Garden Wisdom Blog — seeds

At West Coast Seeds we are huge fans of school gardens. Nothing beats seeing a class of happy, engaged kids learning about how soil works, and how to grow food from seed. The match seems so natural, and yet school gardens are a relatively recent development. It’s hard to imagine an elementary school without a school garden these days, despite the ever-present challenge of tight budgets. In a way, the garden itself is a classroom. Even Master Gardeners will admit that the learning curve does not end. As much experience as we can accumulate in a lifetime of gardening, there...

It’s pronounced “zee-re-scape-ing.” And it’s a key concept for landscapers as we look to a future of water conservation and climate change. It’s worth mentioning again in this series of Twenty-one Days of Green leading up to Earth Day, because the Earth can’t take much more of water-hogging garden designs. Simply put, xeriscaping is a system of landscaping with water conservation as the priority. In areas that receive little rainfall in the summer, some thoughtful xeriscaping will allow flowering plants to thrive, adding visual appeal – as well as important forage for pollinators. There are five principles that are key...

For the 21 days leading up to Earth Day, we are asking you to Commit to Grow with us. We appreciate that some of you might not even have outdoor gardening space, so today we’re going to talk about Sprouts! Probably the best thing sprouts have going for them is that they can be produced just about anywhere, at any time of the year. The equipment to produce them can be as rudimentary as a simple kitchen sieve, but specialized tools for sprout production have been developed and improved for decades. Sprouting is the simple act of bringing seeds and...

We continue our Twenty-One Days of Green with a look at an amazing community group. One of our favourite of all gardening organizations is Plant a Row Grow a Row. Quite simply, they encourage gardeners to plant one extra row of food to donate to their local food bank. This gives families crucial access to fresh, locally grown produce in an environment that normally leans heavily on donations of processed foods in boxes and cans. Across Canada, Plant a Row Grow a Row is connecting growers with food banks and soup kitchens. They also provide step-by-step instructions on how to...

The theme of this Twenty-one Days of Green campaign is to encourage everyone to Commit to Grow just one item that might otherwise be purchased at a grocery store. We love using chives as a place to start. To produce a little container of chives is incredibly simple, but this simple act resonates in surprising ways. It’s an act that we, as consumers, can take to reduce our carbon footprints. Leading up to Earth Day, that seems like a wise choice. There is much about chives to love. They are perennial, so they’ll grow back after each harvest and continue...