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Amy Urquhart's BlogPosted by Amy Urquhart First come the zucchini, and then the other summer squash. The cucumbers arrive at around the same time. Oh, and then there are the beans. Soon tomatoes will make their appearance. Since my husband and I have become vegetarians we’ve been especially grateful for the bounty of fresh, local food right in our back yard. With so much food at my fingertips I don’t want to waste a single bite. As a cook, I’m not usually one to “wing it”, preferring the security of a well-tested recipe. I have several sources I consult to find new and exciting recipes with which to cook my home-grown vegetables and herbs. Some of my favourite places to look for vegetarian recipes include:
Posted by Amy Urquhart Do vegetable gardening and vegetarianism go hand in hand? I think so. My husband and I have recently decided to give vegetarianism a whole-hearted try. While I’ve considered limiting my diet to meatless food in the past, it seems much easier to do so when there is so much fresh food readily available to eat. In the past week, we have harvested cucumbers, ruby red chard, onions, garlic, peppers, lettuce and more zucchinis than I can count from our back yard vegetable garden and our community plot. I have no doubt that I wouldn't have purchased all of these vegetables from a grocery store had I not been a gardener. Being an organic vegetable gardener means that I am in tune to the seasons, to what foods are in season, and I'm more connected to the vegetables that I grow and eat. I get more pleasure from eating the vegetables that I grow myself than those I purchase. As a vegetable gardener, I naturally read more publications related to growing food, and that includes learning about the production of meat, whether organic or not. True, there are many options available for those of us who want to encourage a more sustainable lifestyle, but for the majority of us, these options are too expensive to practice regularly. For some, the answer is to simply stop eating meat. It has been over two weeks since I’ve had any meat to eat, and I can’t say that I miss it so far. Perhaps practicing vegetarianism will be more difficult in the winter, when I’m unable to grow my own vegetables. Becoming a vegetarian means I’ll need to find creative ways to extend my growing season! Posted by Amy Urquhart Last week I flew to California to attend the annual BlogHer conference. Unfortunately due to scheduling conflicts, I was unable to meet up with my fellow home and garden bloggers. On the plus side, though, I had time while on the west coast to visit two beautiful gardens. The first garden I saw was a community garden located in the City of Palo Alto. The garden was situated in the middle of a suburban residential area, and plots are offered to those residents living in the immediately surrounding neighbourhood. What impressed me about the garden in particular was the fact that it was obviously planned for. There was green space all around the garden, with a playground for children and concrete paths leading neighbours around the space. Gardeners grew tomatoes, beans, peas and other edible plants as well as sunflowers in their plots. The other garden I was privileged to visit was a large vegetable and herb garden at the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation in Marin County. The garden on site at the center is absolutely gorgeous, with towering rows of closely planted sunflowers, a large squash bed, and densely planted rows of lettuce in between taller rows of vegetables. There were also several apple trees, raspberries and blackberries approaching harvest time. The garden also featured two hoop houses, one of which contained growing heirloom tomatoes, while the other was being used as a seed house, where plants were allowed to flower and go to seed; the seeds are collected for the following season’s planting. When traveling, I highly recommend scheduling some time to visit local gardens. Not only is it a relaxing way to spend a holiday, but it’s a great opportunity to see what kinds of plants are native to another location. Posted by Amy Urquhart I try to visit my community garden plot every evening, especially if there has not been any rain during the day. At the garden there is peace. Sometimes I bring my mp3 player and listen to music while I weed, water and tend to the vegetables. Sometimes I enjoy listening to the simple songs of birds in the field, the far away drone of a lawn mower or the laughing of neighbourhood children. Because my plot is in the corner furthest away from the garden gate, my visits to the garden begin with a tour of the other plots. Some of the gardeners who grow food in the plots surrounding mine are so fabulously talented and creative with their plantings that I almost want to turn around and go back home, I am so filled with envy. Other days their uniqueness is what inspires me to put more work into my garden. This year I actually planned out a little design for my garden, placing a path down the centre of the space, bringing in rocks to edge the path. I’ve brought in lots of items for holding up the plants that need vertical support, such as tomatoes, peppers and cantaloupe. I’ve planted marigolds, basil and parsley along the edges of the path, to make harvesting these frequently used herbs easy. I’ve mulched with straw so that my garden’s weeds won’t be quite as evident as they have been in the past. I’ve tried to plant vegetables that display an interesting blend of colours, shapes and sizes. Happily, a large sunflower arrived on the scene without any sort of help from me, and I’m allowing it to grow smack dab in the middle of the plot, adding an air of casual disarray that I’ve grown to love in a garden. Posted by Amy Urquhart During a visit to my community garden plot last week, I was astounded to see how quickly the weeds had taken control of the garden. I had systematically worked my way through the entire plot, which measures in at about 200 square feet, ridding the plot of weeds. After a few days of warm, humid temperature, sunny skies and nightly rainfall, everything was doing very well—including the weeds. It was time to take more drastic action. Most of the gardeners at my community garden use straw to mulch their plots. Like good little gardeners, they arrive on the scene early in the gardening season, turn their earth, work in a layer of mushroom compost, and mulch well with straw. This has not been my routine. I’m usually late to the plot, although this year I was earlier than last year. Although I had cultivated some fantastic-looking weeds in my plot, I decided I was going to find some straw to mulch my plot. I would not let another weekend go by without finding it. I dragged my patient husband out into the country and we were fortunate to find a farm nearby that featured a sign out front, reading “Hay 4 Sale.” We pulled in and bought two bales of straw from the farmer, who charged a mere two dollars a bale for the stuff. It took me a couple of days to get the sweet-smelling and ever-expanding straw onto the vegetable garden in our back yard as well as the community plot, but already I feel like the straw is worth the trouble. It will keep down the weeds, keep moisture in, and as it breaks down, it will add much-needed nutrients to the soil. I’m just wondering why it took me so long to figure this out? Posted by Amy Urquhart My husband and I recently took a week-long trip to a lake that is situated about an hour’s drive from our home. Before we left, I made sure that our back yard vegetable garden and all of the containers on our deck were was thoroughly watered. I had visited the community plot and felt confident that everything would grow along happily until we returned. I made arrangements for a family member to visit our house and make sure nothing dried up and died while we were away. While we were out boating on the lake, my husband and I slowed down to a mere drift, allowing our small boat to coast close to the shore where there were several summer cottages and year-round waterfront homes within sight. We agreed that our favourite home was the natural-looking wooden one. There was a deck on the upper level of the home that surrounded the entire building. Along the railings were lovely planter boxes containing trailing, brightly coloured annuals. “It’s so pretty,” I remarked. “There isn’t a whole lot of room for a vegetable garden, though,” Graham pointed out. “That doesn’t matter. I could grow just about everything in containers,” I said. It was then that I saw that Graham really understood just how important this whole gardening thing is to me. He understands that it is no longer simply a hobby for me, but a very important aspect of my life. Any home we will live in must have some sort of garden space for me to grow our food in, whether it be a balcony or farmland. It is such a relief to see that my better half understands this! Posted by Amy Urquhart A fresh salad will be part of my Father's Day menu, so this morning I harvested the first salad of the season, made up of several lettuce greens grown from seed, including a butterhead lettuce, a romaine, some spinach leaves and even a few baby chard leaves. One of the perks of growing lettuce from seed, especially if you grow it organically without the use of any chemicals, is that the only thing that needs to be washed from freshly harvested leaves is dirt, along with the occasional ant or earwig that comes along for the ride. Washing lettuce is easy if you have a salad spinner, and a good quality spinner is available at most department stores for less than $20.00.
I'll be serving the greens tossed with my favourite salad ingredients, such as tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers, drizzled with a homemade salad dressing. I can't wait until suppertime! Posted by Amy Urquhart What garden is complete without a cat? We own two cats, Farley and Rudy, and both of them greatly enjoy spending time outdoors. I’ve spent many mornings outside watering and wandering around in the back yard, coffee in hand, investigating the vegetable garden with Farley close at my heels. I had a cat several years ago who was attacked by a dog, and for that reason I am nervous about letting the cats wander the yard on their own, given that the yards around us are inhabited by at least a dog each. Rudy rarely goes out, but Farley rules the yard, roaming and lying in wait for birds hooked up to a twenty-foot long leash, which provides him with a wide range in which to wander. I’ve planted some catnip in the garden, and as catnip is prone to do, it has thrown seed around the back yard, and lovely, lush catnip plants have sprung up in random spots all over the garden, including the perennial border and the vegetable plot. I dug up a chunk of catnip in order to donate it to the plant auction, and set it on the deck where I could water it regularly. In no time, Farley had discovered it and made it his own. Although catnip doesn’t have quite the same effect fresh as it does dried, Farley loves his new catnip plant on the deck. I potted it up into a larger pot and watered it well, placing it in a location that is accessible to him on his leash. He sits and licks at the plant, bending a stem down to his little face with a rather dexterous paw, rubbing his face against it, sniffing it well. Posted by Amy Urquhart Earlier this week I attended a plant auction, held by the local chapter of Canadian Organic Growers that I belong to. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I carpooled over with two other members, and I didn’t anticipate there being too many edible plants up for auction that evening. The auction was held in a meeting room at a local school board building, and the place was packed! The turnout was really excellent, with many members of the organization, as well as simply interested individuals from the community who had seen signs posted in local libraries and at the intersection nearby. I brought several plants with me to offer up for auction, mostly perennials I had divided from my own garden, including one of my favourite herbs, Anise-hyssop. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were ten long banquet tables filled with plants for the auction, and many of them were vegetable and herb plants. Perfect! As the auction got underway, I could see that most of the attendees were on the prowl for low-maintenance ornamental plants, but the competition was less fierce for the edible plants that were up for grabs. Most of the plants were priced low to start. One attendee had provided 27 San Marzano tomatoes for the auction, and they went for a quarter a piece for whoever was willing to bid. I ended up taking two of them home. I also scored some other edible plants, including:
I spent a total of $17.75 for two flats of plants and the red currant, and enjoyed the fact that the money raised at the event, a grand total of $819.75, would go toward the COG chapter I belonged to. What a steal! Posted by Amy Urquhart I recently renewed my subscription to a popular national gardening magazine in the hopes it would provide me with some more inspiration. While the magazine is lovely, and contains beautiful ideas for back and front yard landscaping and flower gardening, I find that I am continually disappointed in the lack of representation of vegetable gardening ideas and articles focused on growing edibles in mainstream gardening magazines. Earlier this spring, I wrote about how happy I was to see vegetable gardening featured in Martha Stewart Living’s annual gardening issue. I have a small prediction to make, however. With the rising costs of gasoline, food is going to become more expensive, especially things like out-of-season produce. For instance, in Ontario we all enjoy eating strawberries in January, even if that means they were trucked in from California. The home grown food movement is quickly expanding, and as more and more back yard gardeners begin to inject a little food into their perennial gardens, the appearance of a tomato plant growing next to some daylilies will become more than trendy; it will become necessary. Let’s jump the gun, shall we? If you’re interested in seeing more vegetable gardening resources in gardening magazines and books, there is something you can do. You can write the editor of these magazines. Tell them you want to see a greater balance between edible and flower gardening in their publications. Tell local bookstores you want to buy more books about vegetable gardening and growing food. Click on these links to send an e-mail! It’s a small effort, but one worth making. Posted by Amy Urquhart A private member’s bill supporting mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food in Canada was selected randomly for debate in the House of Commons this month. If Bill C-517 is passed into legislation, Canadian manufacturers of food containing genetically modified ingredients will be required to label their products as such. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) don’t occur naturally, since they are created through the process of genetic manipulation, to prevent plants from being affected by a herbicide or pesticide, for example. The genes from one organism are inserted into the genetic code of another. According to Greenpeace, “In Canada, up to 70 per cent of the processed foods found in grocery stores contain GE ingredients. The most common GE ingredients come from crops like corn, soy, canola and cotton.” They produce an electronic guide revealing which products do and do not contain GMOs. This issue is also of concern to vegetable gardeners and farmers because genetically engineered food:
As consumers, we have the right to have access to information about the food we are feeding our families. Bill C-517 would also help remove genetically modified foods from the food chain, which would then reduce the dissemination of genetically engineered seeds into our environment. The Bill, if passed, would also mean that the Canadian government would maintain a current list of products containing genetically modified organisms that would be made available, free of charge, to all Canadian citizens. I wrote an e-mail to my Member of Parliament asking her to support this Bill. You can, too! Posted by Amy Urquhart A few years ago, one of our good friends gave to us as a wedding gift a $300 gift card for the mecca of all garden shopping destinations: Lee Valley. While this store sells woodworking and hardware items, its main draw for me is the unique and very useful gardening tools and gadgets their catalogues frequently feature. I had been wishing for a greenhouse ever since we had started gardening together, and this was my chance to get one! What I purchased was not a traditional greenhouse, but a row greenhouse, one that sits directly on the soil in the vegetable garden. This product covers 76 square feet of my vegetable garden from early spring right into summer, and cost just $62.50CAD. It is assembled in much the same manner as pitching a tent, with the use of steel anchors pegs that fit through metal-lined holes along the edge of the plastic cover. The advantages to using a row greenhouse are many. Perhaps the most significant “bonus” to using the row greenhouse in my yard, in addition to extending the growing season, is that the rabbits that visit our back yard buffet rather frequently don’t seem to be able to penetrate the sides of the greenhouse, keeping the small seedlings and tender spring greens safe inside. The major drawback is that, although vegetable seedlings do very well inside the row greenhouse, so do weed seedlings. The soil inside the row greenhouse is currently covered with a very fine covering of tiny clover seedlings. The row greenhouse also prevents rain from penetrating the soil inside, so watering is necessary. A product such as Lee Valley's row greenhouse is a great addition to every vegetable garden, especially for those who battle bunnies! Posted by Amy Urquhart This week I attended the monthly meeting of the local branch of Canadian Organic Growers. Every month the chapter's publicity co-ordinator makes several announcements about organic gardening and community gardening at the beginning of the meeting. As usual, this week she had several announcements about garden tours, open houses, plant sales and new products available to organic gardeners. This week, however, there was one announcement that stood out as exceptional. There is a farmer who lives in a rural area of Ontario called Kendal, and this farmer has 10,000 square feet of land he’d like to donate for the use of growing food. It sounds like what he is envisioning is a community garden. He says there is enough space for 40 plots! He’ll even supply the water. This man has his heart in the right place. Unfortunately, his farm just isn’t in the right location for this initiative to be successful. Kendal is quite a drive out of the way for most of the people in this community to make use of the land in this manner. It quite defeats the purpose, when the rising cost of fuel is factored in, to drive a vehicle to a community garden that is 45 minutes to an hour away from home. Out in Kendal, most people have space for gardening. The nearby cities of Oshawa and Whitby are more in need of community gardening space. Perhaps this farmer should consider looking for a couple of people who would like to make a go of market gardening? With 10,000 square feet, a lot of vegetables could be grown and sold in many of the nearby summer farmer’s markets, and making the trip out to the garden would be much more realistic. Interested individuals can e-mail me for this farmer’s telephone number. Posted by Amy Urquhart When I began to plan out my vegetable garden for this growing season, one of my goals was to increase the production of fruit. Many early summer mornings I’ve enjoyed the ritual of walking to the back of our property to pick a bowl of fresh raspberries to enjoy with yogurt and granola. I thought that adding some other fruit species to our garden of edibles would increase the pleasure of growing food in the yard. My Dad has often described his childhood habit of sneaking off to the rhubarb patch with a small dish of sugar. He would cut off a stalk of ripe rhubarb and dip the damp end into the bowl. The bittersweet taste filled his mouth with a lively burst of flavour throughout the summer. I came across some rhubarb seeds during a recent seed exchange, but when I learned that it would take several years before the plant would yield usable stalks, I decided it would be a better idea to source out a chunk of rhubarb from a fellow gardener who was dividing an established plant. Freecycle is an online community of citizens who are trying to keep reusable items from entering the landfill, and although I have never received plants from anyone through this method, I decided to give it a whirl. I posted a message asking local gardeners to let me know if they had any rhubarb to spare. What a pleasant surprise to find that Anne, a fellow vegetable gardener in my town, had some to offer me. I gladly took her up on her offer and I’m now the proud owner of a small patch of rhubarb in my own vegetable garden. Generous gardeners are to be found in the strangest places! Posted by Amy Urquhart Last October, on one freakishly warm day (the last really warm day of the year), I happily planted tulip and grape hyacinth bulbs along the perennial border in my back yard. I thought about how lovely it would be to look outside at that garden in early spring and see the hopeful green shoots of these spring bulbs emerging from the soil. I love grape hyacinths, also known as muscari, and when they are allowed to naturalize in the garden, they create a pretty purple blanket of colour. I looked forward with hopeful optimism to creating this same patch of purple in my own garden. Over the last week or so I’ve noticed that some of the homes in my neighbouhood are sporting flowering spring bulbs already. I decided to check out the situation in my own yard to see what was what. Upon closer inspection of my perennial border, I was dismayed to see that almost every last one of my emerging tulip and muscari bulbs have been nibbled down to nubs. Those blasted rabbits are at it again! Rumour has it that some thoughtless resident in our subdivision kept rabbits in their yard at one point in time, and when he got bored of them, simply set them free. The critters have multiplied, living under local porches and decks, including ours. While we have made efforts to deter the rabbits from eating our prized plants, it’s a real struggle. I’ve made chicken wire cages, plastic mesh cages (they chew through it), cayenne pepper and even trapped and moved a few of the critters in efforts to prevent the rabbits from chewing and killing young plants. Nothing really works. I’ll just have to begrudgingly add tulips and muscari to the list of plants I can’t grow in this garden. Posted by Amy Urquhart We finally had a beautiful, mild spring day here in Southern Ontario. In a year of near record snowfall, I'm happy to report that most of the snow has melted from my neighbourhood, with the exception of the 30-foot glacier-like icy drift that remains at the back of our yard. Reading garden blogs is still a lovely way to pass away the early morning time. However, it is even more lovely to be able to head outside after coffee, after the first gentle rays of the sun have had a chance to warm the surface of the lawn and vegetable garden, to open the shed, take out a shovel, and start to dig. I began the official physical work on my vegetable garden for the 2008 season by edging along the side of the bed. Because my vegetable patch is situated in the lawn, the grass surrounding it had begun to creep in, and the edges were no longer sharp. I used the edging tool that my father had given me, one he had used for years, to slice into the soft earth, leaving a crisp edge on the bed. Next I raked the soil, removing piles of organic debris that failed to decompose over the winter. Thick stems, skins of rotted tomatoes and crunchy autumn leaves littered the bed through the winter, and I moved this organic “junk” onto my compost pile. Last but not least, I set up my row greenhouse, my saving grace for vegetable gardening in Ontario. Having a row greenhouse set upon the soil extends the growing season, and I intend to plant radishes, onions, peas and beets there very soon. What a relief to make the change from snow shovel to garden spade! Posted by Amy Urquhart Now that I’m a community gardener, I somehow see community gardens in places I never noticed before. It’d odd, as though there were complete gaps in my visual consciousness before. It makes me wonder what other things I’m not seeing! A couple of summers ago, my husband and I were out on a bike ride in our neighbourhood and I was pleasantly shocked to find that there was a community garden within a five minute bike ride from our house. We had lived in our home for a couple of years before coming across the garden, and I wondered how this was possible? Fortunately one of the garden’s organizers was there, tending her plot, and we were able to secure ourselves a plot for the following season. Obviously, finding a community plot isn’t so easy for some would-be gardeners. Indeed, in some cities there are extensive waiting lists for community garden plots. I’d like to present a few tips for finding a community garden in your area.
Use your imagination...a community garden plot might be in your future! Posted by Amy Urquhart Five years ago, I found myself really in the depths of gardens and gardening for the first time. I had grown annual flowers in pots and planters, but had recently begun to grow edibles and the gardening bug had hit me hard. I thought maybe there was a way I could make a living handling plants, so that spring I started to apply to garden centres in and around the City of Toronto, where I lived. The day I got hired at a large garden centre, I was thrilled. The interview was informal; the owner was an Italian woman whose family had been operating the business for many years. We walked together around the beautiful, bright greenhouse, and she pointed out various species of plants, asking me to identify them. She quickly realized that I knew something about perennials and hired me to be a perennial plant salesperson. Going to work every day at the garden centre in early spring was a wonderful experience. Daily tasks consisted of watering plants, moving flats around and keeping them organized, and talking to customers about the habits of various perennial plants. I learned most of my common knowledge of perennials from that job, and often still reflect on it when I'm trying to remember something about growing a certain kind of perennial. The best part of working at the garden centre, however, was the discount offered to its employees. When it was time for vegetables and herbs to be sold, I took full advantage of this employee discount! I selected peppers and tomatoes, lettuce greens and herbs to grow in my small back yard plot. This season I am hoping to return to the horticultural industry part-time. For garden enthusiasts, it's a wonderful way to earn a little money while surrounding yoruself with the plants you love! Posted by Amy Urquhart Earlier this week I watched an episode of Vision TV's Recreating Eden about Montreal gardener Gwynne Basen, self-proclaimed “Tomato Queen.” In the episode, Gwynne travels to France to visit the Loire Valley to attend an annual tomato festival at the Conservatoire de Tomate, home of over 600 varieties of heirloom tomatoes. 600 varieties! Over the past couple of years I have grown approximately 35 different varieties of tomatoes in my back yard garden. Each year I tell myself that I am going to cut back a little on the tomato plants. Although they are my absolute favourite plant to cultivate for the vegetable garden, it has been a challenge to keep up with the harvest. I have given away almost as many tomatoes as I have roasted and preserved and eaten in my own kitchen. In my article, How to Grow Heirloom Tomatoes, my recommendation is to select a range of tomato varieties for growing in the home or community garden plot. I’ve been trying to follow my own advice, but it’s been difficult to stick to a plan, since trying a new and exciting variety of tomato is hard to resist. I believe I’ve narrowed down my selections for the 2008 growing season:
Now, whether I am able to resist trying some other varieties remains to be seen! Posted by Amy Urquhart Old Man Winter has just got to be kidding. I've absolutely had enough of this season for 2008, thank you very much. Yesterday the Weather Network indicated that a powerful winter storm was on the way to my part of the Province of Ontario. I laughed at their use of the adjective "powerful." Today the powerful storm has been upgraded to a "menacing" winter storm. I'm hoping that it will be the storm to end winter. Spring starts officially in twelve days. Coming this close to the back end of winter has led me to look desperately for something green. In my community there is a sore lack of indoor green space to enjoy during winter, so I've been using the Internet once again to keep in touch with all things vegetable gardening and green. I've been perusing my personal Flickr site, in an attempt to get back in touch with my garden. Reviewing last year's photographs of the vegetable garden has been revealing...I've noticed a few things I wish I had done differently. There are a few plants that have left me wondering why I bothered to grow them in the first place. There are also some great successes I've enjoyed reviewing. Keeping a photographic journal of my garden is such an essential part of the season for me that I couldn't imagine a gardening season without a digital camera in one of the pockets of my gardening apron. Photo hosting sites like Flickr, Photo Bucket or Photrade are excellent tools for managing a collection of garden images, and sharing them with other gardeners. If you're as desperate for spring as I am, check one of them out. There's sure to be some inspiration for this year's plot, just a click away. Posted by Amy Urquhart In the past, I haven't been the kind of gardener who puts a plan on paper. I have preferred in previous growing seasons to garden on a whim, buying and planting whatever plants catch my fancy throughout the season. This year, I've decided to at least attempt to grow according to a plan. You can, too. Make a list of the vegetables and herbs you plan to grow, keeping in mind which of the plants will be planted in early spring. Lettuce greens, cabbage, onions, spinach, peas and radishes are cool weather crops. When these crops have finished, you might decide to plant other warm weather plants, including herbs or edible flowers, such as nasturtiums, in their place. First, draw the perennial herbs and other plants that currently exist in the garden. For example, in my back yard vegetable garden, I know that there is already garlic planted in one corner of the plot. Next, draw in the new crops that you are planning to grow, using representative shapes for each type of plant. I like to draw a blob-like shape to represent individual plants. Show how each crop will be planted, whether it be in rows, clumps or on a vertical support of some kind. Label each of the plants, and try to orient your handwriting in the same direction throughout the plan, so that it will be easy to read. Once your plan is finalized, it’s a great idea to have it laminated, so that you can tote it outside while you’re working in the vegetable garden. You can also post it inside your shed or near the garden door! Posted by Amy Urquhart This morning outside my kitchen door, I glimpsed the first small patch of grass I'd seen in months. Some of the snow has recently melted away. Officially, spring isn't scheduled to arrive to my town for another 29 days. Our last frost date won’t arrive for 65 days! It’s hard not to groan out loud this time of year. Soon it will be time for me to start some seeds in my basement under the lighting contraption my husband has devised for me. Until then, I’ll be spending quite a lot of time standing in the dining room, staring at the blank, snow-covered canvas that is my back yard garden, making plans for the upcoming growing season. Our back deck is exposed to full, south-facing sun. Although we have a large yard, I like to experiment with growing in containers on the deck. A friend of mine has some wonderful, large, rectangular planters on her rooftop garden, and although I don’t plan to build anything like that, I do have some fantastic old apple crates hanging around the yard that would make terrific planters. I’m planning on placing them on the deck, on either side of the steps that lead to the deck’s surface, and planting some tall plants in them to add some beauty and privacy to the seating area of the deck. I’m thinking of trying anise-hyssop, since I always have an abundance of self-seeded plants, it grows nice and tall, and I absolutely love the licorice scent and spiky purple blooms. I will also plant some edible nasturtiums in among the anise-hyssop, allowing them to spill over the sides, adding some lovely colour to the sitting area on our deck! Posted by Amy Urquhart I received my copy of Martha Stewart Living's March edition yesterday, and the magazine's focus is gardening. Usually when I receive a gardening magazine in the mail I look immediately for pieces that focus on vegetable gardening. I am usually disappointed...vegetable gardening doesn't seem to be as "sexy" as some of the other topics gardening writers get excited about. Turn to page 188 of March’s Martha Stewart Living, and you’ll probably drool your way through a brief yet visually stunning article about Martha’s 90 by 150 foot vegetable garden at her Bedford home, Cantitoe Corners. I know what you’re thinking. “What does Martha’s vegetable garden have to do with me?” I agree, to an extent. Many of the articles showcasing Martha’s home life depict rooms in the home, and now, the garden, that are on such a grand scale that their standards are simply unattainable to regular folks. However, there are a few good pieces of advice provided in this particular article that apply to all back yard vegetable gardeners (and community gardeners, too).
Try not to get discouraged when you read about fancy, larger-than-life vegetable gardens. Instead, create your own personal vegetable patch, and take some of the advice offered by those fortunate enough to hire a staff to help them out! Posted by Amy Urquhart Weblogs are a terrific means for finding like-minded people...whether a gardener’s focus of interest is perennial gardens, annual flower gardens, community gardening or vegetable gardening, it is highly likely that there are several well-written blogs on the Internet to choose from. I’ve found several weblogs that tell the stories of individual gardens and gardeners, blogs that I visit on a regular basis. When my garden is covered with frost and snow, I find comfort and inspiration in reading the stories of other gardeners. In particular, there are two gardening blogs I read on a continual basis, both of which focus on growing edible plants, including vegetables and herbs, by organic gardening methods. In My Kitchen Garden is a beautiful kitchen gardening blog written by gardener and sheep farmer known simply around the blogosphere as “Farmgirl Susan.” Susan’s home, sheep farm and organic vegetable garden is located in Missouri. She has written many informative and instructional posts, including her popular tutorial, “From Seed to Salad Bowl in Less Than a Month.” Susan also blogs about farm life at her other blog, Farmgirl Fare, and both of her sites are filled with beautiful and inspirational photographs of animals, food and vegetables. You Grow Girl is a website that has been created by organic gardener Gayla Trail. Gayla’s focus is on growing unique, organic vegetables in small spaces, including her own rooftop garden and a community garden plot, both of which are located in busy downtown Toronto, Ontario. Her garden blog entries include beautiful close-up photographs of edible plants she has grown as well as public and community gardens she has encountered while traveling. You Grow Girl also features an interactive forum for gardeners to communicate with one another on a regular basis. Give them a read! Posted by Amy Urquhart Every year I look forward to the weeks the seed companies begin to send out catalogues, which means it’s officially time to start planning next year’s garden! While surfing the Internet for seeds is fun, it simply doesn’t quite cut it when compared to receiving those hot-off-the-press hard copies, filled with enticing photos and descriptions of brand new varieties of vegetables ready to be grown in my garden. The Richters Herbs catalogue is usually the first one to arrive. Although I have never ordered from Richters, I have spent a fair share of my gardening budget at their greenhouse shop, which is located about 45 minutes from home. They sell a wide assortment of mint, thyme, basil, rosemary, oregano, and just about every other edible and medicinal herb there is! I was quite happy to find the catalogue for West Coast Seeds waiting for me yesterday in my mailbox. Although the planting instructions for the plants contained inside are tailored to the west coast climate, they can easily be adapted for other climates by checking local growing guides online, such as the Farmer’s Almanac. When following instructions published in a growing guide suited to a climate other than your own, just remember to find out when your frost-free date is, and work from there. Yet to arrive, and most anxiously anticipated is the Seed Savers Exchange catalogue. It’s usually the prettiest catalogue, with its glossy colour photos and vivid descriptions of the vegetables and flowers they sell. I’ll have no problem putting together an order! Of the many annual gardening traditions, I can easily spend many a long and cozy winter’s night sipping a cider, staring at my seed catalogues, the pages of which become dog-eared and worn with use. This month, I encourage you to participate in the poll, below, "Anxiously Awaiting Vegetables." |
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