Dear Helen: In an autumn column, you recommended a tomato that I think was called Big Red. Do you know where I’ll be able to buy transplants of this variety in the spring? I don’t usually grow my own tomato plants from seed.
D.W.
I can’t say what varieties of tomato transplants your local garden centres will choose to sell in the spring. Your best bet is to phone a few to find one that has ordered them in. It should be easy to find a source. I’ve noticed that my local garden centres almost always have beautifully grown Big Beef transplants for sale in the spring.
Dear Helen: I was given two kiwi (Actinidia kolomikta) plants that are still in pots. What is your opinion on their ability to produce an abundance of large fruit? I don’t want to go to the trouble of planting them if they are not good producers.
B.F.
Actinidia kolomikta is considered mainly an ornamental vine, but if flowers on a female vine are fertilized with pollen from the male plant’s blooms, small (grape-sized) edible fruits are formed in the fall. Because you were given two vines, I presume that you have a male and a female.
This is the least vigorous of all the Actinidias, the easiest to keep within desired bounds. The foliage, especially on the male vines, in a sunny spot and with the arrival of early summer, is lovely as the triangular leaves become painted in green, white and pink. The vines are useful as a decorative summer screen when grown against a fence or other support.
Dear Helen: I am in dire need of some sort of stimulus effective enough to force me out the door and into the garden on dark, drab winter days. There is so much to be done out there, while I seem to be stuck in hibernation mode.
W.G.
I’m hearing the same frustration from other readers and gardening neighbours as well. I can’t say I’m entirely virtuous and intrepid in this matter, but I can share some of the motives that help to push me out into the garden, even on dark, damp days.
Remembering the garden either flooded with rain, covered with snow or frozen almost all through last fall, winter and early spring has sparked an appreciation of the many comfortably usable days this month especially — enough to want to take advantage of them.
Another powerful incentive is the still overgrown nature of parts of the garden following the enforced neglect of previous seasons.
No catch-up work was possible once the busy planting and tending of last year’s summer garden began. There’s a chance now.
Find a project that you can become mildly obsessed with. Currently, a project involving path cleaning and covering with weed-suppressing materials has elicited in me enough of a compulsive drive that I look for every possible moment to be out there completing at least a small additional length of path.
Perhaps there is a part of the garden, or certain plantings, that really bother you.
Messy or otherwise irksome garden areas and plantings can be the source of a useful and benign compulsion to clean and tidy.
Troubling me now is the grubby and dishevelled state of the garden shed. As the pathway cleaning project reaches the shed, I’ll be detouring into it to clear the clutter, clean the shelving and sweep the floor. Then, I’ll be able to anticipate starting a new gardening season in a peaceful state of pristine grace.
Think about how good it will feel to have some significant project completed. A final thought: Being physically active in fresh, invigorating air while creating order out of chaos is bound to help keep a body toned and a mind at ease.
Garden Events
Seedy in Qualicum. “Sow, Grow, Enjoy!” is the theme of the 16th Annual Qualicum Beach Seedy Saturday on Feb. 3, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the QB Civic Centre, 747 Jones St. The event will feature more than 70 vendors, a seed swap, master gardeners on hand to answer questions, the Seedy Cafe, Milner Garden’s Shoot with Roots children’s program, door prizes and a raffle. At 10:30 a.m., Donna Balzer will present Three Tips to Sow and Grow a Better Food Garden. At 12:30, Kathy Claxton will offer thoughts on Keep Calm — Plant On. Make Gardening Fit You. Admission is by donation. A Town of Qualicum Beach truck will be in the parking lot collecting pesticides and herbicides. qbseedysaturday.ca
