Almost Canadian

I know that Dbd33 has posted pictures what he grows so, hopefully, he will provide me with some guidance but does anyone else grow their own in Canada? If so, what works and what doesn't?

We didn't go this in England and, when we moved out of the city, it was fairly obvious that the previous owners had an in ground vegetable patch. Last year we bought a tiller and thought we would give it a go but last year was also a horrendous year for us with gophers and the little f*&kers ate everything to such an extent that we didn't look to see what was actually in the ground.

Fast forward a year and we decided to go with raised beds so we have three 3' x 5' beds that are 2 feet deep and thought that we would just plant a little of everything to see how it goes. From memory, we have planted onions, potatoes, radishes, lettuces, carrots, garlic, squash, cucumbers and, likely, some others too. If it works well, then there is no reason to doubt we could add lots more beds.

What works and what doesn't in your part of Canada. We had a mixture of soil and compost delivered and, next year, the plan will be to start as early as possible with the likes of garlic and continue staggered seeding for as late as possible. We will save the mountains of horseshit that our horses produce and use this to give "goodness" to the beds each year.

We also have a room in our basement that looks like it was used as cold storage so the hope will be that enable us to ensure that we can keep as much as possible for as long as possible.

Any thoughts, recommendations and assistance will be greatly received.

dbd33

Rather, what is grown at our place. My role is peripheral. List to follow.

Souvy

I used to grow tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. I gave up. I like all of those things but there are limits on how much I can eat!

The raspberry bushes got dug up (who can eat that many raspberries?) and the pear tree looks like it's on steroids again. The last time it did this, I thought it was going to collapse. We were giving away buckets of pears to anyone who wanted them.

Almost Canadian

Thanks.

How the hell do you get garlic to grow in bales of straw?

scrubbedexpat091

My mother in law grows corn, cucumbers, some sort of squash, bell peppers, lettuce, tomatoes each year with success.

I tried pumpkins a few years ago there, but it was a horribly hot summer, and I couldn't keep them watered sufficiently, ended up with 1 pumpkin however.

Last summer my wife had good success with tomatoes in pots on our patio, we had more tomatoes then we knew what to do with. She may try this summer, but our balcony in the apartment we are in now gets no sun, so unsure if it will be successful.

Mother in law also grows apples, not the kind you can eat as an apple, but they make awesome pies and other baked goods.

She also has wild berries of some sort on her property, a pain to pick though.

Almost Canadian

You have just reminded me that we have tried peppers too.

Did you have to start the tomatoes off in a greenhouse? We realized, too late, that as we didn't stagger the laying of seeds, that we will likely have two back breaking days of harvest, followed by watching the food that we cannot give away rotting. If so, at least we should have something that can feed the soil.

I am pleased to hear that you had lots of success.

BristolUK

A definite yes to those three, especially the cucumbers in the first year (not so much since); plentiful and delicious.

Sugar snap peas and beans grow well too. Strawberries have been good. Alpine strawberries too but I find them quite tasteless, although not bad added to cornflakes.

Herbs too.

Mixed results with spuds, lettuce, cauli.

It's stepdaughter's hobby. I hate anything to do with gardening.

Almost Canadian

Do you buy tomato plants or grow them from seeds?

Almost Canadian

Fantastic!

Does it take much effort, or is it simply plant, forget and harvest?

iaink

I imagine it depends where you are, but in Ontario we had great success with Cucumbers (too much success), Green Beans and Kohlrabi. Green/ Red Peppers and Tomatoes were fine if we started them indoors in the spring,
Carrots were kind of slow going, we planted short stubby types and they were great to eat but not much to look at and usually late in the season. Squash seemed to work OK, Pumpkin were OK but better started early indoors.

Lettuce never seemed to work as it was mostly eaten by insects, Brocolli too. You need to plant a ton of corn to get any as the racoons run riot through it and then the thunderstorms knock over the rest so that never really worked for us. Onions and Garlic were tough going, but useful for discouraging some less desirable garden visitors (along with marigolds). We never seemed to get a crop of either, but somehow it would survive the winter and start to pop up again in the spring. Strawberries I think you have to plant loads of to get any for yourself by the time the chipmonks are done with them.

Home grown veg is very much a case of feast or famine though, or london busses; nothing for ages and then more than you can deal with. Still, the cucumber relish was pretty good way to deal with having 50 cucumbers for 3 weekends in a row, and the kids managed to sell some through the local corner store, or at least convert them to ice cream.

BristolUK

She does lots of planning and research - youtube videos etc. Has a map for where things are. The raised beds probably took most effort - a one time only thing - and she makes multi-trips for the soil. She waters. Always on the go with something.

She's like a new mother when it works.

scilly

OH is the gardener, we've had a veggie patch in our small city garden since we moved in here in 1972.

He set up a compost box that first year, and composts grass clippings, dead flower heads, etc etc, then double digs trenches in about March. He puts a layer of homemade compost in the bottom of the trench, and fills it in with ordinary garden soil

We have lovely black soil in the garden now in an area where it tends to be either sandy or clay-ey

He plants 3-4 rows of potatoes every year, moving the rows up and down the patch from year to year ......... they're good for improving the soil. We usually get enough potatoes to last from digging up in July-ish until January or February.

Also grown ........... broad beans (I hate the things!), snap peas,leeks (sown in summer, transplanted in fall, picked in late winter), rhubarb, raspberries, 3 espaliered apple trees along one side of the veggie patch , sweet peas for me to pick, and our piece de resistance .......... kiwi vine.

The crop of kiwis varies from about 100 to over 400 a year.

We also grow tayberries in a side border against the neighbour's fence

We have given up on strawberries, lettuce, spring onions or radishes, and are trying tomatoes again this year ............. using plants bought in. Vancouver is usually damp, and tomatoes are very susceptible here to blossom end rot, spread by rain drops.

scrubbedexpat091

Bought plants.

gad33

Calgary is the one place I have done the most gardening. I had five raised beds and would rotate each year so (apart from perennials) nothing was grown in the same place two years running.

Raspberries and rhubarb were very successful. And I grew asparagus from seed. Potatoes were also successful and so much better than anything you can buy. Other root veg worked well. Chives would return each year and cilantro would self seed and I didn't worry about mint spreading. There is a special type of corn seed that was specially developed for the short growing season but I was not always successful with it.

We were quite lucky that people would trade to get fresh produce.

Almost Canadian

Thank you.

The only rodents we need to worry about are gophers and I am hoping that our beds are high enough that they can't jump up to them. It that proves to be incorrect, I will have to look into some form of fencing.