It's late spring in Newfoundland! The temperatures are threatening to be above single digits on the Celsius scale!
Time to crawl out from the cold and plant something other than a snowman!
Are you an avid gardener? Do you have a green thumb? Or does the prospect of planting, watering and weeding make you turn green yourself?
Either way, this little puzzle cache located near a fabled local garden centre will use a few cute gardening-related factoids. In a few cases, the pics which follow have hint-containing links. Here goes!
This cache is located at: N 47 36.ABC W052 49.DEC
where A thru E are found by considering:
For A: The Gaze Seed Company of St.John's made international news (yes, international) when their photo accompanying Walla Walla Sweet onion seeds (shown below) in an online ad were flagged by facebook as being "overtly sexual."
While the company enjoyed the attention from local news to the New York Post, the BBC, and many, many more media outlets, facebook were quick to acknowledge their error. "We use automated technology to keep nudity off our apps," wrote Meg Sinclair, Facebook Canada's head of communications. "But sometimes it doesn't know a walla walla onion from a, well, you know. We restored the ad and are sorry for the business' trouble."
The Walla Walla onions are said to mature in A5-170 days according to the company.
For B: Fertilizers are rated with their contents of phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium with a number for each nutrient. A certain fruit tree fertilizer is rated as "6-2-4." B = the nitrogen number divided by the phosphorus number.
For C: Plant Hardiness Zones are numeric zone ratings for regions of the whole globe, indicating which types of plants are feasible for a certain area. The zones are colour coded here on this map of Canada.
The Avalon peninsula of Newfoundland, where this cache is hid, is in Zone Cb.
For D: For most plants and vegetables, the soil acidity level is quite important. Some plants prefer slightly acidic; some prefer alkaline. Peas, for example, are said to flourish at pH levels of 5.8 to D.0 according to several online sources.
For E: According to the Statler Brothers' 1965 hit country song "Flowers on the Wall" (which has occurred in many cult movies), the Solitaire deck has QR cards. E = Q + R.
Have you completed your plot plan / set of coordinates?
Hopefully, like your garden, the coordinate checker will be green!
Til next time, enjoy!
CtB!