Category:AB GI K

Tomato patches, Edmonton, AB. July 2014. ©Kelly

Garden plots, Edmonton, AB, May 2014. ©Kelly

TARDIS Garden, Victoria, BC May 2011. © Kelly

Operator of the Populuxe Seed Bank.

While I've always had a place with a garden since a kid, I really grew crazy for gardening when I moved out to my own place and my landlord gave me a plot in his yard. That first year I grew a few herbs and zucchini, as well as a few tomatoes. When I learned the tomatoes I had picked up wouldn't give me seed for next year, that's when I fell down the rabbit hold of heirloom and OP varieties and seed saving.

In 2007 I started the Populuxe Seed Bank, after I had amassed a large collection of tomatoes and thought to myself "well, now what?". What could I do with some of these varieties I had acquired? What's the good of me just growing them? So I decided to make a concerted effort with the varieties I had in stock to grow out, and share as many of these varieties as I could.

In late 2020 we moved to a new location, and 2021 began a new adventure in gardening in a new space. I divide my gardening time between my plots at home, a container garden at home, and a community garden plot.

Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada.

Zone: 4a (approx. 130-140 frost free days)

Land type: Urban

Soil: Clay/loam. Amended with sheep/cow manure.

Elevation above sea level: 2200ft

2024 Grow Out

Tomatoes

• Canadian Dwarf
• Canadian Heart *
• Deep Space - crop failure
• Dubrava *
• Dwarf Wild Fred *
• Hahm's Gelbe Topftomate
• Italian Winter
• Martino's Roma
• Nina Neutron
• Orange Tree
• Salt Spring Sunrise
• Siniy *
• Sweet Baby Jade - Contaminated seed, is regular leafed instead of potato leaf, died after transplant
• Turks Muts * - partially contaminated - about half the starts are regular leaf, the other half potato leaf

(*) Originally from the collection of Dan & Val McMurray

Peppers

• Chocolate Habenero - crop failure
• Golden Greek
• Grandpa's Siberian Home
• Pepperoncini
• Shishito
• Trinidad Scorpion Yellow x Apocalypse
• Weaver's Mennonite Stuffing

Beans

• Poletschka
• Thibodeau du Comté de Beauce

Other Vegetables

• Beet 'Cylindra Formanova'
• Carrot 'Early Scarlet Horn'
• Corn 'Golden Bantam'
• Slocan Snow Peas
• Squash 'Futtsu'
• Turnip 'Gold Ball'
• Zucchini 'Fordhook'

Dye Plants

• Coreopsis Dyer's
• Cempoalxochitl (Aztec marigold, T. erecta)
• Chamomile, Dyer's
• Japanese Indigo (Persicaria tinctoria)
• Madder, Dyer's (Rubia tinctorum, third year plant)
• Scabiosa 'Black Knight'