Veggie Basket

I've been doing a bit of online research on whether or not reusing old potting soil is a good idea. Most people suggest either dumping it in the garden or adding it to the compost bin. Neither are viable options for me (every inch of my tiny garden is reserved for vegetables and animals in my area are notorious for knocking garbage cans and compost bins over), so the next best thing is to reuse part of it. Adding compost or a triple mix to old soil should do the trick. As long as the soil hasn't been infected by diseases or insects, the second round of plants should do just fine.

Good stuff! This means more money in my pocket, and I really need that after this year's essential splurge on kilograms after kilograms of soil, manure, containers...

How to make an affordable DIY cold frame from a shelf.

Here's a clever device: Potmaker from Lee Valley. If you'd rather save the $17 for something else, there's always this device free method of making pots from newspaper. After skimming through the comments, it appears that the water evaporates quickly and the pots get wet (but not wet enough to break it down completely before planting in the soil), so I'm not entirely sure if it's a great idea. We will see : ) I'll give it a try when Spring arrives.

Yes, this means pretty much everything in the field is under a blanket of snow. Goodbye, lovely carrots and peas! The only plants I could rescue were two containers of bok choy, a baby strawberry plant and a small pot of rosemary. Unfortunately, a handful of salt got on to one of the two bok choy containers, so now there are only two small suviving bok choys. Aww, how sad.

Fact sheets on gardening from the Toronto Botanical Garden website.

There's a Q&A Ask A Master Gardener forum.

A number of links at the Community Garden Network.

My windowsill basil's life is coming to an end, but it's all good! There is now a stash of little basil seeds waiting to be grown.

How to collect basil seeds.