Notes From An Urban Gardener

This week guest Blogger, and urban gardener, Greg Poirier, gives us some insight into his garden space and ways to push your gardening a bit further this season.  You can check out his blog here.Want to be a guest blogger? Get in touch and let us know.

After last year’s success, I expanded my garden a bit to include:

• Two small plots bordered with cedar (about 6 x 3′). One for perennials and one for annuals
• Two medium-sized pots (about 1′ in diameter) for sweet peppers and a variety of hot peppers
• One very large 3′ planter (for a huge tomato plant that delivered dozens of large fruit)
• Two upside down hanging tomato planters (used this year for heirloom varieties)
• One large planting bag (used for potatoes)
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In my beginner’s post, I recommended several Does and Don’ts, including sticking with a smaller garden, not spending a lot of money, using hardy varieties to ensure your first year was rewarding. Now that you have at least one year under your belt, it’s time to get more adventurous. You have an idea of what your willingness/available time is and know the rewards you can reap if you invest in this hobby.

Here are my recommendations: 

Asparagus

Asparagus grows well in a small plot and once you get it going, it will last up to 20 years. The downside is that it is finicky to start and you have to let it grow for three years before your first harvest. Asparagus is sold as roots, they take a fair amount of care their first year, but if they survive that winter you will have a nice crop moving forward.

Heirloom Tomatoes

Up your game this season with Heirloom varieties. They are tougher to grow, but are often more beautiful and flavourful than their hybrid cousins.

 

I’ve grown mine in hanging upside down pots (like these that Veseys sells). The pots are good for multiple seasons and don’t take up any valuable space on the ground or your deck. The tomatoes above are some of my heirloom harvest.

Blueberry bushes

Like Asparagus, Blueberry Bushes are for those of you playing the long game. You aren’t going to get a yield in your first year, but they are a great treat in the future and can last for a decade or two. Be sure to plant at least two varieties, as they cannot self-fertilize. Pay close attention to the label on the transplants, these can grow quite large (I was surprised to find mine will top out at around 10 ft high). Keep in mind that blueberry bushes can be a nice “border plant” alternative to a hedge if you are tight for space.

Peppers

This year I grew a variety of chili peppers, as well as bell red peppers. They are fussier than their cousin, the tomato, but are beautiful when they  bear fruit (especially if you have varieties producing different colours) and are great for the end of the growing season when you pickle spicy beans (recipe here) or make salsa.

The peppers in the picture above came from two medium-sized (1′ wide) pots that each produced dozens of fruit. If you grow peppers in a pot (instead of a plot) you can bring them inside and have them survive for the next year.

Uncoated Seeds and Natural Fertilizer

As you gain more experience, seek out uncoated seeds. Additionally, you can use organic fertilizers. This can be done with good old-fashioned homemade compost, purchased compost, seaweed (great for nitrogen greedy plants) and of course manure.

WRAP UP

If you enjoyed your early experiments in gardening and want to continue, planning longer term and planting multi-year crops are the next logical steps. Don’t get rid for your annuals like beans and herbs, but expand your space to try new things and start investing in a bit of new space and tools.

Have questions about urban gardening? Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at blog@gregpoirier.com or in the comments section below. Good luck in the spring!

Written By: Greg Poirier

Photo Credits: Greg Poirer

Plant Identification: Methods, habitats and native species in Halifax.

Walking into the North branch library on a damp rainy day, the last thing I expected was to be staring at a bouquet of local flowers. Something about the haphazard bundle of twigs and flowers set the tone for David Patriquin’s talk on Native Plant Identification.

The topic could very well have been a very dry dissertation on Linnaean nomenclature and dichotomous differentiation to arrive at a Latin name. Dr. Patriquin made the speech lively with his animated voice, prizes of local plants and books, and constant participation with the audience.

It was my pleasure to live tweet the event as @skyhsmith, with the #nativeplant moniker. I’ll include a few of the tweets as I go on.

Dr. David Patriquin introduces himself, not as an expert on native plants, but as an Oceanography student gone awry.

@skyhsmith: In 2004 dr. Patriquin decided to learn about his “biosphere” or 50km from his house to get to lawrence town and Polly’s Cove #nativeplant

He became interested in organic farming and gardening, and developed a love for what we call weeds. In fact, most of our food crops came from weeds that grew well in disturbed soils.

@skyhsmith: Most weeds are “friendly exotics” which are important for wildlife, pollinators, and organic management for farming #nativeplant

We started talking about introduced ‘exotics’ vs. native plant species. Most exotic plants are not much of a threat to our biodiversity. Plants like your garden impatients cannot survive without you, and cannot naturalize. Naturalized plants include clover and dandelion, which thrive in freshly disturbed soil. We freshly disturb soil, a lot, everywhere we go.

@skyhsmith : Nova Scotia has aprox. 2k wild plant species. 62% are native, pre European settlement. The rest are naturalized. #nativeplant

Dr. Patriquin shared some of his favourite resources for determining a plants identity, including the website for the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre the best online source for identification. Since it is quite difficult to lug large books, this link may be the best way to have a way to identify plants on the go. Some books he suggests are Newcome’s Wildflower guide, and Carl London’s Native Orchids of NS.

Since Nova Scotia is an Isthmus, and it is relatively separated from the rest of the North American mainland there is very little biodiversity, though we have several biomes. These including Salt marshes, dunes, bogs, Acadian forest, boreal forest, and even some arctic areas in the Cape Breton highlands left over from the last glaciation.

Dr. Patriquin brings our attention to the flowers he brought. They are all from Point Pleasant Park, including, verbena, red maple, pin cherry, and honeysuckle, all gathered that morning.

@skyhsmith: There are about 300 types of plants at Point Pleasant Park. #nativeplant

He recommends that you do not take samples of plants from the wild. While there are few endangered species in HRM (such as ladyslipper) it is best to keep a digital herbarium: if you don’t need vegetation samples: take pictures.

@Skyhsmith: Hurricane Juan gave Point Pleasant Park a chance to biodiversify. Lots of goldenrods and asteracea in the first years #nativeplant

The deforestation from hurricane Juan allowed the park staff to bring it closer to the Acadian forest biome it would have been without our interference. For example, exotic linden trees are being replaced with local basswood trees. Most surprisingly, berries took off like weeds. How did they get there though? Dr. Patriquin suggests that some existed but were hidden by other plants, and that birds brought others.

We are becoming more aware of planting local, and it shows. With professionals like David Patriquin, we are moving forward. We cannot forget that naturalized exotics are now part of the equation, and are in some cases very necessary for the local fauna; including the red clover seeds the Ecology Action Centre gave us at the end of the evening.

So remember when identifying plants: vascular plants have veins, and non-vascular do not.

Follow this link to an incredible resource that Dr. Patriquin put together.

Written by Schuyler Smith

Our Food: See Us in Motion

So I am away from my Urban Garden Project post for the summer. I plan to spend time honing some of my growing skills out at a N.S. farm and the rest of my time learning some new pursuits.

But first I wanted to show you all our new video, that talks about the work that we do here at the Our Food Project, at the Ecology Action Centre.

The Our Food Project combines the garden work that you see here on this blog, with the food skills work (which you can read all about at the Adventures In Local Food Blog) to build positive food environments.

What is a positive food environment, you ask?  Well, we think of it as a situation, or a culture where communities are equipped to grow, access and enjoy healthy, sustainable, local foods. Positive Food Environments include communal resources like community kitchens, greenhouses, root cellars, food box deliveries. It means sharing food, teaching each other what we know, and working together to create equitable, healthy and sustainable community food systems.

Marla, (of the Food Connections Project) and I (with the Urban Garden Project) have been doing this work for over 5 years and in the past year we’ve been able to bring this work together under the Our Food Project.  We have had an amazing year, working with so many great organizations and communities and learning so much along the way.

I hope everyone has a great summer and get in touch if you would like to include your stories of photos on the blog.

Written By: Garity Chapman