Spring is finally in the air after a very cold winter that seemed it would never end. And what better way to celebrate than mingling with a few hundred other gardeners who are also suffering from “garden-withdrawal syndrome”? Almonte Seedy Saturday returns on March 14 from 10am to 3pm at the Almonte Civitan Hall. This year’s theme is “Your Abundant Garden”. It promises to help you to grow more, store more, save more, and enjoy more abundance from your garden.

This event features two guest speakers, a movie, workshops, a Master Gardener advice table, seed libraries, a seed swap table, horticultural societies, seed vendors, nurseries, compost suppliers, and so much more! All door proceeds go to support the Lanark County Interval house, a shelter for women and children fleeing domestic abuse. Last year over $3000 was raised.

The timing is fortuitous, and the diversity and choice of seeds is fabulous. In mid-March we are about eight weeks away from the May 24 outdoor planting date for frost-sensitive plants and six weeks or less for plants that can take some frost (such as members of the cabbage family, which can be planted outdoors in the first week of May). The seeds that might be planted indoors under lights in mid-March include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale and collards — that length of indoor growing time will result in reasonable-size plants when it comes time to plant them outdoors.

Scott and Marisa, proprietors of Indian Creek Orchard Gardens indiancreekorchard.ca, have undertaken to bring Seedy Saturday back to Almonte for a third time. Their 2024 and 2025 events were huge successes with over 700 attendees, so they decided that 2026 was a go!

Scott and Marisa are incredible builders of local community, and for the last ten years have been the proud owners of Indian Creek Orchard Gardens, a micro farm located in Mississippi Mills. Their wholesome organic food can be found at local Farmers’ Markets, or customers can subscribe to their garden share program which provides twenty weekly shares of fresh, seasonal, organic vegetables and herbs. It’s a marvelous way to support local, one-hundred-percent Canadian sustainable farming.

Kudos to Scott and Marisa for resurrecting Seedy Saturday in Almonte, after a pandemic-related hiatus of four years. This is a terrific opportunity for gardeners from the area to network, for local producers to showcase their wares, and for learning. It’s also a great opportunity to support local small businesses. Seedy Saturdays’ grass-roots nature — low overhead, low admission fees, local talent, and volunteer energy — distinguishes them from expensive, commercially driven garden shows. Our local gardening groups will be well represented. For me, one of the most important aspects is the opportunity for networking with many gardening groups.

This event is fantastic for the beginner gardener but also very timely for the serious gardener who is looking for new challenges, perhaps venturing into rare and unusual plants or starting their own seedlings under lights. Now is a great time to get out and talk to experienced gardeners and check out the huge diversity of vegetable varieties that are not available in box-store garden centres.

Seedy Saturdays (and Sundays) are locally organized grass-roots events. The Canadian not-for-profit organization Seeds of Diversity seeds.ca has a loose organizational role, providing some guidance and some publicity. They encourage the use of open-pollinated and heritage seeds as well as local seed exchanges. With over 3000 members across Canada, their funding comes primarily from charitable donations made by both members and non-members.

Seeds of Diversity has a well-developed program of opportunities for youth to connect with food systems, learn practical skills, and explore careers in food and agriculture. Additionally, they create and maintain gardens on school grounds throughout their home base of Waterloo, ON.

For more details on the great network of Seedy Saturday (and Sunday) events taking place across the country, check out the Seeds of Diversity website seeds.ca. In our region also visit Perth and Pembroke on March 1; Ottawa on March 7; Kemptville on March 8; Carp, Cornwall and Kingston on March 14; and Westport on March 21.

For up-to-date information on Almonte Seedy Saturday, go to the Facebook Page for Lanark County Seedy Saturday.

And finally, in the spirit of trying to make gardening more user-friendly, I present my view that compost fixes everything! There is a theory that the limiting factor for plant growth is the nutrient that is the scarcest in your soil. You could do endless expensive soil tests to analyze the nutrients in your garden, determine which ones need to be added and then go out and buy them, figure out the application rate and add them to your garden… OR you could just add compost. I believe that this fixes everything because compost is derived from growing plants that, by definition, had everything they needed for the growth that they achieved.

Happy gardening!