@gailcalled I’m in Norway, just over the 63 degree latitude mark, but I live on a fjord, so it’s not as cold and snowy as you might think. For the first time living here in 8 years, I will have a garden to tend this spring. I’m on a HUGE learning curve as to what needs to be started indoors and when and when it can be planted out. The neighbours and I share some outdoor gardening area and she’s not very interested in gardening, so I’m trying to lead the way. Between us, we have two compost bins, but I don’t think either have been used or turned in years. The soil here is rocky clay too.
Once again, I will be learning something new and doing it in high heels and backwards. (my metaphor, borrowed from what Ginger Rodgers did for Fred Astaire, for trying to learn new things by reading and listening in my ‘second language’.)
@pallen123 What @SmashTheState said is quite true and what I was trying to refer to when I said ‘funky hybrid’. Some species of fruit and veg are ‘single generation’ plants, bred so that their seeds can’t be propagated because the seed sellers don’t want ‘free food’ on the market when they can genetically engineer the hell out of botanicals and charge a fortune to keep the farmers dependant on them. Monsanto is probably the largest most evil company behind this. It makes for spine chilling reading. Something out of a futuristic sci fi novel, but even scarier, because it’s true.
Thank goodness the government here in Norway has set aside a huge lab and storage facility on Svalbard to collect and preserve seeds. They’re not kidding around.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault