Think Globally, act locally.

Yes it's a slogan you hear often these days, but it makes a lot of sense. Just like voting in an election, one vote either way doesn't really have a lot of sway, but it is the cumulative effects of many people acting together that shapes our world. 


And I'm not a nut-ball about these things. Our kids LOVE bananas, we have them almost every day. I would love to be able to grow them at home, but unfortunately I don't have a greenhouse (maybe one day). 


Living a more "green" life is about making choices though, and we choose to eat bananas and apples all winter because they make the most ecological sense to us. Apples are grown in Ontario and stored all winter, so you can still get fresh local apples in January; and bananas are generally shipped by sea not air, which is far more plant-friendly.


That doesn't mean we never have oranges, but I try to get them when the harvest is coming in from Florida so they don't have to travel as long, plus they taste WAY better.

We also buy local meat (VERY local, like next door...) and nothing makes my soul feel better then putting together meals where everything except the salt & pepper are grown/raised and harvested within walking distance. 


With the new "farm", we'll be growing our meat & veggies side by side on our own land! I definitely do not do this every night (I like delivered pizza as much as the next person!), but even one meal a week with all our own food makes me feel grounded and like I'm doing something good for both my family and the earth. 


I don't expect everyone to drop their urban lifestyle and move out to where they can have their own little patch of land, but for us it's about doing what we love, and contributing to saving our children's future. 

What varieties to choose

The first answer should be: What grows well in your area; and the best place to find that out, is at your local nursery.


When it comes to my garden, originally I was after flavour and ease of care (especially being a new gardener) but in the last few years I've really found that most things you grow at home taste a million times better then store bought no matter the variety. 

With a quickly growing family and very long cold winters, now quantity and freezing quality is the most important to me. 


Zucchini does't freeze very well so doesn't taste as good frozen as it does fresh; but I froze a whole bunch and added a little into pasta sauce once a week. Even though I grew piles of the stuff, and was literally begging people to take some from me, I ran out of zucchini mid-winter. Before I grew it this year, I didn't think I liked zucchini, but it was so yummy! 


I also froze beans, peas and peppers and we ate all of those as well. While I won't have the time this year (literally the number of days because of the move) to grow enough in the garden, I'm going to try. For next year I'm aiming to carry us right through the winter with frozen (or canned!) vegetables. 


In a couple cases (like beans) I may grow two different varieties, one for fresh and one for freezing. 

Non-hybrids (true heirlooms or not) are also important to me only because I want to be able to save my seeds from year to year. There is absolutely nothing wrong with hybrids, it just means that you're getting a cross of two different strains of the vegetable, so you won't get consistent plant from the next generation of seed (like a mutt dog).


My criteria for choosing variety:
#1 Number of days to maturity
#2 Freezing quality/taste after freezing
#3 Quantity of produce vs Space/care requirements 
#4 Non-hybrids for seed saving 

Ask at your local nursery, check with other local gardeners and research before you buy. Seed packets are sold on their descriptions, most of which say nothing helpful about the actual plant, and can be down-right misleading at times (depending on where you are buying from).

What we're doing, since we gotta move!

Only a few weeks to go before the big move and it's time to start making plans.

Tomatoes & Peppers
At least half of each are going into patio containers for the summer. There just isn't enough time to get a good harvest. Containers will let me bring these guys into the house in the fall. That way I can get veggies from the laundry room until the plants stop producing.

I had a much higher success rate with my tomato seeds then I planned, so I'll have enough to put a few out in the garden as well.

Beans, Cucumbers & Peas
These veggies I can succession plant after we move in.

Lettuce & Spinach
I've already got them sprouting up here from seeds that fell last fall. I'll be able to harvest before we move, then plant a slow bolt variety at the new place for the summer.

Squashes
I don't usually plant my squash until early June anyway (it's just not warm enough here). So I'll just have to find a spot that is really well sheltered for the fall and I should still get an okay harvest as long as I get them in right after we move.

Cauliflower & Broccoli?
On special request from the toddler, I've started broccoli & cauliflower for him. These are cold season crops so I'll have to find a shady spot for them, and plan to plant some more closer to fall.

Strawberries & Raspberries
I picked up a small raspberry plant from my family's cottage last year, so after the move it didn't fruit last year (it barely grew). The little plant has come back with a vengeance! I feel bad moving it again and preventing it from fruiting, but I'm sure we'll have a huge plant by next year. I'll be digging up both my strawberries and raspberries from the garden and moving the whole plants.


A few of my seeds will be staying in the freezer this year. I grew celery for the first time last year (I don't recommend it for your first-year garden, but it isn't too hard), but I definitely don't have the 110 days it takes this year. I also won't be planting any onions, potatoes, garlic or corn, they also take too long and wouldn't move well. Next year!

It's not all bad news though, I do get to plant so more permanent garden areas, like asparagus! We're also planing on grapes, kiwi vines and apple trees. I'm so excited to have my own, permanent-for-a-long-while, vegetable garden!

Well that didn't work.

Mildew.

*le sigh*

Perhaps next time I'll try spacing the out a little better so the air can get around them, I don't know if that was really the problem though.

One thing I did find about the cardboard tubes, they were INCREDIBLY easy to remove the seedlings from.

I just pealed the wrapper and out popped perfect little seedlings ready to transplant.

In fact they came out so easily I would consider using this method again, if I could do without the mildew.



In comes the old rabbit hutch. Not exactly the best option, but with 4 weeks to the move, we've packed everything :). Plus this will make it super easy to move all my seedlings, provided I can keep them happy.

The biggest problem is that I've got hot-weather seedlings on the one side (tomatoes & peppers) and cold on the other side.

Oh well!

Another year, another seed starting method

So it's a little late if you're starting seeds now, and you should probably consider heading to your local nursery to pick up some seedlings in a few weeks; but we're moving soon so I want to keep my seedlings small so they don't get damaged.

Every year so far, I've tried a different seed starting method

Year 0: In the ground

You can't see it in the picture,
 but this
corn plant had to be
double-staked to keep
from falling over &
only gave one ear
because it was planted
 in a peat-pot.

This was a bad idea. In Ottawa the weather does not get warm until late May/June, in fact we had a snow storm last April. There are some vegetables you can/should start in the ground, but around here, Tomatoes are not one of them. I ended up with seeds that were flooded and washed out so they were all over the place, and most didn't germinate because of the cold temperatures or rotting in the soil.

Year 1: In peat pots
Who ever thought this was a good idea?? There is a reason there are so many mummies pulled out of peat bogs. Peat pots are just about the worse thing to start your seeds in. They don't degrade in the soil so your plant's roots get bound up in the peat pot so you can't remove them without killing your plant; or they prevent the plant roots from growing so badly they won't reach full production & are very unstable.

Year 2: In plastic flats

I'm pretty neutral about plastic flats, I know some people really like them, and they make it easy to heat the seedlings, but they aren't my favourite. I find the plants difficult to get out with out damaging the seedlings, but your success my vary greatly with the type of plastic flats you have.

Year 2: Newspaper pots
So after finding a nifty gadget in the seed catalogue (I'm so glad I didn't buy!) and watching some you-tube videos, I decided I wanted to try these guys out but I was so disappointed! They seems like a great way to start your seeds so I spent hours making tons of little tiny pots, only to have them disintegrate the minute I tried to water my seedlings.
I ended up transplanting everything into half plastic water bottles, which actually worked quite well.


Year 3: Cardboard Tubes

This year, I'm trying a variation on the newspaper pots, cardboard toilet paper tubes. I've been squirreling them away all winter (so if you don't have a large family, this may be prohibitive) and I collected about 2 dozen non-bleached tubes.
Planting the seeds was a lot messier then I had planned! But I made a little funnel out of some glossy junk mail, and that helped keep the soil in the tubes. I'm keeping all my tubes on an old baking sheet & being very careful not to move them around too much (not to mention moving them to the new house, haven't quite figured that one out yet).
Hopefully the cardboard will prove to be much stronger then the newsprint of year 2 & easier to remove the seedlings from then year 1.