Growing Tomatoes – Part 1 of 2

Lenore Linton, Master Gardener

I have been growing tomatoes for 56 years, but it is only in the last 20 years that I’ve been starting them from seed. For 36 years I bought my starter plants at a local greenhouse. I had my favorites: Big Beef, Better Boy, First Lady, Early Girl and Sweet 100, before that Manitoba. I always had plenty of tomatoes for fresh eating as well as sharing, sauce making and freezing.
When I retired in 1996 I began gardening with a passion. My adventures growing tomatoes started with a package of heirloom seeds. If I remember correctly it was Anna Russian or Early Annie. I was hooked. If I was to grow heirloom tomatoes I needed to grow them from seed as they were not available as starter plants.
One of the first rules I quickly learned was not to be in a rush to plant tomato seeds. The next lesson was the importance of adequate light for the young seedlings. I keep these two lessons in mind as I start my tomatoes. Otherwise you end up with tall spindly plants before planting time.READ MORE

Gardening with a difference.

by Karen Loewen, Master Gardener and MMGA Board Member at Large

We gardeners welcomed recent snowfalls and enjoyed watching snow bury our gardens. Following the last dry growing season many plants went into dormancy dehydrated, and with temperatures dipping to record lows prior to significant snow cover, the survival of our plants is being tested this winter. We are hoping our precious charges, trees, shrubs and perennials won’t succumb. As well, gardeners ‘pushing the zones’, growing tender plants rated a zone or two warmer than Manitoba’s zone 3 designation, have some additional concerns.

Experts on climate change advise us to expect more extreme weather – hotter, drier summers and colder winters, so adopting gardening practices to mitigate these effects, will increase our chances for success in the garden, and benefit the larger landscape.It’s interesting how our efforts to grow a more plant resilient garden also result in a healthier ecological environment for pollinators and birds. Everyone wins! Let’s not underestimate the collective difference we and our gardens can make.

Following are just a few ways we can garden for that difference:
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About Seeds and Seed Saving (Part 1 of 2)

“A seed knows how to wait…a seed is alive while it waits” Hope Jahren

by Susan LeBlanc, Master Gardener

I was recently asked to give a talk in Swan River, Manitoba on behalf of the Manitoba Master Gardener Association. The following is a recount of the power point presentation.

Millions of years ago neither plant life nor their methods of reproduction were as we know them today. Fast forward through the evolutionary development of flowering plants. Some flowers developed fragrance and many displayed bold, bright eye-catching colours. Insects and other creatures (bats, birds, lizards and lemurs) evolved alongside the flowers and were drawn to these new food sources. Flowers also developed in ways that ensured pollen grains (male) landed on the female area known as the stigma. Migration of pollen down the pollen tube through both the stigma and style into the ovary results in fertilization and the production of seeds. The movement of pollen across flower surfaces by pollinators, or in some plants by wind, inadvertently deposits pollen onto the stigma initiating the process of fertilization. Modern humans can trace their dependence on food production to the evolution of flowering plants and their pollinators. Seventy-five percent of food crops worldwide depend at least partly on pollination.READ MORE