biodegradable Pellets

Today was my day to plant some seeds. I have been looking for a seeding kit for some time, and came across a product from Planters' Pride. They are these little thin pallets with a seeding mix inside a fiber membrane. Instead of making biodegradable pots out of Peat moss, Planters' Pride uses fibers like coconut coir.

Peat moss is a great growing medium and widely used, but for the most part it is mined. This rich soil takes generation to create and we are using it faster then it is being made. Peat bogs are disappearing, find out more here.

I found this particular kit, reasonably priced, at Canadian Tire, I'm sure that other retailer also carry this or something similar.

The first step is to add water....

The pellet will expand to 3 - 4 cms tall.

Next is the seeds. Today I planted Marigolds, Cherry Tomatoes, Cockscomb Celosia Bombay Wine and Lavender all from my last Johnny's Selected Seeds and Lupins that I had left over from Pacific Northwest Seeds in Vernon BC. They don't have a website that I can find, but their seeds are available at David Hunter Garden Centres.

I'm growing Marigolds and Lavender for specific reasons. Marigolds help to keep small animals, (like squirrels) and some non beneficial insects away from the garden and Lavender will attract Ladybugs that are a beneficial insect to the garden, they eat aphids.

The Bombay Wine is a bit of an experiment. This is not the environment they were intended for. I think it will be warm enough during the summer that they will do fine and probably be Ok threw the winter, but will unlikely survive the winter so I am growing them as an annual.

I proceeded to place 1 or 2 seeds per pellet, gently pushing each one in. I planted them in rows. The Lupins, Lavender, and Cherry Tomatoes each got one row, the Bombay Cockscomb got three rows, and four rows or Marigolds.

Some seeds are very small and difficult to handle. I used a common butter knife to move the seeds into the pallets.

Last step was to place the clear cover over the top and sit the "greenhouse," in the front window. Are apartment stays pretty warm and lots of light comes through this front window. Now I will let the seeds do their thing. Once the plants start to grow to big for the green house I will put the whole plug into a container and the roots will simply penetrate the membrane.

Soon I will be planting carrots and peas directly into their pots. I will likely also be doing some gardening for my building as we haven't yet hired anyone to do anything. This is part of my plan to create our own community garden. I think that if I start doing the work then it gives me the opportunity to meet some of the people in the building who are interested in helping out with the garden. Step one!

Spring Kale

I managed to use my surprise day off to get some gardening done. Months ago I purchased seeds from Johnny's Seed Company, and put them into a drawer until last week when after eating my found treat and flipping through the new Johnny Catalog I decided it was time to pull out these packets of new life and make a plan for this years exploration of container gardening. Among the paper envelopes I found Winter Kale, something I bought with the intent of planting in the fall, but forgot about and now I am faced with a decision. Do I risk planting now in January and harvest before it get it gets to warm, potentially not harvesting a decent crop and wasting the seeds? Or do I save the seeds until next fall, potentially not having any of them sprout from being too old thereby wasting the seeds? I feel there is really only one thing to do at this stage, and that is to do both options. In the name of Garden Sciences I will attempt both and document the out come.

The first step I need was to find something to plant the Kale into and to give some organization to the East deck. Believe it or not this is an improvement. Two boxes went down into storage and some cardboard trays left over from berry picking last fall finally made the voyage to the recycling.

I decided to use the old Blender Pots to start with. These blender have burnt out motors. Instead of spending more money then they are worth to fix or throw them away, I have recycled them. Loosing the cord I made them into pots. The soil in them had dried out and compacted so much that I need to dump it into a pail, then mix some other soils from smaller pots to loosen up and improve soil quality. This will allow water to penetrate the soil, and for the soil to hold on to the water molecules better. This will ensure in part that enough water is available for the seeds in germinate and later for the roots to soak up to feed the plants.

This mixture was put back into the the Blender Pot and topped it off with Keefer's West Coast Planter Box/Container Soil Mix. I have used a lot of Keefer products in the past because they are local. Keefer Farm and Greenhouses has been family owned and operated in Richmond BC for more than 50 years. That means that these soils are extracted and treated right here in the lower mainland. Why is that important? The environmental impact of buying soil shipped from the other end of the country or from the US, or even overseas is enormous. I try to consider local products whenever possible. I even choose local over organic. Once the point of organic if it has travel 1500 Kms to get here right. I suggest finding a local source for all your soil needs. If you are in the lower mainland Keefer's products are available at Garden Works, David Hunter, and Maple Leaf Garden Centres.

With the new and improved soil in the pot I placed 3- 5

seeds on the top, then pushed them about 1/2 inch into the soil. After 4 weeks I will thin out the plants if necessary as they will crowd each other too much this close together. If this happens none will do very well and will likely be sick, which will attract unwanted insects like aphids. Health plants will not attract unwanted pests and act as a natural insect repellant. When I thin them I will transplant the unwanted Kale into other pots.

I repeated this process with two other Blender Pots and two other unused pots.

Cillian was eager to help out as much as possible. At my last home we had a portion of garden that he could play in. That is something we will have to work out in this unique gardening situation.

Once all five pots where plants with Kale seeds we water them using my new watering can from my father and mother in-law. Thank you very much!

Once these start to sprout I may plant a couple more pots, this way they can be harvested at different times.