Container Gardening, Free Shipping Extended, and More!

Hi Folks! Happy Spring! I know it’s not really Spring yet, but it sure feels like it today, with the sun shining and the temperature up to the mid-teens.

I have been getting a lot of questions about planting crops in containers these days. This is “Seedy Saturday” season, and I have been attending at least one every weekend since mid-January and will keep on until early April.

The quick and easy, highly simplified answer as to what you can plant in a pot is… anything! As long as the pot is big enough, you can plant anything in it. That being said, there are some garden plants that can easily be grown in a pot (I will list these in a minute), and some that are more difficult. Notice I didn’t say impossible, just difficult. I have met people who have very impressive gardens and everything from squash to carrots to tomatoes are container grown.

First the cons of container planting: It requires an investment in pots (obviously!), and some kind of soil medium to grow the plants in. And this can get expensive if you are growing in a lot of pots, or very large pots. Nevertheless, this is a more or less one time investment because in the following years the soil medium usually just needs topping up with compost. The other issue can be watering the pots. In the heat of the summer, you may need to water every day, and this can take a lot of time if you have a large container garden. A drip system on a timer might be in order then.

The positives of container gardening are several: If you live in a building with no access to land and just a balcony, or you live on a rock, you can still grow some food. This is huge! And you can grow a lot of food in a small space if you are organized. For example, if you have just six medium sized pots and a seed starting flat that you can put in a windowsill, you can be growing leafy greens outside while starting seeds inside to replace them right away once they are eaten. It will take time to work out the timing, but that is half the fun. Remember to add a good compost every few months when growing this intensively to add nutrients.

What I like about growing in containers is that they can be moved to a better location if you need to ripen off some tomatoes, or bring them inside to avoid frost, etc. Also, I really enjoy companion planting in pots. If like to fill a pot with a mish-mash of different plants and eat them as they crowd each other out. For example, I will fill a 12” pot with a few lettuces, some green onions, and some cilantro, and eat what is crowding out the others. Yum!

Here is a short list of what can be easily grown in pots: all leafy greens— lettuces, mustards, etc., herbs like dill and cilantro, green onions, and many smaller flowers. These next plants require bigger pots but can still be grown relatively easily. Peppers, Kale, beans (climbers will need support), and smaller, determinate tomatoes. Grow these tomatoes with a cage around them to catch the sprawling habit of them.

Lastly, your biggest pots should be reserved for the really big garden plants. Remember that these take up a lot of room above ground too! Squashes including zucchini and melons, the large indeterminate tomatoes that grow really tall, and sunflowers.

I hope this inspires a few of you to try some container growing this year— even if is growing some herbs on your deck. Our free shipping sale has been extended through March because, well, it’s going great! Happy planting to all. Shop Seeds at Sweet Rock Farm!

Free Shipping, Tariffs and Seeds, More

Greetings Folks! If you are in Canada then you are probably still covered in snow, but don’t get complacent; spring is just around the corner. If you live on the coast, as we do, you can be starting the hardiest of crops inside now, and getting them going so that they can be transplanted as soon as possible when the snow melts. This would be your greens like kale, lettuce, turnips, bok choys— the Asian greens in general are really hardy, mizuna, the mustards, etc.

For the rest of this month we are offering Free Shipping, to get you into the spirit of spring. And honestly, if you are tired of the snow, there is no better palliative than looking at seeds, planning the perfect garden in your mind, and dreaming of summer harvests of tomatoes, bunches of fresh basil, or the fragrance of a perfectly ripe sweet pepper.

Speaking of peppers and tomatoes, it is almost time to start them if you can do so inside and have some lights to give them a head start. It might seem a little excessive if you have never used indoor lights to start your seedlings, but it is a game changer for the home gardener. it really is. Peppers in particular benefit from the early start, as they are such slow growers when they are little. That extra few weeks inside gives you a lot more fruit, and an earlier harvest come summer.

Most of you must know about the changes down south and the tariffs that are looming. I hear a lot of fear porn in the media, but I don’t hear much talk about solutions. Yes, change is coming, and regardless of how you feel about it, you can make changes that will absolutely make a difference. How? That is easy. Buy local.

Whether you are buying a bottle of wine, or a packet of seeds, or a lift of lumber, buy a product that has been fully grown or made in Canada— at least as much as possible. That is the trick though. Knowing what your buying….

In the world of seeds— the only world I feel I’m qualified to really talk about— there are loads of companies that appear to be local but aren’t. Picture the website featuring “Alice and Dan”, two young farmers who grew up in the city and always knew they loved growing things, and finally got to move to the country and raise their children and now sell seeds for a living. By supporting them you are helping to support them and save the planet, or whatever.

Are they really growing these seeds themselves? Or are they buying them in bulk, wholesale online, and reselling them to you, the unaware buyer? Here’s the key: If they don’t say explicitly, “we are growing these seeds here, all of them, on our farm”, they probably aren’t.

Another example: West Coast Seeds is a local company, in the sense that they are based in Canada, but their product is not Canadian at all. They source their seeds from all over the world, but they don’t actually tell you that. You, the trusting buyer, assume their product is Canadian because they talk a lot about growing on the West Coast, they have a planting chart for local growers, and so on.

We are entering changing times for sure, and it can be a little scary, but on the positive side, like never before we are able to research, ask questions, and empower ourselves to make good choices— not just about seeds (which would be awesome!), but about all of our food and other commodities that we rely on.

We are never going to be self sufficient in avocados here in Canada, obviously, and maybe not in many things. But we can— and should— do way better than we are. Why not process our lumber here in Canada, instead of shipping it into the States and buying back finished lumber? We used to. We could also refine our oil here instead of shipping it south and buying back the finished products. And so much more.

Before I am accused of simplifying everything let me just say that yes, it is complicated, but not impossible. Start small, say, with seeds. Grow from there. End of rant.

All the best!

Your local, Canadian, crazy seed farmer

Sal Dominelli

Seasons Greetings, A farm Update, and More!

Seasons greetings to everyone from all of us at Sweet Rock Seeds. It has been a long time since I have last updated you folks about the farm and there is of course much to tell!

Our growing season this year was a learning experience for us. We had huge ambition this year, wanting to grow more seed than ever. We no longer grow for our local Farmer’s Market, wanting to focus just on growing the best seeds we can, and to that end we are all in. Except… as they say, “Nature bats last.” Normally, the East Coast of Vancouver Island is a premier seed growing area for dry-seeded crops like spinach, beets, all of the Brassicas, etc., not just in Canada., but in the world! This area rivals the best seed growing regions for dry-seeded crops on the planet. Why is it so good?

The East Coast of Vancouver Island usually has mild winters and dry summers, which are perfect growing conditions for certain crops that need to dry down their seeds in the heat of the summer and not get rained on, which can ruin the seed. For example, Kale can live through our winters and reliably dry down a crop of seeds in July and August. In much of the world the winters can be too cold, and the summers too hot, or too wet to grow the seeds out.

This year we had a rainy August, which was a disaster for some of our crops. We lost our entire onion seed crop. The seed heads, which were late to bloom because of our unusually cold, wet spring were in full flower, and the dampness let to a fungus that molded all of the flower heads. Our broccoli crop had a similar problem and was a total loss. Yet, we had large, beautiful broccolis just a month earlier. Oh well. These are the vagaries of seed growing, and we lost a few seed crops.

On the positive side, we had some great successes too. We had stellar harvests of squashes, corn (a sweet corn!), peas, and even the tomatoes did wonderfully. They seemed to appreciate the August weather. The wonderful thing about having a diverse farm is that something almost always thrives!

We have several new varieties on offer this year: Two new tomatoes great for both growing in pots and in the ground, a tasty and good-keeper winter squash, a funky and awesome cucumber, a new sweet corn, a fiery pepper for those who like the heat, and a couple of interesting herbs. You can check them out here if you like.

If you have a gardener in the family and are not sure what to get them, our gift card is a great idea. Easy to use, secure, and redeemable at any time.

In the spirit of Christmas we are offering a 15% discount on everything in the store until Christmas Day. We promise to ship all orders within a day of receiving them, but realistically with the postal strike just ending, I would’nt count on getting your seeds by Christmas. But— we don’t need to plant anything now. Spring is coming….

Thank you for continuing to support small-scale, local agriculture. Merry Christmas!

15% off Spring Sale. Peas, beans, our garden heritage

Spring greetings to all! It finally feels like Spring, and it is about time. Even though the nights are still a bit cool, it is time to plant the hardier crops outside: Peas and Broad beans, for example.

I know that the really keen gardeners are scoffing, having started multiple trays of greens inside weeks ago, and they are transplanting into the ground now. Excellent! That is the goal. Timing is everything, and if you have nailed it perfectly this year then congratulations to you! I have (like usual) timed some things perfectly, and missed the boat on others. My broad beans are already poking through the soil, and it looks like every seed sprouted. If you are new to gardening— or even if you are experienced, but get frustrated with occasional failures— then you have to grow Broad beans.

There is a reason that Broad beans (also called Fava beans) have been grown for thousands of years, and are one of the oldest of our cultivated crops. They are easy to grow, for one. They are the highest nitrogen fixer of all the legumes, for another. In fact, if you grow a crop of broad beans, you can plant another vegetable crop after with no fertilization, as long as it isn’t a nutrient hog like corn. Lettuce, chard, kale, all of these would be fine.

Peas can also be planted right now. Snaps, shelling, soup peas, or snow peas. Peas have been planted since antiquity, enjoyed by the Egyptians, the Romans, and every other culture since, as a dried pea for soup or dal, but also for its edible shoots, as animal fodder, as a field crop to maintain fertility (as a nitrogen fixer like broad beans), and only recently since the 1800’s for its edible pods.

Did you know that when you plant peas in your garden you become part of a tradition that goes back over 9000 years? That’s when we started growing peas! Think about that.

A friend of mine gifted me with some tomatoes that he started in early January. This was a few weeks ago and they are a good 3 feet tall now. My windows were being shaded by tomato foliage as the only place I had to put them was on the windowsills but they were getting too darn large, so I had to put them outside in our potting greenhouse. It is still cool at night so I thought they would suffer terribly. Nope. After two days they were still perky and ready to go so I planted them in an unheated greenhouse. They are as happy as can be, and many of them are already flowering, so it looks like we will have early tomatoes if we don’t get any freaky weather, which isn’t guaranteed of course.

Spring is the season of promise, of new beginnings, and here at our farm we are excited to spend the days outside, even if it is still a bit cool. The earth smells fresh, birds are staking out territory with beautiful song, all of our lambs have been born except for one yew, who is taking her own sweet time. If you can be outside enjoy it.

Everything in the store is 15% off for the next two weeks. We have run out of some seeds as usual, but still have lots of varieties left. Not only peas and broad beans, but kale, mustard, carrots, and parsnips can all be planted outside too. I always recommend planting carrots and parsnips right before we get a warm wet rainy spell. That gets ‘em going!

Finally, three people notified me that the Ardwyna tomato seeds didn’t sprout for them. I retested their germination, and sure enough, the seed went off. This isn’t common, but it does happen. If you bought Ardwyna seeds and they didn’t sprout for you please get in touch with me via email and I will refund your money or give you a store credit.

Here’s a few pictures from around the farm of goings on: lambs, early spring crops, overwintered seed crops like parsnip and onions, and our garlic crop.

Plant seeds, grow food. Be a part of our agricultural heritage.

Sal Dominelli

Sweet Rock Farm Seeds

All About Growing Onions and Leeks. 15% off alliums!

Hi Folks,

I am moving a little slower (quite a bit slower actually) these days as I broke my ankle last week playing basketball at our local school. It seems that I am playing too hard for my age—at least according to my son— and I need to “tone it down”. Whatever the reason, I landed wrong after trying to block an opponent’s shot and broke my fibula. Ouch!

I now have ample time to read, write, and fill seed envelopes, which is okay, but I need to move! On the positive side, it wasn’t a terrible time to do this. The gardening season has barely begun, but begun it has. Now is the time to plant your onions and leeks!

If you want big onions you need to start them pretty quick— early to mid February is good, but no later than early March for the best onions. Why? Onions like a long growing season with steady moisture. They have shallow roots compared to many other garden vegetables, so they won’t do well in drought-like conditions. This also means that they won’t compete well with weeds, so you have to keep them weeded. Grass is their worst nightmare.

With steady moisture, regular weeding, adequate fertility— and an early start— you will have no problem with onions. The trick is to make sure they are a good size by summer solstice, because onions are daylight sensitive, and as soon as the days start to get shorter, onions start to bulb out, and it doesn’t matter if they are 6” tall, or 2’ tall. So this is why an early start is essential.

Here is how I grow my onions and leeks. It is not the only way, and may not even be the best way, but it is a good way and it works. Fill a garden tray with good potting soil. It can be your own mix, or something from the store as long as it is good. I believe in giving my seedlings the best start possible. Once they are in the ground they have wind, bugs, rampaging dogs, and sneaky weeds to deal with.

A tray like this can hold a couple of hundred onion seedlings until they are ready to go into the ground. I sprinkle them all over the top of the soil, trying to keep them evenly spaced about 1cm apart each way, but it’s okay if they are too close or too far apart. By the way, if this tray is too large because you only want a few onions, by all means use something smaller.

Once I have sprinkled all of the seeds about, I spread a little more mix in until the seeds are all covered. I then water them (warm water is good!), and put them in a warm place. If you have a heat mat this is perfect. If not any warm space will do.

Keep the soil moist and warm until the onions sprout, then place the tray in your sunniest window or under lights. Water as needed. When they get to about 6” tall, give them a little haircut, and use the trimmings in scrambled eggs if you like. Trim as needed, keeping them about 6-8” tall. You will notice that they will get stockier. This is good. If your onions get yellow they need food. An organic liquid fertilizer should help.

In April, when it feels like spring has begun in earnest, transplant your onions into a well-prepared bed about 6” apart, in rows 1-2’ apart. They will need to be weeded! This is your main chore. Otherwise they are usually pest-free. By July you will see bulbs developing, and by late August they will be drying down nicely.

Harvest your onions when the tops have died down. Pull them up, and lay them in the sun for a couple days to cure. This process is really to dry out the roots and let the outside wrappers dry out and “seal” the onion so that it stores well. For best storage they need cool and dry conditions. Your kitchen is a terrible place to store onions for any length of time! Don’t keep more than a weeks worth in the kitchen at any one time. Our onions live in my shop where it is cool but dry.

The variety of storage onion we grow is called Newburg and it is awesome! It is well-adapted to our latitudes and does really well, reaching a good size and reliably drying down every year. Check it out.

That’s it folks! Treat leeks the same way, except they stay in the ground until you need them. Onions and leeks are on sale right now. Save 15% on them until the end of the month.

Finally, we will be at the Port Alberni Seedy Saturday this weekend, at the Echo Center on Wallace Street, from 10-2. Drop in and say hi if you like. I’ll leave you all with this— because its the truth and I love it!

January Blues, Making a Garden Plan, and a Subscriber-only Discount

Greetings Folks,

I hope this newsletter finds you all warm, dry, and enjoying this slushy, messy weather— from the comfort of your armchair I hope, or if not, and you work outside, then soldier on! Spring is not far away.

As for me, instead of doing farm chores, I would rather be here:

Alas, needs and wants don’t always line up. While I really, really want to swim in tropical waters, what I need is to do my farm plan for the year. The farm, or garden, plan is really simple in theory: it is what you want to plant, where you will plant each crop, and when you will start them. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want as long as it has the basic information of what, where, and when.

Even if you have a small garden I recommend that you make a garden plan. Why? You will harvest much more food because you will be organized, and will avoid (hopefully) the panic runs to the garden store to get transplants of something you don’t really want. And you grow only what you like instead of stuff that doesn’t get eaten.

Here is a simple way to make a plan. Get a blank piece of paper and a pencil. Draw out your garden area roughly, with all of your beds, or rows, marked out “A” “B”, or 1,2,3… You get the idea. Title the paper something like “2024 Garden Plan”. Now in each bed pencil in what you want to grow in it. For example, in bed 1, Kale (10 plants) and broccoli (5 plants). It is good to keep plant families together. Do this for every bed or row. If a bed will have more than one crop, note that simply: First spinach, then tomatoes after.

Once that is done, get another piece of paper and write down all of the crops you are going to grow again, and beside them write down the date you are going to start them, noting if they are getting started inside as transplants or if they are going to get started in the bed. Obviously, if the weather is terrible on the outside starting day edit in the actual sowing day when you do it.

You’re almost done! Now, make a note beside each crop on what (if anything) will be added to each bed. For example, if you going to add lime and compost to the kale and broccoli bed, make a note of it.

In the end it will look like this:

Bed 1: Spinach first, then Tomatoes.

—Start Spinach inside March 1st.

—Start Tomatoes March 15th.

-—Add compost for both spinach and tomatoes.

Bed 2: Kale and Broccoli

—Start both inside March 15th.

—Add lime and compost to bed.

Bed 3: etc.

Some people will only need the plan written down like above, but I like to also have a visual aid as well, which is why I draw out the beds. You will figure out the best way for you. As I mentioned above you can make the plan as complicated as you want, and add more information: harvest dates, transplant dates, crop failures, even weeding schedules. This is just a basic guide to get you going, but even a simple plan like this is super helpful and will make you a better gardener. And after even just a few years, you will have a detailed record of best starting dates, what has worked and what hasn’t, and so on.

Finally, in the spirit of getting the season going, we are offering a subscriber-only offer (which you are, since you are getting this newsletter!) of 10% off for the next two weeks, to inspire you and help you plan this years garden. Type “Gardenplan” in the discount code at checkout to receive your discount.

I will do my plan as well, and try to cultivate some winter serenity.

Fall Greetings and Seed Updates

Hi Folks,

We’ve been getting a few inquiries about when our seed catalogue will be updated, so I imagine that more people are wondering too. Well, the website is up to date! Other than a few stragglers finishing their germination tests, we are mostly updated— with a dozen new varieties added this year, and over 100 vegetable and flowers in total! That may not seem like too much compared to the “big seed guys”, but take note that all of this seed is produced on Gabriola Island, is locally adapted, and supports our local economy in a small way.

Enough small farmers = big changes

So what are germination tests anyway? Just like school, all of our seeds have to “make the grade”, which in this case means to meet or exceed Canada Number One germination standards. We do this by literally sprouting a bunch of seeds of each variety on germination paper, or in some cases by actually planting them in trays. This determines the vigour of the seed, and this is mostly what we have been focused on these last weeks on the farm.

We have made some major changes at the farm this year; chiefly, we have transitioned to seed growing exclusively. Every other year has been a struggle to juggle our seed growing operation with growing vegetables for the local Farmer’s Market. And inevitably, I drop some balls. Sometimes I would raid the peas or the beans that are growing for seed if I need extra for the market, or I would miscalculate and not grow enough of, say, tomatoes for seed and hoard them, shorting the market. We don’t have enough land or labour to effectively do both operations. We also have to make sure our animals have enough grazing land, and that there is space for our “family garden”.

The long and short of it is that we have tons of seed available this year! Yes, we will still run out of some varieties, like Fortex Bean , or Cascadia Pea, or Ardwyna Tomato. I never grow enough of these and several other varieties, and I am always asked, “Why not?”. As I mentioned, there is a tradeoff with space and what I can grow. I could grow literally tons of peas, and nothing else, but I would hate my job. I grow a huge diversity of crops every year, because it is fun and interesting, but also because the farm is more resilient to weather and pest problems. If I lose my pea seed crop to an infestation of pea weevils (which happens) it only affects a small part of my income. Also, some crops (like Fortex and Ardwyna) produce very few seeds per plant compared to other varieties, but they are so good I grow them anyways and hope that people start to save them on their own. So if you want a variety that has sold out in the past, don’t linger too long. I have lots, but not endless amounts of seeds.

A full wheelbarrow load of overripe, ugly cucumbers way too far gone eat, but perfect for a seed crop.

If you are already gearing up for the gift giving season, we (unashamedly, of course!) recommend giving the gift of seeds. We have a gift card that is quick, safe, and easy to use. Just click on the link and you will be guided through the process. If you are not sure what kind of seeds to give, check out our Seed Collections page. We have a variety of collections to suit almost any gardener, and they are on sale, for all of December. You will receive 10-20% off of each seed collection, depending on the package.

Finally, we are keeping our packages at the same price as last year—$4.50— even though inflation is making everything much more expensive. This is what we can do to help you, our gardener and farmer friends, to grow as much as you can. Growing food is one really great way to beat inflation. Grow your own. We know that you can’t grow all of your food, but if you make a goal of growing, say, one full meal a week for the entire summer, that adds up to real money. If that is easy for you, make it one full day’s worth of meals a week. Start small and do what is realistic for you and you will succeed!

Best wishes from our farm to you and yours this holiday season.

Some

Some seed crops in full flower in one of our gardens this summer.

Spring 15% off Sale, But is it Really Spring?

It is April 20th as I write this, and I know that it is officially Spring as of almost a month ago, but outside a winter storm is raging. It isn’t actually snowing, although it feels like it could, and just to the south and north of Gabriola it did snow two days ago. It appears that we are having another cold, late Spring like last year.

Rather than get too down about the weather though, I prefer to think about the things I’m planting or about to plant that inspire or excite me.

For example, every year I grow sweet potatoes, and some years they do well and I get a significant amount of tubers for little effort, and in other years I barely get enough to overwinter and try again the next year. Why plant sweet potatoes? I love them and want to get a variety well-adapted to our climate, even though we are at about the most northerly tip of its grow zone. It does love heat and a long growing season.

Nevertheless, in the ten or so years since I started growing them, it has definitely adapted— somewhat. When I first started growing sweet potatoes here, I needed to have them either in a greenhouse or covered or they wouldn’t produce any tubers. Now, I start them inside and plant them out in the field about the same time as my tomatoes or squash, and they always produce at least some tubers. In the summer of 2021, I harvested these from one plant!

This was a huge, unusual harvest which is why I took the picture, but It is so exciting to imagine the possibilities of growing sweet potatoes in our temperate climate. They will gradually adapt to growing here, and maybe, in a generation or so, they will be a staple crop.

I’ve also planted four types of peas already, both in the ground and in trays. They are all doing well, having sprouted up and grown to a few inches already, despite the weather. There is something about pulling a pea right from the vine and popping it in my mouth that stirs me, every year. So I grow huge amounts to eat and for seed, but never have enough.

And oddly, the Mizuna that overwintered in the field and has now put out bright yellow flowers is inspiring me. The plants are getting pummelled by the wind as I write this, but they keep springing up, defiant, against the onslaught. They are a truly hardy crop and I love having them in the garden.

The end of April is fast approaching and even though the weather sucks, once things warm up a bit anything you have in the ground or in pots will take off. Get them in as soon as weather permits. And if you haven’t got things going yet, it’s not too late but the clock is ticking! You can still get a late harvest from tomatoes if you start now, and maybe peppers too, depending on the summer we get— but it’s pushing it. Otherwise the timing is right for peas, carrots, parsnips, beets— the cool season crops. Hold off for a few weeks with beans, squash, and the warm weather stuff, unless you start them inside and transplant them out.

We’re offering seeds at 15% off for our Spring sale, and we are selling out of many varieties so don’t delay. (We are growing more seeds this year to meet the demand; in fact, we are not selling at our Farmer’s Market this year and are devoting all our space to seed growing. So thank you for your support!)

Happy upcoming Earth Day everyone,

Sal,

Sweet Rock Farm Seeds