Gardening—with Heather Seutter from Bretona Farm Co.
Soil. Seeds. New life! Get your mind off of vaccinations and variants for a few minutes as Heather Seutter helps us prepare for the gardening season.
Whether you are new to digging up soil and planting seeds or have been breaking ground for decades, you will love Heather’s perspective—both in words and beautiful photographs—from her time investing at Bretona Farm Co.
Enjoy Heather’s delightful bio at the end, follow her on Instagram, and if you live in the Edmonton area and are looking for a CSA program— look no further!
P.S. gardening felt like a gentle way to transition into our new focus for this next quarter—integrity! If you are ready to dive right in, the integrity project is ready to be downloaded or used from your device!
OK, now for Heather’s lovely words.
For those of you who take your deepest breaths in nature and love getting your hands in the soil in the spring, I am right there with you!
This is such a hopeful time of year as we witness the seasons change and feel the sun’s warmth.
Currently, a large portion of my time is devoted to seeds. Purchasing seeds, sowing seeds indoors to get a head start on the season, and caring for seedlings. I will always be amazed at the capacity held within a tiny seed and marvel at the miracle of a seed transforming into nourishing food or beautiful flowers.
How imaginatively creative is our God who designed life to grow from a seed!?
We have the privilege of stewarding several acres of land that has been in my husband’s family for many generations. I grow vegetables and flowers for a community of people through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Every spring, vegetable and bouquet shares (comparable to a subscription) come available for purchase ahead of the growing season.
Come July, members reap the rewards with weekly boxes of fresh-picked seasonal vegetables and/or farm-grown bouquets until the end of September. I am gearing up for my fifth season of growing for a CSA program!
I never envisioned myself farming, but along the way, I slowly returned to my agrarian roots. I grew up with raspberry-stained fingers, running between rows of vegetables on my family’s multi-generational farm. After our first son was born over 7 years ago, we built some raised garden beds in our backyard as we were living in the city at the time. Every year since and counting, my very patient and thoughtful husband has helped me expand my growing area a little more. It’s very easy to catch the gardening bug and it all starts with some tiny seeds and a big imagination!
What inspires me is sharing our garden space and inviting anyone who is interested in the growing process, to experience how food is grown. I enjoy sharing just how deliciously fresh and in-season vegetables taste. Yes, even broccoli tastes amazing and is so tender when it is fresh and grown in healthy soil. I love having people out to pick flowers in our u-pick gardens.
For me, being in the garden has been therapeutic and healing, and it is my hope it can be for others. I absolutely love when kids take an interest in planting, weeding, and harvesting. I believe it is so good for children to experience the fun and grit that goes into growing good food.
We’ve loved the community that has grown out of this little farming experience.
For myself and my husband, Phil, choosing this life has answered some bigger questions like how we want to raise our kids and how we want to spend our time and use our gifts.
Gardening truly is lifelong learning at its finest. Each season the weather is a little different, yielding different results each time. One year you may grow an amazing cabbage crop only to have flea beetles and cabbage moths destroy every last one of them the following year. I am far from a master gardener; my personal slogan basically reads: “well, there’s always next year” but I love sharing things I’ve learned over the years that I wished I knew when I started.
Given that it is spring, I’d like to focus on some seed starting basics and the foundation of a bountiful garden:
Soil!
Growing food isn’t just about the crops we harvest, but about becoming good stewards of our land. Whether you’re growing on a smaller plot or multiple acres it is crucial to feed and care for soil that will in turn grow healthier more nutrient-dense plants.
Healthy soil is full of beneficial fungi and many microorganisms that bring nutrients to the roots of your plants.
What you’re looking for in healthy soil is a rich earthy smell and lots of organic matter, or “OM” if you want to sound cool.
These are things like broken down leaf mulch, compost, straw bits, small twigs, etc.
Organic matter helps balance soil to retain moisture and make nutrients available.
Some readily available amendments to add to your soil are compost and leaf mulch.
If you know of a good source, composted manure is a fantastic addition to a garden or flower bed.
Spreading leaves or straw over your garden in the fall is a great way to keep your soil workable come spring, add organic matter and invite beneficial insects like ladybugs!
To make your own compost, you’ll simply want to mix “greens and browns” by layering and frequently stirring them well throughout the season.
Carbon-rich browns include things like dried leaves, dried grass clippings, small pieces of cardboard, and straw.
Nitrogen-rich greens include fresh leaves, fresh grass clippings, and vegetable scraps.
You won’t view vegetable scraps or leaves the same, they are pure gold for your compost! It can take a while for your compost to get “cooking” so before planting in the spring you can top dress your soil with purchased compost. I personally like the sea soil brand.
This year has obviously been a strange one with covid, but it seems to have brought out the desire for more people to grow their own food. It’s such a positive to come from this difficult season, however seed companies are experiencing record demand this year and seed orders are taking much longer than normal for shipping. I’d recommend purchasing your seeds soon if you haven’t already to ensure you get the varieties you’d like. It is also important to support seed companies located in a somewhat similar growing zone as the plant varieties are grown and selected for particular climates.
Seeds!
Once you have all your beautiful packets of seeds it is alright to err on the side of starting your seeds a little bit late rather than too early, especially if you are growing them in a window without any supplemental light like a grow light or in a greenhouse.
Oftentimes, when seeds are started too early, seedlings can become leggy reaching for the sun weakening their stems, or root bound in their little pots.
Most seed packets will include whether the seeds should be started early indoors and then later transplanted or direct seeded straight into the garden.
If the seeds are recommended to be started indoors, it should include how many weeks before the last frost date, for example, cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli are recommended to be started 4-6 weeks before the last frost. Count backward from the last frost date in your area, here in Alberta it is usually around May long weekend, and voila you have your general time to sow your seeds!
Seed starting soil mixes can be found in most hardware stores or garden centers. Pre-moistened soil mix, wet enough that when you squeeze a handful it holds its shape, will fill the pot better, and won’t uncover the seed when you water your newly planted seeds in a dry mix.
My boys recently helped me plant tomato seeds and it is so exciting because we can watch them grow taller by the day! We will pot them up into bigger pots in a few more weeks once they’ve outgrown their small containers.
When the boys run into the garden come August for a cherry tomato snack, it will be all the sweeter for them knowing they planted those little seeds and tended those seedlings way back in the spring!
