grow your own
Filed Under Going Green, Tips & Tricks | April 20, 2010
Intrigued by all the talk you’ve heard lately about growing your own food? After all you can’t eat much more locally than that. But plagued by a black thumb, lack of space or knowing where or how to even get started? As we face another summer with an empty patch of dirt we thought we’d turn to Green Gardeners for some advice.
Green Gardeners provides organic professional garden and lawn services for home owners, community groups and commercial clients in the GTA. Since 2004 they’ve been committed to organic gardening. They encourage locals to look at their yard – or balcony as is often the case around here – as a source of food, energy, and recreation.
But how do we turn that tiny patch of dirt (or cement slab) into an edible-producing Garden of Eden? Andrew Roy, Green Gardeners president, suggests starting with no more than 100 square feet of land or using raised beds or containers in more urban areas. And since the biggest threats to Toronto gardens are pesky critters and too much shade, Roy recommends planting leafy green vegetables such as kale, chard or arugula. Not only are they shade tolerant, but they don’t appeal to pests. Hmm, who knew animals are so much like our toddlers when it comes to kale?
Urban farming is also an activity that can be done with the entire family. Young ones will love planting carrots as well as sunflower seeds. In fact “playdate-gardening” is a great way to get wee-ones outdoors and “earthy” while you look on sipping on a glass of iced-tea.
If we have to be out this summer pulling something from the ground, we’d rather it was the organic fruits – and vegetables – of our labour rather than weeds. Green Gardeners assures us we shouldn’t let our less-than-green thumb or lack of space hold us back. Small gardens can produce forgiving vegetation and the company even knows of containers that have grown three-foot high carrots. So while we may not have to worry about little critters, we will need to keep our eyes peeled for some mighty big rabbits.
Green Gardeners: greengardeners.ca
2 Responses to “grow your own”
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Great post. Couldn’t agree more- kids love planting carrots and sunflowers. Check out mt blog post featuring Chloe the Gardener-my book character aimed at getting kids excited about gardening:http://www.marghanita.com/your-first-vegetable-garden/
Thanks for the suggestion to grow leafy green vegetables in shady urban environments. I’m in the process of setting up my first raised bed and we don’t get a ton of sun in San Francisco, so leafy greens should be the best choice.