Seedy Saturday last weekend was a great success again this year with a terrific turnout both from participants, venders and enthusiastic gardeners.
My radio show partner Ken Salvail was on location while I manned the broadcasting fort back at the AM1150 studio.
Thanks to all involved for making Seedy Saturday a great event, in particular to the master gardeners who stepped up to the plate and hit a home run.
I took the opportunity of Ken’s empty seat in the studio to have a friend, local Kelowna photographer and businessman Brian Sprout, sit in with me on the radio show.
It created a combination of Seedy Saturday activities, gardening questions and a lively discussion on the history of City Park, in particular the old outdoor Aquatic Centre and what it meant to the citizenry until it met its untimely demise by fire in 1969.
We had several calls on the subject from locals who reminisced about those Aquatic Centre memories.
There certainly is a lot of passion out there on this topic and the future of City Park in general.
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I said a few weeks ago I was going to follow my own advice and make a cold frame.
It is now built and in it is an early crop of Swiss chard, kale, leaf lettuce and Kelsey Spanish onions.
I have a minimum/maximum thermometer inside it making it possible to monitor the night temperature.
Just in case it gets quite cold at night I have a heating pad in there which I can plug in when needed.
One improvement I will make the next go round is to keep the profile on the sunny side lower.
The sun is so low in the sky at this time of year the front wall casts a shadow halfway through the frame all day long which is not good.
Amazing how the seedlings reach for the light.
I have the chard, lettuce and kale planted directly into the soil inside the frame while the onions are in flats so I can transplant them into the garden at a later date.
That will free up some space in the cold frame for some early tomatoes and peppers.
I will keep you in the loop as to how my project is progressing over the next few weeks.
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This Saturday, March 15, at 1:30 p.m. I will be conducting another pruning session at Bylands Garden Centre.
If you missed the last one session, now is your chance to learn about the principles of pruning in lay terms.
This will be the last of my pruning sessions for this season, so be there early for best seating but no one will be turned away.
Saturday is also a special day at Bylands featuring several vendors offering advice and information on new and interesting gardening products.
On Saturday, March 22, again at 1:30 p.m. I will lead a session on small fruits and berries for Okanagan gardens.
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Here is a gardening tip for the week: Plant some peas for early production as they love the cool weather and you can avoid some of the insect and disease problems associated with later sowings.
