My feet, however, were soaked and pruny when I finally got home. Today was supposed to be the launch of the Hellman’s Community Garden in Montreal. I RSVP’d earlier in the week and was very much looking forward to setting eyes on my new garden plot today. So, even though I had a busy morning at work, I trekked over to the garden (at 6570 Côte-des-Neiges, behind Saint Pascal Baylon church) directly from work, in the rain, for the launch. Which was cancelled. Maybe. In fact, there was no sign that there was anything happening at all besides regular church activities. There wasn’t even a sign to say that the gardens in the back that I looked at were the Hellman’s Community Gardens but I was definitely at the right address and there were gardens waiting to be planted. But no sign of a launch, or of other people crazy enough to garden in the rain. I was also slightly disturbed by the fact that there were only a handful of plots prepared even though there are supposed to be 15 lucky gardeners in Montreal. There was a mound of earth and plenty of space, though. Maybe we have to make our own gardens. I do hope I get to put my seedlings in the ground soon, while they’re still small and relatively easy to transport.
When I got home I was exhausted and soaked to the bone so to cheer myself up, I started some more beans. I had already planted some scarlet runner beans but I was reluctant to start other kinds because I was afraid they would cross-pollinate. Then I read this article from Salt Spring Seeds. And now I know that scarlet runner beans are a different species from other beans, and that regular beans don’t have the same tendency to cross-pollinate. So I opened my pantry and took 8 beans from each variety that I have and am trying to germinate them. I’m sure some of them will germinate because occasionally I have forgotten about beans that I was soaking before cooking and they sprouted in the pot.
