How to keep the gardening enthusiasm going as a new year unfolds
The year 2020 will go down in the history books for all sorts of reasons, many of them not exactly positive, what with the arrival of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns, bubbles, and social distancing. But it wasn’t all bad. Many people discovered the joys of being out in nature, of taking up new skills (breadmaking, anyone?) and of celebrating the Atlantic bubble and staycationing.
While many businesses struggled with the protocols required to keep people safe, one sector that did very well was the garden centre and greenhouse industry. At this point I have mostly only anecdotal evidence from our region, but every single grower and operator I talked to had a banner year throughout the 2020 growing season. Many sold out of plants and accessories either earlier than usual (for the spring seasonal growers) or throughout the whole year (for the longer-open operations). Some had supplier issues at the same time as they had higher demand, so they couldn’t get more plants in quickly (or at all). But largely, every grower I’ve visited or spoken with is excited by the enthusiastic influx of gardeners, both new and seasoned.
If you are a new gardener, you may have found that the bug bit you deeply—welcome to the world of being a green thumb plant addict. Some of you may have had some challenges growing a garden, whether of vegetables and herbs or flowers, perennials, trees and shrubs. I’m here to tell you that is perfectly okay. You can do everything right from your end of things and plants can be capricious and die anyway. Don’t beat yourself up.
And if you’re wanting to nurture that newly green thumb, I have some suggestions and tips for you to help keep you going and growing this winter, and to be ready for spring when the bulbs start coming up and you get the digging urge again.
Nasturtiums are easy to grow annuals
Catch up on your winter garden reading. We can certainly do indoor gardening and a few interesting outdoor projects at this time of year, but it’s also the perfect time to read about gardening. There are glorious new books on our favourite subject coming out on a regular basis, including one from right here that I highly recommend.
Elizabeth Peirce of Halifax is an ardent food-gardener and superb writer who knows how to be encouraging to other gardeners of all skill sets—which to me is the most important thing about writing to gardeners. Her new book, which she calls her “COVID therapy project,” is Grow Hope: a simple guide to creating your own food garden at home. Elizabeth wrote it while keeping close at hand a list of gardening questions that she’s been asked time and again. Grow Hope also includes tips on how to avoid garden-related injuries, and it’s written in her conversational, “you can do this” style. It’s available through Amazon at present and there will be a pdf version available very soon.
Of course, there aren’t just physical or digital books (though they’re my favourite thing to read and share). There are valuable websites, some from dedicated gardening magazines like the USA-published Fine Gardening or Gardens Illustrated out of the UK, as well as reputable businesses like Lee Valley, to name just a few. The website The Spruce carries excellent gardening stories, and there are many others.
A bit of a caveat—as with anything online, there is a plethora of not-great websites with outdated or even misleading gardening info. As much as it pains me to say it, newer gardeners might want to avoid Facebook gardening groups, because most of these are not adjudicated and there is plenty of wrong info to be found here—as well as a few gardeners who aren’t the encouraging type. Forewarned is forearmed.
Salad greens are easy to grow; you can also buy annuals as transplants.
Get growing great food indoors. We’ve talked about all sorts of houseplants in recent issues, and those are fantastic and definitely everyone should grow more plants. But how about growing some food indoors? Many herbs and some vegetables are easily grown inside, either on a bright and warm windowsill or in one of the many different growing systems you can find. Whether you want a simple plant stand with grow lights on it, or a hydroponic system like that developed by SucSeed in St. John’s, NL (which we profiled last Feb/Mar in Made Right Here), there are plenty of tools to help you find success in growing sprouts, salad greens, herbs, tomatoes,
and more.
If you’re a do it yourself type, you can build your own plant stands and purchase grow lights at garden centres or places like Halifax Seed, Scotts Nursery, Veseys or Lee Valley; if you’re not the handyperson, save yourself time and exasperation and purchase a ready to grow unit. These come in a range of sizes, styles and price points, but you can find great choices through the businesses mentioned above; or if you’re not conveniently located to any of these stores, online through those and others offering mail-order service.
Plan before you plant. You may have gotten into growing a bit quickly last year without time to plan before you made your garden bed and tucked in the flowers or veggies. Now that you have the tilled garden area or the raised beds, you can plan ahead this winter before you get growing.
Read up on soil needs and plant nutrition; learn about what to do when bad things happen to good plants (pests and diseases); learn to read a plant tag or seed package correctly, because there is often a lot of good information there. Figure out how many plants you need for your family’s vegetable needs: I can’t help but wonder how many gluts of tomatoes, green beans and zucchinis there were last year because people planted a whole package of particular types of seed without considering the yields.
Gardening is one of the most neighbourly of activities. If you’re ordering or purchasing seed or transplants, maybe share the order with a friend or two. Together, you can likely use up most of the seed in a package and have plenty of tomato plants, and you can also try a host of different varieties. Because of my workload and the four cats in my house, I don’t start seeds indoors—instead, I buy my transplants and annual plugs at several local nurseries including Glad Gardens in Waterville, Horlings in Grand-Pré, Lavender Hill in Jordan Falls, and Ouest-ville Perennials in West Pubnico. (yes, I get around a fair bit. I love local nurseries!) The great thing about many nurseries is that they’re primarily outside businesses, so it’s not difficult to do social-distancing; and those with extensive greenhouses like Lowland Gardens in Great Village or Blomidon Nurseries in Greenwich have good traffic-flow directional signs to help you shop safely. Because we all know we’re going to be dealing with some COVID-19 restrictions for a while yet.
Safety concerns aside, I normally grow between 10 and two dozen varieties of tomatoes each summer. I buy one or two plants of each variety from local greenhouses—otherwise, I’d need that many seed packages if I was starting them from scratch, and there would be tomatoes everywhere.
Growing from seed? Choose easy annuals, herbs and vegetables. Once again, seed packages are often a wealth of information for gardeners of all skill sets. They indicate whether a plant is perennial, biennial or annual; how tall it gets, how long until it flowers/develops fruit, and what are its basic growing requirements. Likely for this year you’ll want to stick with annuals for your flowering choice. Perennials take two years or more to come to flowering size, and unless you have patience and a nursery bed to nurture them in, you’re apt to lose them before they mature. Start with annuals for flowering plants, easy delights like marigolds, nasturtiums, bachelor buttons, calendula and cosmos. Read the seed packages to learn how early to start them indoors, or when to sow directly out in the garden. If you start plants indoors, be sure to get good quality soil and equipment from your local garden centre or plant supply store.
If you’ve been growing greens and herbs throughout the winter indoors, you’ve likely mastered the art of growing them outdoors, too. Some vegetables aren’t well suited to growing inside, such as corn, squash and cucumbers, because of their light requirements and how big their plants grow, but they should perform very well for you outside. Once again, you can draw on books, websites, and the wisdom of reputable local gardeners to help you prepare for your food garden adventures this coming spring.
Relax. You can do this. And if a plant dies, it’s not your fault—if you planted it green-side-up!