Basement Seedlings

Spring of 2007 is 22 days away! Of course, this doesn't mean much up here where we've had some 54 inches of snow so far this winter and it still sits in heaps along the roads. If we're lucky, I may see little green shoots peeking from beneath the snow towards the end of March. Dwarf irises are always first.


I have started the light garden growing again. Lettuce and various herbs are growing under the lights in my basement. Just like the outdoor experience last year, the dark green Paris Island Cos Romaine lettuce is growing the best of the lettuces. I harvested a few leaves for lunch today. It is a nice break from the nutrient-poor pale pathetic iceberg lettuce at the grocery store. Next on the agenda: starting annual and perennial flower seeds!

Winter Gardening Indoors

It is that time of year a gardener takes an involuntary leave of the dirt in the yard and must resort to satisfying the gardening passion indoors. So far, I have reorganized the seed collection, adding computer labels, alphabetizing them, and dividing them into annuals, tropical/indoors/novelty, and perennials.

I got the handy seed binder with clear plastic zip-loc compartments from Lee Valley Tools. I had to buy a few extra pages for the now-bulging collection of seeds. Of course, the solution to the burgeoning seed population is to plant them next spring!

The orchid collection is getting a bit more attention now, with my efforts focused on making them bloom. This is a combination of a battle of wills, wishful thinking and some surfing on the internet for tips to get the finicky plants to bloom. As it turns out, neglect is often the answer -- an absence of water and fertilizer in the winter will do it for several kinds of orchids.


The one pictured in bloom right now is the Dendrobium spatulata, my least favourite but most vigorous grower and bloomer. It's green flowers to eventually turn yellow and just slightly more attractive. I bought this plant as a shriveled up discounted item from the back of Dutch Growers in Saskatoon. It had no blooms on it at the time, but I was determined to try growing it anyways.

One of the other indoor plants I am growing: a dwarf Musa acuminata "Cavendish", which grows only to a dwarfish 7-9 ft tall! This plant grows very fast, likes lots of water and fertilizer. My hope is to eat my own northern-SK-grown bananas in another 2-3 years!

Burying fall treasures

I planted bulb number 192 today and have 100 crocuses yet to go (but they're small and you can bury them in groups). Today's bulb plantings include Eranthis (Winter aconite), Tulips, and Scilla campanulata. This picture shows the planting of the Tulip "Skagit Valley", a frivolous botanical splurge for bicolored purple and white may-flowering tulips. I use the manual bulb-planter I bought in BC last year, a replacement for the cheap one that broke on last year's muddy soil.

The fluffy backyard companion is happy to have company outside, but would rather go for a walk than supervise bulb-planting from behind the fence!

I dug up 3 of the cannas from the whiskey barrels today. I am not really intent on drying and saving the roots for next year (because it's more fun just to buy new ones every year!). However, I brought the 3 plants into the garage and potted them up. One has buds on it and I will feel cheated if I never get to see a bloom out of the poor tropicals that tried and ALMOST made it in this forelorn northern climate.

The fall colors are cheerful as some of the trees still cling to their leaves. The Siberian dogwoods have brilliant red leaves and the spirea shrubs are bright yellow. This pretty seed head belongs to Pulsatilla vulgaris (Prairie crocus) which rebloomed late in the season, after its big showing in Easter.

At left is the full bloom of Aster dumosus "Alert", a late-season bloomer. It is certainly the only plant with such a floral show in October! In another two weeks it will likely be covered in snow. It works much better here than the standard chrysanthemums, which never did bloom before snow and hard frosts.