Edible Landscaping and Growing your own Organic Vegetables

The time to get a jump start on your spring garden has finally arrived and we are so happy to be back outside getting our hands dirty!  It might seem a little bit early in the season to be thinking about growing vegetables, but this is the perfect time to be starting seeds and thinking about season extension.  An easy way to get a head start on the season is to get your garden beds covered up and warming so we can get seeds into the soil as soon as the ground thaws.  We’ve already got some of our cold-tolerant, early growers started in trays and have had a great time introducing coir into our potting mixes.  What a plentiful and sustainable alternative to peat moss!  Right now we’ve got our seeds already germinating in a mix of coir and vermiculite.  We’ve got seeds staying warm under cold-frames and we can’t wait to see them transplanted out into garden beds!  While we are experimenting with soil-less mixes and season extension methods, we’ve had the chance to involve some of our Green Gardener kids in the process.  We’ve had a blast so far, up to our elbows in potting mix, choosing seeds to plant and talking about what veggies we look forward to enjoying.  With this warm week things are looking like we might get an even earlier start than we thought, with plans to get digging this week.  Here’s to hoping we all get to enjoy an early harvest!

After a few months of gardening inactivity, I am happy to say that I am planning some special gardening projects that involve growing food in Toronto.  

Continuing with planning Green Oasis on Broadview as well as developing a regular Saturday Volunteer Experience in the West End of Toronto with abundant land and existing infrastructure to grow significant yields.

Learning from History: Collapse & Kitchen/Victory Gardens

Urban agriculture is not a new movement. Though it had been already been adopted throughout the world, it was brought to North American with its first settlers. The kitchen garden plot – a field of cultivated land yielding a reliable supply of food for the family – was central as a way to achieve household food security and economic independence.

The United States shift from an agrarian republic to an industrialized society in the 19th century slowed the use, and construction of kitchen gardens. There was, however a revitalization of kitchen gardens – which took on the name “victory gardens” – during the First and Second World War. The United States government asked its citizens to plant gardens in order to support the war effort. In 1943, Americans planted over 20 million victory gardens, and the harvest accounted for nearly a third of all the vegetables consumed in the country that year (revivevictorygarden.org).

There are many examples highlighting the success of kitchen gardens, especially during difficult times. Check out Harvest Freedom for other examples of Gardening in Hard Times.

We have launched this site today to celebrate growing food in the City of Toronto.

Welcome, we hope that you enjoy our news views and tips, as well as links to resources across the City.