Living around the Kitchener-Waterloo area in southern Ontario we have a decent gardening season, but most years you can’t reliably plant vegetables outside until late May and most produce is finished by late September. I’ve read a lot about year-round gardening and have, with limited success, been able to extend our harvest with row covers… Read more »
Practical Crop Rotation – A Second Look
Gardening evolves with knowledge and experience. I have been formally planning my vegetable garden layout on paper for several years now and each year I think I get a little bit better. In addition to learning about plant families, I have come to realize how you effectively rotate your crops depends upon what exactly you… Read more »
Why Can’t I Grow Cauliflower?
I’ve got a pretty good green thumb when it comes to outdoor plants and the vegetable garden. On top of that I love to experiment. We’ve grown our own sweet potatoes, celery, kidney beans, black beans and even pak choi one year. But for the life of me I can’t grow cauliflower. OK, I’ve only… Read more »
Back With A Fresh Start, And A New Fence
I’ve been away from garden blogging for a while. Having returned to work this past winter my energies were focused elsewhere and that meant taking a break from gardening and garden blogging. Perhaps that’s healthy. I’m now ready to start a new spring with a different viewpoint. My goals are different — it’s more about… Read more »
Growing Celery – The Grand Experiment
I first outlined our plans to grow celery in our garden in my Growing Celery in Ontario post in early May. Well I’m happy to say that the experiment in growing celery our first time has been a huge success. Everything I researched came up with four main themes for growing celery: Celery is a… Read more »
The Peas Are Here — So Are The Deer
We enjoyed our first snow peas today fresh from the garden but it was a close call. Two nights ago some deer climbed over our 3 foot fence and decided to have dinner. Their tasty meal consisted of just perfect, ready to pick romaine and boston lettuce after which they enjoyed the tops of our… Read more »
San Marzano Plum Tomatoes Under Cloches
We are trying to get a head start on the garden this year since planting everything in a two week time frame can be a bit overwhelming. I purchased 8 small San Marzano Plum tomatoes Monday from a local garden center and rather than nurse them along in the tiny pots for a couple of… Read more »
Growing Celery in Ontario
Always eager to try something new, I decided to try growing our own celery this year. I thought it would be nice to see if we could have our own fresh celery to add to potato salads during the summer and to my Neapolitan Tomato Sauce at the end of the season. Celery has a… Read more »
More Easy Frost and Pest Protection Covers
I like things to be as easy as possible when I garden and I’m always on the lookout for easier, and quicker, ways to do things. Right now high on my priority list is looking for better ways to protect the vegetable garden from frost and pests. I recently came across these supports for a… Read more »
Vegetable Garden Planting Record
If you haven’t noticed yet, I like to record everything. While this is largely a lot of fun, and mainly for my own interest, there is a practical need to keep yearly vegetable garden records. There is a mountain of information on vegetable gardening out there but even with only a few years under our… Read more »