Plan Now, Reap Later

By now many of you will have ordered seeds or even begun working in your gardens or greenhouses. It is a great time of year, before it gets much busier, to do a little planning.

Plan on paper. Draw out your area. Label the beds and rows and determine what is going where according to your crop rotation cycle.

Plan for your needs. Order/ purchase seeds/ plants. Look at your tools. What needs fixing, sharpening, replacing? Can I get something new ? Have a look at your irrigation needs. Are hoses, pipes, sprinklers in good working order ? Has anything changed with water tables, wells ? Is the pump in good repair ?

 Plan to assess and walk your garden more this year. There is an old saying "THE BEST FERTILIZER IS THE FARMER'S SHADOW." This could not be more true ! Walk through your garden regularly at every time of day to properly "SEE" and inspect what is going on. Are the plants thoroughly watered ? Are there too many weeds? Are the plants disease free ? Are there any pests evident ? By walking about on a regular basis you will notice what needs to be taken care of and dealt with quickly before it becomes a problem.

Most of all PLAN to enjoy every moment you have in your gardens and they will reward you abundantly !

Saving Seeds

 Tomato seeds are one of the easiest types of seed to save. This is usually done in September when fruits are at their peak and seeds have filled the fruit cavities.

We usually try and take seed from a number of plants of the same variety looking for the most robust tomato off of each vine.

I bring them into the house and cut them open and literally squeeze, squish the seeds out and into clean mason jars. I add some water to cover them. Unchlorinated water. Then they are allowed to sit for a week or more until a scum forms and the fruit itself is beginning to rot.

Black Plum

At this point I empty the contents of the jar into a clean bucket and rinse, rinse, rinse the seeds till they are free of the membrane and tissue connecting the seeds to the fruit.

I use a sifter to pour off the water and collect the seed. Then dump the seeds into the bucket again and again. I repeat this process until I am happy they are cleaned.

With newspaper I make a kind of blotter paper to absorb the water as the seeds dry. I fold up the paper so it is about 8-10 layers thick and put a piece of clean, white paper towel on top. 
This way I can see the seeds. I prepare one blotter for each variety and label them with black felt markers. Each day I remove the paper towel gently and refold the newspaper so a new "dry" spot is exposed. Then I put the paper towel with the seeds back on top. This way the moisture is "wicked" away quicker.
Spread the seeds out so they don't touch as much as possible and make sure they dry thoroughly otherwise you are going to have rot and mold once you put them into envelopes and store them.

Brown Berry

Heritage seed tomatoes that are open-pollinated give you the best chance of having a favorite variety come true. This is one of the best reasons for growing heritage seeds. It helps to keep diversity going.

It may seem odd that I am writing about saving seeds now but it is time to start bringing out the seeds you have saved and begin growing them out. Early varieties can certainly be started now.

If you haven't saved seed then now is the time to check out Seedy Saturdays and local farmer's markets for growers of local seeds so you get the pick from the best selection.

If you have a garden planner, journal or calendar think about putting a note on it for the month of August that you need to begin thinking about and selecting what tomato seeds you might want to save and preserve for next year. I do this a lot for all kinds of reminders. Some things have marginal windows of opportunity in the gardening year and the only way is to remind myself as the date draws near.

Saving seed. I really hope you'll all give it a try.

SEEDS

catkins on alders

 The signs are everywhere. The landscape is "waking" up from its' winter sleep. Time to start planting for the upcoming season.

fragrant violets

The first seed order should be arriving in the mail soon.

Seeds are the most amazing things. Each one holding the complete potential of a new living plant.

Each one is an embryo plant. Each has enough food stored within it to feed itself until it has formed a root and seed leaves. It takes about 10 to 30 days to reach that stage. Then the process of manufacturing food begins.  The little plant needs air, warmth, light, moisture and access to nutrients to grow on. Vegetative growth occurs at the tips of roots and stems.

seeded trays of early greens

Utmost care must be taken handling these precious seedlings when transplanting. They each have only ONE stem and ONE root . They can afford to lose a leaf but not the others. The best way to handle the plant is by holding it on one of the leaves and gently placing it into the soil.
This transaction should be done as quickly and efficiently as possible so the plant has the best chance of recovery from this "trans plant" shock.

It is truly amazing to be part of process of watching a plant go from seed to fully matured and ready for harvest. From a small beginning to a plant that is often hundreds times the size of the original seed in a matter of months.

It never ceases to astonish and surprise me.

All the Right Tools

 I know why I love baking and gardening.

Both let me get my hands into it.
As a child I remember how much I liked "feeling" things.
The many different textures and sensations.
Nothing has changed. I still like it !

 I also learned from my mother that having the right tool for a job made things a lot easier in the kitchen.
I do everything with hand tools.
I have cultivated quite a collection over the years.
When I am in the thrift stores I am always on the look out for those forgotten, neglected hand gadgets that don't get used by most people anymore. Many of mine were old when I got them but they work like new every time and have stood the test of time.
They don't make things like that anymore.



On bake day, out come the essential tools I need to accomplish the task of creating wonderful breads and more.

 Best of all I get to have my hands involved. They are absolutely my BEST tool. They give me the ability to feel, sense and know when the doughs are at their right moment.

Dough is alive and has different feelings through the course of its' creation from culture to bread.  


I love being in my kitchen and knowing
that I have all the things I need at
my fingertips so that I can pull up my
sleeves and get my hands busy whenever it strikes me.

Working in the garden or out in the fields is the same. The work goes a whole lot better when the tools are there when you need them.
Mostly though I like to have my hands in the soil, feeling it and knowing it. When I think about it I already knew as a child what my destiny was going to be.

Thank goodness my inner child followed through.

RAGS TO RAGS

I like to think nothing goes to waste around here. 

This sweatshirt has seen better days. 

I cut off all the seams and then cut everything into pieces small enough to stuff into a pocket and carry around with me. 

Handy for cleaning off a tool, my hands, the sweat off my brow.

You can never have enough rags.

Ground Beetles

Harpalus pennsylvanicus 

aka BIG DINGY GROUND BEETLE

Today I got reacquainted with one of our gardens beneficial predators. 

I was out pruning a rose bush and disturbed his habitat. I was lucky enough to get these great photos of him. 

This is a regular ground beetle. It is one of our most common beetles. 

Quick to scurry when disturbed.  Usually found under rocks, plant litter, old pots or just below the soil surface. 

Never harm them as they are ferocious eaters of many of our pest insects.  I love the way the light shows off his iridescent shell. Beautiful.

Spring is Teasing Us

Snowdrops along the creek

The weather has been spectacular and warm and sunny the past three days. We have recorded a high of 12C during the day but it went down to -1C last night with hard frost this morning. It was even colder up in the open fields. The weather in general has been above normal since late January. The propagation greenhouse is bursting with seedlings but they are afforded the warmth and protection of a more controlled environment. We can close the doors and put covers over the heated propagation tables. It is all too tempting to try and plant something out too soon. Our records show that we have received frosts as late as the final week of May. I have a few videos from the last 3 years alone that show all too clearly how quickly a hail storm can wreak havoc here. We always have plastic covers ready to put over plants just in case. More than once we have been found scrambling to get tender, precious seedlings under cover out of the weather. A good guide is to prune your roses when the forsythia bloom. Forsythia are one of our earliest blooming shrubs with their bright yellow flowers. Branches can be cut and brought indoors for a forced bloom. What this tells you is that this plant will only bloom when the temperature is of a reliable warmth. Some plants are genetically predisposed to bloom at a certain time irregardless of temperature and some can gauge when is the right time. Forsythia is of the latter. Roses can still die if they are pruned back too far too early. So as tempting as it is to get started with clearing and cleaning and planting and pruning be wary of what time of year this still is. It is only mid-February folks.Go out, stroll through your gardens and take a peek at all the lovely plants bursting forth to spur on the coming of spring. Turn the compost, clean up the yard, order seeds, plant seeds indoors. There is lots to do. It feels good !

Aconites

Sweet Violets