Spring Is Here

That’s it, I’m calling it, spring is officially here. For the first time in I-don’t-know-how-long spring actually arrived around the vernal equinox here in Central Alberta, and that alone makes me extremely happy. The snow is melty, the birds are chirping, and yesterday I even noticed my perennials are all popping up to say hello.

Despite the hesitant expectation we’ll get second winter (just because it’s spring doesn’t mean you can rule out snow), I’m raring to go with spring plans and planting.

I’ve planted my seeds, and the list has more or less been finalized for which plants I’m growing out this year – you can check that out here. As always there’ll probably be some minor changes along the way; I’ll add varieties, or subtract them. Some seed is extremely old (over 10 years) so I’m waiting to see how germination goes.

I’m slowly working my way through a box I received of seeds that originally came from my old friends, Dan & Val McMurray, whose seeds were the founding of the Dan McMurray Community Seed Bank in Creston, BC. I’ve written quite a bit about Dan & Val over the years. They were in fact my inspiration to start my own seed bank, and even though they passed several years ago, they continue to be an inspiration to me. I’m so honoured to be the keeper of this seed.

Much to my joy as well, my ‘Aji Chinchi Amarillo’ pepper (pictured above, and also originally from Dan & Val), of which I only had 3 seeds germinate last year, has survived the low light conditions inside and will be put outside to live for another year once the weather finally warms up enough. The season was just too short for this pepper, so I desperately brought it inside to see if I could overwinter it. I have extremely low light indoors, and overwintering peppers almost always ends in disaster. This one seems to have weathered it pretty well though, officially making it my new favourite pepper.

I still haven’t tasted one single fruit from this plant, as it was fruiting just as it was brought inside, which resulted in it promptly aborting all its fruit. But this year should see lots of growth, and lots of harvest – I can’t wait to finally try what I’m now deeming to be my favourite pepper of all time.