SPRING INTO ACTION
It’s still snowy, but gardeners can get busy to get things ready for the spring
Gardeners can get busy now
You may be thinking that the gardening season is a long way off. Or you’re just not thinking of gardening at all. Well, for those of us who are keeners, here are three reminders.
GET PRUNING
This is the perfect time of year to prune fruit trees. Standing on the deep snow is only one reason why this is a good idea. Most fruiting trees, apples in particular, enjoy a trim while they are dormant. When the sap begins to flow in April, newly trimmed trees will produce more and better quality fruit if they’ve had a winter pruning. It is a counterintuitive thing. The more you cut off, the more fruit you get. Until you cut too much.
The answer about how much to remove is up to, but no more than, one-third of the existing branches. If you have never pruned your tree and it is reasonably mature, a third would be OK. I prune out about 20 per cent each winter.
There are two goals in pruning an apple, plum or peach tree. The first is to open up the top of the tree to allow sun to filter in to ripen the fruit evenly. The second is to remove lateral branches in an effort to encourage air and wind to circulate through the tree to minimize disease and insect infestations. Yes, a breezy day is your friend in the fruit business.
BUY SEEDS
Perhaps this is the year that you start your tomatoes from seed rather than waiting for the transplants to arrive at your local retailer this May. Good for you! You will save money and, more to the point, you will have a much broader selection of varieties to choose from at the seed racks or through seed catalogues.
McKenzie, the great Canadian seed house in Brandon, Man., reminds us that you can indeed save a lot of money when you grow veggies from seed. Here is a summary of the math. From one packet of seeds you can harvest up to 30 pounds of tomatoes. The cost for seeds is $1.99 or less. The cost for equivalent volume of tomatoes at the farmers market or supermarket is $1.30/lb or $39. That’s a savings of $37 (minus the costs of soil, fertilizer and a pot, if you don’t have a garden).
This is an oversimplified calculation, of course, but the savings are much greater for peppers and peas and about the same for lettuce and cucumbers.
If you factor in the value of your time, you have missed the point. The experience of growing your own is so rich that the payback is precisely that — the satisfaction that comes from the experience.
START SPROUTS
Feeling a little bit draggy? Cold weather got you down? Now is a great time of year to grow your own sprouts. It is easy, fun, the kids get a big kick out of it as they grow so fast, and they are good for you. All you need is a couple of Mason jars and bean seeds, which you can buy at your local market.
Alfalfa sprouts are ready for harvest in five days; buckwheat in three. To grow your own, soak the seeds in water over night, place them in fresh potting soil or moistened peat moss and remove the sprouts as they grow using a pair of clean kitchen scissors, leaving the roots and soil behind. These are called seedling sprouts.
You can grow sprouts using just water (hydroponically) using a Mason jar, cheese cloth and clean water.
Soak the seeds in the jar overnight, drain the water through the cheesecloth and lay the jar on its side in the sunshine. Repeat two to three times a day until you have edible sprouts. Details are in my weekly blog at markcullen. com.