Seeds for Vegetable and Herb Balcony Gardening
February 26, 2011 – 10:19 am
I ordered seeds from Salt Spring Seeds this year. Elaine in Vancouver and I have chatted about seeds for the edible balcony garden. She’s planning to go to Seedy Saturday today at the VanDusen Botanical Garden and Salt Spring Seeds will be there.
Salt Spring seeds come from 10 gardens and farms who all grow their own seeds. All seeds are grown organically but only two are certified and their seeds are marked as such. The seeds are untreated, open pollinated and non-GMO and they only sell seeds from their most recent harvest. All good.
Here are my selections.
- Utrecht Blue Wheat
- Arugula (Eruca sativa) Flowers are edible, but I admit I’ve never let arugula get that old.
- Spice-It-Up Salad Blend
- Sapporo Express Peas
- King Tut Soup Pea I selected this one for its show – fragrant pink and purple blossoms followed by purple pods.
- Caruso Beans – Baby filet bean.
- Scarlet Nantes Carrot (Daucus carota) Classic heirloom carrot.
- Early Wonder Tall Top Beet (Beta vulgaris) Good for greens and early beets.
- Pepper Cress (Lepedium sativum) I’ll be get’n my vitamins from this one – iron, calcium, folic acid, vitamins A and C.
- Greek Cress (Lepidium sativum) Frilly and fancy
- Gerard’s Cress
- New Zealand Spinach ( Tetragonia tetragonioides) But not a real spinach because this one will thrive no less in hot weather.
- and King of Denmark Spinach (Spinacea oleracea)
- I’ve also have these and Dell’s favourite Mesclun Spicy Mix from McKenzie
I’ll be buying tomato, pepper and herb plants, as well as strawberries, Saskatoons and maybe a new blueberry bush if I can find one. That’s a great start for this year’s balcony garden. And there’s action on other balconies and small space gardens.
Bucolic Bushwick has ordered her seeds. Prue in Melbourne is well into another amazing harvest on her balcony. Sue’s balcony is waking up in Milan and the garlic is sprouting. Dirt Gently in Montreal is busy sowing and Dirt Gently and Helen and Sarah in Toronto have winter seeded as well. Marie is back in New York and has hatched her plans to refresh the terrace. Barry has Narcissus blooming in the green house. And Gayla is moving to TV with her new garden and book.
Gardening activities are heating up. Hope the weather here does the same.
Hello, Kim. Wonderful photo to begin your post! In a few months, your balcony will look so lush and delicious.
I must begin my comment by confessing I didn’t make it to Seedy Saturday yesterday. Two reasons: partly because of the snowfall (however, I would have walked, no problem) but mostly because of a sleepness night on Friday (a water main in front of our condo burst at 11 pm, causing quite the flood & chaos for my neighbours below on the 1st floor.)
So a lot happened this weekend that distracted me from seed-sowing. On the other hand, I think I will borrow your excellent list and take it with me to Richmond’s Seedy Saturday next weekend. Yes, I will have one more chance to get my seeds and meet local seed-savers.
And the weather forecast for the coming week looks favourable.
I love that you are going to grow wheat! And you’ve listed some new-to-me varieties of other vegetables that I’m eager to learn more about.
Have a great week. And yes, may things warm up in both YYC & YVR.
Here’s a link, courtesy Dirt Gently, to another Calgary gardener who grew the Utrecht Blue Wheat last year. It’s a pretty blue and well worth a try I think.
http://calgary-gardening-adventures.blogspot.com/2010/11/harvesting-after-frost-coriander-and.html
Hope you make it out to Seedy Saturday tomorrow. Send warm weather please, still frozen solid here.
Nice Balcony garden….
Thanks for Sharing!!