Sowing the seeds
An end to need
And the politics of greed
With love
-- Tears for Fears
The book launch was pretty great. I met a guy named Paul who's really into growing sprouts, of course enjoyed some great grub, and as if there weren't already enough freebies up for grabs, I even won the first door prize of the night.
My door prize came in a nice little tote bag and included:
- A free copy of Gayla's book (now with autograph!)
- A garden tool called a Cobrahead. According to the label it "weeds, cultivates, scalps, edges, digs, furrows, transplants, de-thatches and harvests with ease." Holy crap. That's pretty thorough. I don't understand why I would want to scalp people with a garden tool, but I guess it's good to know that I have the option.
- A pair of "Womanswork"gloves. I'm dubious about the name, but they are pretty snazzy and will last me a lot longer than the dollar store gardening gloves I've been making do with.
- A bunch of buttons & magnets
- A bundle of veggie seed packets
I came home with some other stuff too:
More freebies (seeds, a pin, a postcard, a snack), some 'Spacemaster' cucumber seeds I started at a planting table, and I bought a brand new tshirt that hasn't hit Gayla's store yet - it says "Microfarmer" and is totally sexy, says I.
As I was chatting to Paul I said something that I knew was true but had never articulated in this way before:
Thinking that you can't grow food because you don't own a farm is like thinking that you can't sew because you don't own a textile factory.
So here I go again. The weekend before last was Seedy Saturday, only this year it was held on a Sunday. This is an annual eco-fair and basically the big gardening kick off where rabid gardeners gather to buy and trade seeds, sign eco-related petitions, eat organic goodies and visit the tables of local community groups. This year I was better prepared and actually went with a shopping list. A pretty long one...but I managed to stick to it for the most part.
[ Disclaimer: This post contains a lot of potentially boring lists that are mainly for my benefit so I can look back and see what I did and when. Don't worry - I don't really expect non-gardeners to be interested in this stuff. :) Scroll on! ]
My Seedy haul:
- October Pole Bean
- Black Jet Soybean - Yay! I love edamame and have wanted to try soybeans for a while, even though they're supposed to be a bit more challenging than regular beans.
- Purple Beauty (Sweet) Pepper
- Purple Dragon Carrot - Apparently they're purple on the outside, orange on the inside.
- Fish (Hot) Pepper - I was told these change all kinds of crazy colours and are in the medium-spicy range. I can also use these in my homemade anti-aphid spray.
- Ambition French Shallot - Loved the name. I feel like my gardening plans this year are a little ambitious for a relative newbie like me.
- Quebec 5 Tomato - Another name-related buy. I was torn between this and a "Tiger" variety that is supposed to come out all stripy, but I wanted to stick to one and the seller said enthusiastically that this was the better fruit. Can't argue with that...
- Garden Sage
- Greek Basil - Since enjoying my neighbor's homegrown basil last year I've wanted to grow my own. This is a compact variety that is supposed to do well in containers.
- Red Baron Onion - "Think I got the message figured..."
- Heavenly Blue Morning Glory - A coworker asked me to look for these and reminded me that I've wanted to grow Morning Glory since I saw them in a community garden I pass on the way to work. Had no idea the seeds can induce psychedelic trips (and I'm guessing my coworker doesn't either, though I guess you never know!)
Yesterday I actually got down to planting. Mostly flowers and herbs since it's still a little early for most veggies. Instead of buying seed starting mix I opted to just use coir.
The new nursery: radiator + a daylight lamp
It works!
I already have baby cucumbers! These are the 'Spacemaster' seeds I planted on Wednesday at the book launch. When I left for work this morning there was nothing visible and after 1 day under the lamp there's been some serious action. Let's hope everything else is as enthusiastic.
Speaking of everything else.... Here's what I planted yesterday:
Herbs
Sweet Basil
Greek Basil
Garden Sage
Italian Flat Parsely
Thyme
Flowers (edible)
Fireweed
Heavenly Blue Morning Glory
Blackjack Pansy
Cupid's Dart
Butterfly Weed
Triangle Flashback Calendula
This Friday is the first meeting of our Guerrilla Gardening group. I'm looking forward to it and already have a space in mind that's in need of a serious seed-bombing.
Is it spring yet?
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