Thoughts from Starlight Cascade

**CANCELLED due to COVID9***
From https://www.kingstonist.com/news/seedy-saturday-offers-local-green-thumbs-an-early-start-to-their-gardening/

Gardeners, from novice to expert, take note: The Kingston Area Seed System Initiative (KASSI) will be holding their annual Seedy Saturday on Saturday, Mar. 14, 2020.

“Seedy Saturday is a warm-spirited celebration of seeds, gardening and community,” says Dianne Dowling, Kingston Area Seed System Initiative board member. “By March, gardeners are really looking forward to the end of winter, and the start of the growing season, but it’s too early for outdoor gardening. So, they come to Seedy Saturday, and have a great time, browsing among the seed packages at the vendor displays and the seed swap table. I tell people to come to Seedy Saturday with a list, because otherwise, you’ll want to buy one of everything!”

“This year is the 13th annual Kingston Seedy Saturday,” Dowling continues. “A measure of how people have responded to Seedy Saturday is that we keep outgrowing our locations. It started out on Wolfe Island, then moved to the Wilson Room at the downtown branch of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library. Then we held it at Unitarian Place on Concession Street. We have been in the auditorium in LCVI for a few years now, which is a great place for our event. Lots of light and open space in the auditorium, room for our workshops and a lunch area, accessible by car, bus or on foot, and easy for the vendors and community groups to move their displays in and out. It seems to be just the right size to give the event a great community feel — lively and varied, but not crowded or overwhelming.”

The Lennox and Addington Horticultural Society met this week, on Wednesday, 2020 February 19th at our new location of St. Patricks Church, 179 West St, Napanee. Ample free parking across the street, meeting room in the new addition.
23 members and guests were in attendance.
The invited guest speaker was Elaine Collins, President of the Gananoque Horticultural Society, who spoke on English Garden Experiences, a travelogue of 5 gardens.
The meeting adjourned at 8:45pm
Our website is:
https://gardenontario.org/view/society-layout/entry/638/

FYI their (Gananoque) dues are Membership -$20 SINGLE $25 FAMILY
Kingston Hort dues: $20/person; $25/family; Visitors $3.00
Collins Bay dues: $10/person; $15 family
Brockville dues: $10 single & $15 family
Belleville dues: $15 or $25 family
Bath dues: $10 single, $15 family
Bancroft dues: single – $15; family – $20
Ameliasburgh dues: $12 per person
Land’o’Lakes dues: $20 per person
Prince Edward County dues: $15 single, $25 Family
Rideau Lakes dues: $15
Stirling dues: Adult $15, Youth $2
Trenton dues: $15 per person
Tweed dues: $12 single and $16 family. Junior members: $1 per year (ages 8 to 17). Non-member fee per meeting is $3.
Lastly, our dues here in L&A: Fees are $10 single, $12 Family

histogram single membership: 4@$10, 2@$12, 6@$15, 3@$20
histogram family membership: 1@$12, 3@$15, 1@$16, 1@$20, 1@$24, 4@25, 3@$30, 1@$40
L&A have the lowest fees in the district.

One math challenge was brought up:
Tomato seeds are more expensive than gold. True or false?
The internet says there are 8-10k seeds/ounce. I find that hard to believe but will go with it until I get scale and measure some seeds myself.
Let’s work in metric.. because.
28g=1oz so 8k seeds in 28g = 285 seeds/g
Retail catalogue pricing of tomatos seeds tends to be 10 for $5 or $.50 each. We will go with our own SCGO heirloom tomato seed pricing of 20 seeds for $2 or $0.10 each

So Tomato seeds one gram 285 seeds @ $0.10 is $28.50/g
Todays price of gold is $52.15/g

So… tomato seeds are *NOT* as or more expensive than gold… BUT if you buy at retail prices of x5 over our benchmark then yes, they can be double the price of gold.