What a difference a year makes !

Well I am sure some of you are wondering where we have been on blogger?

Yes, it has been a while.  So it is definitely time to catch up !

Last December, we had everything just ready to open our store for Christmas. 

At this time, where the "vehicle repair shop" used to be, you will find a cozy, beautiful store where you can find lots of cool and unique things.

Flowerbulbs:

Amaryllis flowers are some of the nicest out there.  They make a wonderful gift at this time of year.

Are you planning for 2015?  This is still a great time to plant Daffodils, tulips, crocus or other bulbs.

Home made signs:
Yes, we make all the signs in the store ourselves.   If you like to order a sign for a certain occasion, we can certainly make that for you.

We even turn signs into beautiful furniture.

The garden nook :

After a summer of fresh veggies, our garden nook is now filled up with :
Delicious honey from the local beekeeper

Colorful and organic pastas

Divine chocolate sauces and butter

 

Fresh baked goodies (every Saturday)

Did you know we also offer:

House plants and dish gardens.

 Air plants

We could show you a lot more but we will keep this for the next blog post.

One last piece of news we do want to tell you about is:

 Thank you for being a member of the Pretty Petals garden club.  
Remember, if your punch card is full, don't forget to enter it for our Christmas draw.

Till next time !
Koen & Inge de Herdt
De Herdt Gardens

Cool facts about Fiddle head ferns.

We don't have them every season BUT today we can happily say THEY'RE BACK !

When you see them together in a basket you may think they are the weirdest green things.
However when you look closer, You will notice the green part which is harvested as a vegetable.
Here are some googled facts:
     fiddle heads have an antioxidant activity;
     they are a source of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids
     they are high in fibre and iron, low in sodium
With a name like "fiddlehead" there has to be a connection to a fiddle?! 
Yes indeed.  The fiddlehead resembles the scroll on the end of a stringed instrument such as a violin.



Fiddleheads need to be harvested early in the season before they open and reach their full height.

So how can you use them in your cooking?

Asian cuisine: 

cook them in a rich coconut sauce spiced with chilli

Canadian cuisine: 

steam or boil them before eating hot with hollandaise sauce, butter and lemon or vinegar or chilled, in salad or with mayonnaise.

If this blog got you excited to start cooking with fiddleheads or if you are looking for a perfect plant in your garden, we have them at our store.

And to end this blog post on another delicious note, as many of you have noticed we have added fresh baked goodies to our veggie market.  Every Saturday, Koen will bring fresh baked food, from a bakery where our daughter is doing her apprentice. Mark the Saturdays in blue-green-yellow on your calendars, so you will remember to stop by our store.  

Corn bread flower buns.  

(great for sunday morning breakfast at home)

As this morning started with rain, so the day is ending with rain.  

A well needed rain for farmers and gardeners, however, we hope nature does not forget to warm back up soon.

To everyone who has visited our new store already, THANK YOU ! very much for your support and kind words of encouragement.

As the "old greenhouse" was a work in a 15 year long progress, we hope to continue the tradition.

Do we have a super deal for you !

When you signed up to our Pretty Petals garden club, we promised you good deals.

Well here is one !

Brand new water sprinklers for $ 15.00/ea

Don't worry, 
there is no skill question or other test connected to this super deal.

Sprinkler # 1  $ 15.00/ea

Sprinkler # 2  $ 15.00/ea

To give all our members a chance to enjoy this deal, we do have to limit the purchase for this price to only 1 per customer

So, if you are in need of a water sprinkler, Stop by our store and let us know you saw this blog.

We will not post this anywhere else, so only our Pretty Petals garden club members will receive this blog.

Thank you for being part of our Pretty Petals garden club.

The Artizan Mother's day Market

What better way to spend a day then shopping at a market surrounded by colorful flowers and spring fever all around you ?!

Where will the Artizan market be?
At De Herdt Garden's brand new location
(across from the Barrhead museum)

What time will it start?
The market will be open from 10 to 5

Come check out "The veggie market" where fresh veggies will come in: lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans etc.

We look forward seeing you on Saturday.

It all starts with a little seed !

Some of you may chuckle,
but we are talking about a garden seed here !

As spring season is (hopefully) here, many of us are thinking about the garden.
Something to look forward to after the long winter.
At our store, we have many garden seeds suppliers.

(A view from above as high as my ladder allowed me to go.)
Harmonic Herbs

A nice selection of organic grown seeds.  Did you know that Gord (the owner) is from Barrhead and he lives with Cathleen (his wife) in Calgary.

Renee's Garden

This seed company also offers some organic grown seeds.  Beside those they have some unique plant varieties available

Livingston seeds

A seed company from the United States who offers these "pelleted or coated" seeds.  The big advantage of this type of seeds is that you can see them easier.  

NEW this year is Lindenberg seeds

Many of you have used the "big brown bags" with vegetable seeds.

We found this supplier who is very good in price and seed-bag-size

A well known name is McKenzie seeds

Are you looking for an early corn variety, good for our cold climates?  Well this company has a Canadian early sweet corn.

Have you ever tried these seed tapes?  We had several people already coming back for them this season.

Very easy to use and nice results.

The rising interest in Heirloom varieties  

What does heirloom mean according to google?

Heirloom plant species are vegetables, flowers, and fruits grown from seeds that are passed down from generation to generation.

Heirloom seeds are open-pollinated, meaning they rely on natural pollination from insects or the wind.

With unique shapes, sizes, and colors, heirloom plants often look different from commercial hybrids, 

To provide all the enthousiast gardeners with the necessary tools, we also carry in our store these handy little seed trays and peat pots.

While we are writing this blog, it is literally pouring rain outside.  

So therefore we think this next quote is very suitable:

To plant a garden, is to believe in tomorrow. ! 

Thank you for following our blogs.

The silent beauty !

I think that many will agree that the orchid is one of the most beautiful flowers out there.
Maybe it is not your favorite (after all there are many flowers in this world)
BUT it certainly deserves a title like:
"The elegant beauty".

This following picture was taken by Rhonda who stopped by our store.   She took this gorgeous picture that we certainly want to show you all

You may wonder why we are having orchids in our store.  

(indeed, we never offered them before) 

BUT, when a good opportunity pops up, we have to take advantage of this.

A shipment that was canceled ended up as last load on a truck.  

We received this call, got a great deal and we thought:

THIS IS A GREAT WAY TO START OUR SPRING SEASON AND GIVE OUR CUSTOMERS A GREAT WHOPPER PRICE ON THIS (often) PRICY FLOWER. 

We can offer this phalaenopsis-orchid plant to you at a: 

      "lower than competitors prices" 

                   of $ 12.99/ea

So if you want to add some color to your house or need a gift, stop by our store.  

       The orchids will be waiting for you.

Spring is just around the corner !! (but in case it is not yet, these flowers will make you think spring.

Thank you for your supporting our blog!

Till next time.

A spoonful of milk paint...

... is all you need to start painting !

When you visit our store, you will be able to see all the cool projects we have painted with either Miss Mustard Seed Milk paint or van Gogh fossil paint.

To give you more information that will help you decide which paint will work best for you, we will make 2 blogs about these great paints.

Let's talk Milk paint !
            Miss Mustard Seed Milk paint !

Milk paint comes in a powdered form.

Yes, you can not paint with just the powder alone.  So we have to mix it with water.  By doing this, you can turn the milk paint in either a stain or a thicker paint.  Just add more or less water

To mix the milk paint, you can use a whisk.

Now that your mixture is ready, you have to decide if you want the paint to"naturally chip" or that you determine where you want the paint to chip.  (to give a distressed look)
Definition of "to distress" : to sand away paint to give your project a more aged and antique look
On all the projects we have done, I have always added the bonding agent because I want to decide where the distressing needs to happen.  When you do not use the bonding agent, the paint will chip in areas that maybe you did not want it to.  
That is why i call it "The adventurous paint".   
However you decide, it depends on the project and the look you want to create.

You can get a "distressed look" by using 1 coat of the same paint or with 2 different colors.

On this board, I used 1 color with bonding agent

On this board, I used 2 different colors.  

The result in distressing is a different look.  Once you have the feeling for distressing you can distress as much as you want to distress.  (i should stop saying distress because you may end up stressed and then you will have to destress)

When you are finished, you can decide what finishing coat you want to apply.

We carry all the Miss Mustard Seed products in our store and when you have any questions, we most certainly will do our best to help you out.

Hopefully this blog gave you enough basic information to get you started and you will enjoy this milk paint as much as I do.

The season of garage sales and auctions is upon us, so many potential projects are just waiting for you. !

Just to close off, a picture of our latest project done with milk paint.

Thank you for following our blog!

As promised !

Now that we are in the middle of seeding, it's the perfect time to show you our second type of seeder.

         This is our "Fast seeder"

The plug flat is placed under a "roller" which makes small dents in the dirt. (small detail: don't keep your fingers under the roll!)

Then our flat moves further on a conveyer belt and will end up under a seed tray.

In this tray we place all the seeds we want to seed.  

The system works like a vacuum cleaner.

Can you see the needles?  

These needles will pick up 1 seed and will drop them in the small tubes.

Normally the seeds will then fall on our plug flats.

This is what a seeded flat will look like.

Then our seeded plug flat will continue its journey and will end up under a box that is filled with vermiculite.  (when the grade 4 classes come to our greenhouse for their tour, we always have them pronounce it.  It often leads to interesting new words)

The flats are covered with this medium, to maintain the moisture better.

       ALMOST finished.  

Our flat will move through the water tunnel.  It is a fact that every one waters their plants differently.  To avoid this, this water tunnel has several water bars and waters the flats nice and equally.

THEN our flats are ready to go to the germination room.    

We place all the seeded flats on a cart and OFF THEY GO

To end our blog on a funny note, can you guess what plant this is?

We will give you a hint:  

it can be smok'n when you use this plant !

As many of you, we look forward to a nice spring.

Thank you for following our blog.  We very much appreciate all your support.

Have you heard of Daniels yet?

Because it works !! 
(what better sales argument can you come up with)

NATURE'S SOURCE 
Daniels is the perfect choice for every gardener looking for a great fertilizer.
Daniels Plant Food has an organic base of soybean extract.  It is a natural and organic product.

BIG ADVANTAGE ?  
because it is a natural product, the plants will absorb this fertilizer easier and faster.
PROOF THAT IT WORKS ? 
many greenhouses have switched over to using this fertilizer for producing healthier and better looking crops.

And what does our own expert himself have to say about Daniels?

"This fertilizer contains oil seeds extracts.  Because it is made from organic material and plant extracts, plants recognize it and can absorb it directly.  Fertilizers with chemical origin, need to be converted to sugars before plants can use them.  Another big advantage to Daniels is that the salt levels are very low so the chance of burning your plants is very small.  This is a good fact to know when watering small plants.  Not only can Daniels get absorbed through the roots, it can also be applied as a spray on fertilizer.  This way it will get absorbed through the leaves of the plant.  This may be handy for air plants and cactus."
                                                    Koen De Herdt
                                                   Grower at De Herdt Gardens in Barrhead
NOT YET CONVINCED?
For the hang baskets in Barrhead and Westlock and Onoway, we have completely switched over to a fertilizer program with only Daniels.

If you want to give this "natural fertilizer" a try, we have it available at our store.
             You can not "grow" wrong with Nature's source fertilizer !

SPECIAL OFFER ONLY FOR OUR BLOG FOLLOWERS:
come tell us you read our blog and you will receive a free sample of Nature's source fertilizer !
(1 per customer, offer good till end of February 2014)

* Did you know you can follow us on Facebook as well ?
you can find us at "deherdtgardens facebook"