The truth about Zumpkins

Family reunion - a selection of pepos and crosses. 

Here's a question you hear a lot:

"My zucchini looks funky. Did it cross with my melon?"

"Will my pumpkins and cucumbers cross if I grow them together?"

"Are my melons not sweet because I grew them with cucumbers?"

"Could my butternut have crossed with my pumpkin and that's why it is ripening/growing/looking weird?"

Okay, I admit that I am paraphrasing somewhat but these are all inspired by real life questions I have read or seen or answered on countless occasions. So to set the record straight, I give you the truth about the zumpkin.


Immature pumpkin scarred by design and by that I mean that we etched this face into it when it was green on the vine not that we intended on hurting it emotionally... 

Not all vines are created equal

I'm not suggesting that they fall into a heirarchy; what I'm referring to is how closely related they are. Cucumbers, melons, squash, zucchinis, pumpkins and more might look similar in that they are all leafy vines that produce (mostly) yellow flowers of which the female flowers swell into fruits but this does not mean that they can all cross.

In fact, crossing is usually only restricted to members of the same species. Just like how a rabbit must mate with another rabbit not a monkey to produce fertile offspring even though both rabbits and monkeys are mammals. (No jumping ahead, we'll talk about interspecies crossing in a minute.)

Plant: Genus species

Cucumbers: Cucumis sativa
Melon: Cucumis melo
Armenian cucumber: Cucumis melo (see it's tricky sometimes)
Watermelon: Citrullus lantana
Many (but not all) zucchini: Cucurbita pepo
Most halloween pumpkins: Cucurbita pepo (hence zumpkins)
Squash: Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita moschata, Cucurbita maxima, etc...*

That's not to mention gourds (some decorative gourds are actually pumpkins), other things called melons and some more unusual cucumber like things such as mouse melon, aka Melothria scabra.

The more closely related something is, the more likely it can cross assuming that the reproductive mechanisms are conducive to such a union and there no other barriers. Peas, for example, don't tend to cross because they self pollinate even before the flower opens giving the bees no chance to create mayhem**! The vining crops mentioned above, on the other hand, are busy with pollen dusted buzzers moving between plants so cross pollination most certainly can happen if it is possible.

If they have the same Genus and species such as a pattypan and spaghetti squash and zucchini, they can easily create cross cultivar hybrids***. Some people let same species cross on purpose or just because they don't care but if you want to keep your seed pure, you have to isolate your varieties.

Sometimes you even get an wide-cross which is a cross between two different species. This is more likely between closely related species such as two types of Cucurbits rather than between a cuke and a watermelon. To go back to our mammal examples, sometimes you see a zonky (zebra + donkey) but no elephantice (elephant + mice)****. This species hopping hanky-panky is actually quite infrequent and apparently highly cultivar dependent according to what I've read (see link below).


Romanpan f1 = Romanesco x Patty Pan

Naughty neighbours?

What this does NOT mean is that if you are growing an Armenian cucumber beside your pickling cucumber that the fruit that forms will be some crazy mix between the two. It won't. Instead you will get just what you expect EVEN though you are growing two varieties.

The first year you grow two potentially cross pollinating plants will give you no pumpkin surprise. Honest. Growing pumpkin beside your zucchini will give you pumpkins on your pumpkin plant and zucchinis on your zucchini plant. Yup. Boring.


Patty Pan x Halloween Pumpkin = warty dumpling and ribbed white or Hallopans collectively

Hiding in the Seed

Actually not so boring. Those plants might be hiding a secret in the seed. You see, the next year when you grow out your pumpkin seeds, you may get fruit that doesn't look anything like you were expecting. It is year two that you get the Zumpkin.

Busy Bees pepo cross:


All together now: Romanpan f1 -> Romanesco -> patty pan -> halloween pumpkin -> Hallopan f1

To illustrate, in 2012, I grew white pattypans, romanesco and halloween pumpkins: all Cucurbita pepo. Some of my white pattypans were tossed to the chickens. The next year 2013, I moved their chicken run and out of it grew a great mound of volunteer pumpkin vines. Off the vines sprouted mainly what looks like pattypan x romanesco but there were also a few pattypan x pumpkin. I love the white pattypans not as immature little roasters but because they store exceptionally well mature holding their texture. We keep them in the cellar, peel and use as winter zucchini.  However, the shape is annoying as you have cut off a lot of the flesh. The chance cross of romapan-pattyesco gave me a better shape. We'll see if it stores and tastes as good.

From further a field, some pumpkin pollen made it to a pattypan flower creating a couple other variations which I'm less interested in but they look neat. Here's one below with a very thick hard rind but decent texture. Flavour is average zuke.

Now, I didn't isolate as I didn't realize what I had until later but I intend on saving seeds, growing out and doing some selection in years to come.


Inside one of the hallopans that we ate for supper. It's flesh was very pale but cooked up a bit darker. It held its texture well and tasted just fine.

A whole lot about Cucurbita seed production

* You are likely to grow these kinds but there are others as squash is a moniker given to a lot of fruit.
** That's not to say that crossing never happens and I seem to remember a reference to nectar stealing insects in beans that can trip up self pollination at the source which might also happen in peas. If you really, really want pure varieties of peas, there are suggested isolation distances.
*** Did you say hybrid?
Yes I did.
Aren't hybrids bad?
Depends on what you mean. A hybrid is just the crossing of two varieties. Anytime you don't isolate two cultivars of the same species, you might get a hybrid.
But?
Yes, agricultural hybrids that don't breed true and force people to buy their seed again so they become dependent on the system have drawbacks. That's the hybrid that people rally against in favour of what they call OP - open pollinated. The kind of hybrid above is just kooky. You are welcome to save seeds from it but no guarantees about what offspring you'll get. That's true of most commercial hybrids by the way too. Which is not to say that you can't try to select and stabilize a new OP variety from your crazy mix. That's fun too.
**** Yeah, yeah. I know. There are several reasons for that.

Collecting Hablitzia Seed

Hablitzia plant on the north side of a shed.

Have you heard? My Hablitzias have set seed and they look good! You haven't heard? That surprises me considering how loud I shouted when I discovered it but maybe you were listening to music or something or mistook me for an angry raven. Anyhow, on the off chance, you haven't heard:

"My Hablitzia tamnoides gave me seed!!"


Closeup of seedpods and seed.

You don't know what I'm talking about? Spinach from the Caucasus? Perennial, shade tolerant green? Our friend Habby. Stephen Barstow is always going on about it.

Stephen? Extreme salad man? Okay so now you're intrigued.

Let's go back to the Habby seeds.

Aren't they lovely?


Before I winnow, I'm going to let it dry down a bit more but looks promising.

Next year, all going well, Habby plants will be exiting my greenhouse (still under construction and by under construction I mean shovel yet to hit the dirt but I have days marked off on my calendar so soon) in the spring for sale. Woohoo!

***

Friends of Hablitzia

Seed Library!!

As mentioned in a previous post, I'm super psyched about the idea of a seed lending library in Ottawa. Not just me either but various folk are interested in this. No doubt all sorts of people I've never heard of are interested in this so I propose we get together and make this thing work.

My understanding is that there are various models including ones that link directly with the library and others that use nearby facilities. A seed bank may also work as a lending library too and there are possible proposals for this as well in the works in Ottawa.

So let me know so we can all grow.

Seedy Sunday (and Saturday)

A whole lot of seedy stuff happening at Perth this Sunday.

Seedy weekend or as I'm calling it the seed enthusiasts annual reunion started in Ottawa. Lots of friends, lots of seeds, and little parking but I'd like to focus on Seedy Sunday in Perth. Though Ottawa had more vendors and tendors, Perth had a more charitable flavour. Local companies had respectable selections including Yuko's Open Pollianted Seed*, Mountain Grove Seed, Heritage Seeds and Produce and others with seed packages in the 2-3 dollar range rather than closer to 4 as it was in the 'big city.'

In fact, the zero dollar price tag really set apart two booths. Robert and Carol Mouck maintain a large selection of rare, heritage varieties. They had their table set up with bottles filled with beautiful seed to give away. All they asked for in return was the promise that you would keep the seed. As Carol explained to me heirloom seeds are "treasured," "a gift," and "have a right to be grown." They started on a farm 30 years ago with Dorset Horn sheep and crops. Wanting to create a more self sustaining system, they started to save their own seed and from this a passion to preserve rare varieties was born.


The beautiful gift of seed from Robert and Carol Mouck.

Though now they focus on disseminating seed and knowledge to local backyard growers and farmers, the Heirloom Seed Sanctuary they founded lives on.

Also, bringing the love of sharing and seed to the community is the Perth & District Union Public Library with a seed lending library. Yes, they just managed to combine two of my favourite things in the world: seeds and libraries. I'd heard rumours of something like this happening in Toronto too. Simply borrow seeds, set some aside for yourself and return the surplus to the library. Are your eyes popping out of your head now? Are you dancing in the streets? Don't you love this idea as much as me??

I love it so much that if Ottawa isn't cooking this up, then my hand is bouncing up and down in the air to help set this up. If it is already underway on the hush-hush (or I just missed it), then let me know what I can do to help.

***

Seed Libraries
A list of Seed Libraries
* Yuko's Open Pollinated Seed's Annual Plant Sale will be on the weekends of May 11/12 and 18/19 between 8am and 2pm at 202 Arklan Road, Carleton Place.

Sourcing Plants and Seeds Part II -Vocabulary TMI

There are some people who know immediately what kind of seeds they want. It should be heritage, preferably an old, rare variety that if they don't grow, might blink out of existence, and it should be organic. Then there are others who don't really care as long as it will give them reliable yields with fruit that will make their neighbours envious or at least prevent them from looking down their noses at their crazy gardening hobby. Then there are just those that don't know what the heck all the fuss is about. Isn't a seed a seed?

Sure all seeds are seeds. After all if they weren't, we'd call them something else like grains or gerbils. But there are movements afoot and sometimes they are bannered by sleeping baby plant packages.

Organic vs. Treated

A blast from the past: Here's my youngest as a toddler playing with an unnamed soy bean that had been saved for generations on a farm. Given out at a terminator seed protest. I grew it out for years before turning it over to a small living seed bank.

To produce the seeds, you need plants. If these were grown organically, then some standard - this varies from place to place - must have been met. For example, your seeds were not grown with the help of death-icides or chemicals fast food fertilizers. The seed house may be officially certified - see Cottage Gardener - or they may simply state that they are organic because, for example, their land may still be in transition.¹

Some seeds are additionally treated after harvest with fungicides or other chemicals. This will often make them weird colours. Normally it will say on the seed package, but this is a good reason not to eat any seeds not marketed for that purpose. Your own extra seeds make the best sprouts anyhow. Some plants really pump out those seeds too. Yes, I'm talking to you mustard.

Hybrid vs. Open Pollinated

If you are planning on saving your own seed, then it is easiest to start with plants that are open pollinated. This means that the baby plants will be similar to the parent plants. Hybrid seeds are (usually) produced by cross pollinating two distinct, genetically predictable (such as inbred) parent lines. The result is highly uniform but if you were to save seeds from them then the genes get reshuffled and you cannot predict the exact result.² The statement, "you can't know what you'll get" is a bit misleading however as a gardening friend once pointed out. If you grow out seeds from a hybrid pepper plant you will get.... a pepper plant.³

Hybrids are created to produce, among other things, uniform results in size, yield time and to incorporate resistance to negative pressures such as disease or pests. If you want a particular trait in your plants and can't find them in an OP (open pollinated source), you could try growing out some seed saved from hybrid plants. After several generations of selection, you may have a strain that maintains that trait AND is more or less predictable in form from one generation to the next. In other words, you will have de-hybridized the hybrid. This is a common hobby among backyard breeders. The delectable hybrid tomato Sungold has been, or is in the process of being, dehybridized in all sorts of ways. Big Sungold is an example mentioned on Tatiana's Tomatobase.

It will usually say on the seed packet/description that it is a hybrid. Another clue is an F code behind the name. F1 means that it is a first generation hybrid.

Some people believe that certain plants need to be hybrid or they will be dismal failures. Around here, the brassicas such as broccoli and the melons are often touted as flops if they are not F1. I have not found this to be true. Once you know how to grow these plants, both of them are top performers. Keep in mind that I do not run a CSA nor am I a commercial farmer so maybe I have different acceptable margins.

Heritage/Heirloom vs. Traditionally Bred

Some people are allergic to plants that are created any later than 1930. Often very old and perfectly good varieties are in danger of being lost because they are just not grown. It has been argued that very, very old varieties may have been inadvertently selected as extra healthy because people depended on them to survive. The hypothesis goes that families and varieties co-evolved meaning that families/localities growing the best varieties had more reproductively successful children etc... you know the theory. To dis/prove this you would have to do a nutritional analyses on the crops. Keep in mind too that you would have to use the same cultural practices - ways of working the land, growing the crop - as they did under the same climatic and soil conditions to achieve a similar result. That's not to say that heritage varieties aren't worth growing or aren't healthy. I'm just complicating matters.

My eldest threshing some cabbage seed.

Unfortunately, the rarer of these varieties can suffer from one of two effects by being seldomly grown out. They may have lost a lot of genetic diversity as the seed parent pool is quite small especially if they are out-breeders⁴. Alternatively, they may no longer have the traits they did in the past. Maybe the solid orange squash from 1890 now has yellow stripes because of cross breeding with other cultivars. Both these situations call for revitalization. If you have a pet variety, you can grow out lots of it and reselect for the original characteristics (assuming they haven't lost the genes responsible for them) or you can intentionally cross them with something similar to increase their genetic diversity and vigour. Of course by crossing them, you are creating something new but that's okay in my books. In this way, you might get a great crop that maintains the original variety's genes even if the phenotype (form) is slightly different. It's like the heritage variety is hiding out in the new variety. Or you could reselect for something that looks like the original.

I love heritage varieties. There I said it. I didn't want you to think otherwise. I don't worship them but I do really like them and I do like to believe that co-evolution hypothesis if for no other reason than it sounds neat.

But what you ask is the definition of a heritage/heirloom crop? It varies but the internet consensus seems to be that it has been created and maintained in a traditional way for at least 50 years (some use before the end of the second world war as a time limit) though others say at least 100 years old.

Even today, people are breeding plants in traditional ways. Some may be saving all seeds from high and poorer performing plants. This can maintain more genetic diversity as not all plants perform the same from year to year because of variations in pest/disease pressures and weather. That said, you will probably have some plants that produce consistently higher seed yields and therefore self select. Other breeders intentionally cross plants either with a goal in mind like a purple turnip or just to see what will happen. This blogger's fun with cabbage breeding.

These modern reselections, de-hybridzed crops or intentional breeding projects have value! Wild Garden Seeds (a fav of mine) is busy producing disease resistant lettuce in what they call hell's half acre and strawberry spinach with more reliable germination. That sounds as cool as ancient veg. to me.

Wild Collected vs. Raised Local or otherwise

Seeds in catalogues are produced by an assortment of growers. Small companies often grow a lot of their own seed but also may have other people grow a portion of it. The growers may or may not be nearby. If you are looking for locally adapted varieties, inquire. On occasion, seed companies will merely be reselling seeds from other suppliers. Hopefully they are forthright about where they get their wares.

Other seeds, especially of native varieties, are collected in the wild. As best you can, you should be sure that the collectors are doing so in an ethical way - i.e., taking only a few seeds from different populations if they are rare varieties and none from endangered crop populations unless they have permission and are attempting to increase the population. The same holds if you are the collector.

Speaking of seed explorers, I have seen seeds offered from collections made off of a neighbour's interesting tree, a weird looking bean found on vacation at a market, or even a tag along seed that didn't belong in someone's soup mix.

Grex, Mix or Landrace?

Ripe species seeds from Myhrris odorata - no cultivar name - or Sweet Cicely.

It is becoming more popular to sell seed mixes. Often it'll say 'using our special formula' implying a precision mix. This means that they are adding seeds from different batches together. On the other hand a grex is the herd of babies produced by a cross. These are sister and brother plants that don't necessarily all look a like. Extreme Gardener talks chicory greges.

Which brings me to landraces. These are populations of plants that come from a particular locality and show variability. For example, a landrace of soup peas might have different dry colours and growth type but it is traditionally all saved together and used to make soup. Language - being a means of communication - has led to the evolution of the use of this term so that landrace can refer to intentional variability by mass crossing plants. Here is Joseph's definition of an adaptivar landrace and some of the interesting work he does on his farm.

And finally, when growing many herbs or unusual vegetables from seed, there may be no named cultivars at all. This does not mean that there aren't different varieties, so getting a species variety from two different spots may give you plants that vary in dates to maturity, shade tolerance and so on. Even the seeds grown out from one area may vary considerably. Often, there ARE named varieties even if it is just a regional name attached but because it is unusual to us, we clump them all together.

'K - go out and buy some seeds now.

¹ For example, here's some organic regulation standards linked from Canadian Organic Growers.Or you could try and navigate this omafra site.

² So you want an (overly simplistic) example? Okay let's say you have two parent plants. One has the following genes for three traits: aabbcc. The other plant has these complementary genes: AABBCC. Now form 'a' and form 'A' are for the same gene but each parent has two of the same. When you cross these two inbred lines you get uniformly plants that are aAbBcC as the babies each get one gene from each parent. If you were to let these F1s cross and make baby seeds then you would be crossing two plants with the genes: aAbBcC x aAbBcC. The result could be any of the following: aabbcc, AABBCC, or aabBcC, aABBcc, aaBBcc, etc... See? They may be more like one parent or the other and who knows what the parents were like.

Some people claim that all hybrids are produced to be dependent on big-agri crutches like chemical fertilizers. Though the holy grail of capitalism is to create brand dependency, such as GMOs that work with certain pesticides, this is not always the goal. I don't endorse F1s per se but I don't see anything inherently wrong with them especially when they are produced by combining two cross-pollinating OPs together to invigorate a crop. These may or may not be uniform but they also may show the glorified hybrid vigour. My point is you don't need a lab to do it. It can be done in a garden setting and it might be to your benefit depending on the situation. Or it might just be a fun science experiment.

Here is a decent explanation - It also lists a three line system which uses more than two parent line hence the qualifier in my description.

³A plant that is produced by crossing two closely related species could also be called a hybrid. Obviously this is more unpredictable and it is possible to have mules - sterile plants. If the hybrid process used male sterility in one parent line, I suppose it is also possible to pass on this trait to seedlings. My experience so far, however, is that hybrid plants produce F2 babies which produce F3 seeds and so on.

⁴ Outbreeders are plants that require cross pollination of others of their kind to produce healthy, viable offspring. Otherwise, they suffer from inbreeding depression meaning decreased fitness and fertility. They are normally wind or insect pollinated. Examples are cabbages or corn. This contrasts with inbreeders that are often self pollinating and need smaller populations of parent plants to produce healthy offspring. More on the subject.

Sourcing Plants and SeedsPart III - Plants for a headstart

You want to buy that cool pear-sorbus hybrid or that nifty variegated form of sorrel, prepare to be frustrated. Though there are lots of plants for the buying in Canada, many google searches will leave you slavering over the unattainable (or quite difficult to attain) plants in the US or Europe. Your next step, if you are me, is to try and find seeds of same variety but as many unusual forms of plants don't come true from seed, that might be a either a lost cause or a long venture. Of course, you could import some plants from the states using a phytosanitary certificate but I always felt too bogged down in the mire of expense and paperwork to try it.

As this is primarily an edible plant blog, I'm going to focus on plant mail-order houses with edible entries, but there are a list of nurseries in the area that may have what you're looking for or MAYBE will order them in. I say maybe because I've submitted various requests that were filed under 'not in our lifetime.'

This will NOT be a complete list 'cause I don't spend all day on the internet. Feel free to contribute your brain power and free time to the project by recommending others.

Mail-order Edible Plants in Canada:

Acorus Restoration: Native plants, many edible. Generally listed as mail-order

Alberta Nurseries: Hardy tart/sweet cherries and other small fruits. Not a huge selection.

Alcla Native Plants: Some edibles most notably ground plum - Astralgalus crassicarpus which I normally only see as seeds such as from Prairie Moon Nursery (US native seed and plant source)

Bamboo World: I have not researched which would be good to eat but if you have the right zone, then here's a source.

Beaver Pond Estates: Seed garlic - link takes you to seeds of diversity page for email

Boughen Nurseries: Fruit trees and plants including U of Saskatchewan Cherries and cultivars of Seabuckthorn.

Boundry Garlic - Lots 'o garlic.

Clear Sky Farm: Heritage Garlic Varieties.

Cornhill Nursery: Small fruits, including a good selection of grapes for mail-order.

Denman Island Heritage Apples: The name says it all, includes cider apples

Eagle Creek Farms: Lots of potatoes. Years ago, I ordered from them with very good results.

Fraiser Thimble Farms: Has some edible listings

Golden Acres Farm: Seed Garlic. No direct link to website so linked to Seeds of Diversity info

Golden Bough Nursery: Sells Red Mulberry, American Plum, grapes, some other rare fruits and nuts

Green Barn Nursery: Odd naming practices such as using the term apple-pear for an asian pear, and using the heading cranberry for high bush cranberries. Nursery stock is interesting but expensive: crosses between cherries and plums and a cross between an apricot and plum, mulberries, nuts and more.

Grimo Nut Nursery: All sorts of interesting things from paw-paw, quince, north hardy nuts to mulberries. My trees arrived in a good condition and grew well so far.

Hardy Fruit Trees: Doesn't the first picture make you wondering if he's peeing on his plants? At any rate, good selection.

Hawfield Farm Garlic: Garlic farms don't seem to like to have websites so I'm pretty sure this is the right one.

Henry Fields Seed & Nursery: Small berries, trees and some veggie starts

Heritage Harvest Seed: Perennial walking and potato onions.

Hortico: Fruit trees and plants along with lots of other perennials and woodies.

Humber Nursery - Fruit and Nut trees available - not clear if plants are shipped

La ferme tourne-sol: Jersusalem Artichoke and chuffa

Maddog Farm: Just discovered this one (Thanks Mike!) Large selection of Jerusalem Artichokes, potatoes and sweet potatoes. Also sells crosnes (Stachys affinis). Also sells honey bees.

Mapple Farms: My original source of sweet potatoes and crosnes. They also sell the Volga2 variety of Jerusalem Artichoke. Mr. Allan's plants have always grown well for me.

McFayden: Various small fruits and some fruit trees

Mr V's: Good selection of fruits including cherry-plums. Said to be expensive compared to others.

Mycopatch: Mushrooms - navigating this site is not easy.

Pine needle farm: Tree nursery

Rhora's Nut Farm: I've not ordered from them before but they offer some unusual nut and fruit trees that are hard to come by like cornelian cherry and beach plum. My only complaint is that they sell inoculant for their different plant categories.

Richters: Venerable herb house of Canada with lots of offerings including some fruit trees and vegetable starts. Prices are reasonable and though the size of the plants are small when they arrive, they grow well in my experience. Lots of seeds too.

Saskgarlic: You guessed it.

Seeds of Diversity: Last time I received their trade catalogue, there were cuttings available

Silver Creek Nursery: Reliance peach, asian pears and more

Siloam Orchards: These guys come up as a mail-order house though I couldn't discover how to order. Mostly apple varieties but also asian pears, cherries and more. They sell perry pears too which I have just discovered are pears selected for cider production.

Strawberry Time: Mostly strawberry and raspberries, good prices.

T&T Seeds: Interesting plant selection from hardy kiwis to Saskatoon berries.

The Cutting Veg: More garlic!

The Mushroom Patch: Large selection of kits and plugs. I can't tell you how my plugs did yet as they were started just last year.

William Dam Seeds: The usual: asparagus, raspberries, strawberries, potatoes and so on.

Other:

Some specialty or collector perennials, such as daylilies, are also edible but slogging through those numerous websites is making me woozy. For what it's worth, it's normally easier finding seeds of interesting species of popular edibles such as citron daylily and red-leafed dandelion.

Also, conservation societies can be a good place to get inexpensive tree seedlings for reforesting. Ferguson Forest Centre is nearby. Try native nurseries and sales too for plants such as edible fiddleheads.

* It was supposed to be definition day but I decided to do Part II next week as I have an eye on getting some more trees this week :)

** They also sell bloody dock, various shallots, garlic, walking onions, lovage, various hops, more mint than anyone should plant and lots and lots of herbs many of them with culinary uses.

Part I - Seedy Dreams

Coming up next week:

Part II - Not all Seeds are created equal from hybrid, heirloom, landrace, GMO, species, GREXes and more.

Sourcing Plants and SeedPart 1 - Seedy dreams

Samples of all the types of beans I saved from my garden this year, painstakingly arranged for what purpose I am not sure... we'll say to go with the dream theme cause I certainly didn't have THAT much time to waste.

It's the time of year we start to dream. Just like when we are snuggled in our beds, our dreams can be strange, disjointed, wild, frightening or just impossible. We scour seed catalogues, websites, our own stock and lust whilst planning for next year's (im)perfect garden. It's one of my favourite gardening activities!

Where can I get my seed?

The Establishment

The first place you'll notice seeds is a rack at a grocery or hardware store. Unless you are lucky, these will likely be from one of the big seed houses like Mckenzie. The selection, at first, might seem exciting but as you go from store to store, you'll feel the deja-vu of global capitalism's so-called choice. This even plays out across small seed companies as well but to a much lesser extent. Plant nurseries (Richmond Nursery sells OSC seeds and Make it Green sells Seeds of Change), Seed and Feed stores, even health food stores (Rainbow Foods sells Eternal Seeds if I remember correctly) or other places where hipsters* and garden fanatics hang out often sell seeds too.

The Wild Wild Web

Much greater choice can be had by exploring the many small seed houses from those aimed at hybrid-friendly agri-complient customers to those in the heirloom/native or bust camp. There's something for everyone and lots in between. Try Seed of Diversity's diverse web listing of places to buy seeds. The problem is that you may want a dash of this and a dab of that from a bunch of different places which can add up to big shipping costs.

You don't have to stay in country, though locally produced seeds have a better chance of being adapted to local conditions, pests, weather and gardening practices. Though I've gone no further afield than Europe and the US, Canada is pretty lenient about admitting seeds into the country. Just remember to check the currency conversion so there are no surprises in price.

Seedy Celebration

Better yet, you can wait (if you can wait) for a Seedy Saturday/Sunday festival where lots of small seed houses will be gathered in one spot to sell their wares. This is great for most seeds but not for ones with exacting germination requirements such as those that are best sown fresh in the fall or that need to be planted indoors before February / March which are the most common dates for seedy days. They also mostly cater to the kitchen garden crowd.

Not all big business

Just like crocheted dollies and ideas, individuals sell seeds on the internet. I've gotten some really nice plants this way but it can be a gamble as I have also gotten duds. Dave's Garden has a feedback facility so you can rate your interaction with companies including one (wo)man operations as does ebay of course. For example, I've had good success with seeds and plants from Yuko's Open Pollinated Seed and Casey's Heirloom Tomatoes.

It's a mission

Some seed savers are in the business of preserving seed strains, such as heritage, or otherwise interesting species, cultivars and so on. They often belong to a seed saving organization through which you can get seeds. Seeds of Diversity is one of these as is the Seed Saver's Exchange in the U.S. Here in Canada, Salt Spring Seeds also has their own Seed Sanctuary.

Swap Meet and Round Robin

Of course in the seed world, there is more than one currency. You can trade seeds for seeds. Seedy Saturday usually has a swap table. Plant forums such as Garden Web often have trade sections. If you hang around plantophiles for long enough, you'll notice they are mostly a generous sort. So much so, that the mere mention of a plant can act like a magical incantation as those very seeds end up in my mailbox (thank you everyone!!). On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are scammers too looking to get free seeds for 'charities' only to resell them or that promise a trade but never deliver. Thankfully I've almost never encountered this.

Plantcycles, horticultural societies and the like often have swaps or round robins. I've never done the latter so I refer you to this definition.

Seed Trading Etiquette

There are often rules for different clubs or organizations but here's my take:

1. Packaging: Use something that is easy to open and close but that will not spill and write on it as much info as you can such as the common name, botanical latin name (I really must remember to do this), seed source, year seed was saved, any problems with seed such as low germination or special germination requirements.

2. For your own seed, make sure people know what they're getting: If it is an outbreeder, did you isolate it or could it have crossed with another plant, cultivar or weed? Was the parent population low? Remember that there are distance requirements between different cultivars of inbreeders too but these are less likely to be adhered to by backyard seed savers. Also, some inbreeders such as beans can be crossed by insects in certain areas.

3. Disease and pest issues: If you have an important seed born disease then it is probably best to keep it for your own use but at any rate, you should inform the recipient. There are some standard precautions taken for certain vegetables such as fermenting/bleach treating tomato seeds or freezing dry bean seeds to kill weevils if they are a problem for you. Also, be careful to remove all pests and weed seeds from your seeds. This is a good reason to remove chaff.

4. Storage requirements: Some seeds germinate MUCH better if they do NOT dry out after collection and so could be shipped moist packed. These are typically those that are best sown fresh. For examples, see Gardens North's catalogue. I can't think of any examples of this requirement for common vegetables though. Others may be easily crushed like sunflower or cabbage seeds so should be packed in bubble wrap.

5. Amount of seeds: This will vary on the type of plant, the rarity and how much you have. If you are planning to give far fewer seeds than normal, make sure the recipient knows. Also most people don't want to grow 50 tomato plants of the same variety so 10-20 seeds is plenty but they could easily sow 50 peas.

6. Postage: Normally if you are trading something more or less equivalent then no postage changes hands but otherwise, it is customary to offer. I never ask figuring all that paid postage can go into my karma bank.

That's not all

There are genetic databases, grocery stores and markets, gardens, the wilds and more but I'll tackle those subjects in different posts. P.S. As sourcing is my obsession this time of year, I thought I'd make it my winter posting theme.

Part II coming up next week: Not all seeds are created equal from hybrid, heirloom, landrace, GMO, species, GREXes and more.

* Not just for geeks, agrarians and grandparents anymore. Gardening is trending right now, especially edible gardening. Food is a big topic for good reason I'd argue. And I like the sudden influx of company. It was lonely way back when people's eyes used to glaze over when I started talking plants. Wait, they still do sometimes... At any rate, it's a garden party!

***

Previous Seedy Saturdays in Ottawa

Blogger's Seed Network hosted by Bifucated Carrot

Tomato Seed Trade

Anyone up to giving some of my tomato seeds a new home? I've gone through my seeds and I am embarrased to say that the list is nine pages long (yes single space, normal font). At any rate, I thought I'd thin out the Solanum lycopersicum section. I'll be growing out some of these so quantities will vary. No trade or postage required but if you are in a sharing mood, I've listed what I'm looking for below.

Tomatoes available:

Lots of interest in re-homing those tomatoes so updated list follows:

Gold Nugget Cherry
Purple Smudge
Yellow Brandywine - all out
Italian Friend - ?
Tommy Toe
Teton or something like it
Brown Berry
Mortgage Lifter, pale leaf - very old seed
Novosadski jabujar
Lutescent - very old seed
Stick
Black Cherry
Red Cluster Pear - all out
Phoenix Pink Mix
Yellow Grape
Sub-arctic - all out
Smokey Mountain
Cheetham’s Potato Leaf - all out
Giallo a Grappoli
Aussie - all out
Pixie
Red Robin - all out
Rondoc - all out
Hartman’s Yellow Gooseberry
OSU
Chocolate Cherry
OSU x Green Zebra
Principe Borghese
Hundreds and Thousands - all out
Purple Calabash - all out
Velvet Red - all out
Bushy Charbarovsky - all out
Dwarf Champion
Window Dressing - Wagner
OSU x Make my day
Make my day
Sweet Cassidy
Tigerella - all out
Yellow Grape Tomato
Tiny Tim
Taxi
San Pedro
Bradley - all out


If you're offering, here's some of My Want List

Cucumbers: prolific and early
Beans: very early 'green' eating type
Dandelion: anything unusual in flower or leaf form

Red stemmed chicory
New Zealand Spinach
Red Malabar Spinach

Edible Hibiscus - sunset, cranberry, other
Skirret clone

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Email me - right side bar with your address and list of tomato dreams.

Edible Gardening Workshop

Because I love going on and on about edible gardening, I gave a workshop for the Ottawa Homeschoolers. As they gave me the mandate of 'talk about gardening from seed starting to seed saving,' it ended up being borderline for T.M.G.I. or Too Much Gardening Information! So here is a synopsis of my endless stream of words, with links.

Where can I grow edibles?

Do you have clean dirt? No, then you can grow in pots. Otherwise, these are things you do NOT need to grow edibles:

1. Full Sun - Lots of edibles, including traditional vegetables do just fine in 4-6 hours of sun, even in 2-4 hours of sun or dabbled shade. I write lots of about shade crops here.
2. Well drained soil - the soil texture you have will effect how plants grow but choosing wisely will allow you to grow edibles practically anywhere.
* Dry soil - xeriscaping edibles from this blog.
* Wet soil edibles from Plants for a Future
* Mother Earth News on Shade Vegetables


When do you start seeds?

All year round! Other than this link to Seed Starting, An Irreverant Primer where there is lots of info and a link to a spreadsheet created by I Wet My Plants, here are some other things we talked about.

1. Wintersowing - the technique of using crafty mini-greenhouses to start plants outside
2. Half winter sowing or indoor/outdoor growing - fun way to start tomatoes
3. Fall Gardens - why give up on the garden after summer? Grow snow to snow! If you are feeling especially adventurous, season extension in a cold frame may even allow you to harvest most of the year.
4. In situ fall sowing - Lots of hard to germinate plants such as some edibles (sweet cicely, turnip rooted chevril), wildflowers and fruit trees need a period of moist stratification. This can be done inside but is super easy to do by enlisting nature's help. Just sow in fall in a marked bed. Tada! If sowing something tasty to rodents such as fruit pits, you'll want to use small gage chicken wire to exclude them. I use a pot filled with sand that I bury to germinate fruit seeds.
5. ... and not everything is a tomato - How the other vegetables are grown.

Books
The four season harvest (or anything else) by Coleman. Keep in mind that he is an intensive market grower but he has lots to say to the backyard organic veggie gardener too.


What should I grow?

We didn't go into as much detail on this as I would have liked so I will expand. When choosing what vegetables to grow, especially when you have a small plot, there are (at least) three options.

1. Grow vegetables that are easily contaminated by deathicides, are expensive bought and taste significantly better when homegrown. Funnily enough, these are often the same ones as thin skinned fruits meet all three criterea. A good example: raspberries. Tomatoes too are fantastic homegrown.

2. Calorie crops is an option for someone that really wants to grow their own. It focuses on using legumes and easy to thresh grains along with starchy vegetables such as potatoes. Some literature about 'calorie crops' talks about intensive gardening/farming which may or may not be feasible depending on your access to resources. Some techniques also tends to rely on double digging and intensive water use which may be short sighted in the long term.

3. Favor perennials or self sowing annuals whenever possible. Why not try a food forest? This is a technique that combines useful trees, bushes and plants into a layered system. It can be resistant to diseases and pests because of its diverse nature, can be very attractive and has a good productivity when plants are chosen wisely compared to work required after the initial set up.

Books

* Gaia's Garden by Hemenway - intro book to permaculture techniques
* Edible Forest Gardens by Jacke and Toensmeier - never read but looks good
* Perennial Vegables by Toensmeier - fun!
* The New Food Garden by Tozer - excellent!!
* Unusual Fruits for Every Garden by Reich - enlightening.
* HomeGrown Whole Grains by Pitzer - good resource
- how to process Amaranth (for C.)
* The Resilant Gardener by Deppe (about self sustainability and calorie crops. She's a great author and I'm sure it is full of useful information. I have not had the opportunity to read this highly rated book but she's made excellent contributions to gardening literature before so I'm going to recommend it anyway.)
* Culinary Herbs by Small

Sources for Fruit & Nut Trees
- I don't have these down yet in a convenient list so this is my next post, swear.

Websites:

Plants for a Future - perennial edible and useful plant resource, double check info as it is European skewed and remember that there is almost always conflicting info so it's best to get more than one independent source.
Urban Farmer - permaculture design resource


Soil Secrets

Good dirt is a symbiotic creation of numerous organisms including invertebrates, fungi and plants. Without plants, in fact, you would not have the sort of 'soil' that supports the growth of complex systems such as forests. This is why when you expose dirt, you get the germination of weeds. It is not because there is a problem with your soil. It is a function of the metacreature/ecosystem 'soil' to repair the scar that has developed across its surface with more growth. Without a cover of plants or mulch, the humus is exposed to the elements speeding up its breakdown, as well as being subjecting to erosion by soil and water. This is why overtilling degrades the soil. Over digging will also breakup good soil structure that allows for water and root penetration.

Sometimes, such as when starting or improving poor soils, you dig. Some people also insist that they have to expose heavy soils to early spring sunshine or they won't warm sufficiently fast enough for certain crops to grow well. Also, certain difficult weeds need to be removed or smothered if there is any hope of an easy to care for garden. Otherwise, normal digging such as when a plant is removed or tubers are harvested is all the digging that should be required. I also recommend edging gardens to keep out invading sod/grass twice a year.

When starting a garden, it is easiest to use no-dig methods such as Lasagna Gardening or Sheet Mulching or the Stout Method. Raised garden beds to will solve a multitude of problems.

So if you want an easy to care for garden, remember to leave no soil bare for long because nature will fix that problem for you rather quickly by filling in the gaps using its soil seed bank. By the way, you can change the balance of the soil seed bank by allowing desireable plants go to seed. That way, when you disturb the soil, you'll get a high percentage of plants you would like to see growing, along with the weeds. I've seen this develop in my old garden. What a pleasant surprise. Otherwise, mulch and plant. Work with the metacreature: soil.


Weeds

There are lots of reasons to love weeds, especially those that are relatively easily controlled. Beyond keeping the soil covered and protected, they can act to improve it.

1. Green Manure: If you pull weeds before flowering and they aren't the kind that easily reroot or set seed anyhow - such as purslane but then again it is edible - just throw them back on the soil surface. You'll be working with nature by covering the soil but also adding those nutrients back.

2. They provide a habitat for lots of beneficial insects and creatures (along with the occasional pest). Reseacher Hida Manns writes about the benefits of leaving strips of naturally occuring plants between her vegetable rows. She manages these by cutting them back so they don't compete for light with her vegetables. She also uses a version of sheet mulching to build gardens. If you thought the other methods of sheet mulching were easy, you should see what she does. As she said, several of her babies were born at the beginning of the growing season so low care gardens were a priority.

3. Many weeds are edible. Purslane, lamb's quarters, wild amaranth, dandelion etc... are among the most common garden weeds are all edible!


Pests and Diseases

When it comes to having a healthy garden, think good soil (remember the metacreature I'm going to call ploilsant - sounds exotic right?) and diversity. Plant lots of different plants together to break up sight, scent and other signals of pests, rotate where annual plants are grown but keep in mind that diseases sometimes stay in the soil much longer than the often quoted 4 year cycle. Here's more the difficulty of using rotation in a small gardening situation.

Before freaking about a new pest, use the three year rule. First year, identify the pest and do your best to exclude it from your plants or remove it using hand picking. Second year, use the methods of exclusion, inclusion, rotation and removal,* along with observing the pest. If it is still a problem in the third year, strategize about how to live with it. You may need to keep certain weeds or habitats out of your garden which are allowing the pest to overwinter. You may need to use row covers, trap crops or you may choose to stop growing the plant all together in favour of something easier. In a heatlhy, diverse garden, I've noticed, that most pests are not plagues every year but fade in and out depending on conditions.

* Exclusion, inclusion, rotation and removal? Exclude the bug using barriers like cutworm collars and floating row cover, include lots of habitat for beneficials and mix up plants, rotate plant groups including growing types (roots versus heavy feeders for example), and remove pests when you see them.

Links:

Keeping Bugs out or is that in?


Hot Season and Cool Season Crops

Read more about how to heat up your soil to grow sweet potatoes or peppers successfully here. On the other hand, if you can never get a descent broccoli, go here. And lastly, think fall gardening for lots of cool season crops that bolt in the dog days of summer.

Season Extension

Books

Anything by Coleman or other books on 12 month/four season gardening
Sweet Potatoes for the Home Garden by Allan


Seed Saving and Plant Breeding

We didn't manage to go into too much detail on this very interesting subject but to recap, I think everyone should save seeds. It's fun and it's pretty easy! The common obstacles to overcome are knowing what plant you're growing. Does it self fertilize or need others of its kind to make seeds? Does it need bugs to move pollen around or will wind work? Will it cross with another vegetable and do I care? How many plants do I need to produce healthy offspring? Here I go on about seed saving, the rules and breaking them.

Another useful thing about letting plants go to seed, beyond the fact that many volunteer and create semi-feral populations like kale and orach, is that many provide food or habitat for useful insects.

Books:

Seed to Seed by Ashcroft - authorative
How to Breed your own Vegetable Varities by Deppe - great and fun

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Looking for someone to talk on any of these subjects or on my favourite subject, ornamental edible gardening, feel free to contact me at Ottawa Gardener at live dot com, no spaces.

Ottawa Seedy Saturday But can you have too many seeds?

I do it for the kids. Look how happy my youngest is with our plant loot.

After a hectic drive in slushy ice, I (just) made it but I was not there to get seeds. No, I was there to give seeds away. I had a bag full of them! Unfortunately, my busy week had prevented me from organizing them into neat baggies so once again they were hastily filled and labelled behind the trade table. Did I mention I was late?

Thankfully, I Wet My Plants came to the rescue and helped. She's my bestest plant sale buddy as I see her at all the horticultural hot spots. This year I hope to hit her tomato seedling sale in the spring. I did a trade with her of course. How could I resist sweet potato tubers - Georgia Jet - for slip production?


Trade Table contributor and Fellow Garden Blogger: I Wet My Plants

I also met fellow Ottawa gardener and blog reader Steve. Wave! Speaking of old and new faces. Lots of my favourites like Tourne-Sol and Cottage Gardener were there. Waves! New to me was Wildsome Gardens, Wild & Historic Plants & Seeds. She had a nice selection of vegetables along with some wild edibles like Highbush Cranberry and Poppy Mallow. In between all the 'hey how are yas?' and shoulder rubbing in the thick crowd, I did not buy seeds. Sure I looked. Oh yeah, I asked about some varieties. Just cause I'm not touching, doesn't mean I can't look right?


There were people, plants, seeds and soap. More people, chocolate, honey and talks. More and more people... it was well attended.

While I was carousing with plants and people, the NGS (non-gardening spouse)** was with the children in the craft room. As I was standing in the doorway watching their darling heads bent in furious colouring concentration, I looked to the left and then to the right. Before leaving this morning, I had, had a little talk with myself about how I did not need anymore seeds. As I parked, I felt good about lightening my seed load. I had resisted until now but... You know what happened.


Okay, so I did get some seeds, but most of them were from the trade table. Left: bought seeds from Heritage Seed and Produce and tubers from Tourne-Sol. Right: trade table bonanza. Blue ribbon winner for labelling is a tie between 'pole beans' and 'Rumex, perennial.' I can't wait to find out what exactly they are, especially the second one. I am so guilty of this sort of labelling. Also came home with a Canna lily, True Potato Seed (T.P.S.)*** from Russian Blue, and more. Thank you so much fellow gardeners!

P.S. I still have some extras. Take them from me. Take them! If you live in the area, send me your address (email on right) and I'll send you a surprise package of edible plant seeds. I'm not promising you don't have them or even want them but heck they'll be free! Please?

* Tourne-Sol Co-operative Ferme is a seed company, and CSA if you are nearby. They have developed a very neat seed selection called Winter Green which is "a mix of brassicas we've selected for quick regrowth in cold temperatures..." It is also a source for bulk cover crops, Jeruselam Artichokes, chuffa nuts, some modern OP crops such as Banana Legs sauce tomato bred by Tom Wagner and Rainbow Lacinato Kale from Frank Morton, among other interesting plants. I've got a good feeling about these guys.

** Non Gardening Spouse is drifting over to the green and growing side. He even manned a seed booth while the owner stepped out for a moment. I don't know, we might be an all-gardening couple soon.

*** For those curious about True Potato Seed, Extreme Gardener's TPS: Who's Yer Daddy? is an enlightening article.

Seedy Saturday - this Saturday!

Just a reminder to all of you that Seedy Saturday in Ottawa is this Saturday, March 5 2011 and in Perth on Sunday, March 6, 2011. Please look at Seeds of Diversity Page for all the details.

Last year's Seedy Saturday and shiny new Seedy Sunday.

Polar Bear Parsley Seed

Parsley seeds ripe for the picking.

Year 1 - I started my parsley. Its germination was slow and erratic because of growth inhibitors in the seed coat. Carefully, I transplanted the delicate taproot into my coldframe. They grew well but I should have planted more. As if to compensate, those first few plants hunkered down as the snow fell providing me with a sparse harvest most of the winter.

Year 2 - I didn't think to start more. After an abundant flush of leaves in the spring, these biennials switched gears and put their energy into tall, waving flowerheads. The beneficials were grateful but it was the end of any substantial parsley harvest for me.


Chilled parsley in coldframe

Year 3 - I started even more seeds than the first year but was shocked to discover that I didn't have to. Nearby the flowerheads of last year's plants was a field of volunteers. Neighbours began to find bags of bunched parsley plants on their doorknobs. I thinned them back to the boundaries of my garden.

Year 4 - More volunteers appeared and the two year old plants began to flower. I cut back most of them to prolong leaf production and to minimize thinning (my neighbours got eggplants that year).


Yearling revealing its crown in the bright sun.

Year n - Ever after, I have had plentiful parsley. In the spring, the two year old plants put on a flush of early growth. That year's seedlings take over leaf production in the summer, fall and a good part of the winter. I also dig some roots to force in winter on the window sill.

My parsley harvest may have had a slow start but there is no end in sight. If you would like to hop on the polar bear parsley express, send me an email (at right, under profile) and I'll pass along some of this year's seeds.

***

Fun and informative article from the West Virginia State University Extension Service -
That Devilish Parsley

Urban Foraging

Apples and pears laying unharvested on the ground, maple syrup rising untapped in the spring and urban meadows bursting with goat's beard, dandelion and nettle.


I know right, what a tree! Those apples are near full sized but the label (yes I was in the arboretum. No, I was not pilfering from NCC land. I happened to be walking there and figured it was worth a pic-ture) as the crab apple variety Geneva.


My friends have been passing around my book on urban foraging for some time now so I don't have it in front of me to give you the title but it encourages us to eye that giant crabapple, the black walnut and bird started sunflowers with a little more hunger. Of course, some might be concerned because of the unknown growing conditions of this food or whether or not a tree overhanging an alley is ripe for the picking.


I admit to contemplating running to the hawthornes in our local park, basket in hand, but something has always held me back. Maybe because, with the exception of some clambakes and blackberry bonanzas, all my food has been traded for currency. Seed donation (my seed list in side bar) has been a nice departure from money for food. In fact, one thing I do harvest frequently from the urban jungle are seeds.


Edible times three,: mallows, cattails and sumac. I always worry about waterway pollution.


Once I grow the plant, I don't have to worry about whether it was sprayed (Ontario has banned 'cosmetic' death-icides) or is growing in lead contaminated soil. I never take many, just a few from a wide population of plants. If it is a tree / plant that overhangs public property but originates in a private residence, I ask and after giving me a weird look they generally say, "go for it."


Of course, you can chat with your neighbours who seem to be neglecting to make sorbus jelly * or choke cherry wine and ask if they would mind sharing. You could offer in exchange to take care of cleaning up windfalls and prune in the spring if needed. Or how about have an urban sugar bush next year? Our block is lined with gorgeous, well grown sugar maples. Someone could build a boiling vat in their backyard. At the end, everyone gets maple syrup taffy. Sounds better than the usual block garage sale.

So tell me, what have you plucked from the concrete maze?

* The author of the linked article speaks mediocre about the taste of sorbus/rowan berries but my kids like them after a couple weeks of hard frost when they sweeten considerably.


***


Urban Orchards - I would post a link but I couldn't find one. There are rumours about a group in Ottawa who offer to take care of your fruit trees for a percentage of the produce. However, I have never met these ghost people. Are you there? Can you hear me? Knock twice... I'm waiting for a message. I suspect that, at the very least, it is going on in an informal way. If anyone knows contact detail, I'd love to pass it along.


Instead, here is the Hamilton Fruit Tree Project
Some other fruit tree projects in BC cities

Guerilla Gardening Ottawa - break the rules and plant something. This is another mysterious entity in that there seems to be a loosely connected group of people who do some dig and dash gardening but they don't appear to be well organized?? Go on, correct me with details!

Always offering seeds

My eldest blowing the chaff off from the China Choy brassica seeds. You have to be careful if you want to have this kind of fun as we all got chaffy. Most of it can be removed by hand or using usual winnowing techniques.

I just arrived yesterday from a vacation on the East coast to find my garden bursting with spent flowers and seed. My experimental cross (fingers crossed that they really crossed) between a blush savoy and a red cabbage are ready as are Sweet Cicely (Myrrhis odorata) and China Choy (Brassica rapa), along with many others which will be added to the my give away list on the right side bar when they become available.

If you would like some, please email the address under my profile. You don't need to send me a SASE, or trade. I just like to share but please only ask for what you will grow.

Your Veggie Patch is Big Business

One of the most wonderful things about gardening is the opportunities to share - ideas, seeds, plants. Little packages of promise, a seed transforms into food, medicine, craft materials, ground builder, habitat, beauty and more. A high percentage of the plants that I grow in my garden have been given to me by others though for more unusual specimens I have had to hunt long and go far, even for natives. For things I can't find through my seed networks, I rely on small seed companies that use organic, sustainable methods, grow their own seed, and prefer heritage varieties or those bred by traditional methods.


Cheap eats or at least plants that produce fruit at the local big, box store.


A couple of years ago, I noticed Big Business muscling in on this backyard veggie gig. It had always been there supplying sweet corn and onion starts but now it was selling 'heritage' varieties too.



Oh know it's that same blond skinny lady that's sold me shoes, cars, shampoo, and now carrots?


The bigger the Grow-Your-Own club grew, the more the Green Eyed Money Monster noticed. Eat-Local, Be-Healthy, Urban-Farming - the buzz words of a movement toward producing food more sustainably were cut out of the newspaper of trends and pasted ransom note style onto their own advertisements.


Going for a can of paint at your local box hardware store, you might just stumble into these bold displays and think "This is the year I will finally grow some of my own food." You might fill your basket with your very first packet of lettuce and tomatoes. Great! Get Growing!



The new outdoor room seems to be the Victory Garden. I'm sure it's just Martha's concern for the planet and interest in cooking...


In the meantime, if you are looking for alteratives, here are some sources.


Seed Trading Networks - There is lots of variation here from living seed banks such as Seeds of Diversty to round robins started from local plant/seed swapping sites like Plantcycle. Any place gardeners hang out, is a place to find people's trade lists such as Gardenweb and Homegrown Goodness. Of course, to trade you need seed and there are lots of great books at the local library on how to grow and collect your own garden seed. Realseeds in the UK has good descriptions for various plants. I can't forget Bloggers Seed Network. Lots of bloggers, in fact, will have seed lists and enjoy trading or just sharing seed. Speaking of free, some places like Wintersown are just that generous!


Garden Clubs, Nature Organizations, and other local plant sales - Plant enthusiast clubs, or demonstration gardens, like the Ottawa Horticultural Society and the Wildlife Fletcher Garden - Saturday June 5, 2010 from 9:30am - 12:30pm - commonly hold plant sales. Also watch out for the Rare and Unusual Plant sale held at the Experimental Farm on Sunday May 9, 2010 from 9:00am - 1:00pm. Even the City of Ottawa is giving away trees. Plant sales are often used as fundraisers too - watch for them as the season warms.

Local Seed Companies - Seedy Saturdays are a great way to learn who your local seed sellers are. Some of them don't have big operations or even websites as I learned when I met Mountain Grove Seed Co. from the Perth event. Organic / alternative food stores such as Rainbow Foods will ocassionally supply 'small seed.' The advantage of seed that is grown locally is that it will be better adapted to local conditions. You can get plants too such as from Yukos Open Pollinated Seed Plant Sale - I'll post details on her plant sale shortly, and I Wet My Plants - local blogger who also has a tomato sale.

Over the Fence - Don't just send those spready (okay, invasive) plants over (or under) the fence to your neighbour, pass some beans and tomato seed along as well. It is also the best way to get ahold of any plant with enthusiastic growth. Mint should not be bought! P.S. If you do buy mint, then just get it from the grocery store, stick those branches in water and watch them root before your very eyes. Some of the best varieties of veg have names like 'Italian Friend Tomato,' and 'Bert's Bean.' This might be slightly annoying to people who are trying to sort out all the multiple names for similar varieties but it doesn't change that it is a good plant!

Save Your Own Seed - I know, I already covered this one, but in the hard slog that is Autumn when we are cutting down the jungle sized weeds, hauling in pumpkins and almost wishing for snow to give us a break, don't forget to pull some seeds off your favourite plants. Your slightly too common amaranth or magenta spreen is something another person is yearning for. Besides, sharing is what us gardeners do.

Spring in your step Seedy Saturday 2010

People chatting seeds and plants.

It was a gorgeous day for Seedy Saturday in Ottawa which put extra sunshine into everyone's smiles. I look forward to this event every year, not only as an opportunity to get some seeds (that's always great) but also to meet up with friends.

Some old friends...
and by that I mean well worn in the memory files

The first thing you see as you walk in is the trade table. My seeds are in little plastic baggies with indelible ink written across the front. We'll call this minimalist compared to the cute designs of I Wet My Plants. Here she is laying her loot for others to collect. We did some tomato seed trading but I only had one variety that she was interested in OSU blue - I think she's seen it all.


Garden Blogger and Tomato Plant seller from I Wet My Plants

Another lovely lady dropped off some very well labelled alpine plant seeds to which I nearly shouted "score" as I picked up Allium karataviense. She was also my source of Kinnikinnick though this is a slow, finnicky plant so I'm not getting my hopes up BUT gardeners are nothing if not optimistic.

Beside them was aptly Seeds of Diversity, "a Canadian volunteer organization that conserves the biodiversity and traditional knowledge of food crops and garden plants." These gals were having a good time. Then I bumped into the gentleman at the Canadian Organic Growers, we'd had a chat at Eco Farm Day too so it seems that we're moving in the same circles. Also, there were USC Seeds of Survival, and Just Foods, to name a few.


All smiles at the Seeds of Diversity booth.

After the tendors*, we get to the vendors where I bumped into Val, the head administrator of Ottawa Plantcycle, hanging out near the honey. She spoke to me about the possiblilty of more trading and giving opportunties in the form of a plant event in the spring. If you haven't been to this 'freecycle' for plants, it's a fun community.


Mmmm... yummy country style eats.

...some newer friends...

Among the books, food, other eco-products and of course seeds, I saw Cottage Gardener and hopefully took a slightly less stunned picture of her than a few years ago. There were no shortage of seed vendors including Tourne-Sol who was had some unusual seed/plant such as red broomcorn, chufa nuts and two kinds of Jeruselum Artichokes.


Cottage Gardener overlooking her busy stand.

After all this frenzied filing through seed packets, I decided to go outside for a bit more of that glorious Vitamen D when someone came up to me and asked, "Are you Hortiphilia? We've been on your new blog." I have to admit to being surprised so I asked how he had unmasked my identity to which he replied that I had been covering the event for a couple years now - true - and that he figured the snap happy picture taker must be yours truly. Was there really no press there or am I just that obvious? Anyhow, for recognizing me, let's recognize one of the many value added vendors Honey Pie Hives and Herbals - "Make Pie, not War."


That has nothing to do with honey. You're right. It's some pitcher plants from Connaught Nursery: Ottawa Valley Native Plants & Wildlflowers.

...and some that were brand new

The crowd was crowdful and among them were many green thumbs not in my memory bank, including this representative from Steward Bags. Not only is she providing a useful product but she has given me the opportunity to mention what I consider the hypocrisy of grocery stores discouraging the plastic bag for their alternative, usually sold at the cash, the slightly longer lasting plastic bag. We have a bunch of old cloth conference bags picked up from years at second hand stores but they aren't so easy to find now.



This year, my impression was that there were lots of talks, but less stuff for kids though I didn't have my darlings with me so I might have missed something. Most importantly, there were no shortage of seeds and the trade table was hopping.

Speaking of new - Perth joins the party


Event was held at the Perth Legion, which I understand is also the farmer's market.

On another undeniably beautiful day, I stopped by the first annual Perth Seedy Sunday. There was breathing room here but still a good turnout. The talks were given on the stage creating an interesting (unobtrusive) live performance. While I was there, the subject was seed starting.


My daughter checks out some potatoes. There were also eggs and farm produced goodies.

Among the locals was a new seed company Mountain Grove Seed Co. She had a nice selection of vegetables, herbs and flowers. We had a chat about kids playing with seeds and even made a few seed exchanges! She doesn't yet have a website but if you live in the area, look her up.


Here is Dawn from Mountain Grove Seed Co. showing me her products, seeds and smile.

The last thing I saw was their trade table where I dropped off a few more packets of my minimalist labelled seed packets before picking up some citron and naked pumpkin seed.

And now I go home to stuff my seed tower with but more planting promise.


*Tendors: Unselling volunteers tending their stand

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Seedy Saturday near your place