GET GROWING!

AS YOU SOW, SO SHALL YOU REAP

From NEWS CANADA

Ready to start your own vegetable garden this year? It can be daunting at first, but gardening is an incredibly rewarding hobby to get into.

If you have never tasted garden-fresh vegetables you will be amazed by the sweet, juicy flavours and vibrant textures. There’s absolutely nothing quite like fresh veggies, especially when you can grow them yourself.

Here Canadian grower, Andrew Hendriks of Hendriks Greenhouse, shares some tips for getting started:

Pick the perfect location. Selecting a good spot for your garden is absolutely key, as it can mean success or failure. Most vegetables need at least six hours of sunlight per day, aside from the leafy produce that will tolerate some shade. Avoid areas that receive strong winds that can knock over your plants; same with places near too much foot traffic or prone to flooding.

Soil is everything. Hendriks says if you have poorly drained soil where water can pool, plant your vegetables in a raised bed or row for improved drainage. Wet soil means wet roots, which can turn into rotted roots. The PC vegetable and herb soil mix is a great option that provides all the four key ingredients that will make your garden flourish: organic compost, sphagnum peat moss, cow manure and topsoil.

Keep it small. A common error that beginners make is planting too much too soon. Make sure that you have paths that allow you to access your plants to weed, harvest and reach the centre of the row or bed easily. If you don’t have the space, plant any vegetables you can vertically with a straight stem and stake into your garden or any pots. Tomatoes are great for vertical gardens.

Choose your vegetables. Now it’s time to choose the vegetables you want to grow. Keep things simple by choosing items that you and your family will enjoy eating. Hendricks suggests planting vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, carrots, peppers, leafy greens and herbs. These foods grow in abundance and come in many different varieties, making them the perfect vegetables to throw on top of the grill and enjoy with family all season long.

GROW LOCAL!

Warmer weather and spending more time at home may have you thinking about gardening. 

This year, Arnold Devrij wants you to think local when planting your plot. Along with his brother Pete, Arnold is a third-generation grower who operates more than 50 acres of greenhouses for the family business, DeVry Greenhouses, in Chilliwack, BC.

“Plants perform best when they are grown in a particular climate,” explains Devrij. “For example, a plant lover in Calgary will want to look for sun-loving varieties, whereas a Vancouver gardener will want to look for varieties that do better in the shade.”

You can find locally grown hanging baskets and planters, as well as a great selection of annuals, herbs and vegetables grown by small producers at your local independent grocer’s garden centre