Gardening is a hobby that I love. It is wonderful to get to be outside and watch things grow. I feel a sense of accomplishment and pride when I garden. I love seeing a tiny seed many months later turn into a beautiful healthy flower with many intricate parts. It really is incredible when you think about it. How a teeny tiny seed, some only millimetres big can grow and develop into a stunning flower or plant.
I’d like to share some of my tried and true tips and tricks to successful seed planting.
First, I have found that using a soil mix specifically for seedlings is a great start. This soil is light and fluffy and the seeds have a greater germination rate. Potting soil or top soil is often more compacted and dense making it difficult for the seeds to poke through.
My second tip, is to use great tools, above in the picture you can see a new tool I purchased. It is the Fiskars Hand Seed Sower. When I bought it, I was excited because it had two ends that I thought would be perfect for planting seeds. It has a skinny trowel for the dirt and a slender spoon like end. It wasn’t until I was looking up a link for this tool that I realized the small yellow end slid out. This tiny tool is called a widger. Apparently it can create holes to plant seedlings that are very small and you can use the widger to gently dig out the new seedling with minimal damage. What a great idea!
It is important to gently water the seedlings once they are planted, but not over water them. A few years ago I purchased a seed sprayer from Lee Valley. It is a fantastic tool and gives the seedlings a little delicate rain shower, by simply squeezing the silicone bulb.
Lastly, it is important to cover your new seeds with a cover. Most seed trays come with a clear lid that can be used for the first few days to encourage germination and a warm environment for your new seed babies.
I hope that you found these tips helpful and hopefully in a few weeks I will have some new seedlings to add to the garden.
Update: Everything is looking good and has sprouted!
Last year we made our new pollinator garden using a variety of West Coast Seeds. The results last summer were stunning. We had great success with all of the seed varieties in the seed packets.
In a previous blog post I wrote about the importance of keeping old growth in place. Keeping old stems and dried flower heads intact over the winter helps overwintering insects. This method offers protection for bees and insects to “winter” over, creating a safe place to stay during the colder months.
The other day I thought I noticed some spots of green among the old growth. Today, I began removing the woody stems, dried flower heads, and crumpled up leaves in the garden. I happily found lots of new growth had already started.
The wonderful thing about perennials is that they come back year after year. I am most looking forward to seeing the poppies bloom. In my childhood home we had poppies, and we could never get them to grow at our past houses (until now). I just love the delicate petals and the way they sway in the breeze.
The first step in Spring is to remove all the debris and old growth from the garden. Then, when the daytime temperatures start to get a little warmer, you till up the soil around the existing plants with a trowel. This loosens the soil and removes the areas where it’s been compacted over the winter. I also add in some fresh compost and a top layer of new soil. This step adds richness and nutrients back into the flowerbed for the growing season ahead.
I am looking forward to seeing what the garden has to hold for us this Summer. Let’s get growing!
After a closer look at these photos, I discovered that I need to give my gardening pruners a spa day!
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!
I love gardening. It is a chance to spend time outside, an opportunity to nurture seeds and grow food for our family. Over the years I have developed my skills in the garden and have enjoyed sharing my gardening knowledge with others.
We usually like to have one or two projects for the Spring and Summer season. This year my husband has requested to try to create a pollinator garden. We have lots of bee and butterfly friendly plants in our backyard now, but we wanted to extend this into the front of our home as well.
There is a large amount of available land in the front of our home. We are getting the wheels in motion and making plans to create a new garden in this space. The main goal is to make a garden specifically that will attract pollinators. It is a protected area with a fence running along the west side, with lots of sun.
On our last visit to our local garden centre, there was a great selection of West Coast Seeds. West Coast Seeds are a premium quality of seeds and they are a Canadian company. They have a great selection of hard to find seeds as well as traditional selections.
We were excited to see that West Coast Seeds had already created a Bee Garden Blend by a Master Beekeeper. In my mind this is a win for us and a win for the bees! This package contains a wildflower mix that will attract bees and other pollinators to our garden. We also picked up a xeriscaping blend that requires little moisture once established, which will also attract pollinators.
Preparation will start for the new bed in late April for direct sowing in May. We will create the bed about 4 feet wide and approximately 20 feet long. Our plan is to amend the soil with rich mushroom compost, and triple mix. We also had some inspiration from our visit last year to a local sunflower patch. So we will add in a few varieties of sunflowers with the bee blend.
I am certainly excited to see if our new project will “BEE” amazing! Stay tuned for step by step photos of our newest garden project.
