Posted by admin | Posted in Country Know-how, Food, workshops | Posted on 22-03-2010
If you haven’t already, time to get on those spring seeds started – inside for now so you can put them outside later when the weather’s warmer. The advantage of starting indoors of course, is that you can extend your growing season by many a couple of months. Sprouts and seedlings don’t need much space to grow. Later when it’s time to plant them you can give them room. But for germinating and sprouting, you need very little space. We have ours in plastic 4-plex bedding plant pots sitting on clear plastic trays from the dollar store which are fitted into some slotted boards Lynn picked up for a dollar at Rona in the off-cuts cart.
My gardening mentor is local producer Tom Waller, a market gardener from Central Frontenac west. Tom and wife Allaine’s Elm Tree Farm is prolific producer of quality food to farmer’s markets. Tom and Allaine are setting up to make more of their produce available to locals, and to support local growers like you. Tom will host an spring “start” mini-workshop on April 10th from 2-4 pm. Call for directions, (613) 335-3361 or visit elmtreefarm.ca.
A strong advantage of planting indoors is that you can control the soil temperature and light. Your planting trays can be moved to take advantage of the sun. Generally plants that thrive in high heat also like starting out life warmer too – carrots for example. To learn the requirements of particular vegetables and vegetable varieties, Tom recommends Johnny’s Selected Seeds for all kinds of reasons – he “smacks his lips” after getting off the phone ordering. The catalog is one way you can check for plant hardiness, growing seasons, soil temperature requirements and more. Take advantage of the fact that lot of the learning has been done before you by other gardeners – the good news about gardening can only be kept under the ground so long.
Now is the time to plant your onions and leeks from seed. And peppers and tomatoes. Tomatoes will need eight weeks before being stuck in the ground; they’re easier to transplant if they’re not too old. If they get long and spindly from not being transplanted too long, they may never fully recover. If you put them outside you’ll also need to be able to protect them or cover them in the event of a frost, especially one that will last for a few days.
May first you can direct plant arugala, mizuna, and kohlrabi, kale, spring turnips and beets. An early frost won’t be likely to pick them off.
If you come out to Tom’s mini-workshop you can ask any questions you have, see his working greenhouse and get some ideas of your own. You’ll also know a place where you can go to buy produce during the summer, and maybe slip in a gardening question as you hand over your cash. Tom is also the mentor to the Abundance Garden project, in which growers grow a little extra for free trading with other project participants; registration info through Country Know-how.