Passion seedlings | The Press

Gardeners were impatiently awaiting it: it’s the return of March, and who says March means… start of sowing! Small spring shoots in the stretching winter, seedlings are a great source of happiness for those who love them. Discussion with four of them, who tell us their tips and favorites.

Stéphanie Dubé

• La Pocatière
• Founder of the YouTube channel Le potager de la petite Dubé
• Practical work technician at secondary school

His favorite seedling: ginger, which is grown from an organic rhizome. “When we harvest it, it has nothing to do with ginger in the grocery store: it’s juicy, it’s tasty… I love it well stiff! »

A tip for successful sowing: be patient (or not want to go faster than nature). “There is no point in wanting to sow too early, in sowing too closely, in giving too much fertilizer. »

Stéphanie Dubé lives in the heart of a village in the MRC of Kamouraska. Her yard is neither large nor small, and yet, in the height of summer, her garden provides all the vegetables she and her two children need. His stuff? Sow a little tighter, but not too much, and exploit vertical surfaces. In his yard, climbing vegetables happily climb nets, fences and ropes. Stéphanie also installed an unheated greenhouse to please the vegetables that love heat and thus extend the season.

At Stéphanie’s, a room is dedicated to seedlings and has an appropriate name: the seedling room. “In garden centers, the choice is limited, but among Quebec seed artisans, you can find a lot of varieties: blue tomatoes, orange, red and green cherry tomatoes, red-striped green ones…” she notes. You can also choose varieties adapted to your climatic reality and control the growth stages. “It also allows us to honor and perpetuate the knowledge of those who nourish us and those who preceded us,” adds Stéphanie. And the major point is that it brings spring into the house much earlier! »

Martin Lejardinier*

• Montreal
• Creator of the YouTube channel Martin Lejardinier and the Facebook group Passion Jardinage – indoor and outdoor cultivation
• Federal employee

His favorite seedling: the Red Robin tomato, “tender, juicy and well balanced”. He adapted his own Red Robin lineage by selecting stocky, productive plants – perfect for indoor growing.

A tip for successful sowing: make sure you have fairly moist soil and do not sow too deeply. “One trick is to bury the seed as deep as the size of the seed. »

Martin made his first garden 18 years ago, and the desire to sow seeds took hold of him the following year, when he noticed, in the spring, that seeds had naturally germinated in the garden. It gave him the taste to grow more, then more, and so on. He now produces 400 seedlings per year in his semi-basement in eastern Montreal.

In the summer, Martin maintains a small garden in the courtyard of his building. And in winter, he grows in pots. Indoor cultivation is his specialty (his line of Red Robin is also on sale at the Jardins de l’écoumène). Illuminated by LED lights, tomatoes, cucumbers, chili peppers, lettuce, carrots, radishes, green onions and herbs grow in his apartment, in a room dedicated to them and in the kitchen. A dehumidifier helps maintain normal humidity levels in the apartment.

“When you seed your own seeds, you can select varieties that are truly there for the taste buds, and not for their storage and transportation advantages,” emphasizes Martin. And sowing seeds also means being in contact with full-spectrum light and greenery at all times. It feels like summer all year round. »

* Since identity theft, Martin prefers to keep his last name silent in the media and uses the pseudonym Lejardinier.

Patrick Masse

• Saint-Stanislas-de-Kostka
• Creator of the YouTube channel La Ferme Maraîchère de Patou
• Former mechanical engineering technician turned market gardener

His favorite seedling: tomatoes in general, Brandywine in particular. “It’s a sweet, tasty tomato and a good size: when you cut a slice, it makes the whole bread. »

A tip for successful sowing: choose your soil wisely. “You can have the best seeds in the world, but if the soil doesn’t have good drainage and good water retention, you won’t go far. »

Patrick Masse is a long-time gardener who decided, in the wake of the pandemic, to change careers to make a living from his passion. This year he is undertaking his third season as a market gardener. He practices organic farming. “I started with a fenced garden measuring 50 feet by 50 feet and each year I expanded by a plot,” he explains. Since Patrick went into business, his neighbor – a generous farmer – has lent him part of his land in exchange for good baskets of vegetables.

You have to plant seeds to make a living from market gardening. And Patrick Masse in fact! He made a greenhouse from a Tempo shed and at home he converted a child’s bedroom into a seedling room. Indoors, he grows herbs and lettuce year-round.

“When the snow disappears, life returns. Greenery, trees, flowers, vegetable plants. That’s what really gets me, he confides. We put a seedling in the ground, we give it a little love, a little water, a little sun, a little heat, and it produces plants with which we are able to feed ourselves. There is something magical in the power of nature. »

Esther Bourgault

• Levi’s
• Mom six times and grandma eight times
• Piano teacher and quilter enthusiast

Her favorite seedling: lettuce, which she sows several times between March and July. His favorite? “Big lazy blonde” lettuce, for its generous waistline.

A tip for successful sowing: start small, take notes, get lots of information everywhere. “And don’t sow too early: big shots are much more difficult to acclimatize. »

“We have access to so many varieties today. Lettuce is not just the green or red frisee: there are 50, 60 varieties! Tomatoes are a world unto themselves. Beans especially, the dry ones, the climbing ones, the non-climbing ones… I grow a lot of legumes to stock up during the winter,” explains Esther, before abruptly interrupting herself. “Wait,” she said, “I have a pot on the stove, I’m going to go turn off the heat.” These are just legumes that I soaked yesterday. »

Esther talks about gardening with passion, a passion that has lived with her for almost 45 years. She started gardening in the late 1970s, among other things to feed her family healthily. “At the beginning, it was with the small catalogs from WH Perron and we took what our parents knew,” remembers Esther, dazzled by the world of possibilities that opens up to amateur gardeners today.

What does he like about seedlings? “To lead happiness from start to finish,” she replies, happy at the idea that her little shoots are also flowering among those close to her.