The Marigold Potager – A Zone 3 Prairie Garden

Not too much to add this week as the weather just refuses to get spring like. It is so very hard to get into spring mode when it is cold and/or snowy. Sigh.

Though, I looked back on last year’s temps and they were similar at the end of March. The first week of April was fantastic, so that is promising! Holding out hope that it is the same for us this year ; )

That said, we saw both robins and waxwings so spring really is coming! The waxwings have been coming through in great big flocks to eat the mountain ash berries and chokecherries.

I wanted to share this old picture of peppers growing in my greenhouse, as how to grow great peppers came up at the workshop yesterday.

The best way to get lots of tasty peppers is to…

• Grow them in pots instead of in the ground. They will grow bigger, faster, be more productive. Plus, you can move them in if the weather gets cool or wet.
• Or… in the greenhouse, in raised beds. They have a long growing season so need to be sheltered in late summer when our temps cool down, or get rainy.
• Grow them on the dry side. Only water your peppers once a week. This promotes more blooms (and thus more peppers).
• Watering them less often, but really, really well when you do water, will also give you tastier peppers. The hot ones will have heat and the sweet ones will not be bland and watery tasting, as they would be if you water often.
• They do not need a lot of fertiliser. Add a handful of Epsom salts on top of the soil once a month. Give them an organic (tomato/vegetable) food once a month.

Thank you to all the ladies that attended my Tomato Sowing workshop yesterday. I had such great fun chatting gardening.

Regarding the liquid seaweed… Sadly, my son in law was already on the ferry when I contacted him after the workshop, so I cannot get you my favourite Reindeer Seaweed from the island, after all.

However, here are some links where you can get Canadian liquid seaweed and/or kelp. Fantastic for just about everything, but mostly for the overall health of your seedlings and plants. All of these are Canadian sources, even the Amazon links, so you are supporting Canadian no matter which one you choose.

• Reindeer’s Liquefied Seaweed Stock Solution – this is the one that I was going to get you! I swear by this stuff.
• Organic Seaweed Liquid Fertilizer 2-5-2 – This just came in my emails this morning, so had to share. They have an organic seed starter and kelp, too.
• MARPHYL Organic Liquid Fertilizer – Nutrient-Rich Plant Food – this Canadian seaweed from Amazon.
• Bio-Force Atlantis Indoor Ultimate-All in One Plant Food – this Canadian one from Amazon.

At the workshop, we also talked about the best potting soils for seed starting, pots, planters, anything above ground. These two are the ones I recommend for great success with your growing. Both are potting soils that I used at the commercial greenhouses I worked at.

They are high porosity, have lots of perlite so your seedlings spread their roots easily. They do not get water-logged, so less worries about damping off disease.

To learn more about successful sowing and growing, attend one of my fun workshops. You will go home knowing so much and will have a terrific garden this year. I pinky promise! You really need to grow more food with these sky rocketing prices due to the… unrest.

Workshops & Contact – here is the workshop list. For some reason, though I have added a discount for added incentive to join, it does not show up on my list. I will add a 25% off discount to the workshops this afternoon. You can use the promocode GreatGardens. These are in person at my workshop, not on line, sorry : (

In between snow squalls (or rain, if you are on the coast), don’t forget to get out there and weed, weed, weed. The sooner you get those weeds the better!

For the west coasters, it is hairy bittercress (the snapping, popping weed), for us prairie peeps, it is purslane. Ugh, how I hate these weeds because both spread like mad.

How To DIY Handmade Seeded Paper Gift Tags – my how-to from last year. These tags work so well that I made some this year for Valentine’s Day, too..

I have been doing these seeded gift tags for several years now, they really germinate well! Nice way to gift someone some easy to grow annuals, like cosmos or alyssum.

I am starting tomatoes this weekend. I have some that were started two weeks ago, for the workshop and garden club talk, but have to start some more. As I am likely going in for a new hip in late spring, I am paring down how much we grow this year.

Wherever you are in Canada and the northern states, this is a great time to start your tomatoes. It is not too late : )

This is the time to really start a whole lot of seeds, if you have not yet done so and are interested in starting from seed. Though many of the annual flowers can be direct sown, you can also pre-start things like marigolds, calendula, alyssum, and dwarf zinnias indoors this week.

Direct Sowing Right Now!

If we do not get too much snow tonight, or if it melts away fairy quickly, I hope to get out there to direct sow some seeds. The veggies will be sown in the greenhouse.

• Echinacea (I have them in ice-cubes so is just to heel them into the ground)
• Forget me nots
• Calendula (going to direct sow some and prestart some)
• Larkspur
• Poppies
• Phacelia
• Spinach!!!!
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Radishes

I do not sow either beets or carrots until May as I find they get smaller roots if sown into cold soil. If you are growing beets for their tops, this is a fine time to sow them as they will put their energy into the tops rather than the roots (plus no leaf miners!)

Have a great week ~ Tanja