A Cautionary Tale

First, I want to let everyone know that for the next two weeks we have free shipping on every order (within Canada only). For a short time you don’t have to order above $100 to get the discount. We still have lots of seeds, but sales are brisk and I know from previous years that we always sell out of many varieties.

Now, to the cautionary tale. Last February I did a blog post on what to plant now and I suggested that you could plant your onions, leeks, and some early greens— with some caveats. For example, it helps to have some indoor lights, and a cold frame or greenhouse to transplant into for the early greens, etc.

This is good advice, but I should have added the following: If you take your lovely, well-cared-for seedlings and transplant them outside, even after hardening them off in a cold frame or greenhouse, and then it stays cold, and rains, then keeps raining and staying cold for three or four more months, your poor seedlings will succumb to rot, slugs, and other pests.

Of course it’s pretty hard to plan for everything, but I sure wasn’t prepared for the Spring we had last year. Taking my own advice, I transplanted a couple of thousand onion seedlings into my field sometime in March, and even though it was cold and wet, I figured it would be okay. After all, I do this every year more or less at the same time. (In case you’re wondering how I prepared the beds so early with the ground being so wet, what I do with early crops is tarp the beds in October/November to smother any weeds or old plants. Then just before planting I pull it up and loosen with a broad fork and spread compost.)

If the weather had warmed my onions would have been fine, but they mostly rotted or failed to size up like they should have. In the end I had enough to grow out a seed crop, but none for sale or winter eating.

So this is my cautionary tale folks. Everyone screws up from time to time. Take my advice—anyone’s advice!— with a grain of salt. This year, and every year from now on, I am going to be a mite more cautious about pushing the limits of production. Realistically, the veggies you plant a few weeks later will mostly catch up with the earlier planted ones, especially if the weather has been poor.

And by the way, I have been hearing from lots of people at the Seedy Saturdays I have attended this year (see below) that I wasn’t the only one that had a tough time of it. Last year was tough on gardeners, so take heart if you had some failures, you weren't the only one. And If you had stellar harvests all last year, I bow my head to you. Way to go!

Finally, do you know what Seedy Saturdays are? They are a uniquely Canadian event, held in the winter/early spring in communities across Canada. They started over twenty years ago as a way to encourage and support small scale seed producers. We know that it is important to support local farmers at the Farmer’s Markets, but these events are about supporting local seed producers. “You can’t grow food without growing seeds first”. Or, “No seeds, no food.” You get it.

Anyway, I encourage all of you to head to a Seedy Saturday near you and poke about. If you have seeds to trade, there is always a seed swap table, and it is fun to see what your local seed growers have got for sale. You can find a Canada-wide listing here:

We will be the Qualicum Beach Seedy Saturday tomorrow, February 4th, at the Qualicum Beach Civic Centre from 10-3. If you’re in the area stop in and say hi! For the rest of you, take care and let’s hope for better Spring weather this year.

Finally, finally, I laughed out loud when I saw this.