lift the soil and loosen all of the weeds making the job so much easier :) I'm about half way there. Little by little I'm getting it done *grin*.

This weekend was Seedy Saturday and I found all sorts of goodies :)

There were loads of organic and gmo free seeds, mason bee cocoons and their houses, potted plants, fungi plugs, fruit and nut trees, seed potatoes, worm castings and bins, informational seminars and booths and so much more! I love seedy Saturday. I came home with new sprouting seeds, all my favorite salt spring island seeds, garlic heads for spring planting, organic seed potatoes, some really interesting magazines from the Certified Organic Association of BC and more.

Now I just have to map out my garden plan and figure out what I want to start next :)

If you're curious about what other gardeners are up to right now check out Ginny's garden journal link up and I'd love to know what you are planting, digging or dreaming of right now to *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Seedy Saturday

Seedy Saturday.... the unofficial start to spring *grin*.

I must say it was mighty spring like today in the comox valley :) The sun was shining and it actually felt warmer. Maybe it was all in my head LOL. My morning didn't start out all that spring like as we scraped thick ice off of the car windows and fought our way up to my mom's house through the icy ruts of snow that had formed over the last couple of days.

At 8am we were all packed into my car and slip sliding our way out of the yard when I came across actual parts from underneath my car frozen into the humps of snow in the driveway! I'm always worried that something is going to break off as we scrape and skid along the icy snow in the winter and it finally did. My dad had a good look underneath and couldn't see anything seriously damaged as it was just part of a rock guard underneath. Phew, nothing to to bad but not good either.

So back into the car we went and once we finally hit the highway the car started to shake and lump along the pavement. My heart sank. Something was wrong with the car. We limped it back home slowly fearing the worst and had good old dad check it over again *grin*. The final verdict... my tire had frozen solid in the position I had stopped in last night so that when we drove on the pavement it was round three quarters of the way and the last quarter way around the tire was frozen straight like a board!

In all my life I have NEVER had my tire freeze flat on the bottoms in the snow and ice. My cousins in Ontario who experience -30 or lower temperatures have talked about it before but here on Vancouver Island!? It was like some crazy dream LOL. By 10:30 things were thawing and my tires assumed their regular round shape and off we went *grin*.

Spring, you can hurry up and come anytime now! LOL

Just after noon we finally arrived at the seedy saturday :) In past years we've been there right at 10am and the lineup to get in is HUGE, but this year it was actually nice to just walk in without having to wait. Although we did miss out on all of the interesting and unique potted plants that would have been available for purchase for the opening hour.

Inside was an entire room filled to the brim with organic seeds, fruit trees and bushes, rhubarb and strawberry plants, seed potatoes, garlic, mason bees, honey, gardening supplies, informational displays, seed swaps where you can bring your seed to trade with others for new veggies or flowers you don't have and so much more.

At one of the tables my youngest who was with me got to watch a batch of mason bees emerge from their winter cocoons. So cool!! They were very docile as they came out so they let us have good look inside the jar without the lid :)

At other tables we got to sample Jerusalem Artichokes, crack hazelnuts with fun little wooden screw type nut crackers and at one table M even found one lovely lady that happily fed him cookies while I browsed the seed racks *grin*.

I picked up quite a few different tomatoes for canning this coming summer, a great assortment of sprouting seeds for fresh sprouts, beans, peas, and I even purchased a giant block of Oyster Mushrooms so that we can grow our own mushrooms. I can hardly wait to see them start sprouting up! The fellow said it should take about 2 weeks and we'll be able to start harvesting them :)

I think we were there at least a good hour browsing and shopping but I could have spent much more time. They host a series of workshops throughout the day as well. This year's topics were seed saving, the zero mile diet, mason bees, healthy soil and more. One of these days when all of the children are old enough to be left home I think I'm going to take advantage of the seminars :)

Have fun at a seedy saturday near you!

Hugs,
Rosina

Seed Saturday Finds

Well we hit the Courtenay Seedy Saturday this weekend along with hundreds of others! I thought being about 10 minutes early would give us sufficient time to find a parking place and amble over to the line but boy was I wrong. There was already two lines stretching for a good long ways in both directions along the building and we really had to hustle to beat the crowd coming behind us *grin*.

What a success!! It was fantastic to see so many people out :) The building was jammed full of seed tables, garden products, flowers and more. My main focus was to search out the seed potatoes and do it quickly because they never seem to be around for long with that many bodies roaming around LOL. So I quickly moved from table to table searching for the little nuggets and finally found some old favorites picking up a couple packages of 'Red Chieftans' and 'Sieglinde' which is an heirloom german variety that is super delicious :)

Among the sale tables were some really great displays as well. The above table was all about Mission Hill Farm's hazelnut trees and they had this great big bowl of hazelnuts to try. Of course the children all wanted to try one.

Who wouldn't when you got to crack your nut using this fun wooden nut cracker. I bet that if there had been some of these little gems for sale they would've sold them. I know I would have bought one!

The Comox Valley Exhibition (Fall Fair) committee always has a table every year where they hand out seeds to the children and this year they got a package of red romaine lettuce that sounds like it's going to be delicious and saved me buying lettuce *grin*. I picked up some Italian pole beans that are prolific producers of tender purple pods named 'Triumfo Violetta' from the Salt Spring Seeds table, old english shelling peas from Two Wings Farm and a package of 'Fava' beans that I'm going to experiment with and grow for dried beans. Should be fun!

The perfect end to the day was surprising everyone with a trip the the movie theater to watch the new Alice in Wonderland!! My daughter had brought our new Cheshire cat along with us that Jill had sent so I thought it would be fun to take a photo of him on his way to watch the movie with us *grin*.

My oldest two children loved the movie which was a mix of animation & real people and true to Tim Burton's style, a little on the dark side. It didn't quite catch the attention of my youngest and I must say that I was a little disappointed myself. I think that I was hoping that it would follow more along the original story of Alice in Wonderland but this is of Alice as a grown woman and how she must restore the crown to the White Queen and it just didn't grab me. I have such fond memories of watching the original and all the warm & fuzzy feelings that went along with it that I'm not quite sure how I feel about this one but definitely glad we went to see it :)

Let me know what you think of it, maybe I'm the only one that is stuck in the past with the happy mad hatter's tea party *grin*.

~ 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