#GardenChat

CLICK THE LINK BELOW FOR A SUMMARY OF THIS WEEK'S #GARDENCHAT

#GardenChat - Garden Trends 2013

Gardening is where it all begins, and #GardenChat is a great way for me to connect with other people who love to garden, grow and green this world :)  The Monday night chats are always a great source of information but it goes by superfast!  The transcripts are saved online, but I wanted to make a bit of a recap that was more comprehensive, for reference throughout the season.  Check in the link below for a summary of tonight's #GardenChat! 

Notes taken directly from Garden Media Group's 2013 Garden Trends Report

Tropical Wally WoollyPocket

I mentioned quite some time ago that the #gardenchat consensus on simple wall mount planting was woollypockets, and I've finally gotten around to planting my first one :)
The fantastically large leaves brighten up this still bleak cold early-spring office!

Moo Poo Tea

I met @greensoil on #gardenchat a few months ago, and as I've been seeking advice for my heirloom tomato research project her product Moo Poo Tea has been mentioned again and again!  Her family has been using this manure tea on their historic Haven Seed Co farm since 1853 and selling it as an all-natural soil conditioner since 1924!  Authentic Haven Brand’s Moo Poo Tea was originally sold to mid-size agricultural farms, but when the area around their own farm started to develop into housing and neighbourhoods, they started packaging in the cute little reusable "teabags" you see below and have been helping gardeners, landscapers as well farmers (and now greenhouse growers) ever since!  Annie very kindly sent me a sample package which arrived today, it actually smelled pretty good -- like rich, earthy fields.  We've started brewing them in a @CompostTeaGSI system provided by the research greenhouse and we'll keep you all posted how it goes! :)

#gardenchat 11.7 -- SOIL

Tonight's #gardenchat, hosted by Courtney Tompkins was on the topic of soil health, and I'm so glad to see this topic covered, because as I've learned in class again and again and again: Soil is such a key part of growing!  We obviously can't cover every aspect of soil health, structure and importance in one crazy busy chat, but I think the best thing that happened this evening, was #gardenchat got everyone considering their soil and thinking outside the box (or inside the containers LoL)

We started with the basics: soil vs dirt.  As a horticulture and science student myself, I'm particular about calling it soil but not everyone agrees, and I can respect that :)

• "Dirt" is what you scrape off your shoes, "Soil" is what you plant in -- @DSAldridge
• A good gardener can make soil out of dirt -- @GreenSoil
• I'm not above the dirt, I'm level with it. Soil, earth, dirt, it's all good :) -- @StarkBrosCares

After that, the tweets really do get flying!  Its far too much information to take in all at once, that's why I love The Gardenchat Transcript  One suggestion made by Courtney that I really agree with was that constant evaluation/feeding of your soil is [one of the] the best thing[s] you can do!  Then again, other growers that I truly respect, such as Linda Crago never have their soil tested, although she does amend with compost and green manure.  Really, what it comes down to as Annie Haven said: it's all about feeding the Soil!

Another question pertained to a subject I know plenty about: container growing.  "Can we use the soil from the garden in containers indoors?"  I've learned in my various horticulture practices and greenhouse classes that outdoor soil tends to be too heavy, it compacts and get waterlogged in containers.  I've also learned the hard way that moving soil from outdoors to indoors is likely to bring along contaminants such as pests, fungi and diseases.  In the research greenhouse, we use Berger BM6, and in one project: worm castings but at home I mix my own container soil -- primarily peat moss with perlite, vermiculite, sand, compost, or other amendments added as needed specifically by each plant.  Courtney agrees, "It's smart to test & tweak for each plant's needs!"


Then Bren of @bg_garden asked what was being grown indoors this time of year?  Bren and Linda are growing sprouts and pea shoots and me? as I'm sure you know by now I've got an Heirloom Tomato Crop, but I'm also doing a production crop of Mini Winter Cyclamen and my classmates in the research greenhouse have Basil and other herbs growing :)

Some last words of wisdom before I left #gardenchat for the evening:

• Think about where your amendments are sourced from. Try to be low impact. That's why I love @GreenSoil! -- @ecokatLA
• I just realized you could take a several tweets completely out of context and make a short novel out of #gardenchat -- @JanitC

Side note: we start #gardenchat each week, by introducing ourselves and which zone we grow in.
For those Canadians who don't know your zone, there is an interactive Plant Hardiness Zone Map:
 http://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/nsdb/climate/hardiness/intro.html (use the "new" map)
And of particular interest to this evening's topic is the interactive Soils of Canada Map:
 http://atlas.agr.gc.ca/agmaf/index_eng.html#context=soil-sol_en.xml

Moss Rocks!

#gardenchat continues to be an interesting way to spend a Monday evening, and a worthy endeavour information-wise!  This week's chat topic was Moss Gardening, hosted by David Spain of @moss_rocks and @helenyoest.  A few of my favourite quotes from the chat: " "Mosses collectively provide more carbon offset than all the trees in the world" .. "Moss is not too bad when you're planking!" and "fairy gardens beg for moss!" -- its all in the transcripts :-)  I fell in love with David Spain's moss garden but this week's #gardenchat also gave me an opportunity to look back at a few of my mossy crafts: