February 5, 2023 filed in Gardening
The lady behind the till at Rona looked at me like I was crazy when I asked if they had their soil somewhere (I'd looked around a bit, but of course the gardening section was closed). It was minus 18 degrees Celsius (-0.4f) with a brutal wind and no ground in site under the dirty layers of snow. But the lady searched for Pro-mix on her computer and agreed that they did have 52 large bags. She rang through my order and sent me to the yard for pick-up.
The yard guy told me to drive to the far back corner, where a stack of Pro-mix bags beckoned like a beacon of my healthy seedlings to come. I waited as he picked his way towards the tower and then started pulling and heaving on the corner bag. It didn't budge. I got out of the car to help, but there was no moving that bag. The stack was frozen together like a giant block. You could see the lines of ice in the cracks between the plastic.
I got a refund and took this as yet another reminder that northern Alberta doesn't want you to plant anything in February. Get back to writing instead!
I do wonder how long it will take for those solid cubes of soil to melt - they probably won't be thawed before I start my first seedlings in March. I'll have to find another growing medium or another store that sells Pro-mix BX.
