Ok folks, time to change your focus from hanging on to those mid-winter blues to happier thoughts of shades of green. If you’re attention is already nurturing your green thumb by making your seed list and checking it twice, you know what I mean.
There's no time like the present to think about the growing season in the not too distant future. We will be planting those seeds and seedlings into our gardens sometime in April and May.
As the pandemic has left many people concerned about food sources or with lots of extra time on their hands, gardening has become a very popular pastime here in Moose Jaw and across the country. Many will know from experience, as much of the local seed selection was pretty depleted early in the season last year.
There’s nothing like feeling the satisfaction of growing your own produce; puts a whole new spin on ‘watching grass grow,” doesn’t it? We always use that idiom in explaining how tedious it is but it seems, however, we do enjoy the process.
There are many seed companies that an individual can order from and if you are thinking about purchasing seeds; people often look for ‘untreated’ or not treated chemically. This is a personal preference. By choosing seeds with organic labels, you know that no toxic pesticides and only organic fertilizers have been used on crops. Other things on the packet will indicate whether to start your seeds indoors or outdoors, how many days to germinate and how many days to harvest, as well as how they are rated on yield and hardiness. There are starter kids often available with lids and peat pellets inside with planting instructions or you can purchase your own empty cell packs, adding soilless mix before sowing your seeds. Natural sunlight is necessary or even grow lights will produce good results. Of note: root vegetables do better when the seeds are planted directly in the ground.
Many put their ultimate trust in the highly-esteemed and fairly accurate Old Farmer’s Almanac that has a tool allowing individuals to enter your postal code to determine your frost dates and the last frost date of the season.
In fact, if you think ahead and start now, you may be harvesting your own fresh veggies by May or early June. There are a handful of plants that thrive in the cooler conditions of late winter and early spring that we hearty Saskatchewanians know well of. They can tolerate much cooler night temperatures and even some light freezes. Some are: beans, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, collards, endive, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, mustard, peas, radicchio, Spinach and Swiss chard.
Happy Gardening!
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
