Yesterday morning I started to sort through my stash of seeds in an effort to narrow down my grow list for 2010. I came across a gift certificate for McFayden Seeds that I would like to pass on to one of my Canadian readers!

In order to enter to win this $10.00 gift certificate, redeemable at McFayden Seeds (either via their catalogue or online), there are a couple of things you need to do.

1. Follow @playinthedirt or @McFayden_Seed (or both!) on Twitter.
2. Come on back here and leave a comment to this post letting me know you’ve done so.

I will randomly select a commenter to win (with the help of Random.org)! I will also throw in McKenzie’s Sweet Pea Cupani (new this season) and their Butternut Squash Bisque Culinary Collections, a three-pack of seeds containing Butternut Squash, Carrot Nantes Touchon and Celery Green Utah seeds. Imagine growing all of the ingredients for butternut squash bisque, and then cooking up a big batch in your kitchen. I can almost smell it now!

Good luck!

It’s that time of year again! Time to start thinking about growing plants from seed. I had hoped to have the time/space/energy to grow some tomatoes in the basement this year but it just isn’t going to happen. I will probably take a couple of trips to some different growers to find some cool heirloom seedlings later in May or June, instead.

The whole shebang. Most of the seeds were either heirloom tomatoes (the trend continues!) or flowers.

I received the seed package on Friday afternoon, and today I sorted through and chose a couple of packets to keep:

Malabar Edible Climbing Spinach
Nasturtiums
Tithonia Mexican Torch Sunflower
Broccoli Romanesco

The source for all of these is unknown, but I can start them all either directly in the ground or outside when the weather warms up.

What I put in (pile on the left) and what I took out (pile on the right).

I think I put some pretty nice packets (all brand new) back into the envelope for the next person:

From Thompson & Morgan:

Morning Glory “Carnevale di Venezia”
Tomato “Vilma”
Pepper “Chili Pyramid”
Pepper “Mohawk F1 Hybrid”

From McKenzie: (You can follow McKenzie on Twitter now.)

Strawberry “Patio Temptation”

From Burpee:

Money Garden Pepper “Home Run”
Money Garden Tomato “Steak Sandwich” (The name of that one makes my mouth water.)

From Richters:

Poppy Opium Blue Seeded

From Heritage Harvest Seed:

Early Blood Turnip Beet

And from Mr. Fothergill’s:

Lettuce “Romaine”

I hope whomever ends up with these has good success with them!

Previous years’ exchange posts:

• YGG Canadian Round Robin Seed Exchange 2009
• YGG Canadian Seed Exchange, 2007

I received this message today from USC Canada, and thought I’d pass it along. (It reminded me that it’s Seedy Saturday season!)

If you’ve had enough of salting and shoveling for the season, get ready to dream of spring and attend the 3rd Annual Seedy Saturday Garden Show in Pickering. The event takes place on Saturday, February 6 at East Shore Community Centre (910 Liverpool Road South, Pickering), and includes displays and seminars with more than 30 local vendors and garden associations and a seed swap.

USC will be there too! Kate Green, who manages our Nepal program and campaigns in Canada and internationally on food sovereignty, will be on hand with plenty of USC DVDs, seed maps, and our new Jottings newsletter. And she would love just to chat about the work of our farmer friends overseas. So while your gardens sleep under their blanket of snow, why not come out for a visit?

Seedy Saturday runs from 10am-3pm on February 6, and admission is just $3. Bring seeds to swap if you have any. There’s plenty of free parking. Find out more about the event from Mandy at 905-683-8401.

I received this message today about an event celebrating Seeds of Survival’s 20th anniversary and thought I’d pass the message along!

August 17, 8:30pm – Hugh’s Room, 2261 Dundas St. W.

Canadian songsmith James Keelaghan, a steadfast supporter of USC Canada’s Seeds of Survival (SoS) program, is teaming up with fellow folk musicians for a historic concert to benefit farming communities in Africa and Asia.

Join James at Hugh’s Room on August 17th for an inspiring evening of soulful song and music. We’ll enjoy the artistry of stellar singer-songwriters including Peggy Seeger, Rob & Steve Richie (of Tanglefoot), Vance Gilbert, and Sheena Grobb. The musicians have generously agreed to donate all proceeds from the concert to benefit Seeds of Survival – USC Canada’s flagship food sovereignty program – and the mountain farmers of Ethiopia and Nepal.

From the African Highlands to the Himalayas, mountain farmers face challenging conditions. Though mountains are biodiversity hot spots and the source for as much as 80% of the world’s fresh water, it’s hard to grow food and make a living on steep mountain slopes. The SoS program continues a 20-year tradition of working with farmers to grow healthy food in harsh mountain landscapes, without damaging these fragile ecosystems.

The concert takes place August 17th at Hugh’s Room, 2261 Dundas St. W. Tickets cost $20 in advance ($22 at the door) and are available at Hugh’s Room in person, by phone (416-531-6604), or online at Hugh’s Room. For more information contact Sarah at or 613-234-6827 x230.

And visit USC Canada’s website now to hear Moving Forward, Looking Back, the song James composed for a documentary about Seeds of Survival work in Ethiopia.

Please forward this message to anyone you know who might enjoy this event.

We hope to see you there!

Earlier this month I received the package I look forward to each spring with great anticipation: The You Grow Girl Canadian Round Robin Seed Exchange package!

I noticed that this year the vegetable seeds by far outnumbered the flower seeds that were in the package.  Since I’ll be growing from seed only those vegetables I can sow directly in the ground or start outdoors, I grabbed from the package the following varieties:

• Romaine lettuce
• Tuscan Kale
• Detroit Dark Red Beets
• Cherokee Trail of Tears pole bean
• Salad Scallions “Delicious Duo” (purple and white salad onions)
• Radish “Rudolf”

The following three I’ll be able to start in pots outside in my little greenhouse:

• Cucumber “Muncher”
• Small Pie Pumpkin
• Golden Zucchini

I also picked out Large Seeded Tall Sunflowers.  I hope to get an annual cutting garden going at one end of the vegetable garden this summer.

Do you participate in any seed exchanges?

Related Article:  Attending a Gardeners’ Seed Swap: A Guide to Trading Annual and Perennial Flower and Vegetable Seeds, by Amy Urquhart

This lovely little candle holder was given to me by a little friend last December. I’ve been planning to write about it ever since. This candle is holder is a great weekend gardening project you can do with your kids.

You will need:

craft glue
an assortment of seeds, beans, dried corn, etc.
an old muffin tin (one you don’t plan to use again for baking
tealight

In a plastic bowl, combine the seeds and beans. Gradually add some craft glue and stir the mixture until the glue evenly coats all the pieces. Transfer mixture to a muffin tin and press lightly so that the mixture takes on the shape of the tin.

Take a tealight and press into the surface of the seedy blob until you’ve made an indentation the same size as the tealight. Allow to dry.  White craft glue usually dries clear.

Pop the candle holder out of the muffin tin. You’re done!

This little candle looks pretty in any room of your house, and makes the perfect gift for the gardeners in your life.

For the last several years I’ve experienced the fun that is growing vegetables indoors from seed. In Ontario (and most of Canada, really), this is one of the best ways to extend the growing season, since our last frost date here isn’t until May 24. Seedlings and young vegetable plants are widely available for purchasing in the spring, but the idea of having something green and growing and filled with hope for the coming season is so appealing that I usually grow plants indoors, starting right around this time of year, or earlier.

While the thought of having vegetable and annual plants in the house tucked away under their lights in the basement is certainly appealing, this past year has been so unbelievably busy and personally challenging that my heart is just not into it this time around. Graham and I both work two jobs right now, and we have a couple of home renovation projects on the go, as well, which means I just don’t think I can handle another area of the house that needs tending to, and this unfortunately means the basement seedling setup is going to go on hiatus for this year.

This doesn’t mean I won’t be growing from seed at all this year. I’m planning to concentrate my efforts on vegetables that can be sown directly into warm soil come spring. This includes radishes, greens, beans and squash. I’ll look for interesting heirloom varieties of tomatoes and eggplants, grown organically, for planting directly, benefiting from the work and care of other gardeners this spring.

Even though my growing process will be a little bit different this season, I expect my vegetable garden will be no less productive or beautiful this summer. I can’t wait to get planting.

Earlier this spring I took the plunge and joined an organization called Seeds of Diversity. Seeds of Diversity is Canada’s answer to the growing need for preservation of heritage varieties of annual and perennial flower and vegetable seeds. According to the Seeds of Diversity website,

Seeds of Diversity is a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to the conservation, documentation and use of public-domain non-hybrid plants of Canadian significance. Our 1400 members from coast to coast are gardeners, farmers, teachers, scientists, agricultural historians, researchers and seed vendors. Together we grow, propagate and distribute over 1900 varieties of vegetables, fruit, grains, flowers and herbs. We are a living gene bank.

Because it was a little bit late in the season when I joined, I had limited time in which to request any seeds of my fellow members. I was super-excited to learn that some members even accept Canadian Tire money in exchange for seeds. (For my American readers, Canadian Tire money is sort of like a shoppers reward points system for one of our major retail outlets. Instead of loading up a plastic card, Canadian Tire gives its customers paper money which they can then spend at any Canadian Tire store.) We always have Canadian Tire money hanging around the house in desk drawers, bedside tables, kitchen counters…it’s all over the place.

I decided that I didn’t want to put my membership to waste this year (most of the members place a deadline for seed requests up until May 1), so I requested Dragon’s Tongue beans from a fellow member, paying with $3.00 in Canadian Tire money. The payment for seeds covers the cost of the postage for the giver of the seeds, plus a little extra for their trouble.

My Dragon’s Tongue bean seeds arrived in the mail yesterday, with a lovely, but brief handwritten note from the member who had given me the seeds. When they’re all grown up and producing, the beans will look like this:

My friend Kelly is currently obsessed with gardening, or so her family says.

Kelly is right in the gardening head space I was in about three years ago, when I first started to grow edible plants from seed. Her spare room/office is chock full ‘o seedlings right now, and she’s quickly running out of space!

The first couple of seasons that I grew edibles from seed I was what you might consider a doting parent to my little plants. Every morning before work I would check on them, make sure they had enough water, fondle the tomato leaves…

Things have changed.

I have four flats of seedlings in the basement this year under fluorescent lights, but sometimes I go days without even looking at them. I just want to get them outside, hardened off and growing. I’m even considering (shudder) buying some pepper transplants. It’s just so hard to successfully germinate pepper seedlings in the cold Canadian winter, that I’m just not sure it’s entirely worth it. I will make every effort to buy transplants from a grower who practices organic gardening methods, but growing from seed this year just doesn’t seem like all it’s cracked up to be. Maybe the novelty has just worn off.

The thing is, the seedlings do just fine unsupervised. If I don’t baby them, maybe they’ll grow up to be more independent, low-maintenance plants.

That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.

A private member’s bill supporting mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food in Canada was selected randomly for debate in our House of Commons this month.

Bill C-517 went to second reading on April 3, and a second hour of parliamentary debate could take place in as early as two weeks, as per the House of Commons calendar. After a second debate, the House will be called upon to vote on the bill. If you are concerned about feeding your children genetically engineered foods, it’s important to make sure that a majority of Members of Parliament vote in favour of Bill C-517. If the Bill passes second reading, it will be returned for a third and final reading, followed by a vote by all of Canada’s 301 Members of Parliament.

Right now you may be asking yourself, “What is so bad about genetically engineered food?

• Genetically engineered food destroys biodiversity. It promotes mono-agriculture and mass corporate farms while destroying soil nutrients.
• Genetically engineered food only benefits rich, large agri-businesses, not small farmers who will be forced to buy their seeds, and more fertilizer and chemicals.
• Genetically engineered food destroys millions of small family farms who can’t afford the annual additional cost of seeds, pesticides, fertilizers and equipment.
• The long-term health effects of genetically engineered foods on humans have yet to be discovered.
• Genetically engineered foods are not sustainable!

Mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods will allow you, as a parent and a consumer, to have access to information about the food you and your family are eating. It will also pave the way for a gradual withdrawal of genetically engineered foods from the food chain, reducing the dissemination of genetically engineered seeds in the environment.

If you’d like to help spread the word, here’s how you can help:

• Identify your federal Member of Parliament online.
• Locate the contact information for the MP in your riding.
• E-mail your MP’s riding office with the following message:

Dear Sir/Madam,

We all have the right to know what we are eating and the right to not eat genetically engineered foods. I support mandatory labelling of genetically engineered food, which is already practiced in over 40 countries in Europe and elsewhere. Bill C-517 would allow implementation of mandatory labelling in Canada. I am asking you to vote in favour of Bill C-517. Please confirm your intention to support this important bill.

Spread the word!

(Cross-posted at BlogHers ACT Canada.)

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