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Seed Orders : Many Plants, Many Prices
The research has just begun and I am looking for all my old favourite vegetable seeds (Juliet tomatoes and Susanna cauliflower) plus a few new additions (Jade Beans). This doesn’t mean I am throwing out the baby with the bathwater. No way. I am growing my favourite vegetables as usual but adding a few other vegetables and flowers this year.
One Week Garden Experiences Available Now!
Professional Horticulturist Donna Balzer seeking volunteer (“Woofer”-style) help with her organic zone 7 edible garden on Vancouver Island. This large plot offers extensive learning opportunities to a Horticulture student or graduate of a Permaculture Program. Work may include: pruning small fruit, propagation from woody cuttings, seeding, transplanting, greenhouse and garden work, weeding, wood mulch spreading and general garden clean-up. Bring ideas and talent, practise what you have learned and come excited to learn more! What I Offer: A one week mentorship opportunity with bed and board. This is a physically challenging opportunity for one or more people
Lets Get Innovative This Year
Right. So it’s is probably true that there is nothing new in Agriculture. And yet I continue to order books both new and old, online and through book stores. The use of minerals by plants is well documented in books like The Intelligent Gardener by Steven Solomon and in Gary Zimmer’s Advancing Biological Agriculture. With hundreds of books launched hourly and all the old ones still waiting to be read there is always something to be learned about gardening from a book. It is the deep dive of learning less common in today’s twiiterverse or caption-driven instagram society. Some tidbit of wisdom or some unknown factoid is waiting to be discovered in every new and old book I order. Or maybe it is only new to me because, as mentioned, there really is nothing new to everyone anymore. Or at least I thought that until I got the call.
What Can You Learn from a German Community Garden?
What I learn every time I visit a community garden is that there are so many ways to do everything and this Berlin garden is an amazing example of ingenuity and inspiration. As the rain starts falling the group gets up for the site tour. HH gives me the signal he is tired of waiting patiently so I edge my way out of the garden. I hate to leave. These are my people.
How to grow a Holiday Cactus so it lives 100 Years: Stop Trying
This year as my holiday cactus comes into bloom I take a closer look at the plant Mom called a Christmas cactus. And I suddenly realize it is not a Christmas cactus at all. It is the more common Thanksgiving cactus. It has pointy parts on the green stems because like other cactus there are no true leaves, only flattened green stems. But both plants are the easiest gift plant ever so take a cutting of your plant now and share it with friends and family this season.
Vegetables in a beautiful bouquet?
And that’s when I saw the flower shop. Big fluffy roses packed into luxurious bundles combined with a plant we usually eat for supper. Yes, it’s true. The roses were bundled with tall stems of colourful kale.
