Organic Gardening News

Repotting can actually set back certain houseplants that like to be root bound. Find out if your plant is one them and discover if they really need a new pot.

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Hanging baskets are a beautiful addition to any backyard, but are they hard work? Not if you add these little extras that take all the stress out of growing a stunning suspended container.

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A few simple jobs now can transform your strawberry crop –boosting fruit size, sweetness, and plant health ahead of the growing season.

They say patience is a virtue, but not for these fast-growing crops!

Bring your yard from wonderful to "wow" with the addition of these colorful shrubs, recommended by experts.

April is when jade plants emerge from winter dormancy. Giving yours a little boost now will make a huge difference down the road.

If you’re like me, the recent warm weather has spiked the immediacy of getting my food garden underway. It’s mid-April, daytime temperatures are in the teens, and hopefully, we’re past those sneaky night frosts.

I’m choosing the sunniest spots in our garden and using raised beds and containers for extra warmth in the soil so I can include a wider variety of cool-loving, early plants. My goal is to enjoy the earliest crops possible, as well as spacing out subsequent plantings for continuous harvesting, so I can still harvest late vegetables for Thanksgiving and beyond.

I will plant early seeds like radishes, peas, onion sets, and early potatoes now but mostly rely on pre-started transplants for other varieties, which will save me waiting weeks and months for harvest times.

I love pre-started lettuce and other salad greens because they grow so quickly this time of year. Butterhead and other Bibb lettuces like Buttercrunch are favourites, both for flavour and ease of harvest. Red leaf lettuce is perfect for adding colour to salads and sandwiches and Romaine varieties, like Green Towers, are the heart and soul of Ceasar salads. I’m also a fan of the blended lettuce mixtures like City Garden Mix, which has a good range of flavours and continues to produce all summer long.

It’s important to get greens like arugula started early as they will tend to bolt or go to seed when we get those sudden bursts of hot weather. The same is true of all those remarkable Asian greens and mustard greens. If you can find them already started in a four-inch pot, they will likely be ready to harvest just a few weeks after being transplanted.

Speaking of bolting, spinach is another crop that needs to be set out early. Fortunately, spinach varieties are all fast cropping, maturing anywhere from 30 to 45 days from transplanting started plants. The old standby is Bloomsdale Savoy, but there are many other varieties available today. It’s ideal to harvest as soon as the leaves begin to size up, because long days with higher heat will spark the bolting process.

Although not a true spinach, the well-known New Zealand Spinach or tetragonia tetragonioides, is a heat lover. It takes longer to produce, often taking up to 60 days, but will produce soft, tender spinach-like leaves all summer long.

Swiss chard is one of my favourite greens, not only for longevity in the garden and for the beautifully coloured foliage but also for the wonderful flavour. Both Celebration and Bright Lights are blends of red, yellow, pink and white stems, making them a garden showpiece.

Of all the brassicas, broccoli has always been a favourite. Purple-headed broccolis, like Summer Purple, are nice to spice up your salad plates. Most broccoli varieties will produce smaller side shoots if you cut out the central head when it’s young, providing a longer harvest. Now, the mini-head varieties like Aspabroc and Artwork, commonly called broccolini, have really become very popular.

Kale is still a hit in our younger gardening community. Not only are they the hardiest brassica, but they also perform well in hot summer. I love the Bor series, like Redbor, Winterbor and Darkibor. The latest trend is to let them grow large as garden specimens, which are especially attractive in fall and winter, while remaining edible.

Pure white cauliflower is a prized culinary specimen, and by making sure you have self-wrapping varieties you’ll be sure to achieve this. They also now come in vibrant purple, green and gold heads to add flair and flavour to any charcuterie board or veggie tray.

Cabbage is still popular, with smaller heads and faster harvesting varieties, like Fast Vantage, available today. Savoy types, with their wonderful, ruffled leaves, are the go-to favourite for cabbage rolls, and red cabbage is perfect for slaws, pickling and mixed salad plates.

Many growers are now starting beets, carrots and other root crops for transplanting. Beets produce wonderful greens for early harvesting, and as they are a fast crop, you can lift the younger “baby beets” to enjoy both the foliage and the smaller roots.

Onions are an early must-have. Multiplier sets will produce green onions only weeks after planting, and then all summer long. Although not huge, Dutch sets will produce medium-sized onions in early summer, so they’re great for a wide range of recipes.

If it’s the giant sweet Spanish onions you’re after, setting out transplants that have likely been started in January will be the fastest and best way to enjoy those spectacular giants in late August. Walla Walla is an all time favourite, but probably the best is a variety called Riverside Sweet Spanish. They are the most productive and have the best keeping quality of all the varieties. If you would like to show off just a little, then try either Ailsa Craig, or the biggest giant of them all, Kelsae. Not only are they sweet and wonderful, but they can reach the size of a soccer ball. In fact, Kelsae, which was developed in Scotland, holds the Guiness World Record for the largest onion — weighing in at 6.8 kg.

Don’t forget potatoes: Early varieties like Norland, Warba and Caribe can go in now for you to enjoy those fabulous nuggets in late June.

We’ll have to hold off until mid-to-late May to plant our warm-weather loving veggies, meanwhile it’s exciting to see the wide variety of cool, early vegetables we can safely get underway now. It’s a promise of some wonderful flavours, and somehow, when we’ve grown them ourselves, they always taste better.

Related

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