If you purchase a “living lettuce”, either at a local grocery store (I bought the one in the photo at Sobeys) or at a market, you can get a second, smaller crop under a single fluorescent tube or LED strip light, the type we use to start bedding plants.   After you cut off the leaves to make a salad, plant the living root into a small pot with some potting mix and give it a wee bit of fertilizer or work some worm castings into the mix before planting. In 3-4 weeks, the leaves might be big enough for a small harvest. This is a fun activity to try with children! For more information on how ..read more

Fermenting vegetables is a great way to preserve surplus, and the health benefits are widely recognized. Sauerkraut that has not been boiled or made with vinegar helps increase your intake of Lactobacillus bacteria that support gut and digestive health. It’s easy to make and cabbage is less expensive than many other veggies.   The following description is from an online article I found a few years ago. I really like the fact that you can make smaller batches in a 1 Quart Canning Jar throughout the winter – no need for a large, expensive crock.   Sauerkraut for 1 Quart (1 Litre) Cann ..read more

Last year too much rain, this year not enough... Extreme weather may be the new normal, so it’s best to be flexible and gather some tools for the job. The upside of the hot weather? No slugs!! They will be back in a rainy year, so keep an eye on the patterns next spring and get your slug bait early. Here are a few tools and tips to help with hot weather, next time it comes around.   Straw mulch for vegetable beds: A small square bale of straw can go a long way to retain some moisture in the ground and reduce huge temperature swings. Garden centres sell out quickly but sometimes you can f ..read more

In July, we camped in Southern Alberta for a couple of nights. This was in the middle of a heat wave, yet the native Gaillardia, Yellow Coneflowers, Beebalm, Phacelia, Goldenrod, wild Sunflower and Meadow Blazing Star seem unfazed by the extreme heat and drought. Good to know! In my home garden, the following native pollinator plants also grew well, but I have to admit I watered the beds once or twice during the hottest period. Here is their status in mid-July: Wild Blue Flax – finished blooming Bergamot / Beebalm – blooms fading Gaillardia / Blanketflower – mid- to late summer Yellow Conefl ..read more

A couple of years ago, I decided to mail off a soil sample to Crop Services International, a soils lab in the US. I was curious about the process, results and suggested action. The lab specializes in testing and recommendations for organic food production and this kind of testing is not available in Canada as far as I know. The recommendations I received were given for a 1000 square foot organic garden. According to the test, my soil was a bit high in the major nutrients (Ca, Mg, P, K) so I don't need to worry too much about supplemental fertilizer applications. The test indicated a slight sh ..read more

Squashes are great for easy storage; they keep well into February/March in a spare room around 16 C for me. I love making soups or roasting squash in the oven. Growing squash has been rather challenging in the last few years due to increased wind and cold persisting into June. Protecting the seedlings early in the season is really important. I use plastic domes with a vent hole from the dollar store until they get too large. By then it has hopefully warmed up and the winds eased. In the city, this is often the case, but in more exposed areas, wind protection is required. My gardening buddy l ..read more

When you’re itching to plant and the weather doesn’t cooperate, growing leafy greens in containers is a great project, especially if you have a part shade location. Here are some crops that are doing well for me so far this year. In early May, I seeded a Lettuce blend and Arugula in a shallow plastic planter filled with potting mix and a bit of compost (see tips below). Flea beetles are often a problem, attacking arugula and other plants in the mustard and cabbage family, so I kept the bowl inside while these pests were active. Once the cooler weather returned, I moved it outside to the shad ..read more

How to Store Seeds Any seeds, whether store bought or saved from your garden, should be stored in a cool, dark, dry place. Keeping them in the freezer is not required and may do more harm than good. Before storing seeds that you harvested from your garden, they need to be completely dry. You may want to keep them in airtight containers, but paper envelopes work fine as well. How long can you store seeds? Vegetable seeds have different viability. You can keep seeds longer than the suggested seed viability time, but you will need to plant more, as many of the seeds will no longer germinate. He ..read more

As a follow up to my musings on Food Trends, here are my favorite plants to grow in the garden. This list is based on personal experience with growing and storing the plants, and reflects the plant recommendations in several books I read this past winter. Check out my Workshops if you are interested in learning more about growing some of these food plants. 1. Fruit - Berries are Best While home grown tree fruit is wonderful, the amount of space and fruit abundance from trees can be overwhelming and rather high maintenance. Sharing a fruit tree with a neighbour seems like a great compromise ..read more

Paleo, Keto, Plant Paradox, Traditional – what’s the best “diet” for your health, both short-term and over a lifetime? Are you a little confused and frustrated with information that often seems contradictive? I’m with you. It’s a jungle out there, and difficult to navigate. This past winter, I have been trying to make sense of some food and diet related trends, from books I happened to notice at the public library. Below are a few notes about what I read. I tried to look for common threads. I then attempted to figure out how these concepts might shape my personal food choices and what I will ..read more