Buds and Blooms: Start thinking of spring and plan your growing season

By Medicine Hat News on February 17, 2018.

It is so cold and miserable outside, especially this past Monday, but it is time to turn your thoughts to spring and start planning your growing season.

Many of the following reasons might entice you to grow your own vegetable garden: exercise; pride in your accomplishment; organic guarantee; to teach your children; quality and flavour is fresh and on hand for the picking; you don’t need to buy food shipped from the other side of the globe; and it is inexpensive. The seed packets and supplies are available now. Flowers, veggies and herbs grown from seed are a fraction of the cost of potted plants or grocery stores.

If space is a problem to add a vegetable garden in your yard you can consider alternatives like sharing with a gardener you know, patio pot gardening, or planting vegetables and herbs amongst your flower beds.

A raised bed, five feet square, is a good size to get the most out of available space. Vertical space on a trellis accommodate beans, peas, cucumbers, zucchinis and tomatoes. Succession planting of fast growing crops or inter planting of fast and slow growers will give you an abundance of produce for your efforts. Light and water requirements need to be similar for success. At least six hours of sunlight is the general amount for healthy plants but some herbs and veggies like some shade, like basil, chives, mint, parsley, sage and tarragon mixed with beets, broccoli, kale, spinach and Swiss chard.

Container gardens can be grouped for patio interest and moved around to get more light or protect them from an expected hail or thunderstorm. Be sure to get the right size pot for your choice of plants, i.e. lettuce, spinach and radish can go in a shallow pot, while carrots need one with more depth. You can grow potatoes in a huge sack or hang a basket of tomatoes.

No matter what type of garden you attempt, soil preparation is of utmost importance. Dig deep so your plot is loose and add healthy organic matter, like compost, peat moss, old manure, bone meal and perlite, to add nourishment. A balanced fertilizer or compost tea or fish emulsion can be used sparingly once a month for crops.

You can start your seedlings off in egg cartons, plastic trays or paper cups, it doesn’t matter but be sure to use a “soilless mix” sold as “starter mix” for your seeds to germinate well. This is a clean blend of peat, perlite and vermiculite that has been sterilized.

Two phrases you should need to know are damping off and harden off. Damping off is a fungus disease often carried in unsterilized soil that infects roots and stems at soil level, then they turn black and collapse. Use a mister to prevent overwatering and never let those little seedlings dry out. To harden off means to leave plants outdoors for a little longer each time to toughen them up and help them acclimatize to the outdoor weather, before planting in the garden of your choice.

There are many reasons to grow your own herbs and they can grow along side any plants in a raised bed, veggie garden, amongst flowers or in containers. Herbs are grown for aromatherapy: therapeutic use of essential oils or fragrant sachets or potpourri; herbal teas, herbed butters, vinegars and oils; medicinal uses; and of course culinary herbs to enlighten our cooking, like basil and oregano!

Don’t be shy this year about trying any type of gardening, even if you only have time and space to grow a package of peas or lettuce or cherry tomatoes with your child, plant something to make you feel good. The flavour of a homegrown tomato can not be beaten.

Bev Crawford is the Perennial House Manager at The Windmill Garden Centre and John’s Butterfly House.