Start your seedlings

Post-Easter greetings to all, I hope you had a wonderful weekend. 

The weather was absolutely glorious in Quebec for Easter and I can't wait to see how our little tulips are doing. I should be posting the pictures on Thursday this week. I've also got some pictures of crocuses and other unidentified spring flowers that I took while visiting my grand-parents in Quebec city. I Can't wait. 

Until then, I wanted to share this wonderful I idea with you. My aunt, a school teacher, told me of this project on Friday and now, one of my all time favorite blog Storage & Glee, has posted the perfect picture. 

  Eggshell seed starters  - not only and adorable and affordable way to start your seedlings, but it's also environmentally friendly and really efficient.  You see, since you are starting them in eggshells, once they are ready to be transplanted, you can simply put the whole thing in a larger pot or directly in your garden. It reduces the stress of transplanting and also provides calcium to your little plant as it grows and the eggshell decomposes. Not to mention it's a great way to reuse all those carefully coloured eggshell you decorated for easter and may not have thrown out yet.

Why start your seeds inside? If you live in Canada and other northern areas of the globe,  you must have noticed how short our summers are compared to the winters. During the winter months, plants stop growing, they are either dead, or dormant. When the temperature increases andt he days are longer, plants can then grow and produce roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds, this is the growing season. Certain plants need a longer growing season than our climate can offer to ensure a good crop yield. This is where Seed Starting (les semis in french) comes into play. It also allows you to have two harvests of a particular crop. 

When I worked for the Youth Garden's at The Montreal Botanical Gardens, we invited the kids to come on certain Saturdays at the end of March and beginning of April to help us start the tomatoes,  beetroots, various herbs,  green onions, leeks, peppers, and lettuce. Later on, they would plant these vegetables in their gardens, which they tended all summer with the help of their camp counselors and gardening team. This activity has been going on since the late 1930s, it was started by Brother Marie-Victorin, founder of Montreal's Botanical Gardens, as a means to keep city kids in contact with nature. For more information, you can visit the website by clicking here. I must warn you though, it's all in French.

Happy Planting!