Endless gardening

We are right in the thick of gardening season. So what if it's -35C. People are skulking around with seed catalogues, they're sitting in night courses sketching pergolas, nurseries are forcing trees into flower for Canada Blooms, gardeners are pawing through peat moss checking for mold on dahlia bulbs.

It is possible to get a fix on gardening any day of the week, even if you have the snowshoes slapped on in Thunder Bay, or you're watching for icebergs in St. John's Newfoundland.

For many gardeners it is nearly time for the ritual "Starting of the Seeds", this is right up their with throwing out the first pitch, taking the pool cover off or putting the top down on the Austin Healy.

At least once in your gardening career you have to start something from seed just so you know you can do it. My climax in germination came when I grew a native magnolia, Magnolia tripetala from seed. I was taking a course from master Plant Propagator David Schmidt of the Royal Botanical Gardens. He's got the shining I'll tell you, he could germinate a fence post.

Growing trees from seed is a process. Sometimes you have to mimic nature, that is you have to make the seed think even though it's in your vegetable crisper, that it is shivering on the ground in the woods. Anyway, it worked and for a time I had a beautiful native magnolia in my backyard, until I decided to move it, and killed it.

If you are the least bit interested in starting seeds, for the next six weeks across Canada you can find somebody to hold your hand through the first steps. The Seedy Saturdays are about to begin.

Seeds of Diversity Canada (www.seeds.ca) has all you need to know. This is a volunteer organization dedicated to saving seeds from rare and unusual plants. If you want to grow the full flavoured tomatoes of your childhood, a carrot that tastes like a carrot, sunflowers that stepped from an impressionists painting, this is the place to go.

They have a listing of seed catalogues dating back to 1817 and an index of the 1,500 plus heritage varieties of fruit, vegetables and flowers grown by members and available through their seed exchange.

On the Seeds of Diversity website all the Seedy Saturdays from coast to coast are listed. For instance on February 7th at the Royal Botanical Gardens (www.rbg.ca) in Burlington, Seedy Saturday runs from 10 am until 3pm and brings together seed savers, community gardeners, agricultural groups, seed companies and home gardeners. Rare and historical seeds will be offered, along with solid information on starting plants from seed.

If you have a windowsill, potting soil and patience, you can get started in the starting plants from seed mania. But avid seed starters soon graduate to better equipment, including grow lights, and heat mats to maintain even temperatures.

Thompson and Morgan seed company provide a very comprehensive guide to starting plants from seed at www.thompson-morgan.com. In the germination guide, the mysteries of seed starting gets a thorough treatment.

For the squeamish, starting plants from seed can be as simple as poking cosmos seed in the ground after the last danger of frost in the spring.

For another sort of spring fling I like growing Chinese mustard greens indoors. In a small flat with decent daylight for five hours or so, the mustard greens will sprout and be perfect for snipping and adding spice to salads.

Just remember not to be overly ambitious if seed starting is new to you or you could create a monster. Seeds germinate, they grow, they get leggy, they get crowded and then things get ugly. Find a mentor, a buddy, a good book, or go to a Seedy Saturday and look needy. Before you can spell vermiculite you'll be growing Manchurian number 1 sunflowers.