Use Your Common Sense - published April 17, 2005

That’s what we were told at a recent garden club meeting. It got me a little worried because when it comes to gardening I feel like I don’t have any common sense to use. Green Thumbs in attendance, however, assured me that they were not always Green Thumbs and common sense will develop through trial and error.

While the scheduled topic of discussion at the meeting was to be how to plan your garden, the powers that be in the club decided to use their common sense and hold off on that topic as the main people that requested it were not able to make the meeting. The main topic of conversation turned once again to the importance of cold frames and planting seeds. Doc Austria showed us how to easily turn a normal cold frame into a bottom heated structure that would be good for seed germination.

This past Sunday we had a great time getting our hands in the dirt and planting some marigold and lettuce seeds. Doc Austria shared with us all the basics needed to have success in planting seeds. Some things to consider are as follows:
Preparing Growing Medium
It’s important to soak your growing medium, such as Pro-Mix, in water before you put it in your containers. We got our hands into some properly prepared growing medium so that we would know what it should feel like.
Containers
You don’t need fancy, expensive containers. Doc Austria stresses to use what you have before you buy. Egg cartons make great containers for starting seeds.
Planting Seeds
The trick to planting seeds at the right depth is to plant it about twice as deep as the thickness of the seed. We got to try some of Doc Austria’s tools he uses in planting seeds - a pointed dowel he made for picking up small seeds and tweezers for bigger seeds.
Protecting from Disease
Doc Austria highly recommends spraying newly planted seeds with No-Damp right away to protect them from disease. No-Damp is a powder that can be purchased and mixed with water.

Over the next while we are going to watch our seeds grow and learn more about how to care for them. Our common sense will be growing along with the seeds.

If you have any topics that you are interested in learning about, be sure to come along and make them known. The next meeting is May 1. If you’re unable to make the meetings but would still like to have your questions answered, drop me an email at greenhorngardener@yahoo.ca and I’ll do my best to find an answer for you. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. One comment at a meeting that stuck out to me was that it’s okay to not know something, the trouble starts when you don’t know what you don’t know. In the mean time, get out there and learn some common sense by being brave enough to fail if need be and by asking questions of green thumbs that you know.

Happy gardening!