For the love of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squashes, potatoes, onions, radishes, peas, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, etc… how to grow them in containers, community gardens, and other small spaces.
Small, but meaningful shifts are taking place in the garden. Over the weekend (April 13), I made my first, small leafy greens harvest of the season. It included: Radicchio, dandelion, stinging nettle, garlic, ‘Egyptian Walking’ onion, bloody dock, and strawberry leaves, as well as some chickweed, kale, and dandelion (including a flower) that are further …
I think you know I can’t resist a weird tomato. Crazy colouration, misshapen fruit, variegated foliage… the freakier, the better. One of the first tomato anomalies I tried were varieties with fuzzy foliage, and peach-like fruit. There’s a bunch out there: ‘Garden Peach’, ‘Wapsipinicon Peach’, ‘Elberta Peach’… I think you get the idea. All of …
Winter is halfway through and I’m sick of it. Over it. Tired of the back and forth freezing and thaw. This week snow and ice, next week thaw and mud. I’m missing the garden big time, but what I’m missing most aren’t flowers, bright colours, smells, or living soil, although I miss those things too. …
Lately, I’ve begun using the video function on Instagram to shoot some quick, informal videos in my garden. I’ve stayed away from video in the past because of the work involved in shooting, editing, etc. But the other day as I was in my garden cleaning up a bed, it suddenly occurred to me that …
According to the charts, we are now past the point of frost danger here in Toronto. Many of my neighbours have already planted out their entire tomato crop. I have not. I can recall at least a few past years in which a fluke weather system came through when it was least expected, completely decimating …
I don’t typically write about tomato varieties that I am growing for the first time, especially when they are tiny seedlings in the first few weeks of growth. However, these two are visually unique and I thought it would be fun to share them with you now. Both are compact plants (a dwarf and a …
‘Golden Nugget’ is a favourite “hot” pepper variety going way back to when I was a rooftop gardener. It’s a fruity flavoured little pepper with a bit of heat that can be used fresh or dried. I’ve found it to be very good infused in vinegar or tossed into a mixed vegetable pickle for a …
I had these seeds for some time, a gift from a tomato-loving friend that I was finally able to grow just this year. I generally prefer to withhold my judgement of tomato varieties until I have had the opportunity to grow them multiple times over a range of different seasons. I recently posted about ‘Snow …
It was one of the breakout stars of the season. I didn’t see it coming. I have grown ‘Snow White,’ a large, white cherry variety, a few times before, but for some reason it sat in the background while other newcomers caught my fancy. This spring I had a lot of new varieties to try …
Summer is almost over. Or maybe it’s just begun. Temperatures are expected to go back down again. Or was that back up? Who can tell anymore. Every year in the garden is new and different, even if just because of the weather. This is why I can never wrap my head around the old timers …
All of the books will tell you (even my own), that you should not allow your garlic plants to produce full flowers. Cut them off when they’re still closed (called scapes). And it’s true. If you want to grow big, juicy garlic bulbs you’ll need to cut off the scapes as they emerge in early …
Many of the flowers on this plate have come from early spring veggies and greens that are bolting in the early summer heat. All of them make for good eating, and the pollinators and beneficial insects like them, too. Allow the plants to mature and you’ll have free seed to sow in the late summer/early …