Northern Gardening: Pinehouse

Seeing gardening spread is an exciting thing, especially in the Canadian north. The medical clinic at the northern community of Pinehouse has decided to do another vegetable garden this year, despite rumors of minimal success last year. The community is located northwest of La Ronge, in a similar climate zone (1b) in the northern boreal forest. It has a small grocery store, but of course, access to fresh fruits and vegetables is quite limited, as is the case for most northern communities. Consequently, the residents can get quite accustomed to diets lacking in healthy foods.
Pinehouse medical clinic:

Aerial view of Pinehouse. The large building on the right is the new rink:

A plot of private land is also said to be planned for community gardens and Grade 4 students will be growing vegetables this year as well. Harnessing the enthusiasm of kids is a great way to garden, with the benefit of having the kids experience the taste of fresh-grown vegetables. I know that one of our junior gardeners loves to eat onions straight from the garden, but never would touch them otherwise.
Boats on the shore of the lake - fishing is a big activity here:

There are already some purchased tomato plants ready to go in the clinic garden, soaking in light from the windowsill. I hope these tomatoes make it until they are ready to plant out in June, as they may need re-potting before then. I find that peppers and tomatoes have very large root systems and need relatively large pots.
Supplies - notice the bag of Fritos behind the peat pots on the left:

They also have some seeds for carrots, cucumbers, beans, and lettuce, as well as some onion sets. Those seeds should be planted outside in May, though the cucumbers could be started indoors over the next few weeks in order to get cucumbers earlier in the season. I will be anxious to see how this garden grows and inspires the community to grow their own food. Perhaps we will find some new crunchy fresh green snacks as alternatives to chips and colas!
The weather was great today, so people were outside walking and biking:

Houses along the shore in Pinehouse:

Hopefully I get to see some northern commmunity vegetable gardening in action this summer!

Flowers Sprouting!

The little seeds are transforming from dull little shapes from paper packets into green sprouts of spring joy. I see the snow melting off the grass and soil, but tell myself not to get too excited. There WILL be more snow. Let's remember that our northern winter clings on with tenacity.

Indoors, however, the flower seeds are sprouting. I usually start each type of seeds in a single pot and then transplant each seedling to its own pot after germination. The lobelia seeds are very tiny, so clumps of those seedlings got transplanted to the new pots.
Lobelia seedlings:

The larger seeds could likely be easily started in their own pots without transplantation, provided that the germination rate is fairly high. I hate to plant a single seed in a whole bunch of pots only to have a handful actually sprout. I'm mostly growing annuals this year, reducing my need to go and buy them. I find them quite expensive, but growing my own from seed is really quite cheap and enhances my mental health anyhow. I'm even teaching the junior gardeners about talking to plants.

Outdoors, it is reassuring to see that the evergreen perennials are still green, and not mostly brown like they looked spring. Last winter was a wickedly cold one that killed many plants. Things look okay so far, with green creeping phlox, saxifraga, and a few other signs of life in the rock gardens.
Saxifraga in the rock garden (covered in snow until 3 days ago):

Bergenia cordifolia (evergreen perennial) under the ash tree:

Spring Seed Starting

Finally, it is the first day of spring. Time for barbeque (while wearing a winter jacket) and shoveling the snow off the kids playground equipment. Of course, they still need to play outside while wearing snowsuits. Nevermind that I can't even get to my vegetable garden or raised beds due to a great deal of snow. I know that my crocuses haven't forgotten their spring duties.

Feeling the spirit of spring nonetheless, I pulled out the plastic trays, seed starting mix, and hundreds of little plastic pots. Actually, the project started with what looked more like a sewing project. I've used the moisture wicking fabric from Lee Valley for a few years now and really like how it makes watering the little seedlings quite easy. The stuff comes in large pieces so that you could cover big greenhouse benches with it, but I cut it to fit the black rectangular trays that I put under my grow lights.

Next, I reuse my plastic pots from previous years (washed out by Resident-LawnmowerMan last fall after he got tired of the heap of dirty pots that grew steadily in our garage). I fill these loosely with seed starting mix with an extra bag of perlite mixed in. If you can't find the finely-sieved seed starting mix, you can use potting soil, but it occasionally has big lumps and sticks and other aggravating debris.

I did plant some seeds today, though held myself back from planting the majority of them. I regularly plant the seeds far too early and end up with large plants that I have no room for, having expanded out of the basement to all available windowsills.
A few flower and herb seeds are sown and kept under the plastic humidity dome:

With the wicking mats below all the pots, I only need to water into the tray and don't need to water the pots from above. This has the dual benefit of avoiding dislodging the seeds and reducing the fungus problems that attack seedlings. Eventually, the fabric gets dirty and thins out, but it does last a few years before needing replacement. In warmer weather, it can also be hosed off and left to dry outside.