Happy New Year!
The last two weeks have been very cold. This past week, we had several days of -35 to -40 C temps with ice fog and periodic light snow. Suffice to say, we stuck close to home and only ventured out to run necessary errands.
Last night, it began to flurry. By this morning, we had another 6 inches of snow. Fortunately, it had "warmed up" to -20 by this morning, so R. was able to start the snowblower (it wouldn't start last week). He managed to clear the driveway and I was able to do some shoveling without the risk of frostbite. What a difference 10 or 15 degrees in the right direction makes.
Pictures taken around 3:00PM this afternoon.
With several months to go before I can start seeds for transplants, I have been scratching the gardening itch by researching heirloom varieties that are new to me and doing trades with other gardeners. In December, I did a trade with a fellow in Vancouver for some dwarf and indeterminate tomatoes. I also connected with a woman in Sweden through an online dwarf tomato group (I'm chucking at how niche that sounds). We did a seed trade and had a great chat online about uncommon varieties. Some of the varieties she sent me were rare and/or relatively new crosses, ones I just couldn’t find online in Canadian or American groups or even for sale from seed businesses in North America. You have to love the whimsical names some tomatoes have: Delta Moss Dwarf, Dwarf Saucy Mary, Favorie de Bretagne, Long Tall Sally, Summer Cider Apricot, Evil Olive, Brad's Atomic Grape, Blaue Zimmertomate (“Blue Tomato Room”), etc.
Seeds of Diversity's annual member seed exchange launched yesterday. I managed to find two tomato varieties I'd been hunting for (Clear Pink and Reinhard's Chocolate Heart), as well as two dry bush bean varieties (Goose Gullet, an Acadian heirloom dating back to the late 1700s, and Weiner Treib, a Dutch variety that is early for a dry bean). There were many unusual and interesting varieties listed by other members, and I could have gone nuts acquiring them if I'd let myself. Limited funds and limited garden space helped keep me focused enough to chose a few and leave the rest!
