Carrots are the most popular crop in our winter garden with the cold temperatures turning the roots into sugar-filled ‘candy carrots’. Our winter carrots are planted in mid-summer in both garden beds and cold frames, and although ‘Napoli’ and ‘Yaya’ yield the sweetest orange carrots, the kids also like to seed a rainbow of colours including red, yellow, white, and purple.
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Prevent squash vine borers organically
If you grow zucchini and squash, you’ve probably lost many plants over the years to squash vine borers. Well, at long last, here comes the calvary! I’d like to share the technique I’ve used to prevent squash vine borers organically in my own garden for years. It’s worked like a charm to keep these pesky, stem-hollowing insects from ruining my zucchini crop. Give it a try and report back with your results.
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Vegetables that taste better after a frost: Niki’s handy cheat sheet!
Psst.. did you know that there are certain vegetables that taste better AFTER a frost? It’s true! In cold conditions many starchy vegetables like parsnips, celeriac, and carrots, turn the starches in their cells into a botanical ‘anti-freeze’ to avoid cold damage. That anti-freeze is sucrose, also known as sugar!
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Feeding your garden soil: 12 creative ways to use fall leaves
I could waste your time and wax poetic about the joys of autumn in the garden. I could talk about the lovely colors, the cooler temperatures, and the fall harvest. I could tell you how thankful I am for such a successful gardening season. I could go on and on about what a beautiful time of year it is. But I’m not going to, because – let’s talk frankly here – fall can be a gigantic pain in the butt. Especially when it comes to finding a use for all the leaves you’re raking. But, by using the following inspiring ideas, those leaves can be put to work feeding your garden soil in some pretty creative ways.
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Overwintering plants that go dormant
In the fall, sometimes it’s nice to bring some annuals indoors to keep as houseplants. However, my space for new indoor plants is limited, and I have to say my indoor green thumb isn’t quite as, um, proficient as my outdoor one. That’s why I like plants like figs and brugmansias. Overwintering plants that go dormant over the winter months, is a cinch. These no-fuss tropical plants won’t survive our harsh, Canadian winters, so they like to hunker down and hibernate, just like animals do.
Six reasons to NOT clean up the garden this fall
Twenty-some years ago, fresh out of college with a horticulture degree in-hand, I started teaching adult education classes at a local botanic garden. For many years, I taught a class called Preparing Your Garden for the Winter. It was all about how to clean up the garden every fall. I would show slides (remember those?) of how well-kept gardens should look in January. In the images, every plant was cut to the nub, except for the ornamental grasses and butterfly bushes, and the whole garden was snug under a thick layer of mushroom soil mulch. The roses were neatly trimmed to two feet and wrapped in a blanket of burlap, folded and stapled closed to keep them protected from freezing winds. There was nary a fallen leaf in sight; everything was raked up and hauled off.
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