Re: Vegetable gardening in Canada?
 

Havent seen those but probably because i gave up looking years ago lol
Amazing ive been thinking of turning my balcony into a veg garden and heres a thread ! Likely the very warm weather here in Edmonton triggered this idea again, didnt get it done last year.

Re: Vegetable gardening in Canada?
 

+1.

I also have a glass-enclosed veranda/balcony. Tomatoes, basil, courgettes, runner beans, peppers, all in pots, love it. :).

I also grow several of the above in pots/tubs on the outside back balcony & up the back steps.


Grow bags definitely exist in Canada.

Re: Vegetable gardening in Canada?
 

Quite a bargain

Re: Vegetable gardening in Canada?
 

Not compared to the usual price of spuds. The baby price would be $9.90 to $13.90 for a 10lb bag as opposed to the more usual $2 to $4.

I don't recall new spuds being up to 7 times the price of other spuds in the UK.

Perhaps the price differential isn't so great in your neck of the woods.

Re: Vegetable gardening in Canada?
 

Food products for the most part are a bargain. Farmers don't work for free. Going out for a coffee with a friend can cost as much as 10lb of new potatoes. To me, spuds seem a bargain and a lot more nutritious than a couple of specialty coffees.

Re: Vegetable gardening in Canada?
 

Temps are good at moment but still to early to plant anything but i can still go look for some grow bags and find a new home for my summer tires off my Jeep that are stacked on my balcony lol And no im not going to use them as planters lol

Re: Vegetable gardening in Canada?
 

I think that expression about comparing apples and oranges should be updated. :)

https://cdn.andertoons.com/img/toons/cartoon4815.png

Re: Vegetable gardening in Canada?
 

I guess it is all about how one perceives value. Apples and Oranges, I guess they do grow on trees!

Re: Vegetable gardening in Canada?
 

Yes, it's certainly true that most surburban McMansions are heavy on the green manicured lawns and light on the veg patch but it's not, generally, due to climate. (It may be due to bylaws or restriction covenants in whatever subdivision requiring you not to do anything that doesn't conform but thats another subject).

In a place with a short growing seasons - we plant in May/June for harvest in Aug/Sept - we have a veg patch where we have success with carrots, spuds, peas etc and a greenhouse. In the greenhouse (which I built with my own fair hands a few years back) we grow toms - with variable results last year - celery, a couple of green peppers & cauliflower. The greenhouse uses raised beds, old fishboxes etc, the veg patch is largely bought in topsoil, the crushed rock that is native to our lot & compost from the 4 compost bins we have out the back of the garage.

If I had the time, I'd like to expand our veg production substantially but life usually gets in the way. So we're stuck with buying expensive veg from the grocery store. C'est la vie!

Re: Vegetable gardening in Canada?
 

Back when I "lived on the land", I used some of the 33+ (I stopped counting when we got to 33) tyres we hauled out from "out back" as potato planters. :lol::sneaky:

Re: Vegetable gardening in Canada?
 

I've grown tons of vegetables in Canada. In Alberta with its hot summers, tomatoes do exceptionally well. Peas, beans, carrots, beets, potatoes, squash all kinds of greens- no problem. In the prairie provinces,plant seeds about mid-May but not corn - it needs the soil to be really warm. Start tomatoes indoors about the end of March. Here on Vancouver Island, I actually get two crops of some things such as bush and pole beans, and some things, such as kale and New Zealand spinach keep going all year round. You can even plant peas in half frozen soil and they'll do OK. I think it's just laziness and easy access to relatively cheap produce in stores that has made people decide not to bother growing their own.
Raised beds - main advantage is soil warms up earlier. I cheat a bit and start my peas and beans indoors then plant them as soon as they sprout. We made great raised beds out of used pallets (free behind a lot of stores such as Canadian Tire).
Most seeds sold in Canada are of varieties adapted to short growing seasons. Some companies such as West Coast Seeds actually tell you how long the variety will take to reach maturity and be harvestable. Prairie Garden Seeds is a family business in Saskatchewan run by real gardeners who tell you what their seeds will and won't do.
With produce prices rising and Canada's main source (California) suffering from prolonged droughts, people are turning more to growing their own vegetables. Yes, lawns are a waste of good growing space and a relic of medieval times when a clear area round the house helped one to spot enemies coming.
Lots to learn about vegetable gardening but I'll be happy to answer anybody's questions.
Last hint: Seeds are getting expensive. Don't buy them at your local hardware store - who knows how old they are or how long they've been sitting in the heat. If you want to save seed from things you grow, plant self-pollinating varieties. F1 or First Filial hybrids won't breed true. West Coast Seeds tell you which of the ones it sells are self-pollinating. Most peas and beans are and so are many of the larger varieties of tomatoes (small ones are almost all F1 hybrids.)
Best of luck.

Re: Vegetable gardening in Canada?
 

My dad always had some whacky ideas when it came to gardening but one thing that worked well was egg boxes and the big egg trays to start seeds off in. Stand them in shallow metal trays for the water and the cardboard absorbed it, you can either easily remove the seedlings to plant out or just cut the box/tray up and plant the whole thing as egg box cardboard degraded really quickly in the soil, not sure if it still would maybe they have chemicals in it now ?

Re: Vegetable gardening in Canada?
 

With all the deer around here, veggies wouldn't stand a chance. It would cost us a fortune to deer proof our land. We had a mother and two fawns cutting the grass for us yesterday.

Re: Vegetable gardening in Canada?
 

Egg boxes do work for planting seeds, but they need to be watched carefully for water content - they dry out quickly, so need to be kept watered, but conversely can breed mould by being kept too soggy. A fan placed nearby can help to mitigate the mould issue by keeping the air moving.

Re: Vegetable gardening in Canada?
 

Same issue here. Plant anything and it's deer supper the same evening.