Thoughts from Starlight Cascade

Here it is the end of March and we are back in the -10 deep freeze at night. The last couple of weeks have been nice and warm and in the 10-20 deg range. Another couple of days of low temps and we might actually stay above freezing for awhile. So it is time to prepare for planting. We started with some small and thrown together cold frames in the last couple of years and decided to go bigger and better this year.
Using last years cedar frame cold frame as a starting point (1″x6″ cedar boards), this year we went with two new cold frames made out of 5/4″ x6″ cedar deck planks. Much sturdier and much easier to work with.
Pictured here are the old (left) and the new (right) cold frames up against the south side of the greenhouse.
We had gone to a reuseit store to purchase some old single pane windows for about $10 each and built the cold frame to match each window.

Here are the two new ones completed but not quite finished with the setup (slight slope, fill with manure and dirt, etc). 4″ latches and eyehooks will secure the window in an total upright position but we will just use pieces of wood to prop them open a little for the first few weeks after planting.
A half bag of sheep manure mixed in with a wheelbarrel full of dirt went into each of them.

The design was two planks high (approx 11″) with no slope as we would slope the entire unit enough for rain to drain off. There is no earth beneath ground level as it is pretty much rock. Each is approx 30″x30″ give or take. The windows are hinged with standard door hinges with removable pins so that we can remove the windows and store them when they are no longer needed.

We went to the Canada Blooms show in Toronto on Thursday and quickly remembered why we had not been there in some years.
First off, Toronto is insanely busy and noisy. The number of people going into the show on an early Thursday morning was also insane.
There were 22 odd display gardens, all of which were very nice (and expensive) but they gave us a few ideas on what to do at home.
We hit a couple of talks that were good. We were surprised to see that the folks who talked the night before to the L&A Horticultural meeting were also giving a talk at this show. Busy couple of days for them!
The show runs too much to the retail commercialization give-us-your-money, especially with more and more booths that had nothing to do with gardening. Too many chakra happy magnetic ionized bullshit booths, again all trying to take your money with promises of miracles. Arrg!
Canada Blooms, you are losing it.
Grade: barely passing.

One of the really nice things we saw there was the City of Toronto’s extensive displays on veg gardening inside the city, green roofs and composting.

Saturday March 6th was the annual Kingston Gardening Expo, held at the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour.
Best to go earlier in the morning when the crowds were not as intense.
There were lots of nice displays on landscaping along with the local Rona, Canadian Tire, and a nice surprise from Ottawa/Toronto, Lee Valley Tools.

The local horticulture clubs were there with competitions, like this water theme image from Ruth Hicks..
We didn’t stay for any of the speakers or workshops but they did sound pretty good.

Outside a the harbour, the water is still frozen over in the shallows, the olympic flagposts are mostly empty, Lake Ontario proper is clear of ice, and in the background you can make out some of the 86 wind turbines on Wolfe Island.