With 20 more pages than last year, more than 150 new items and expanded amounts of gardening information, the 2015 West Coast Seeds Gardening Guide is better than ever.
The catalogue is packed with articles on key topics such as pest controls, cover crops, seeding and planting, composting, saving and storing seed, and much more. And it’s good to know that WCS supports local and overseas charities that promote and provide education on organic growing methods. This company’s seeds have been grown in many countries, among them Nepal, Haiti and Malawi.
The 2015 WCS catalogue has three at-a-glance planting charts that indicate seeding and transplanting times and more for vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Each is situated at the start of the relevant catalogue section.
There is detailed growing and harvesting information on every vegetable, and the flower and herb sections each begin with a full page of useful notes. For the flowers there are tips on starting seeds indoors and transplanting outdoors, on fertilizing and deadheading. A list of edible flowers provides tips on using them.
The page of information on herbs suggests preferred kinds for growing in containers and types that will grow well in part shade. There are tips too on harvesting and preserving.
Throughout the listings, colourful symbols indicate varieties good for growing in containers, feeding pollinators and attracting beneficial insects. Symbols for vegetables identify plants for winter and spring harvesting.
The inside front cover highlights choice new listings. Among them is the attractive French heirloom squash Musquee d’Hiver de Provence, which has ribbed fruits and “very rich, sweet, deep orange, finely flavoured flesh.” I'll be trying Blushed Butter Oak, a cold hardy oak leaf lettuce, and White Sage, a sacred sage that is bundled and burned as a purifying smudge.
Also in the introductory pages are tips and products geared to encouraging urban gardening. One page is devoted to vegetables for patios and small spaces. There’s a Patio Vegetable Collection, a new modular garden system, and waist-high raised beds. Toward the end of the catalogue are two more pages of container gardening options, including several types of reusable grow bags. A page of gift ideas offers seed collections for beginners, children, sweet pea lovers and more. More items of note:
• Aspabroc. This baby broccoli was one of my best new vegetables in 2014. The plants took little space, and produced small, tasty sprouts over several weeks. A second transplanting was still yielding edible little heads at Christmas.
• Kalibos, a gorgeous pointed red cabbage, produced the sweetest, most delicious cabbage in the 2014 garden.
• Sweet Success has over many years been my earliest, most productive, crisp and sweet cucumber.
• Kale. WCS is a catalogue for kale lovers. Among the 15 varieties are four new listings. I’ll be trying Darkbor, an early kale with dark blue-green, curled leaves with “intense flavour.”
• Lettuce. Tom Thumb is a favourite miniature butterhead, an heirloom that forms a tiny but tightly packed head of sweet, creamy leaves. Gandhi, a regular butter lettuce, is impressive for its flavour and heat resistance.
• Flowers. There are two enticing colour pages of sunflowers to choose from and another two pages filled with sweet peas.
• Children. On a page of Cool Stuff for Kids are a book of gardening experiments, a look into the world of seeds, small tools, a garden harvest game and more.
• Bulbs. A new section of bulbs, tubers and rhizomes for ornamentals highlights lilies and dahlias. Check out Night Butterfly, a delectable confection in white and burgundy.
WCS seeds for 2015 have appeared on racks in local outlets, but the catalogue still holds a treasure-load of information and an impressive array of gardening aids and supplies.
GARDEN EVENTS
VRS meeting. Please join Victoria Rhododendron Society members on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Garth Homer Centre, 813 Darwin Ave. as they enjoy Gordon Murray’s talk about trilliums and trillium hybridizing. Gordon’s first trillium was a gift from a neighbour in 1988. Now he has many trillium species and has been hybridizing them since 2003. Free admission.
Organic master gardener course. A free information session on the Gaia College Organic Master Gardener course will be presented on Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. at Royal Roads University, 2005 Sooke Rd. Register online or just show up. gaiacollege.ca.
