Our Gardening Season Update 24/01/2011

After 6 days most seeds have germinated. So far it looks a lot better then 60% that Johnny's Seeds printed on their seed packet. I will post exact germination rate after 3 weeks from planting the seeds, February 15th.

Also, today, I have planted another Snapdragon, this time Rocket Mix.. Another late bloomer. Mind you, this is coming from a guy that lived in Toronto condo for last 35 years and first time he planted anything was back in 2005, but I am a fast learner.

Snapdragon Rocket Mix

Photo courtesy Johnny’s Selected Seeds



Our Gardening Season has Started

I know, it looks quite early to talk about garden when we still have about 6” of snow and 13 weeks to official Last Frost Day but some flower take long time to grow from seeds. Last month I bought Trailing Snapdragon from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, among many other vegetable and flower seeds. This particular plant takes it’s time to full trailing stage – 120 days, that’s FOUR months! Next to be started is my last year favorite, Salpiglossis (Painted Tongue). It is a long blooming and beautiful plant. My rough guess is that I will grow about two dozen plants from seed this year. Yup, Spring is coming even though it doesn’t look like it.

Snapdragon

Salpiglossis (Painted Tongue)

Photo courtesy Johnny’s Selected Seeds

After 6 days it looks like most seeds have germinated. So far it looks a lot better then 60% that Johnny's Seeds printed on their seed packet. I will post exact germination rate after 3 weeks from planting the seeds, February 15th.

Also, today I have planted another Snapdragon, this time Rocket Mix.

Snapdragon Rocket Mix

Photo courtesy Johnny’s Selected Seeds



Incredible Campari

This tomato was hiding for ten weeks and when found it was in perfect condition!

This morning I had a biggest surprise of my gardening life. OK, so I am gardening only since I retired five years ago, but still.

I was moving a storage cabinet in my basement work shop and out rolled a perfect Campari tomato. Two years ago I collected, fermented and then dried seeds from supermarket tomato because I loved their flavor and size and this was my second season that I have successfully grown them. They are huge producers. (I know that they have registered trademark but I am not selling them.)  

At the end of last September we have collected all tomatoes, including green ones, and stored them in basement. This one must have fallen on the floor and stayed there, on a cold floor, in relative darkness, for ten weeks. TEN weeks! Wow! Next season I’ll try to store them under same conditions: directly on the floor and covered. We’ll see what happens.

By the way, I took concrete floor temperature reading with my infrared thermometer gun and it reads 16°C. The location is close to wall that is insulated only at top four feet. Five feet away the reading was 20°C. It will be interesting to see what happens one year from now and you can be sure that I will harvest seeds from this survivor!

Marjo in my tomato jungle.

Piper in Our Garden

Last September when Marjo’s family was here for my 65^th birthday she surprised me by hiring a Scottish piper from Ingersoll. Funny thing, though. None of our neighbors heard him, none! Nobody heard bagpipes being played no more then 40 yards from their windows.
Thanks, Marjo! It was a thrill!

Winter Solstice

In less then week and half days will be getting longer! Time to get seed catalogs out and start ordering. This is a view from our sunroom. It looks like winter will be long but right now it is raining cats and dogs.

Early Winter Blast

We got blasted with a snowstorm really early this year. It started snowing last Sunday, December 4^th and today, after four days, is a first day that we didn’t get any new snow. And winter is still two weeks away! Ouch, not a good sign.

Good news is that last week I got my first seed catalog from Johnny’s Seeds. Let the garden planning begin!

This year I'm not going to bather to plant herbs from seeds, it’s much better and convenient to buy seedlings from Heritage Line Herbs that is just short drive away. They have an excellent selection, but I’ll be growing seedlings for specialty Oriental greens and veggies. Unless Deb at Heritage Line Herbs will have them next Spring, that is.

Crap, I need more and bigger veggie beds J !

Bougainvillea

My Bougainvillea bonsai started to flower again on October 17th. By Christmas it will be one big mass of red flowers with hardly any green leaves and will stay that way for 6 – 8 weeks. Marjo did a great job by transplanting it into a pot that I made and fired last year. It is a bit bigger then I would like so I guess I have a new winter project making a new one.



First flower is turning red. October 17, 2010

Three weeks later, November 6, 2010

Another 3 weeks have passed. November 27, 2010

December 8, 2010. Little change in last 12 days.

Same tree April 24, 2010.