Deadheading sounds really aggressive, and it can be. Over the years I’ve become more ruthless and I’ve noticed something. The more ruthless I am, the healthier my plants look and the more flowers/fruit I get!

Deadheading is the process of taking off spent flowers.

If you leave these flowers on, the plant will invest a ton of energy creating seeds (yes, sometimes you want to leave them!). When you pinch them off, the plant panics and sends out more flowers with the hope they will be pollinated and then seeds can develop.

I take deadheading a step further. I mean, I’m already out standing in front of the plant, so why not do a little more.

Any limp or yellowing foliage, or leaves that have succumbed to a pest get clipped away too. If you leave damaged and diseased greenery on, the plant spends it’s time trying to “fix” the problem. Once you snip them away, the plant sends out fresh new shoots.

When should I deadhead?

It’s an ongoing process. There isn’t a specific month or season for it – other than the plant needs to be actively growing.

I like to walk through my garden with my morning coffee. I pinch and pick as I wander. It’s a daily thing. Missing a day or two here and there isn’t a big deal – you’ll find them when you get to them.

What exactly to I cut off?

Some gardeners might get nervous at the word “cut” – often they prefer to “pinch” off the flowers rather than cut the stem. We’ve tried both methods, and depending on the plant they do seem to have a preference. BUT (it’s a big but) their preference is marginal. If you aren’t sure what to do (snip or pinch) just do whatever is easiest because in all our tests doing something was better than doing nothing.

If I have a vase going on my table, I like to snip off some of the flowers before they are past their prime. This way I get a display inside for a few days before they get added to the compost.

If I don’t have a vase going (or if the flower doesn’t lend itself to the cut flower job) I wait until it’s petals are starting to curl under but before they are completely dry.

As I mentioned above, anything that looks diseased or damaged (by pests or hail) gets clipped off at this time too.

Where does the “garbage” go?

There is very little waste in gardening. In fact, many gardeners spend a lot of time (and money) making and buying compost.

I like to “chop and drop” most things – but if there’s an infestation of leaf minor I’m a little more careful (those go into the proper compost!).

Old spent flowers and greenery that’s been damaged by deer and rabbits are safe to leave on the top of the soil. If there is an infestation of aphids I’m pretty comfortable around them and I’ll put it into my home compost. If it looks like a disease (or if I’m unfamiliar with the lifecycle of the pest) I’ll use my green bin and let the city’s high temperature composting method take care of it.

This is a really good time to make an important distinction between plants we want to reuse and invasive species. If you have identified an invasive species in your garden, generously dig it out/chop it down AND BAG the plant material. Then it should be placed directly into your black bin.

What is “Chop and Drop”?

The Chop and Drop method is great for me because it’s convenient and let’s face it, my compost is full enough already.

Just clip off the affected areas of the plant and put the clipping down on the dirt around where the plant is growing. You’ll help shade the roots, and the soil will retain moisture better when it’s not getting hit with direct sunlight!

If your garden is on display, you can tuck the clippings in behind the viewing area – every little bit helps!

Within a few days, your little clippings will already be brown and their nutrients will be on their way to the roots of plants nearby.

Save the bees!

As a gardener you hear the cry a lot – loud and clear. There is something special when you head out in the early hours of the morning, the dew a wet squeak against the sole of your shoe, and you see them, curled into the flowers slumbering away. Their big fluffy buts sticking out and their tired legs covered with pollen.

For me, in my garden, it’s always the sunflowers that give me the biggest grin. Their cheery heads that drift along with the sun. The sunflowers in my garden are often crawling with bees – the big, thick, fluffy, bumbling kind. The kind you can hear when they are still a house away.

I love this type of bee.

That’s why, every year, my garden contains sunflowers.

Sunflowers have another use – in early autumn, when their heads are droopy with the weight of the seed, they feed the wildlife around my home.

Hundreds of seeds come off a single head – which means I feel like I have a lot to share!

We have seed packages of “Giant Sunflower” and “Multi-Bloom Sunflower” out and about in a display near you – if you haven’t given sunflowers a try yet, let this be the year!

And, just in case their beauty and their seeds aren’t enough, their stalks also dry nice and straight and make excellent garden stakes!

There is a lot of internet advice about how to transition your babies from their safe, cozy beds in your home out to the harsh environment outside. A lot. If you spend HOURS online, you’ll find 8 different people telling you 8 different hard rules that you should never break. Sometimes, their advice can even be contradictory witch can just cause more confusion. If you’re looking for help – EASY help – with how you can harden off your plants, then read on!

Start Early

It sounds simple enough – but all too often I’ve been caught off guard by a nice warm spell and every bit of me wants to get my plants planted outside where they belong. Without fail, when I rush this process I end up with stunted plants and sometimes even dead ones.

Some advice columns make this process long and scary – and it really shouldn’t be scary, but it does need to be long. The shortest successful spell I’ve managed was about a week – but in all fairness the process should take at least two.

What are the rules?

The only hard rule is that you can’t rush the process. Your babies have never felt the suns radiation before – if you don’t have a grow light, it’s possible they haven’t felt much radiation at all. You need to be careful that they don’t get burned by exposing them to too much too quickly.

After you’ve accepted that you need time, then everything else falls into place quite nicely. Ideally, you’ll start with a warm, cloudy day. and pop them outside for an hour, maybe two if you decide to have a nap at the same time.

Slowly build up the time they spend outside by adding approximately half of the time they spent the day before. If you are feeling the pinch and can’t wait (or depend) on the clouds to protect their leaves, you can always cover them with a sheet. This is particularly helpful if it’s still a little chilly outside.

Also, by starting the weaning process early in the morning, your plants will be a lot sturdier by the time they are ready to spend their first night outside.

Why?

We feel this question. Strongly.

Why do you need to spend all this time (and accumulate all these extra steps) – don’t you only want to keep the plants that have the greatest potential to survive?

We asked that question a lot. Especially when we were just starting out. While it’s true you want the strongest and healthiest plants in your garden (to help avoid pests and disease) how the plant handles a temperature swing doesn’t tell you much about the plants inner strength. It’s kind of like trying to judge a stores produce by the bags it uses at the front counter. These are two completely different problems!

Hardening Off Schedule

Time needed: 14 days.

1. Day 1
   1:00 in shade AND protected from wind

2. Day 2
   1:30 in shade AND protected from wind

3. Day 3
   2:15 in shade AND protected from wind

4. Day 4
   3:15 in shade AND partially protected from wind

5. Day 5
   4:45 in shade AND partially protected from wind

6. Day 6
   7:00 dappled sunlight is good now. a cloth with a loose weave or under droopy branches of a tree works well.

7. Day 7
   10:30 dappled sunlight

8. Day 8
   16 hours – but really, this should be from when you wake up to when you go to sleep. Don’t leave them outside overnight quite yet!

9. Day 9
   All day in the shade or dappled sunlight. Now you need to really watch the forecast. The plants are pretty comfortable with the daytime program, but you are ready to start adding some overnights in the mix!

10. Day 10
    1:00 direct sunlight – the rest of the time covered with a loose weave or in a dappled/shady location

11. Day 11
    3:00 direct sunlight – the rest of the time covered with a loose weave or in a dappled/shady location

12. Day 12
    5:00 direct sunlight – the rest of the time covered with a loose weave or in a dappled/shady location

13. Day 13
    All day/night in their spot

14. Day 14
    Another day/night in their spot

15. Day 15+
    Plant them!

Winter can be depressing.

Especially if each thought is “when will spring arrive?”

Then, you walk over to your window, look outside and BAM!

Winter is still here…

There IS something you can do that will help get your nails dirty AND give you unique insight to the micro-climate of your yard… It’s called “Winter Sowing”.

It’s easy, inexpensive, and a great way to push back those winter blues.

What you’ll need:

• Containers with a wide base and small spout (milk jugs work great!)

• Craft knife, steak knife or scissors

• Sharpie to write on the container with

• Potting soil

• Seeds

• Duct tape (optional, but helpful if you have squirrels or are nervous about attracting mice)

You’ll want to cut the top of the container most of the way around to create a hinge on one side.

Fill the bottom of the container with potting soil and make evenly moist.

Plant your seeds and use the sharpie to write WHAT you planted and the date!

Tape the container shut again – LEAVE THE LID OFF!

The container is going to use the cues of mother nature to create the perfect environment for the seeds to sprout. Place it outside in the area you wish to grow that specific plant.

When you see them sprout, you can go ahead and plant them out in your garden in that location (since you are looking at the micro climate, you need to make sure you are planting the same TYPE of seed in the same LOCATION as your mini-greenhouse!)

Short videos and clips about regrowing food from scraps have taken over my facebook page. Even when I know it’s clickbait, I still watch. The voice in the back of my head says “no way… there’s no drainage or way to oxygenate the water” but still, my eyes like the pretty glass bottles all lined up with promising vibrant green plant cuttings inside.

Saving your own seeds is something else though. This is something REAL, EASY, and something we should all be doing.

One of the first things you’ll notice when you start saving your seeds, is you will quickly have more than you can use. Very quickly.

What can you do with all the extras?

You can donate them! Or give them to your neighbors and friends! Plant them in experimental places (like the cracks in your sidewalk!) or just toss them in your green bin – knowing that if you ever wanted to start saving them, you could.

Wait… I hear that vegetables from the grocery store are bad to grow with

MYTH: the amount of product it would take to spray each and every one/ the hassle of it all and the manpower it would require makes this pretty easy to see through. Why does this myth persist? Because we get caught up in wanting “the best” or a specific variety… it’s unlikely that your grocery store lists the specific variety on the tag – but that doesn’t make it any less real!

What to watch out for

Seedless varieties: These are often hybrids and if they don’t have seeds, you won’t have anything to save

Known hybrids: Golden honeydew anyone? Often the seeds of a hybrid are sterile even if they do form. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, but you should be realistic about your expectations. We were able to sprout a TON of golden honeydew seeds but had not a single flower on the bunch (though, the foliage was pretty!)

Invasive species: Just because you “can” grow something, doesn’t mean you necessarily want it in your garden. Did you know that horseradish is an invasive species for our region? You “can” grow it – in fact it will grow very well – but it will quickly choke out the other plants that call your garden home and can spread easily to your neighbours and quickly get out of control.

GMO’s: This really isn’t something you need to worry about. There are very FEW gmo foods in our veggie section at the grocery store. The reason companies don’t want you saving and growing GMO seeds isn’t because the seeds will hurt you, it’s because they spent a TON of money creating them and they want you to spend a ton of your money buying them.

How to save seeds from kitchen scrap

Think: tomato, squash, peppers, apples, oranges, lemons etc

I like to have a paper towel ready and a sharpie. I scoop the seeds onto the paper towel and write what it is with the sharpie. When it’s dry, I can just roll up the paper towel into a bag, or shake the seeds out into a paper envelope.

I think it’s important to note – you don’t need to dry your seeds before you plant them. If you have a butternut squash for lunch and want to pop the seeds outside before supper, you can! Drying them prevents germination and lets you store them, it doesn’t aid the seedling.

We like to start our seeds in “mini greenhouses” – really just reused clamshell containers from the grocery store with a wet paper towel inside! Why do we like this method? Because you can see how many of the seeds sprout! It’s pretty exciting when you can see how ONE red pepper can become 50 plants!

Can I use my regrown scrap for anything?

Think: celery, lettuce, carrots, green onion

If you have enough time (and space!) to invest in your scraps you can bring them to their flower/seed cycle and then collect seeds for that variety that way. You might need to hand pollinate the flowers – and it can take a really (really) long time. But it’s a fun experiment!

What else can I use?

Think: potatoes, sweet potatoes

We will be doing another post all about growing grocery store potatoes in your garden but lets just say that you can pick up a 20lb bag and spend less than a small box of seed potatoes!

As for sweet potatoes you’ll want to let these grow “slips” which you root in water and then plant out. These make a beautiful vine for planter boxes and will give you some small sweet potato nuggets at the bottom when the season is over!

Decide if you want to have a “uniform” seed stash or take it plant by plant.

If you want a “uniform” stash, use a piece of cardboard and cut it to the size you like. We are going to put this someplace safe so every envelope you make uses the same template. (we just use a coin envelope as a guide!)

Style 1

Tape the edges together, then fold up the bottom. You can be fancy or not – it’s up to you and how much excess paper you have left around your template. Our preference is the double fold because many of our seeds are tiny and we feel this keeps them contained the best!

Style 2

Start with the long strip from the side and fold it in half. Instead of sealing the top and bottom, you’ll seal the two sides and top.

Load and Finish

Fold the top over and give it a hard crease. Then make a second crease about one centimeter above the hard crease – this will be your double fold for the top.

When your seeds are dry and ready for storage, slide them into the envelope. Then seal with more tape.

Label your package! This is possible THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP! You might think you will remember… don’t listen to yourself!

Now that you have your seeds stored away in packages, you need a way to sort them. We seem to have a new method each and every spring – so if you have one you’ve come to love let us know! We’ve tried everything from the shoebox to empty pill bottles to old photo albums (putting a seed packet in the sleeves)!

Are you looking for ways to protect your veggie harvest from getting soft too quickly? There are a few factors that you need to consider.

How do you prepare veggies for winter storage?

Don’t wash them!

You’ve picked them, everything is caked with dirt. Good! Leave it! We recommend harvesting on a warm, sunny day because then you’ll be dealing with dust rather than mud – but if you had no other choice, it’s important to let the mud dry and then brush it off (rather than submerging the veggies in water). You want to leave their skin as intact as possible, and scrubbing the dirt can create micro abrasions that can allow harmful bacteria inside and cause your produce to rot faster.

Handle them with care!

Bruised veggies, or veggies with a split skin, don’t keep very well. This is why you don’t want to wash them first – but it’s also why you don’t want to just tip over a bucket of carefully harvested food! Take the time to lift out each piece individually and inspect them for bird/insect/squirrel damage before packing them away. We like to sort into three groups. The first group is the “eat now” group. It has all the veggies that aren’t looking super great due to damage/ level of ripeness. The second group is the “eat next” group. These veggies look good, but we don’t think they’ll last the full season. The final group is the “spring” group. These suckers are perfect. No bruises, no blemishes – they will be the last ones we consume.

Sort them ruthlessly.

The saying goes that a rotten apple ruins the bushel. We’ve learned the hard way that this is true. It’s hard when you see your “eat now” pile grow faster than the “spring” pile – and it’s tedious and downright boring to sort each veggie. There are no shortcuts. If you put an “Eat Now” into your “Spring” pile and you don’t catch it, you won’t have anything in spring, and all those “perfect” veggies will be slimy, rotten and mouldy. Yuck. Be ruthless. If you’re “Eat now” pile gets too big, consider freezing or canning some – but don’t lower your standards!

How do you physically store vegetables that last all winter?

The magic ingredient is peat moss.

Yes, we know it’s in short supply and there is a sustainability issue – but nothing else is quite the same. Peat moss actively breathes and regulates the humidity inside your storage bin. It’s also not overly heavy.

Start out with an inch deep layer of peat moss at the bottom of your storage bin. Then add a layer of veggies and a layer of moss. Continue to lasagna like this until your bin is full or you run out of vegetables.

*a tip about storage bins. If you have a wooden box, it will breathe better, but plastic storage totes will work too. Just drill some holes in it so it doesn’t become saturated with humidity if one of your vegetables rots.

How do you use stored veggies?

We eat them.

Soups, stews, roasted… It sounds basic, but instead of going to the grocery store for winter veggies, we go to the basement, grab what we plan on using, and then go upstairs and cook ‘em.

Yum!

Your composter is sealed shut with ice. The path to it is covered in snow. Also, it’s cold out and your slippers aren’t weather proof.

Okay, we’re talking about ourselves here. But I’m sure we aren’t the only ones with this problem! If you want to compost, but it’s the middle of winter, we’ve got some tips for you!

Using a standard composter

If you already have one of these started, you can add to it over the winter – just know that the temperatures here will “freeze” your additions rather than “decompose” them.

You might want to keep a bucket (with a lid to deter pests!) right outside your door to toss the kitchen scrap into nightly, then only a few times each month do you need to take it all the way to the composter (and you can pick our chinook days!).

We have good success lining the bin with newspaper or paper towels – then frozen or not it slides out (remember to avoid plastic bags for home compost – even “compostable” ones!)

Also, and this was a surprise to us, the compost seems to “compost” faster come spring – so it’s a good way to get a jump on the season!

Tossing your scraps directly into the ground

We see this method on a lot of blogs, and it’s not our favourite. What they neglect to tell you is putting food scraps outside attracts hungry pests. Especially in winter. Mice, raccoons, skunks, rabbits, deer… all of these will come digging around your yard. You might enjoy watching them, but they can do real damage to your house and your garden space.

Red Wigglers

This is the method we recommend. If this wormy idea makes you squirmy, you aren’t alone! We had HUGE fears about it – until we did it. It sounds about 100x worse than it actually is.

Was it without problems? No – but that’s a story for a different post. Let’s leave it at: the problems we encountered were all easily resolvable (and were more of a user issue than a system failure!)

Things to know before you start:

If it smells something is wrong.

You need a BIG tote (likely double what you’re imagining…). Costco sells big black storage totes with bright yellow lids – our family of 6 needs two of these going or the worms can’t keep up.

The bins leak excess moisture so have a place where it can drain (either by adding a spigot you open and drain off from time to time, or by putting it at the end of the garage so it can dribble out each time you open the door…)

You need a lot of “brown” so if you cancelled your flyer subscription you might want to raid your neighbours blue bin! We keep shredded (just regular paper shredder) flyers/bills/school notices in a garbage bag next to the worm bin for easy additions.

Your “Green Bin” from the city

This is an often overlooked option. A lot of people don’t start because the project of what they “want” is too overwhelming at the start. If you want to start a garden, it’s true that your plants will benefit from good compost – but that DOESN’T MEAN YOU NEED TO MAKE IT, especially not in your first year and doubly if it is what is preventing you from giving gardening a go. If my worms are well fed and I don’t want to spend the time outside in the cold, my compost goes into a compostable bag (and then one of the kids delivers it to the green bin!). One HUGE benefit, the green bin doesn’t smell at all in the winter

If the weather has you chilled to the bone, you might want to start thinking about getting a grow room ready! We’ve been starting seeds early inside for many years now – and we have learned a ton through trial and error. Mostly error.

It’s been a few weeks since our last blog update, and for that we apologize. We suffered a personal loss and it’s taken us a few weeks to get back on track. The thing about gardening that makes it so important to me and my family is it’s ability to heal emotional wounds. There is nothing that compares to watching new life burst through the surface of soil. Nothing like watching the first blossom open or the first true leaf unfurl.

This post is so timely – not necessarily because you need to start your seeds now (though, you can get a few harvests of lettuce in before spring if you do!), but because when I write about our indoor grow room, I can smell the soil and feel the excitement I have when each of my “babies” grows.

What is a grow room?

A grow room is a dedicated space in your home where you intend to grow seedlings (or mature plants) or overwinter your plants so you can have an early start in the spring. It doesn’t need to be a full room – but it does need to be protected from ambient overnight light (and you should protect your eyes from the harsh grow lights!). If you are wondering how to start an indoor grow room, we’ve got answers to your questions!

What do I need?

Some will say you can get away with a window, a big window. Well, we’ve tried it (in 3 different houses!) and it didn’t work out. We’ve also tried grow lights (in those same 3 locations) and had AMAZING results.

With that understanding here’s what you’ll need to start your very own indoor grow room:

Space that you don’t need to look at.

Grow lights.

A way to suspend the grow lights over your plants.

What grow lights do we use?

https://www.mars-hydro.com/led-grow-light/mars-blurple-led-grow-light/buy-mars-ii-900-full-spectrum-led-grow-light-mars-hydro-for-sale These are the cheapest (when we bought them – always check for good sales and different resellers yourself!) and they work great. They are an odd colour, so you’ll want to make sure that you have a door that closes or that you build a shield around the space so the light isn’t leaking out.

What shelving do we use?

https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/p/hejne-shelf-unit-softwood-s79031414/ Again, it was the cheapest (are you seeing a trend yet?) and the most modular so we could move it around from room to room (and house to house) as we tested different methods.

https://www.costco.ca/seville-classics-6-shelf-commercial-shelving.product.100266862.html We also use these shelves. They cost more, and don’t fit the bins quite as nicely – but they have wheels, so you can stack your shelves closer together and just pull out the one you need.

How do we protect our floors?

https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/p/samla-box-transparent-00130129/ We put the plants that are under the lights in here. If we are going away for the weekend, we just add extra water. These bins have worked really well (and they fit great on the shelf!). So far, we’ve had no leaks or breakage and we’ve been using the SAME bins for more than 5 years.

**Note, we DO NOT get kick-backs from ANY of the links on the site. When we say we use it – it’s because it’s physically being used inside our home. We paid full price for the product and do NOT have a contract with any of these companies to get a kickback from any purchase or website traffic that originates from us. Does it mean the product is “The Best” or “The Only”? Nope. But it will get you started!**

I think my grow room is ready, what’s next?

You have a shelf for your plants, a light suspended above – now what?

If your space has a door – great! You can just keep it closed when the lights are on. If you don’t have a door (because it’s in the corner of your living room…) you’ll want to build a shield to protect your eyes and the eyes around you. An old cardboard box works well. You can staple (or tape) an old bed sheet or opaque shower curtain on the ceiling – really the possibilities are only limited to your imagination. You want to make sure that there is airflow in and out of the space (so if it’s a room, go inside and check on your plants each day) or you run the risk of increasing the humidity beyond healthy levels.

You’ll want the lights on for about 12 hours – and you need to make sure that this corresponds with any ambient light the plants/space might be exposed to (so make sure they are on during the day!). Plants cope really well with their light-time being interrupted (think a cloud moving slowly across the sun or a cloudy/rainy day) but they do not cope well with their dark-time being interrupted (and they need this time!).

The pH of your soil. Maybe you had scabby potatoes and someone told you that your soil was too acidic. Now you’re worried about what you need to do to fix it and the internet is blowing the problem way out of proportion.

Generally speaking, if your soil is too basic or too acidic, it’s a direct result of the plants you have planted there and NOT something you can really “fix” unless you want to rethink your landscaping. On the other hand, there are some things you can do – and they should be done to every garden, regardless of if you are worried you have too much acid present!

What time of year is best to test the pH of garden soil?

Fall is actually a great time to test the pH of garden soil!

If you do it now, you have all winter to research the plants that will grow well in your specific soil type and source them.

How can I test the pH of my soil?

Do you have a fish tank? Then you likely have a proper pH tester. If this is the case, you can water down your mud and get a “real” scientific reading. If not… we’ve got a simple kitchen-counter experiment that will give you valuable insight into your garden plan for next season!

Here is a simple way to test if your soil is basic or acidic using items from your pantry:

Quick Test for Soil pH

1. Gather Soil Samples
   You’ll need 2 clean bowls (a cereal bowl works fine!). Go go outside and dig about 1/2 cup of soil into each bowl. You want to have about the same amount from the same location in each container.

2. Add Water
   Add 1/2 cup to 1 cup of water to each bowl and mix thoroughly. You want to make a goopy mud mixture so it’s easy to stir the reactants in for the next step. (Add the same amount of water to each bowl)

3. Add Reactants
   Add 1/4 cup of baking soda to one bowl and 1/4 cup of white vinegar to the other.

4. Evaluate Your Results
   Stir. One of your bowls should develop bubbles (if neither of your bowls reacts or if both have a very small reaction, you can assume your soil is fairly neutral).
   If the bowl that develops bubbles is the baking soda bowl, your soil is acidic.
   If the bowl that develops bubbles is the vinegar bowl, your soil is basic.

Basically, what you do is make mud, then see if that mud fizzes when it contacts vinegar (indicating your soil is basic) or if it fizzes when it contacts baking soda (indicating your soil is acidic).

It’s important to understand why your soil is basic or acidic, as an unplanned landscaping change can have a ripple effect on the plants that like the soil the way it is. Let’s go back to the blueberry patch under the spruce. You get nervous that the tree is getting too tall and could fall in our next windstorm so you chop it down and plop in an apple tree. Suddenly, your blueberries aren’t very happy with you. What went wrong?

Simply put, the blueberries were happy because they enjoyed the acidic soil. The spruce was the landscape element that created the acidic soil. When you removed the spruce, the soil returned to a relatively neutral pH and the blueberries stopped thriving.

What should I do about my soil?

Add organic matter.

Yep. It got it’s own paragraph because it kinda is the magic bullet that answers everything. Soil too sandy? Add organic matter. Too much clay? Add organic matter. Soil not retaining enough water? Add organic matter.

Here is a great resource if you want to learn more about soil in general. It’s from the University of Maine and so it’s specific to their environment, however there are similarities and they do an excellent job explaining the composition of soil!

(You can copy and paste this address into your browser if you don’t feel comfortable clicking links – it really is worth the read: https://extension.umaine.edu/gardening/manual/soils/soil-and-plant-nutrition/ )

Crop rotation? At first blush it sounds like a new buzz word – but it’s not. Old-time farmers know what this is and why it’s so necessary. Unfortunately, it hasn’t really entered into the lexicon of new urban gardeners (likely because we are already pinched for space!).

So, what is crop rotation? Do home-based gardeners even need to worry about it? How will this impact perennials? Never fear – A Veggie Patch is here to explain what crop rotation is (and isn’t!) and how it can impact your garden!

So… what is crop rotation?

Put simply, crop rotation is when you intentionally grow families of plants in different places each year. Now, if you’re imagining yourself outside digging up a new garden plot each spring, don’t worry – this is not that (that usually happens when you catch garden fever). Ideally, you will lump ALL plants of a single family together and move them around.

Let’s say you have 4 garden plots N, S, E, and W. Year 1 you plant tomatoes and potatoes in “N”. Year 2 you should not use “N” but choose another, like “W”. Now year 3 comes around and you chose “E”. then year 4 and you plant them in “S”. Year five you can go back to N with confidence!

Why should I rotate my crops?

One tomato or two thousand, your plant is still using up nutrients specific to it’s growth cycle. When you “chop and drop” you put some of those nutrients back, but lots are lost to the fruit which we consume. There are plants that are really good at taking nitrogen from the air and locking it into the soil, while others are excellent at boosting phosphorus or potassium. At the same time, some plants feed heavily on these and can leave your soil depleted. If you want to douse your garden in fertilizer each year, you can mechanically add these components back in – but if you don’t like the idea of extra work, you can rotate your crops around sufficiency so they create everything for you (and you still have a crop to consume!).

Another reason to rotate your crops is to protect them from disease and pests. Maggots, worms, slugs, and lots of others will happily chow down on your veggies beneath the soil, leaving you sad at harvest time. When you rotate your crops around, you deny them the opportunity of easy access to a food supply. Most of these creepy crawlies lay their eggs in the soil and then start infesting your garden in the summer when they hatch. If they don’t have an easily accessible food supply, you’ve won your first fight!

How do I rotate perennials?

First, perennials are plants that come back year after year. “False perennials” are plants that happily self seed (like Lavatera), you’ll have plants every year if you let them seed, but it’s not the “same” plant. A true perennial doesn’t die off over the winter and you see the same plant each year.

The simple answer to “how” you rotate perennials is: You don’t. Not really. With perennials, you want to interplant other species to help put back what they take out (and yes… you’ll want to rotate the annuals as much as possible!). Many perennials don’t like to be moved (even at splitting time they can get cranky!).

A lot of gardeners rely heavily on added fertilizers and compost to prevent deficiencies if they are unable to inter-plant enough species!

Spring was nice, but with all the COVID uncertainty I was really thankful to have my garden. It carried me throughout the summer and deep into fall. It’s amazing when you have a hobby that is dependent only on the amount of preparation you are willing to do and the amount of time you are willing to put in. There’s no mistaking that winter is almost here, so if you’re wondering how to put your garden beds to bed – read on!

What does good garden soil feel like?

One of my favourite moments every spring is when I brush aside some crispy crunchy leaves and stick my hand into the soil. It is so light and fluffy I can easily imagine the roots of tender plants spreading through it. If there is a better invitation to get out and get gardening, I’ve yet to find it!

I also HATE the idea of more work than necessary. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE to garden, but I don’t love every little thing. I’ll admit, I don’t like blisters or trying to dig tools I only use once or twice out of the back of the shed (because, well… spiders…).

If you put your garden to bed properly in the fall (or when you get to it) – you will have great soil in the spring. Then there is no amending or trying to mix peat moss in. No adding vermiculite and stirring endlessly. You wake up one morning, decide you’re going to wake up the garden, and it wakes up happy.

How do you get good soil?

You add organic matter. Lots of it.

Let me pause for a moment and make something clear – we don’t add manure intentionally to our home compost or directly to our beds. A lot of people do. We don’t. It’s an unnecessary risk and… well… unnecessary.

We add LOTS of organic matter when people aren’t looking too close, but we also LEAVE organic matter inside our beds from previous years to do it’s thing.

So, what organic matter do we like?

Our compost is a good place to start. Anything with seeds in it, or anything that’s exotic or harder to break down (pineapples, banana peels, avocado skins etc), goes into our composter. Other odds and ends can go directly outside. Excess salad greens, onion peels, garlic stubs, carrot tops all go outside. During the summer, when the garden is in “show off” mode, we hide these under the larger foliage. Also, grass clippings, fallen leaves, and random trimmings from dead-heading get dropped on top.

An often forgotten source of organic material is the vast root systems from mature plants. If you pull these out at the end of the year, the soil settles back in and compacts down. If you leave them intact (by cutting off the plant at the soil surface) they will slowly decay and help contribute to that wonderful healthy soil feel.

Now, this might be different from what you currently do. I don’t want to count how many years I pulled my plants out of the dirt (or how many years I actively went sifting through the dirt to pull out left over roots!). All those roots create an enormously complex pathway system that brings your soil to life. It allows for aeration, the growth of beneficial microbes, and drainage for water (so when it rains/ when the snow melts, the water goes into the soil rather than just running off).

Here is a great resource if you want to learn more about soil in general. It’s from the University of Maine and so it’s specific to their environment, however there are similarities and they do an excellent job explaining the composition of soil!

How do you put a garden bed to bed?

So, how do I put my beds to bed in the winter, to ensure I’ll have this moment every summer? It’s actually quite simple.

1. Timing
   It’s different every year and for each plant – and you can kill them if you want to get an early start, but it’s best if you wait for the plants to actually die. This sounds really basic, but if you have plants that are still alive in your beds, then your beds aren’t ready to sleep. Allow those roots to continue to grow and spread!

2. Chop
   Cut dead plants off at ground level.

3. Drop
   Chop up your dead plant material, so that any tough stalks are no more than 10cm long (I prefer 5cm, but really, nobody is getting out a ruler). You want to “chop and drop” – so if you grew marigolds in your front planter, drop all the dead marigold plant matter onto the top of the soil there. DO NOT do this if your plant had an infectious disease (then bag it and put it in your black bin!).

4. Cover
   Add a nice thick layer of leaves on top of the plant material. Thick. Like, as many as you can find.

5. Protect
   Lay a piece of old chain link fence (or chicken wire!) down on top of the leaves so they don’t blow away before they can be covered with snow.

6. Ignore
   Leave the prepared bed alone (leaf it alone?). No really though, you want to just step back and leave the bed as is until you are ready to start planting in the spring.

Common questions we get asked about putting your beds to bed:

Can I layer like this over top of bulbs/garlic I’ve planted?

Yes. Yes you can. You are adding nutrients to your soil passively using this method. All the decomposing happens while it’s covered up with snow and nobody sees/smells it. Bulbs (if they can withstand our temperature over winter!) will thank you the same as new seedlings you put out in the spring. The baby plants have no problem pushing through. If you get your leaves REALLY deep (like more than a 25cm!) you might want to push away some of the leaves during one of our chinooks so the baby plant only has 10cm or less to push through.

Does it matter what type of tree the leaves come from?

Not really. Try to aim for untreated leaves that are free from disease. If you use diseased leaves, you risk continuing to spread the pathogen/infestation.

I don’t have leaves, my neighbour doesn’t have leaves, and I don’t want to take leaves from the boulevard… what else can I use to put my garden beds to bed?

Anything dry and crunchy. Grass clippings (from your yard or your neighbours), straw (there’s some farms just outside our city that will sell directly to you or garden centers within the city), even just the old plant matter that your “cleaning” is better than nothing at all!

Halloween is almost upon us! If you’re asking yourself “How do I carve my pumpkin and eat it too?” Then read on – we have some suggestions for you!

Why would I want to eat a pumpkin?

Because pumpkin is delicious. It’s sweeter than a butternut squash (though not as creamy) and can be used in so many different ways!

What parts of the pumpkin are edible?

All of it!

Leaves

We like to use the leaves as liners for the steamer basket (I’m sure there is a better name for this tool!). They are poky and unpalatable when they get large, but lining the steamer basket makes clean up a snap!

Vine

You can peel the vine (because it’s poky too!) and use it like you would celery. It’s easy to cook for soups and stir fries!

Seeds

Roasted pumpkin seeds anyone? In the shell or out, these are always a Halloween hit while we wait for trick-or-treaters to arrive! After you scoop them out and separate them from the stringy membrane, spread on a baking sheet (we use a silicone mat under ours). Lightly spray or toss in oil and season with salt. Pop in a 400 degree oven until they smell toasty and start to turn a golden colour. Now, you should let these sucker cool a bit – but I always risk a burnt tongue (and I usually get one!).

The Skin

If you bake the pumpkin, you’ll likely chop it into chunks (so it fits in your oven!). Try not peeling it first but cooking it with the skin on. The skin is edible and gets soft and delicious (especially with some butter and salt!) – think “potato skins” to get your creativity flowing!

The Flesh

Pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream – even broiled or baked like other squashes. The possibilities of pumpkin are endless and delicious!

But I also want to carve it for my Halloween display…

Absolutely- just wait until it’s actually Halloween to start cutting. Then when the night is over, put it in the fridge and cook it up the next morning!

Additionally, depending on how much you trust your neighbourhood kids, you might want to consider putting it in a window instead of outside!

Have you ever added up the hours you spend behind the lawn mower or looked at the mass of green stuff and wondered what cut grass could be good for?

Sure, the grass looks great after a mow, but my compost bins are always stuffed.

My compost bin is full of grass and my trunk is full of mulch. Do you see the problem here?

It brings a tear to my eye when I see all the nutrition in the blades of grass going to waste. I know my plants could use it, but how?

Myths that keep people from experiencing all that cut grass is good for!

I’ve heard all the scary reasons why you shouldn’t use grass in your garden beds as mulch… and I have a few things to say (from someone who has been successfully using it!).

“It will make grass grow there”

Well, no. That’s not how the grass plant propagates itself. If the grass goes to seed AND the seed matures into something viable AND the seed is planted in conditions favourable for germination, then yes, the grass might sprout. If you cut your grass regularly it won’t go to seed. And just like a leaf won’t grow a tree, a blade of grass isn’t going to grow a clump.

“Grass is super invasive, once it gets in it will take over”

Not really. It’s true that we grow a TON of grass and that typically on the grassy part of a lawn we only see grass and not other species. What this fear is missing is the amount of work and effort that goes into creating these magical grass-scapes. The roots of grass are very shallow compared to the roots of the plants you will put inside a garden bed. Grass is also not drought tolerant and takes a long time to become “established”. Ask anyone who has a dead patch how difficult it is to get it to green up!

“Grass smells as it decomposes”

Another nope. This one comes with a caveat though – decaying grass doesn’t smell as long as it’s allowed to dry out. It will definitely smell bad in the compost bin if you don’t have enough browns to add (to dry it out…). When laid out on top of the dirt, the grass quickly dries out and becomes a delicate mat, providing shade and locking in moisture.

My final argument – it’s cheep. You have it anyway, why not use it?

What is cut grass good for?

Well, pretty much everything! If you have a lot of garden, spread it out thinly (so the sun can do the work of drying it for you!). Use it like a mulch. It will suppresses weeds as you build it up layer by layer. If you only have a small space, spread it on a little thicker (not more than an inch at a time though!).

Extra grass clippings we sprinkle over the patches of lawn that need a little TLC. Then we follow it up with a dusting of grass seed. The cut grass will retain the moisture the grass seeds need to grow and as it decays, it will improve the soil the seeds are growing in! Win-Win!

Which beds in our yard are the fluffiest and most nurturing to our plants? The ones we consistently cover with grass clippings! It creates a peat-mossy spongy layer on the top that plants thrive in.

As an added bonus – lady bugs seem to LOVE it too!

I have always LOVED gardening, but I also am extremely nervous around these brightly coloured pollinator “friends.” My hubby noticed I was constantly asking, “How can I keep wasps away while I garden?” That’s when we knew I had a problem!

I just wish I had stumbled on the truth sooner.

We need pollinators. That’s a fact, but pollinators and I have always had an uneasy relationship. I will always remember being stung for the first time.

Ouch!

About ten years ago, me, a glass of wine and a good book. And, unbeknown to me, a pollinator “friend.” Now anything more than a soft “buzz buzz” brings the memory racing back. I say the “first time” because, unfortunately, it has happened since.

Am I scared of wasps? Well, that might be an understatement. If anyone has a better bee dance than me, I’d like to see it. A single buzz can send me inside for the rest of the afternoon, and with a home surrounded by flowers… well… I don’t spend many afternoons outside.

They are also strong enough to keep me out of my greenhouse, away from the strawberry patch, and constantly running after my kids to “close the door!”

So what’s the solution?

There’s a key in what I said above- I don’t spend many afternoons outside. I’m more than a little embarrassed about how long it took me to realize this, but bees sleep. Wasps sleep to.

Get it now?

Yep.

In this case, the early bird gets more than the worm – this early bird gets lots of enjoyable buzz-free time outside surrounded by flowers.

Mornings are also the best time to harvest flowers for displays or to dry for seed for the same reason, you have no competition for those sweet, sweet blooms.

The simple answer is if you live in Calgary, you should be buying and burring your garlic within the next few weeks.

Can I just buy garlic from the grocery store and plant that?

Uh, yeah, why not?

The longer version: Hardneck varieties do the best here (at least in my personal experience!). You know the garlic is a hardneck variety if there is a hollow tube running down the middle of the head and if each clove is roughly the same size. If you find hardneck varieties at the grocery store, go ahead and plant them. If not, you might need to source them from a farmers market!

The rule of thumb for planting garlic is 6 inches down 6 inches apart. The bigger issue is finding a place you can plant it where you won’t change your mind and need to move it in the spring.

Garlic is one of the earliest sprouts in spring. It’s a cheerie “don’t worry, everything is going to plan” reminder for me as I sip my coffee nervously eyeing up the latest snow-dump.

And nothing, NOTHING, beats the taste of fresh you-grew-it-yourself garlic.

So go out, buy some, and bury it. Next fall you’ll be thanking us!

Planting Garlic

1. Buy your garlic heads
   If you can find hardneck garlic at your grocery store, buy it there because it will be a lot cheaper than at the market. Otherwise, most garlic vendors at your local farmers market will have heads you can plant!

2. Separate the cloves
   Snap the head of garlic in half, trying to leave part of the hard root piece on the bottom on both halves. Then snap off each individual clove. You will want a bit of the root part on each clove if you can.

3. Prepare the site
   You are planting now (October) and won’t be harvesting until next fall (August – September) so choose a spot you will be able to ignore. I like to plant mine down the middle of my flower beds. It’s an early pop of green and adds visual interest while everything else is just starting out.

4. Plant the cloves
   ONE clove per hole. You want the holes to be about 6 inches apart and 6 inches deep. Cover with soil and smooth the top of the dirt.

5. Mulch
   I use leaf mulch and grass clippings. Whatever you are going to use, pile it on.

6. Ignore
   Now, don’t disturb the garlic until it forms a head of it’s own – not until next fall. DON’T PEEK! (just kidding- we peek all the time)

I know a lot of gardeners prefer tea, but I’m not one of them. I start every morning off with a steaming mug of coffee. Now, usually it ends up in the garden as I’m not a fan after little wings try and take a sip, but it does leave me with the ethical dilemma of what to do with the garbage my habit produces…

Luckily, I know a lot of kids.

This craft doesn’t take long, and you can use pretty much anything you have around the house to b’dazzle it up a bit. The girl this was for LOVES ladybugs, so that was my focus.

I used the lid on the bottom as a bit of a drip tray, but it wasn’t very large. It suited the onion’s fine, but I’ll have to think of something with a larger reservoir if I want to plant something a little more high maintenance next time.

Have you made cute planters reusing consumable supplies? Leave a comment and let us know!

If you have rhubarb in your garden, you know what I’m talking about when I say the amount of garbage that comes off the plant is enormous.

Now, before you get upset, by “garbage” I mean the parts of the plant that I can’t eat – yes, my garden has lots of this type of “garbage” in it.

For years I piled these leaves into my compost, and before I composted, these leaves went straight into the trash. It always seemed like such a waste.

I’ve been experimenting this summer for some other things I can do with my rhubarb leaves. I’ve seen some boil it down into a bug repellent, but it’s super toxic and seems like a lot of work.

I started laying the rhubarb leaves out between my plants. When my plants were little, I would rip a hole in the middle of the rhubarb leaf and “tuck the plant in” with the leaf surrounding it.

IT WORKED GREAT!

It was minimal effort on my part, but the results had me doing it with every harvest.

Tips from my experience?

• Put the leaves on thick – they decompose really quickly and if you want any kind of lasting barrier between your top soil and the air you need to have layers upon layers.

• Just keep adding as you get them. You don’t need to wait for the leaf to completely disappear before you add another layer.

• You can never grow too much rhubarb.

• After a really windy afternoon, you might need to go outside and uncover some of your smaller plants. This was only a problem while the leaves were quite green. Once they dried out more they didn’t move around.

If you aren’t growing rhubarb yet, why not? It grows prolifically here and is great juiced, eaten raw and added to baked goods (much like zucchini).

Dreaming of getting an early start to the season, but not wanting to commit to a greenhouse?

Yeah.

We feel your pain.

Saran Wrap is the answer you are looking for.

1. Saturate the ground with water.

2. Lay out a single layer of saran wrap and pin the edges with rocks or sprinkle a thin layer of soil on top to prevent the wind from carrying it away.

3. Let the sun do it’s job! The saran wrap will trap the warm air and condensation making the ground directly below perfect for an early planting!

4. Plant your seeds. If your ground is still cold, make sure to choose a cold tolerant crop (like peas or kale).

5. Cover the area again with the saran wrap until you see the seeds sprout!