One of the amazing opportunities facing all gardeners and farmers is planting for wildlife — or, at least, growing food with biodiversity in mind. Organic gardeners understand that soil health is inherently dependent on robust biodiversity in the soil. Earthworms,...
Continue ReadingBack on Day 2 of our Twenty-one Days of Green, we talked about planting chives. We chose chives because they have to be among the very simplest of all herbs to grow from seed. They are extremely useful in the...
Continue ReadingGrass is used to fill in an awful lot of public spaces. We think of it as the automatic response to revitalizing just about any building or construction site, and since grasses are so darn tough, they seem to thrive...
Continue ReadingOkay – now for the fun stuff. Seed balls (sometimes called seed bombs), are simple balls of clay and soil that contain seeds. They can be placed or tossed into their growing spot, and the clay/soil mix provides the seeds...
Continue ReadingWe love the Queen of Green. Since 2009, environmentalist Lindsay Coulter has been blogging as David Suzuki’s Queen of Green on the website of the David Suzuki Foundation. If you want to take practical steps to reduce your carbon footprint,...
Continue ReadingAt West Coast Seeds we are huge fans of school gardens. Nothing beats seeing a class of happy, engaged kids learning about how soil works, and how to grow food from seed. The match seems so natural, and yet school...
Continue ReadingIt’s pronounced “zee-re-scape-ing.” And it’s a key concept for landscapers as we look to a future of water conservation and climate change. It’s worth mentioning again in this series of Twenty-one Days of Green leading up to Earth Day, because...
Continue ReadingFor the 21 days leading up to Earth Day, we are asking you to Commit to Grow with us. We appreciate that some of you might not even have outdoor gardening space, so today we’re going to talk about Sprouts!...
Continue ReadingIn this installment of Commit to Grow for Earth Day, we take the chance to explain why we choose to maintain our status as certified organic handlers of seeds. What does it mean to be certified organic? Organic certification has...
Continue ReadingWhile recreational field turf has its uses, most urban and suburban lawn leaves the Earth with a net loss. Space that could be used for growing food or feeding pollinators is dedicated instead to demanding, non-native grasses. Lawn grass is...
Continue ReadingWe continue our Twenty-One Days of Green with a look at an amazing community group. One of our favourite of all gardening organizations is Plant a Row Grow a Row. Quite simply, they encourage gardeners to plant one extra row...
Continue ReadingThe theme of this Twenty-one Days of Green campaign is to encourage everyone to Commit to Grow just one item that might otherwise be purchased at a grocery store. We love using chives as a place to start. To produce...
Continue ReadingCommit to Grow for Earth Day. It’s already April, and Earth Day on April 22nd is fast approaching. We love to see people celebrating this important day, but we were wondering what we could do this year to inject some...
Continue ReadingParsnip (Pastinaca sativa) As a member of the family Apiaciae, the parsnip counts among its close cousins the carrot, parsley, dill, fennel, cilantro, and celery. All of these bear tall umbels of flowers, but like the carrot, parsnip is biennial,...
Continue ReadingParsley (Petroselinum crispum) Both the curly leaf form (P. crispum) and the Italian flat-leaf form (P. crispum var. neapolitanum) of this useful herb are members of the carrot family Apiaceae, and share a close botanical relationship to their cousin the...
Continue ReadingLeeks (Allium ampeloprasum, var. porrum, syn. A. porrum) This member of the Allium family is thought to have been in cultivation since the 2nd century BC, from ancient Egypt to Mesopotamia. The Romans believed that eating leeks imparted a sonorous...
Continue ReadingCress (Lepidium sativum) & Watercress (Nasturtium officinale) Cress (sometimes called garden cress, garden pepper cress, pepperwort, or pepper grass) is a leafy annual herb from the Brassica family. It is harvested when immature, around one to two weeks after germination,...
Continue ReadingIt’s already the middle of March, 2017, and spring seems hesitant to start this year. Despite the rain (and melted snow), we know that fairer weather is coming. So we’re building twenty raised beds in between the big red barn...
Continue ReadingCatnip (Nepeta cataria) This perennial member of the mint family is native from eastern Europe eastward to China. It is a bushy, branching herb that grows to 50–100cm (20–39″) tall. Like many mints, its stems are square in cross section,...
Continue ReadingAbout Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea Botrytis group) Modern cauliflower has been grown since the 15th century, and it was grown almost exclusively in Italy until the 16th century when it gradually migrated to France and then to American gardens 100 years...
Continue ReadingCelery (Apium graveolens var. dulce) & Celeriac (A. graveolens var. rapaceum) The Latin names for the different types of celery are revealing. In both cases, graveolens means “strong smelling” or “heavily scented.” Dulce implies sweetness, while rapaceum means “turnip-like.” Few...
Continue ReadingOne of the best things about working with seeds is the time we spend in seed trials, trying new varieties and comparing traits. We are completely spoiled by the multitude of fruits and vegetables that we grow, as well as...
Continue ReadingChives (Allium schoenoprasum) Chives have been in cultivation since at least the Middle Ages in Europe, and there are references to their use in ancient Rome, but primarily as a medicinal herb. They were used to treat sunburn and sore...
Continue ReadingAsparagus (Asparagus officinalis) Asparagus has very few close botanical relatives in its own family, Asparagaceae. The name “asparagus” simply comes from the Latin botanical title, with its roots in Greek and the original Persian, asparag, meaning “shoots.” The asparagus we...
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