Gardening brings me joy!
All I need is a good pair of boots, my favourite gloves and a great pair of garden shears.
Rain boots: Mark’s.
Garden shears: Fiskars Professional Pruning Shears.
My all time favourite gardening gloves: Atlas Nitrile Gardening Gloves.
Happy Gardening to you all!
My zinnia seeds are growing! These seeds from West Coast Seeds are on the move and looking healthy.
I over planted the initial pots with seeds and most of them sprouted right away. Once the first set of leaves had developed they needed to be given more space. With the help of my Mom, we transplanted each individual plant into its own mini pot. My Mom and I had great fun and lots of giggles while transplanting these into their larger homes.
While we were working with the seedlings, my Mom asked what type of seeds we were repotting. I told her it was a wide variety of zinnia seeds. She then shared a story that warmed my heart. She told me about the day that I was born. My Dad had brought her a bouquet of hand picked zinnias to the hospital from their garden at home. She smiled and I could tell that those garden grown zinnias had been special to her just like my Dad.
I guess this is a very good reason for why I adore these flowers so much, because they were the first flowers I ever saw! Interesting how life leads you along and you develop favourites and then someone you love shares a story and ties it all together in a neat little bow.
Most of the transplants have done very well, with only the loss of a few. Some are even developing their secondary set of leaves and the stems are getting stronger.
I purchased an amazing cart from Ikea for my indoor gardening trays. This three level cart on wheels is wonderful for seedlings. It allows me to spin the cart daily so that all the sides are receiving equal amounts of sunlight.
Once these little darlings grow a little bigger, I will be upgrading their homes to larger pots for greater growth.
Planted by hand, with love.
Do you ever get really excited about something? Well on my latest adventure to my local garden centre I soaked up the wonder of the West Coast Seeds display.
I perused the great selection of seeds and was so excited to find some ground cherry seeds. I had recently seen these on Instagram and was hoping to be able to get my hands on a package. Every year I try to plant something different that I have not tried before. My daughter has brought home ground cherries from the Atwater Market in Montreal and I’ve had them in desserts in fancy restaurants. I am so excited to be able to add them to my dessert plates later on in the summer.
I also found scallopini squash, rainbow blend carrots, and golden beets, all of which I am excited to grow and enjoy from the garden.
Another great find was the West Coast Seeds 2023 Gardening Guide. This booklet is jam packed with an abundance of seed choices, as well as great gardening content. I also checked out the their website and it is a great resource for the home gardener. It has tips and tricks, resources, seeds, supplies. You can even take a seed quiz to see what types of seeds are good to grow in your area!
One of the gardening tools I added to my collection this season is this seed sprayer from Lee Valley. This German made sprayer is gentle enough to use without disturbing seedling roots or soil.
If you have never planted seeds or had a garden I encourage you to try it. It doesn’t have to be big, and you can even create your home garden in pots or containers. Growing your own food, nurturing it, and then being able to harvest it and share it with the ones you love is a wonderful thing. Go plant some seeds!
