Jack
By Barry New I wanted to write an article about beans. Then I realized that I wrote my best thoughts two years ago. But I still wanted to write more. I include here a story that might bring it all back home. Thirty four years ago I moved to Sheffield, in 1988, and right away I signed up for an allotment. It came through shortly after that. It became a retreat from my busy working life and an oasis from urban concerns. I had had it for 20 years before I gave it up to return to Canada. Fortunately, my neighbour from that time, [Read More...]
What does growing success look like to you?
by Elizabeth Latta, life-long grower Do you have a favourite vegetable that you thought you heard was easy to grow? And it turned out that you couldn’t grow it for love or money (or so it seemed)? Such is my experience with spinach and beets. Did you know that in Hong Kong they sprout their beets indoors before they plant them out because the weather just is not cooperative otherwise (information gleaned from a Hong Kong gardener)? Here’s a brief account of my frustrations with these crops and how I have partially solved the problem. Our main garden is on a south slope, with [Read More...]
Cross-Pollination and the Importance of Saving Galiano Seeds
By Doug Latta, Board Member I recently became a director for the Seed Library of Galiano (SLOG). I soon learned how well organized and efficient the library operates, though it became clear to me how important and somewhat difficult it is to keep our seeds from becoming cross-pollinated. Cross-pollination is when one plant pollinates a plant of another variety. The two plants' genetic material combines and the resulting seeds from that pollination will have characteristics of both varieties and is a new variety. Sometimes cross-pollinating is used intentionally in the garden to create new varieties. Cross-pollinated plants will not produce ’true’ to the original [Read More...]
Onion Bliss
By Colleen Doty, Chair, Seed Library of Galiano Harvest season might just be my favourite time of year. Opportunities for gratitude are all around us. Vegetables, fruits, seeds. It’s a time of reflection: what worked well this past growing season? What flopped? What would I do differently next year? When it comes to collecting seeds I like to think about the stories and the people who contributed the seed that grew my food and enriched my life. This article is a small tribute to Doug and Elizabeth Latta, who taught me how to grow incredible onions. Allow me to gush: onions from my garden bring [Read More...]
The Seed I Dig: Papaver somniferum
By Tricia Sharpe There are many types of poppies to enjoy: Iceland, California & Shirley varieties are all lovely. But if you want the culinary seeds rich in nutrients and antioxidants you need to look for Breadseed poppies. Papaver somniferum. Besides providing delicious edible seeds, this variety is drought tolerant, deer resistant, loved by bees, and produces beautiful seed pods that can be dried for arrangements. The flowers range in colour from white, pink, red to purple that look beautiful planted en masse. Direct seeding is preferable as poppies do not like their roots disturbed. The easiest way to grow Papaver somniferum in our climate [Read More...]
Artemesia annua – Sweet Annie’s First Summer
by Barbara Moore, founding member Seed Library of Galiano This plant first floated into my awareness in 2012 while browsing Dan Jason’s Salt Spring Seeds catalogue. Our daughter had just survived a pretty intense bout of malaria after working in Cameroon. And now, here, I learned, was a locally available plant I could grow as a preventive and curative. Artemisia annua, or Sweet Annie as it is affectionately known, is part of a large genus of plants which includes many potent and well-known medicinals, some of the most notable ones being A. absinthium (wormwood) and A. vulgaris (mugwort). In fact, the healing properties of [Read More...]
Tim’s Parsnip Seeds
by Joan Robertson It was a gift – though unasked for – a passing on from an experienced gardener to a novice: parsnip seeds, jam-packed into an unused church collection envelope. Only when I got home and sat with my four gardening books did I find out about the low germination rate of parsnip seeds. “Plant thickly!” was the advice. I did, and I swear, every single seed sprang to life, and I spent hours that summer, on my knees thinning. I’d met Tim years before, at a retreat for return CUSO (Canadian University Students Overseas) volunteers. While most huddled, unloading feelings of guilt [Read More...]
