Gardening Blog. At my website I sell Non-GMO, untreated garden seeds.
twitter.com/seednursery:
Non-GMO, organic Bloomsdale Spinach seeds for sale.
Combined Flat-rate shipping for all seeds:
Canada - $3
Worldwide - $6
http://www.seed-bank.ca/bloomsdale-spinach-seeds/
Non-GMO, organic Straight Eight Cucumber seeds for sale.
Combined Flat-rate shipping for all seeds:
Canada - $3
Worldwide - $6
http://www.seed-bank.ca/straight-eight-cucumber-seeds/
Garden sage Flowers growing in my garden last year.
To buy herb, fruit, and vegetable seeds online visit:
Aloe Vera Barbadensis
For herb, fruit, and vegetable seeds visit www.seed-bank.ca
I know it’s only February, but I couldn’t wait any longer. So now I’m tending tomato and cucumber and lettuce seedlings galore. Zinnias, and cosmos and black-eyed susan vines. I’ve transplanted itty bitty thyme plants and am waiting for True Greek Oregano and Moss Curled Parsley to sprout. I tend them like little babes in a nursery, hovering over them, cheering their every movement. Bathing them in warm gentle rains and lots of light, natural and artificial. And even though we have more snow falling, I just look over at their nodding green stems and whisper to myself and them that surely spring is just around the corner.
~Heather (americanadiangirl.com)
*updated to add: Some of my seeds are ordered fromhttp://seed-nursery.tumblr.com/. Follow them. They give great plant information and instructions, good service and shipping is very inexpensive.
The plants look great!
These wild strawberries were started from seed last year. You can purchase these seeds from me here, wild strawberry seeds. Wild strawberries are very easy to start from seed. You can start them indoors at any time or start them outside in the spring or fall. The seeds will germinate in a couple of weeks and the plants will produce strawberries in the first year. Wild strawberries are sweet and taste amazing! Better than the common garden variety. Wild strawberries are loaded with flavour and have a very nice strawberry aroma.
Wild strawberry plants will produce berries from the spring through to fall. In late fall, be sure to cover them with piles of leaves as it will protect your plants for the next year. In late winter or early spring the plants will start to grow under all of those leaves and this will give you a nice head start on the season. The plants are very cold hardy but don’t uncover them too early especially if there is a chance of a big snowfall.
Growing Strawberries
Strawberries prefer full sun but will tolerate partial shade. Plant them in moist, fertile soil. I use a 50/50 mixture of sphagnum peat moss and compost or black earth. The plants thrive in slightly acidic soil with a pH of 6 to 6.5. Wild Strawberries are hardy in zones 3 to 9. If starting the seeds indoors, surface sow the seeds onto moist soil - light helps them to germinate. If starting the seeds outside be sure to do so in the spring or fall, because the summer heat will slow the germination and growth considerably. Lightly cover the seeds with peat. keep the seeds and or seedlings moist, but never soggy, and don’t let them dry out. Once the plants have at least two sets of leaves they are more hardy and it’s okay if the soil gets a little bit dry. Germination can take from 2 to 4 weeks. If you start them in the spring they will produce berries the same year, and a lot more the following year. If you’ve started the plants indoors and they are large enough to transplant, wait until the last frost date has passed and you can transplant them outside.
Wild strawberries require very little maintenance. If the weather is very hot and dry then you can water them every day. You don’t want to keep them wet all the time, just let them dry out between waterings and make sure to avoid drought like conditions for them. Once the plants start to produce berries you will want to cover them with netting as the animals will devour all the berries. The plants are very hardy and resistant to disease and pests, so you shouldn’t have much trouble in this aspect.
If you would like to grow wild strawberries you can purchase the seeds from the front page of this website.
“Wild strawberry plants will come up very early in the spring, especially if you have them covered with leaves or mulch all the through the winter; the plants will start to grow under the mulch as winter nears it’s end. The plants are cold hardy so you will be able to uncover them in early spring. My plants started to produce strawberries in May. Wild strawberries are everbearing plants and will produce berries from May all the way until the first frost. Wild strawberries taste very good and have more flavour than the common garden variety; the berries have a lot of strawberry flavour, they are sweet and aromatic. What the strawberries lack in size they make up for in the flavour. There are lots of variations in the standard wild strawberry (fragaria vesca), some produce larger berries than others, but none of them produce berries the size of the hybrid garden variety. For example, I found some wild strawberry plants “growing wild” in my city and the berries were half the size of the of my variety of wild strawberry. The wild strawberry seeds I sell here are the same as depicted in the picture above. They are also known as woodland strawberries. Some wild strawberries produce runners and some do not. The variety I sell do not produce runners, but they will easily spread through all the berries they produce. It’s easier to contain them in an area since there are no runners.
If you decide to grow wild strawberries you will probably need to cover your plants with a netting, or put some sort of fencing like chicken wire around the plants, otherwise the animals will devour them. When I use to grow garden strawberries it was usually the bugs that would eat the fruit, but it’s more so birds and other animals that will go after my wild strawberries. Another difference I’ve noticed between wild strawberries and garden strawberries is that wild strawberries seem to be a much, much more hardy plant; they resist disease and pests a lot better, and even seems to tolerate mild drought better. My garden strawberries would constantly get leaf blight or leaf scorch, but the wild ones have done fine.
Wild Strawberry
Wild strawberries will grow well in the shade although it will reduce the amount of berries they produce if they don’t get enough sun. The plants need the energy to produce berries. The strawberry plants above received full sun until late afternoon. There is a porch on the other side of them that blocks the late afternoon sun, but it didn’t seem to hinder the plants from producing a large crop of berries all summer. Near the end of my lawn I grew some alpine strawberries that were grown in full sun. Alpine strawberries are more vigorous growers and producers of berries. The berry size is about the same as the wild ones I sell. They both seemed to produce the same about of berries though, but maybe it is because I let my alpine plants get a little too dry this summer.
Alpine Strawberries Blooming in early May
Alpine strawberries are a non-hyrid wild variety of strawberry. They are somewhat more cold hardy than wild woodland strawberries, but both tolerate the cold well. Alpine strawberries are also great tasting and are full of flavour, but more tangy. The do not produce any runners. You can buy my alpine strawberry seeds here. These plants were planted in an open area with full sun. I planted them in two 2 x 4 boxes side by side with plastic fencing around the sides. There was no cover for it though, and the birds ate the majority of the berries. As you can see in the pictures the plants are very green and vibrant looking despite little effort on my part.
Both varieties of these plants are very easy to establish in gardens. If you were to start them by seed in the spring you will get a fair amount of berries that year, and the next year even more. Just make sure you plant them in slightly acidic soil - it’s what they prefer. They are hardy in zones 3 to 9. In the wild they are often found growing in among sphagnum peat moss, so it’s good to mix in a lot of peat in the soil when you plant them. The peat will help retain moisture in the soil for your plants, so you can save more on watering.”
“Some benefits of growing plants from seeds are that the plants will be much more hardy and resistant to disease, and it can save you a lot of money. Growing blueberries from seed is not too hard. The main concern will be to make sure you have the right soil pH in the location you want to grow your blueberries. Blueberry plants need acidic soil to thrive in or they won’t do well. You will need to get your soil to a pH of 4 to 4.5.
You can buy blueberry seeds at my online store.
How to Grow Blueberries From Seed
If starting the seeds indoors sow the seeds on the surface of 2-3” of moistened sphagnum peat moss and keep at a temperature around 20°C (70-80 F). If starting outdoors you will want to do the same but lightly cover seed with peat. The seeds normally will only germinate with light. Keep the mix moist but never soggy. Don’t let the soil get to dry until the seeds have germinated and have at least two sets of leaves. You will want to keep them moist but they will be much hardier at this point. Germination can take approximately 4-8 weeks.
How to Plant Blueberry Bushes
The location of your plants is very important as well. Blueberry bushes require full sun to produce a large harvest of berries each year. They need to be in a climate that has a dormant cold period where the temperature reaches near zero. The dormant period doesn’t have to be very long. The soil needs to be acidic with a pH of 4 to 4.5. The bushes need to be well watered, so it’s a good idea to mix in a lot of sphagnum peat moss when planting your bushes. Adding some mulch on top of the soil will help keep them from drying out too much.
If you grow blueberries from seed it will take three years until the plants start producing a lot of blueberries. It’s worth the wait though if you end up with lots of healthy blueberry bushes.”
“Many herbs can be grown indoors with the proper setting. It’s important to have a sunny location in your house for them, or you could use some grow (full-spectrum) lights which are relatively cheap these days. There are lots of benefits of having plants indoors as they will purify the air and filter out toxins and chemicals in the air. Plants also produce negative ions which help clean the air and promote a happy mood for us. And it’s very convenient to have fresh herbs to harvest right inside your home.
Easy herbs to grow indoors:
Basil – Loves lots of sun and heat. Thai basil does best indoors, although the others can be grown indoors as well. It’s easy to start from seed and grows fast. Trim back the plants to two inches to encourage bushier growth. Keep well watered in soil with good drainage.
Catnip – Place in a sunny location. Prefers moist, well-draining potting soil.
Chives – Keep the soil evenly moist with good drainage. Prefers full sun. The tips of the chives will turn yellow if when the plant is not getting enough water.
Greek Oregano – Prefers bright sunlight and soil with good drainage. Greek oregano is high in essential oils which gives it a strong flavour.
Parsley – Is a biennial herb. Parsley has a taproot and does better in deeper pots. Keep soil evenly moist. Parsley is not very tolerant of irregular watering.
Mint – Most mints produce sterile seeds which will not produce true to type mints, so you should use cuttings or buy the plants from a local nursery. Place in full sun. Mints prefer to be well watered in moist soil. It’s good to cut the mint back to encourage more bushier growth.
Rosemary – Place in a sunny and warm location. Water when the top inch of soil feels dry. Prefers soil with good drainage.
Savory – Full sun. Keep well watered in soil with good drainage.
If you’re planning on using lighting for your plants you will want to use full-spectrum lights. Most hardware stores these days carry lots of these lights. Many online sites sell LED grow lights which are super power efficient, but LEDs are still quite costly.”
