Its time to be thinking about seeds again! Heres Linda Gilkesons - TopicsExpress

Its time to be thinking about seeds again! Heres Linda Gilkesons latest News letter. A clean slate, a new year & the seed catalogues are here! And Seedy Saturdays on the BC coast start this weekend, Jan. 10th, with the Saanich Seedy Saturday at Haliburton Farm. These events feature local seed suppliers and usually gardening presentations or workshops during the day. Such a great way to kick off the gardening year! (For more information and other dates, see below). Interesting Vegetables: In no particular order, here are some suggestions for a few less-well known plants you might want to try: Purple Peacock Broccoli: This is an unusual cross between broccoli and kale, which produces both sweet purple stems, reddish kale-like leaves and excellent purplish broccoli florets. An interesting eat-everything broccoli. Salt Spring Seeds has it saltspringseeds/ Watercress: Though it grows in streams, it also grows fine in normal garden soil and is surprisingly hardy. Becoming known as a superfood, along with kale, mustard greens and Swiss chard, because of its high nutritional content, it has a peppery taste that is great in salads and on sandwiches. Seed is widely available. Sweetheart cabbages: These small, very pointy-headed cabbages grow rapidly. The leaves are crunchy and sweet, without noticeable cabbage-y flavour and make great salads. Last year, plants I sowed on March 15 (indoors) were set out in early April and I began eating them at the end of May. Cultivars: Early Jersey Wakefield, Caraflex and others. West Coast Seeds has them:westcoastseeds/ Crispus Brussels sprouts: Great news for gardeners with clubroot infections in their soil! West Coast Seeds is carrying the clubroot resistant Crispus Brussels sprouts for the first time this year. A few local gardeners with infected soil tried it last season with excellent results. Stay tuned as WCS continues to look into other resistant cultivars for the future. I will write more later on how to identify, prevent and manage clubroot, which is an increasing problem, especially in community gardens. For now, afflicted gardeners might try other clubroot resistant cultivars sold by UK seed houses. The only one I know of that sells retail to Canada is Chiltern Seeds chilternseeds.co.uk/ They list a resistant cabbage (Kilaton) and a cauliflower (Clapton). Sweet Potatoes (AKA Yams): Now is the time to start sprouting plants if you want to grow a sweet potato crop this summer. Start with a small tuber of whatever kind you like best: lay it on its side, half buried in moist peat or potting soil and keep it in a very warm spot for several weeks until you see tiny green leaves starting at one end. Then move it to the warmest, sunniest spot you have in the house. Later in the spring, you will see that shoots sprouting out of the tuber have roots attached. Carefully detach each shoot with a good root system and pot it up in good soil to grow on. I usually get 6-10 useful plants from one sweet potato. You can also grow plants from a tuber set in a jar of water, filled to the point that half the tuber is submerged. My New, 2-Day Short Course: Backyard Bounty (Grow the most food with the least work) will be Saturday April 25 & Sunday 26, 2015, Harbour House Hotel. Visit Salt Spring Island and learn how to enjoy fresh vegetables and fruit all year. Topics include: soil preparation and fertility; choosing cultivars; intensive planting methods; year-round planting schedules; protecting crops for winter; selecting and managing fruit tree and bushes; organic methods for managing common. Cost: $115 per person, which includes 2 lunches. Plan to stay overnight at the Harbour House, which is providing a special rate and is a short walk to restaurants, the Saturday market and bus routes. If you are interested in more detailed information and registration, e-mail me: [email protected] Seedy Saturdays on the BC coast. Most are open from 10-3:00, but for details and contact information for each event as well as updates to this list, see: seeds.ca/events Jan 10: Saanich: Haliburton Farm Jan. 31 Denman Island: Denman Community Hall Feb. 7 Qualicum Beach: QB Civic Centre Feb. 14 Salt Spring Island: SSI Farmers Institute Feb. 21 Victoria: Victoria Conference Centre Ladner: Harris Barn at Hawthorne Grove Park Feb. 28 Sooke: Sooke Community Hall Vancouver: VanDusen Botanical Garden Mar. 1 (Sunday) Nanaimo: Nanaimo District Secondary School Mar.7 Comox Valley: Florence Filberg Centre Richmond: Thompson Community Centre Mar. 14 Powell River, Lillooet Mar. 21 Roberts Creek, Port Alberni April 11 Surrey: Historic Stewart Farm May 10 Langley: Derek Double Day Arboretum ---------------