The Rural Voice, 2004-08, Page 41Gardening
Gardening in Prince Edward Island
Rhea
Hamilton -
Seeger and
her husband
live near
Auburn. She
is a skilled
cook and
gardener.
By Rhea Hamilton -Seeger
We spent 10 lovely days in Prince
Edward Island and what a bit of
paradise it is.
It is called "Cradle on the Waves"
by the Mi'kmaq people and
there are not too many homes that
don't listen to the music of the surf
on the island. The coast is rugged and
as colourful as the lushly -inviting
rolling farmland of the interior. And
the soil is really as red as the pictures
portray it and I know this sounds
naive but I would not believe it until I
saw it with my own eyes. You
become conditioned to what good
soil should look like and in my eyes
it is a rich black/brown colour. Our
Bed and Breakfast hostess Elizabeth
Pippy was very patient with me when
I asked how difficult is it to garden in
such colourful soil. She laughed and
said probably no different than with
black soil.
The island is made up of
sedimentary bedrock of soft red
sandstone. The redness is due to the
high content of iron oxide or rust.
It is more than a little acidic but you
would not know it to drive around the
countryside. The roadside ditches
were filled to bursting with great
stands of blue, purple and pink
lupins. There were a few patches of
dame's rocket and the beginnings of
daisies bursting here and there. The
forests resemble ours with large
stands of pine, larch and maples.
Soil is a precious commodity on
the island. There was more than one
tourist brochure that pointed out that
in some areas of the coast it would
not be uncommon to lose up to three
feet of ground into the sea. Erosion is
taken very seriously as agriculture is
one of the island's major employers
along with fishing and tourism. In
38 THE RURAL VOICE
the early 1990s it was recognized that
there was more to soil than nutrient
management. No one test could
indicate just how healthy the soil was
so the Resource Land Use Strategy,
announced in 1996, was developed
as a soil monitoring system which
included three components; soil
quality, soil loss and land
management. Through a wide variety
of tests to measure the state of the
soil ecosystem, soil health, and the
soil quality, the soil on the island
continues to be carefully monitored
to signal the beginnings of soil
improvement or degradation. Armed
with this valuable information
farmers develop farm management
strategies that will reduce, delay or
reverse adverse trends. They are
determined that farmland will be
maintained and improved for future
generations.
Soils throughout the Atlantic
region are known to be more acidic
and it is this quality that makes it so
fine for potatoes. The acidic soil
discourages potato scab. a fungus
disease.,Your average perennials
don't mind soil a bit on the acidic
side and do quite well. Our
hostess at the first B & B
had a wonderful
perennial border across
the back of her yard
and around the
house. On our first
night there it was all
I could do to keep
from rummaging
around in her
garden. She must
have sensed my
itchiness and invited
me on a tour. While we
talked I realized they have '''41
the same plants and problems
we have at home. I had purchased
The Garden Problem Solver by
Reader's Digest in a used bookstore
in Charlottetown and we broke it out
to do a bit of garden doctoring.
The next day we took a tour over
to York, 10 minutes out of
' Charlottetown to tour Veseys Seed.
York is a little hamlet nestled amid
rolling green hills. A lot of dairy
farmers around here. Arthur Veseys
started out as a young man with a
market garden. He grew vegetables
that would best suit the cool, short
climate of the island. As he grew, he
began including seed orders for his
neighbours and from this grew the
seed house. In 1948 he built his store,
packaging and mail order site. The
market garden allowed him to test
new varieties alongside his own
choices. Untold hours have been
spent growing, observing and
recording the results of seeds. They
have a lab that tests germination and
vigour of the seeds they offer to the
public. The business grew to 40 acres
which includes extensive test
gardens. The field trial co-ordinators
look for vigorous growth, full flavour
and disease resistance.
Arthur finally retired and the
business is now run by his partner
Bev and Shirley Simpson. A lot of
the seed packing is now done by
machine except for the finer seeds
which are still done by hand. Veseys
offer a line of certified organic
vegetable seed as well as annuals and
perennials.
A bit of the island came home
with us. Yes, I brought back
lupin seeds from the island. An
enterprising woman on the
east end of the island
cuts the stalks of seeds
heads just as they finish
drying and stacks them like
;, cordwood on the south side
of her shed. As the seed
heads dry you can hear
them popping when the heat
of the sun starts to warm up
that side of the shed. She then
• gathers the seeds that have
dropped onto a cloth under the
pile and threshes the rest to get all
the seed out. With a bit of gleaning
she takes the seed and packages them
up to sell all over the island.
Since I know they prosper in soil
on the acidic side and on poorer soil I
am going to feature them along the
drive. Then all I need is the sound of
the surf and I will be transported back
to Prince Edward Island, the Cradle
on the Waves.°
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