Beginner Gardening Tips Blog

Last night my sister and I headed to Lula Lounge here in Toronto for the Grow Great Grub book launch party. Once there we enjoyed some tasty vegan treats, planted some Black Zebra tomatoes at the seed-starting table and I finally got to meet author Gayla Trail. I also chatted with fellow gardening writer Mark Disero of gardentoronto.ca and my sister was quite chuffed to win one of the raffle prizes. By the way, after only reading a few pages of the book, I was inspired to try growing some microgreens on my windowsill. Will let you know how they turn out!

My sister Hilary planting seeds.

Can't wait to taste this new-to-me tomato... love the added touch of the You Grow Girl stamp on the seed cups.

My sister's prize with her copy of the book.

In a recent column, Canadian Gardening magazine’s editor-at-large, Stephen Westcott-Gratton, wrote up a report card for his garden. The recent change in the weather from mild and pleasant to downright frosty has inspired me to reflect on what worked – and what didn’t – in my own garden.

Now I definitely need to practice my botanical photography, but here are some photos of my favourite plants this year. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to take a photo of some before they started going downhill, so those I’ve just listed at the bottom.

I planted my Picotree Cosmos around the edge of my vegetable garden to create a lovely, tall border behind my veggies. Now I suspect some of the seeds were carried off by the squirrels because I didn’t end up with much of a border, but nonetheless, I’m very pleased with the fuchsia and delicate pink blooms that are still gracing my garden. Grade: A

I bought this Lantana (a Lucky Red Hot) from Home Depot on a whim one weekend and it took over! You can see it shading my ornamental grass. But the flowers were lovely and it didn't require much water to survive in my dry, sunny front garden. Grade: A+

Other successes:

• My herb garden. Most of my herbs came from the President’s Choice Lawn & Garden Centre at my local Loblaws and a PC event I attended. For the first time I used almost all my fresh herbs in my cooking (which is incredibly satisfying)… the only ones I didn’t use were my lemon thyme and my sage. Grade: A+ (I give my cilantro a D because both the plants started from seed and the plants that just appeared in my garden died)
  
• My Red Antirrhinum majus Snapdragon. This one flowered on and off throughout the summer and was a little finicky, but well worth it for the gorgeous crimson blooms. Grade: B+
• Kong Rose Coleus from Pape Garden Centre. This lovely plant drew my attention because of its lime green, fuchsia and purple foliage. I planted it beside an Irish moss I bought at Sheridan Nurseries. The squirrels carried away the moss, but left my lovely Coleus behind. Grade: A+
• Begonias - I had a peach and a fuschia and both were gorgeous! Grade: A

After three years of basically avoiding my monster rosebush, I got a pair of Wells Lamont rose gloves for my birthday from my sister. Now I’d already made a few cursory cuts here and there to try them out, but the last couple of days, after reading Stephen Westcott-Gratton’s really helpful article from the June issue on renovating roses, I decided to tackle this thorny task wholeheartedly. There were no thorns scraping my wrists or spikes under my fingernails. I could get right in there with my pruners grab the scary-looking canes and chop them up in my yard bag.

One thing I did notice, however, is that a lot of the leaves on my rosebush have these weird orange spots under the leaves. After a quick Google search, it appears I have rust, a fungal disease that can actually overwinter, so I’ll have to be careful to get rid of all the offensive leaves and treat with wettable sulphur. One thing I want to look into first is that the treatment I choose is organic…

I planted a few different peppers this past spring, but this little orange and black critter seemed only to have eyes (or fangs) for my tomatillo plant. I tried the soap and water method and I even picked some off and squished them myself, but the next day there was always one of their friends munching away at the leaves.

According to Anne Marie Van Nest, the insect looks like an adult three-lined potato beetle that migrated to my tomatillo to feed. “They probably didn’t find their first love—potatoes—nearby and decided to try your tomatillos, she explains. They are in the same Solanaceae (potato/tomato/nightshade) family.

So how do I ultimately get rid of them?

Van Nest recommends looking for neat yellow/orange rows of eggs on the underside of the leaf and removing them to help control this pest. The even more voracious larvae cluster on the leaves munching everything in sight and are a disgusting soft-bodied eating machine.

The best way to control them is to remove the eggs, handpick the larvae and adult beetles and dump them into a bucket of soapy water. Spraying with soapy water is somewhat effective on the ones that actually get sprayed, but it doesn’t work on those that arrive later.

Inspired by Barbara Kingsolver’s ambitious planting of 14 varieties of heirloom tomatoes in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I set off for my local farmer’s market this spring to seek out my own little fruit bearers. A couple of months later and my plants are tall and thick enough to form a nice privacy hedge. However three were very slow to bloom and the fourth stands tall and proud, but with no yellow petals in sight.

Anne Marie Van Nest, Canadian Gardening’s horticultural editor, has reassured me that there is still hope. Here’s what could be wrong:

1: Fertilizer issues
If a little too much nitrogen is suspect from a rich soil high in aged manures or from the addition of a high-nitrogen fertilizer, then change fertilizers to one that has a higher middle number. Reducing the nitrogen (first number) and increasing the phosphorous and potassium (second and third numbers) will encourage more fruit and root growth and cut back on the foliage growth.

2: Late bloomers
Tomatoes (depending on the type) can take from 45 (Sub Arctic Plenty) to 85 days (Evergreen) to produce fruit and ripen from the time they were transplanted into the garden. Check the seed package or plant label for this date to harvest number. There are still plenty of weeks for today’s flowers to form nice fruit.

3: The weather
Another aspect to consider is the excessive rain in Southern Ontario this summer that has drastically cut down on the amount of sunshine that the tomatoes have received to produce fruit.

I’m going to place my bets on late bloomers and the soggy weather and find the patience to wait for my beefsteaks and Brandywines.

And if I end up with some green tomatoes, Anne Marie suggests picking them before they get frosted so I can use them for pickles, chutney or relish. Or, I can wrap them in newspaper and store them above freezing in single layers on a shallow tray to finish ripening. They will slowly ripen over the subsequent weeks or months. Some people have even enjoyed ripe tomatoes in December that were picked green in October. Now that is great news!

Disclaimer: Sadly, the photo shown above does not in any way accurately depict the current state of my tomatoes. My fingers are crossed I will at least get a few juicy tomatoes before the first frost. Stay tuned!

Three years ago I bought a cute little bungalow (I like to refer to it as a cottage) with a pretty decent front and backyard—my own little paradise in the city. Since we moved in winter, my first summer was a game of waiting to see what sprouted up—and then trying to figure out if it was plant or weed. What a learning experience it has been—and sometimes an overwhelming one—as I often look around my yard trying to figure out what area needs my TLC first! I’ve discovered that puttering around in my garden is so calming and a nice retreat from my busy life—when my busy life (and the weather) don’t interrupt my plans to garden! Though I wistfully aspire to perfection, I am comfortable with the fact that my gardens are a work in progress—they inspire me to learn more about gardening techniques and plants—and how not to kill them.

This blog will allow me to share my gardening adventures—trial and error, successes and disappointments. And because I am still a newbie, I have enlisted Canadian Gardening’s horticultural editor, Anne Marie Van Nest to help me out with my gardening dilemmas from time to time. I hope to inspire other budding gardeners to grab a pair of gloves and start playing in the dirt!