I had lovely visit to the Toronto Botanical Gardens Spring Sale. It was buzzing with activity. I’m so glad that I went alone and could meet a lot of new people: a lovely way to spend the afternoon.
Plants are so abundant and plentiful. They’re just bursting with life. An oak tree will produce thousands of acorns in a season. And this willingness to give seems to abound in plant people too.
On the way in, I met a vermicomposting specialist. She was showing off her composters full of red worms and isopods. She enthusiastically recommended Darwin’s Super-Pooping Worm Spectacular, a kids’ book about worm poop. I asked her where I could get started vermicomposting and she encouraged me to get in contact with her. She had worms to spare.
At the library, I chatted with a librarian who had worked at the Dunlap Institute for ages. We knew some of the same people at the University of Toronto. She encouraged me to use the Weston Family Library’s seed library. They had just received a generous donation from West Coast Seed and had a bumper crop of seeds to offer. You can take up to five packets of seeds at a time. I also met Janet Davis, of The Paintbox Garden1, in the library. We chatted a bit and she offered me her business card. As she was leaving, she remember that she had an extra pack of Aimers Organic Mesclun salad mix to spare. So, more seeds!
In the library, I read a great article of advice about african violets: Note to Self: A Letter from The Grower I Am Now to The Novice I Was Then2. Here are the bullet points of the article:
In the main garden hall, I talked with of the Master Gardeners. They offered me some great advice about what to do with the allotment.
If you’re interested in growing vegetables, then plant the stuff that you like to eat. Eggplants are easy. Radishes are fun because they grow extremely quickly. Also, plant some straightforward flowers like nasturtiums.
On the way out, I did a quick round of shopping. I bought an eggplant and cucumber — both things that I like to eat. I couldn’t resist buying a bag of desiccated worm poop. I couldn’t carry much weight due to my shoulder injury, so I mostly got seeds. I wanted to pay for some West Coast Seeds, because they had been so generous to the library, and so I bought a handful of packets.
All told, my seed haul was as follows.
| Name | Timing | Sowing |
|---|---|---|
| Nasturtium | 1 week after last frost | direct / 1cm deep / 20-25cm apart |
| Mesclun Salad | early spring3 | 3mm deep, 25 seeds per 20cm |
| Beneficial Insect Wildflowers | early spring | direct |
| Butterfly Wildflowers | early spring | direct |
| Sunflower | mid spring | direct: 2cm deep / 30cm apart |
| Beets | late spring | 1cm deep / 10cm apart / every 2-3 weeks |
| Radishes | whenever | 5mm deep / 25 seeds per 20cm |
| Jalapeno | 5-8 weeks before last frost | |
| Marigolds | 6-8 weeks before last frost |
Oops! I didn’t look carefully at the jalapeno or marigold packages before grabbing them. It looks like they’re a project for next year: they should go in the seed tray around the start of April.
All told, I am so glad that I visited the spring sale. Everyone that I met, whether volunteer, vendor, or visitor, was friendly and generous. Plant people are good people. I look forward to my next visit to the Botanical Gardens. Let’s see what grows.
I instantly subscribed to her blog when I got home. It’s incredibly well done. She’s been writing about plants and gardening since 1988 and has wonderful taste. ↩︎
Thanks, Internet Archive! This will be a deep rabbit hole of reading. ↩︎
The packet doesn’t say and I can’t find their website. So, I’m guessing based on reading about other mustard plants. ↩︎
Published: May 9, 2025 @ 19:53.
Last Modified: May 9, 2025 @ 21:35.
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