Neighbours talking over the garden gate has long been a tradition. They share gardening tips, complain about the weather and pests yet are ever eager to discuss their gardens. That is what I had in mind when creating this blog. So stop by my garden gate to find out the latest happenings in my garden.
Happy Gardening!
Garden Gnome
"All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child." ~ Madame Marie Curie"
It is officially spring here but no one told Mother Nature. We still have snow on the ground, icicles hanging from the eves and despite the beautiful sunshine the temperatures remain quite cold. Winter is refusing to release it's chilly grip in our little corner of the world. I'm sitting here sipping a lovely cup of hot tea pondering whether to start a couple of trays of seeds today. My husband already booked our spring vacation so that is weighing heavily on my decision to start seeds. Last year I lost some of my seedlings during our vacation because they accidently dried out when the kids were housesitting. During the spring vacation our house only needs checking on a couple of times a week but seedlings need watering daily. What I may do is start the seeds then take the trays into the kids to look after at their house. Since they will be home daily there is less chance of the seedlings drying out than if I leave them here.
Happy Gardening!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2011
Tomato Plugs
June 9, 2010
Traditionally in our area home gardeners aim for having their gardens fully planted by the May 24 long weekend. With recent climate changes there has been a push for some home gardeners to start putting their vegetables in too soon. Our average day of last frost (ADLF) is usually around May 8 but we had a good frost here on May 14 this year so those with warmer weather plants like tomatoes already planted lost them. I tend to follow the traditional planting time combined with using the ADLF as an indicator as to when to plant cold weather plants like spinach and lettuces. I also follow the planting times of local farmers who are just now planting tomatoes and peppers. I am still busy planting in the raised beds and containers with the plans to add two new 4' x 4' raised beds that will bring my total raised bed growing area to 112 square feet.
Planting is an ongoing process when using the square foot gardening method. As a square is harvested it is replanted with another vegetable so there is continuous planting and harvesting throughout the growing season. It occurred to me while planting my tomatoes that many home gardeners do not know what
tomato plugs are. Tomato plugs are small tomato seedlings that come in a tray much like cell packs but much smaller. As you can see the cell in the tomato plug tray is considerably smaller as are the plants. There are 288 tomato seedlings to one tomato plug tray. The number of tomato plug trays needed depends on the size of acreage being planted. The seedlings are planted using a mechanical tomato planter. They are usually planted as soon as possible because there is very little soil. Don't let the small size of the tomato plugs fool you. While they look very small compared to the Tiny Tim tomatoes behind the marigolds, this commercial variety will quickly catch-up in size and out perform the Tiny Tims. I planted 13 of this variety this year.
Happy Gardening!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2010
Cacti
April 7, 2010
Before I get busy in this year's garden I thought I should update you on the
cactus seeds I planted in February of 2007 so they are now a little over 3 years old. We brought the seeds back from Las Vegas, Nevada in a cactus growing kit. I doubt we would have been able to get cacti plants on the plane and then there could have been problems getting them across the border so seeds seemed like a viable option. Cacti are very, very slow growers but they are also low demand and low maintenance plants. The largest is now about a half inch tall. It might be getting time to replant them.
Happy Gardening!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2010
Phillip & JeffPlease welcome Phillip and Jeff, my newest gnomes checking out one of the seed trays. They arrived by gnometravel this morning. While Gnameless is still looking for help in the garden, these two don't really looking like they have their mind on garden work. But that's ok because I'm sure Gnameless already knows that a gnome village requires input from all the little folk. Gnomes always work together and that's the way it should be.
Happy Gardening!
Garden Gnome
©2007
Balloon FlowerPlatycodon grandiflorum
The balloon flower is one of my favourites. Platycodon means like a broad bell and grandiflorum means having big flowers. The plant gets its name from the shape of the buds. They look like small pillowy balloons. I only have one balloon flower plant. It usually blooms in early to midsummer. This plant does seem to be rather hardy. A well meaning family member pulled when helping me in the garden, no names mentioned, my dear husband! I've lost more plants that way! It was tossed into the weed pile where I discovered it and replanted the poor thing.
March came in like a lion today. I had high hopes when I got up around 5 am that the day would be a lamb but by 6:30 am a mixture of snow and freezing rain was falling. Since then we've had a couple of flurries. The skies remain threatening with the current temperature sitting at -1º C but it is supposed to rise to 3ºC with a thunderstorm this afternoon. 'Tis not fit for man nor beast out there today!
Despite the weather, I have been garden planning. I ordered a cute little gnome sitting on a swing. The gnomification of my garden has begun! My long time yet unnamed gnome will now have a new friend. The new gnome's name is Jack and while that doesn't sound very gnomish, he was already named so I'm not sure if it's ok to rename and adopted gnome. I've also been going through my seeds deciding which ones to start shortly. I added a countdown ticker at the bottome of the page so you can see how many days left to our average day for last frost in Zone 6A, Ontario, Canada. It's now time to start seedlings indoors here.
Happy Gardening!
Garden Gnome
©2007
Cactus SeedlingsThe cactus seedlings continue to grow. There are now twenty seedlings but they are too small to determine what kind of cactus yet. I think they fairly close to being the same yet some have a tinge of pinkish red while the rest are green. They should be developing tiny spines shortly.
Happy Gardening!
Garden Gnome
© 2007
Cactus Seedlings
It took a bit longer but there are now eight cactus seedlings. They are about a quarter of an inch tall. There are a few seeds that haven't germinated yet so perhaps they will before the dome lid needs to be removed. Now the soil needs to be kept just moist to prevent the seedlings from rotting but to give enough moisture to allow the seedlings to survive until the first spines appear. At that time the dome lid is removed and watering will be decreased to about once a month. I'll post another update once the spines form.
Garden Gnome
© 2007
Cactus Seedlings
I brought home a cute cactus starting kit from Las Vegas on our recent trip. This was an ideal solution since I thought trying to transport cactus plants on the plane or through Canadian customs would be problematic. The kit came with the soil, a seed packet that could contain upto ten varieties of cactus (including saguaro, prickly pear, cholla, fire barrel, fishhook barrel and hedgehog), a small plastic pot, a clear plastic dome lid and instructions. I followed the instructions but planted only about a quarter of the seed packet on the 25th of January. Today I noticed two small sprouts. It has taken longer than the low estimate of 3 days but that's ok. Once the seedlings develop tiny spines the dome top can be removed. I'll report back as they grow.
Happy Gardening
Garden Gnome
© 2007
Cactus Seedlings
