Gardening with kids Growing green By Tania Moffat Kevin Twomey of T&T Seeds takes us on a tour of his greenhouse.
Seedlings being transplanted by Taeven Moffat.
plant at the busiest time of year? Kevin Twomey, that's who. Kevin and his brother, Brian, own T&T Seeds, a Manitoba-based seed company that's been a Canadian institution for almost 70 years. Deciding not to push my luck, I
W
brought Taeven, my oldest, much to Desmond's very verbal objections and ensuing daily guilt
trips. Not only
did we get to plant but Kevin, who appeared just as excited as Taeven, gave
34 • Spring 2015
ho would invite two chil- dren under 10 years of age into their greenhouse to
Watering with worm tea.
us the grand tour. We started our tour in the mail order
section. I had no idea that they filled over 40,000 orders across the country! Row upon row of seeds and product were neatly labelled on shelves to quick- ly pick orders and box them for ship- ping. Of particular interest to Taeven was the automated seed counter, able to count even the tiniest seeds they carry, which happen to be petunias – 10,000 seeds per gram! Did you know that T&T packages all of their seeds in house? So cool! Kevin walked us through several
chilly coolers where roots, trees, and bulbs are stored. He showed Taeven how bare-root trees and shrubs are wrapped for transport and told us all about his secret ingredient - worm tea. Worm tea is made from worm cast- ings. When worms digest earth, plant growth hormones called "auxins" are produced. The worm tea gives his plants a tremendous boost; the roots are much healthier and stronger as a result of the elixir. Finally, it was off to the greenhouse.
We saw rows and rows of young plants in varying stages of development. It
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