Amarosia Organic Garden

It was really cold in the greenhouse in the morning (-10) so I waited until a bit later to go in to do some more weeding… but by 2pm it was 40C in there! So, I had to wait for it to cool down a bit. We need to put roll up sides on this greenhouse as a way of controlling the temperature better.

In the mean time I went to pick up our pamphlets and business cards from the printer in Cocagne which is the most ecologically sound printer we could find in the region (other than Bromoc in Dartmouth Nova Scotia), so it was handy that he’s right on our doorstep. He was able to handle our request for 100% post consumer recycled paper and vegetable oil based inks, and being local he was easy on the greenhouse gas emissions. Good news all round:-)

By 4pm the temperature in the greenhouse was bearable, though very humid, so I went in and slowly raked over the beds, discovering in the process that there were still lots of weeds, so did a second thorough weeding…

After that I raked the beds flat again, only to find more weeds (they are breeding!) so picked them up at the same time. Its really important to get the perennial weed roots out at the start of the season when the beds are empty because it is SO much harder once a) you have a bed full of salad greens or carrots and b) they have re-rooted themselves firmly.

By 5pm I was done so decided to plant a few carrot seeds before nightfall just so I could say I had started planting in February, even if it was only on the 29th! The soil temperature was 11C which is actually a really good temperature for germinating carrot seeds. However, our new 6 row seeder has yet to arrive and our old Earthway seeder has a tendency of putting far too many seeds in the ground meaning that you then have to waste countless hours thinning them, or get really small carrots. It was getting late so I decided to do it the old fashioned way, by hand.

Using my handy E-Z digger I made 5 parallel 60ft long furrows in one of the raised beds (and removed yet more weed roots in the process). I then tried dropping the seeds in using my fingers but found I was either dropping clumps of seeds or none at all. This method is fine if you have a couple of 10 ft rows and all the time in the world to carefully drop the seeds in one by one, but the sun was low in the sky so I decided to try out another Veseys tool, the ‘Mini Hand Seeder’. This one is a massive investment at $3.95, but I’d heard good things about it so decided to give it a try. It’s still not super accurate and has a habit of getting clogged up, but I managed to seed 3 rows in less time than it took me to seed 2 rows using my fingers, and I had the feeling I used (wasted) less seed. All in all I used about 20 seeds/ft which is better than the Earthway seeder which uses 35 seeds/ft at best.

Now we could get into a whole discussion (and we probably will at a later date) about needing to overseed to counteract patchy germination, but last year every single one of our seeds germinated (the carrot beds looked like lawns in places) and I really don’t want that to happen again. Now fingers crossed they germinate as well this year. They should do, they are in moist soil that won’t crust in the greenhouse. My only concern is that they don’t get too cold for too long and rot….

Serge and Francine came by today to help out in the greenhouse. We spent the morning removing the roots of perennial weeds (grasses, prickly lettuce, vetch and buttercup) using stirrup hoes and E-Z diggers (from Veseys) which are probably my favourite hand tool. Unlike trowels they work with the body (push down and pull), meaning you don’t have to twist your arms in awkward positions to lever out deep roots.

Afterwards we finished assembling the trays we use for the crops that will be transplanted to the field (tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, herbs etc). We have a special ’self watering’ system that takes a bit of effort to get set up, but once its done we don’t have to water the plants every single day, which saves a lot of time and effort.

When we came in from the greenhouse (hot, cold, warm) I found huge parcels filling the kitchen. The seeds are arriving! Veseys, Johnnys, Terraedibles and William Dam so far. Hope Seeds, Mapple Farm, The Cottage Gardener and High Mowing seeds still to come. I really should limit myself to fewer companies but they all seem to offer at least one thing that none of the other companies do, or they are the only ones to offer certain seed organically, or, well, I just prefer to spend at least some of our money with the smaller local companies who may have less selection but are generally more specialised for our growing area.

We always buy organic seed where it is available, both because being certified organic requires that we do try always try to use organic seed (or have a good reason why not!) and also because it makes sense to do so. When people buy our veggies they are keeping a piece of farmland free from harmful chemicals. The same happens when we buy organic seed.

Sometimes organic seed is only 20-50% more expensive but it can be up to 4 to 5 times the price of regular seed for some crops which always causes a sharp intake of breath. Now if only we could sell those vegetables for 4-5 times the price… Actually seed is only a minor cost in the grand scale of things, particularly when compared to labour, but I do look forward to the day when the seed costs come down a bit so we can spend those extra dollars on tools, or some nice organic bread and cheese:-)

I spent the afternoon checking that everything we ordered had arrived, sorted them into their relevant seed boxes and then worked on a press release for the gardening classes I’m offering in March and April. The first class is full so now I’m trying to fill a second one; its really good to know how many people in Moncton are interested in organic gardening. The movement is still small here but it is growing every day!