Four Down, Max Two to Go

Hooray! February has disappeared at last after what seemed like an 8 week month and it's March already. Looking forward to 18th/19th March when the first geese will arrive honking away, looking for food and heralding Spring even if it does take another 6-8 weeks to actually arrive.
It's definitely not quite there (Spring that is....) with the temperature still -17deg C with a few less degrees minused on for wind chill but "They" are promising -4 deg C tomorrow and even +4 deg C next week but it may be a ploy to try to cheer us up, and spur us onto, and into the Great Gardening Adventure that will be 2015!








The WIGs look almost the same as last time except that the prairie winds have blown more snow on top of them so only the  tip of one hat is showing. They also had their own adventure this week when the( possibly) 30kg Molly the Dog got excited and was bounding about and sat on top of them They appear to have recovered but who knows what is going on under that lot. They are very brave.

Due to increasingly itchy and frustrated gardening fingers  I used the last of last year's multipurpose compost to plant the Flower Rocket Suzanna found in one of the local shops. The box assures me that there are 1000 seeds on a roll of felted stuff and I will have flowers all Spring, all Summer, and beyond.  I have planted according to instructions and am awaiting results. Nothing has emerged yet. Note I did plant the felty thing in the soil. So far I am very unimpressed but it has only been four days.

As much as I like looking through gorgeous seed catalogues I like going to choose seeds even more, so on Monday I went to Winnipeg (Or Winterpeg, as some like to call it) with an urgent need to buy seeds. There are Garden Centres here, but not as we know them Jim (Alas poor Leonard.....a moment's silence please) . Most Garden Centres shut up and dig in for the Winter by August and re-open at Easter. There are a few exceptions and one very posh one with a coffee shop and clothes and high end things........that's where I found the Borlotti Bean seeds and the tomatoes I wanted and had a nice cup of coffee and a healthy salad (Except for the bacon and the Mayo and the salt therein.)   but for the rest I went to the explosive sounding T&T seeds and had a very happy time wandering around picking up little packets of seeds and shaking them and putting some of them back again.  Driving home the temperature was falling, the snow was blowing across the road and the sun was setting pretty much in my eyes but it was all worth while. I had pastel pansies, zinnias, a candy stripped cosmos, and a whole field of veggies and other goodies on the back seat of the car.



However, one thing lacked of course.  No more multipurpose compost! So today I went and rectified the situation by buying a compressed block of 107litres of the stuff most places round here use for seeds and potting on. Of course not only is it compressed but it is also frozen as it's been outside at the nursery, so it's now in the growing room thawing out before use. Hopefully this will give us time to get everything ready ........music, lights, water, more heating to get everything started in the next few weeks so everything be planted out before the end of May.






I cleaned up the potatoes which have overwintered very well in a container, in the growing room which has been kept at 10-14 deg C with a small oil heater. This contrasts favourably with last year when I lovingly cleaned, and carefully packed, every potato in dry sand in containers so they were in the dark and then the winter came. The temperature in the garage, where they were, dropped to -15 deg in November and they froze and all had to be thrown away and I cried and cried as all my Summer hard work ended up at the local composting dump..........anyway it's a different story this year! We haven't got a lot left and they have been very yummy.




                                                     


 ( yes I know the thing in the middle is a carrot.)

There were three varieties of potato:
Pontiac......Red;
Yukon Gold.......Yellow;
Viking................Red with very white flesh, stores well and was bred here in Morden MB for the climate.

I don't think they do Earlie's, Second Earlies and Maincrops here.......just small and big potatoes but my goodness Manitoba Potatoes are The Best!

Morden has a world famous Research Centre which has bred Roses and Potatoes and other veggies and grains for the prairies and now concentrates mainly on breeding and testing crops like Canola. (I think but I may be wrong)






And talking about potatoes I know its not going to work but I cannot help myself hoping that it will.
I am going to try to grow sweet potatoes again. Last year I managed a lot of leaves but this year will be different . I bought the potato from a local shop, stuck skewers in it and balanced it on a yogurt pot full of water, put it on a heating pad  and now am waiting to see if anything happens.  

Still waiting......................................................................
I think I need to have more of it in the water so off to do that now.............................................