Gardening

9.7.24How to Save Tomato Seeds
Saving Your Favourite Tomatoes for Next Season
If you enjoy eating tomatoes ripe from your garden, consider saving the seed of some of this season’s harvest for next year. Saving tomato seeds is easy. The basic rule is to choose heirloom and open-pollinated tomatoes for seed saving […]

6.23.24Grow a Climate Change Resilient Garden
Gardening Techniques to Curb and Adapt to Global Warming
As a gardener, you have many ways to build climate change resilience. Using ecological and regenerative gardening techniques, you can help your garden withstand unexpected weather extremes and bounce back from hardship. You can even help slow climate change by […]

4.2.24Deer Resistant Plants That Attract Pollinators
Pollinator-Attracting Herbs, Vegetables and Flowers that Deer Avoid
Bee-friendly plants that repel deer? It sounds like a gardener’s dream. As it turns out, quite a large number of flowers, herbs, and even vegetables are deer resistant pollinator plants. Gardeners and farmers who struggle against deer damage know how […]

2.20.24Extend the Growing Season
Season Extension Techniques for Spring, Fall, and Winter Gardening
Looking for ways to extend the growing season? By warming the soil and protecting plants from the rain and cold, gardeners can gain weeks or months of additional growing time in early spring, fall, and winter. Season extension does not […]

11.1.2312 Vegetables You Can Grow in Winter
A Guide to Planting and Harvesting Winter Vegetables
If grocery-store produce has you wishing for something fresh from the garden in winter, consider this: you can grow a surprising number of vegetables throughout the winter in our moderate south coast BC maritime climate. (Article continues below slideshow.)

8.3.2310 Tips for Year-Round Vegetable Gardens
Best Techniques for a Sustainable Four-Season Garden
Gardeners often ask how they can grow and harvest vegetables all year long. Here are our top ten tips for a sustainable, organic year-round garden:

4.26.23Plant a Bee Attracting Garden
Urban Gardeners Can Help Provide Habitat for Bees
By planting native flowers, plants and herbs, you can create habitat in your garden and help rebuild threatened bee populations. Most of us are familiar with honey bees. In addition, Canada has 800 species of native bees, ranging from tiny […]

3.22.23How Open Source Seeds Can Increase Food Security
Keeping Seeds in the Public Domain
Open source seeds increase food security by keeping seeds in the public domain. As community food movements bloom across North America, their efforts to provide food security face a nearly invisible threat from multinational seed patent holders like DuPont and […]

2.14.23Growing a Patio Lemon Tree in Winter
How to Grow Lemons Outdoors Year-Round in a Northern Climate
Want to grow fresh lemons on your patio in the winter? With a few simple protective measures lemon trees can adapt to outdoor year-round growing in a cool northern climate. Video: Growing a Winter Patio Lemon Tree For me, […]

11.20.2215 Plants that Help Bees through the Winter
Cold Hardy Flowers, Trees and Shrubs that Benefit Bees
You can help bees through the winter by growing plants and flowering trees that bloom during the colder seasons. (Article and plant guide continue below slideshow.)

10.15.22Threshing Dried Beans
A Low-Tech Method for Small-Scale Growers
Small-scale dry bean growers often lack the large equipment needed to quickly thresh their crop. In this video, Rebecca Jehn of Rebecca’s Garden in Victoria, BC, demonstrates a fast, low-tech method for threshing dried beans.

8.16.22City Food Gardens
Turning Lawns and Balconies into Food Gardens
Food gardens are changing the landscape of modern cities. Urban gardeners are reinventing balconies, rooftops, and community spaces as places to grow fresh food. The edible city gardening movement is transforming front and back yards, curbside medians, school grounds and […]

3.8.22The Deer Resistant Food Garden
A Guide to Vegetables, Fruit, and Herbs Deer Don’t Like
Unless you build a tall fence, the best way to minimize deer damage in a vegetable garden is to grow plants deer don’t like to eat. This year, try planting from our list of deer-resistant fruit, herb, and vegetable plants […]

11.20.21Three Simple Ways to Test Your Soil
Four Season Garden: DIY Soil Tests and Reading the Weeds
What do you know about the soil in your garden? Knowing your soil type can help you determine what to plant and how to amend your garden to its best advantage. Three simple do-it-yourself tests can help you find out […]

10.21.21Six Ways to Screen and Winnow Seeds
Simple Tools for Threshing Seeds
Gardeners who save seed, or grow and harvest grains, know that separating seeds from their pods or husks can be a time-consuming job. While large industrial growers use machines to thresh and winnow seed crops, home seed savers can look […]

7.24.21Salad Greens You Can Grow in Winter
A Guide to Planting and Harvesting Winter Salad Greens
Want to eat fresh lettuce and salad greens this winter? Late summer to early fall is the time to plant your winter garden. If you like fresh garden salads, you’ll be glad to know you can grow a full range […]

5.23.21How to Have Ripe Local Tomatoes All Year
Enjoy Fresh Tomatoes Year-Round without Processing or Freezing
It’s becoming possible to eat ripe local tomatoes year-round in South Coast, BC. Through the use of season extension in the garden, careful choice of tomato varieties, and planned buying and storage, you can access a supply of fresh tomatoes […]

3.21.21Protect your Plants from Heat, Cold, Wind and Rain
Creating Microclimates to Make Your Garden Resilient
You can protect your plants from heat, drought, wind, rain, and cold by creating microclimates throughout your garden. Here are some simple ways to shelter your plants from extreme weather. Using Microclimates to Shelter Plants from Weather Extremes Climate change […]

1.28.21Plant a Seed Saving Garden
A Way to Always Have Your Own Seed Supply
By growing open-pollinated plants and saving seeds, you’ll always have enough for next year’s garden. Seed shortages and rising food prices due to the pandemic have generated huge demand for backyard gardens. Unfortunately for gardeners, this need collides with a […]

10.10.20Chayote Squash: A New Staple Crop for Northern Gardens?
How to Grow Chayote Squash
What is a chayote squash, you ask? Bright green, spiny, pear-shaped chayote squash may just be a new reliable staple crop for BC coastal gardens. What makes chayote squash so unusual is that it has a mild taste like a […]

7.10.20Growing Your Own Garden Seeds
A Look at Seed-Saving Vegetable Plants in Flower
The shortage of garden seeds this spring gave a foretaste of what it is like when supplies run out. If anything, the shortages demonstrated just how important it is to grow and save your own seeds. Many gardeners miss the […]

10.23.19School Gardens: Preparing Kids for Climate Change
Teaching Skills for a Sustainable Future
School gardens now have a new role: help prepare young people for climate change. As the global climate warms, the world faces an urgent need for increased food security, sustainability, and environmental stewardship. By instilling kids with skills that support […]

8.1.19Plants That Attract Beneficial Insects
Slideshow: Flowers and Herbs that Draw Pollinators to the Garden
Beneficial insects can be a gardener’s best resource for protecting crops against destructive pests. Beneficials include pollinators, predators and parasites. By attracting a large enough population of helpful bugs to counteract plant damaging insects, you can keep your garden healthy […]

5.7.19A Low-Carbon Citrus Greenhouse in Canada
Growing Subtropical Fruit with Minimal Inputs for Heat, Water and Nutrients
On Salt Spring Island, in Canada’s Pacific maritime climate, oranges and avocados flourish in an innovative, energy-conserving greenhouse. The subtropical fruit greenhouse, called simply “The Garden,” uses renewable energy, thermal mass, nutrient cycling, and rainwater harvesting to grow citrus fruits […]

1.17.19Bringing Back Ancient Grains and Seeds
Growing Old World Grains in Gardens and on Small Farms
Ancient grains are making a comeback, as farmers, millers, artisan bakers and diners seek them out for their exceptional flavour, nutrition, and low-gluten content. The heritage wheat, barley, rye, buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa and flax at Dan Jason’s farm come in […]

8.1.17Canada’s Bees Will Have Their Day in Court
Lawsuit Says Failure to Enforce Regulations on Neonicotinoids Harms Bees
Canada’s bees have won a small victory: the right to have their day in court. In July, the Federal Court in Ottawa allowed a lawsuit to go forward against Canada’s Pesticide Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) for failure to enforce Pest […]

5.16.17Weeds that Indicate Soil Conditions
Four Season Garden: How Weeds Can Help Identify and Correct Soil Problems
Recognize these weeds? Weeds can tell you a lot about the condition of your soil. Not only that, weeds, when composted, help improve the soil by releasing into it the very minerals and elements it needs. (Article and Weed Guide […]

4.19.16The Power of Pulses
Saving the World with Peas, Beans, Chickpeas, Favas & Lentils
It’s the International Year of Pulses, and a new book, The Power of Pulses: Saving the World with Peas, Beans, Chickpeas, Favas & Lentils, is here to guide the way. If saving the world sounds like hyperbole, it’s because pulses […]

5.8.15Growing a Local Mediterranean Diet
Citrus Fruits, Olives and Pomegranates on Vancouver Island
Scientific studies have long hailed a Mediterranean diet of oranges, olives and subtropical fruits, along with vegetables, nuts, legumes and grains, as one of the healthiest in the world. Until now, however, British Columbia food distributors have had to import […]

5.8.15Growing Mediterranean Fruit on Vancouver Island
A Tour of Fruit Trees and More
Bob Duncan, owner of Fruit Trees and More in North Saanich, BC, takes us on a tour of his demonstration orchard and nursery and shows how to grow Mediterranean fruit on Vancouver Island. By using microclimates, partial shelters, an unheated […]

4.16.14What Weeds Can Tell You About Your Garden
Soil Indicators and Enhancers
Study the weeds in your garden and you may learn a lot about the soil. Although we’ve been trained to regard weeds as a nuisance, they actually offer many benefits to gardeners and farmers. Not only can they tell you […]

12.8.13The Seeds of Sustainability
How Plant Diversity Can Ensure Our Future
On small farms across British Columbia, a handful of growers has taken on a vital task to help save the planet’s food system. They are seed savers who plant and safeguard diverse varieties of food crops, herbs and flowers. By […]

12.8.13Marsha Goldberg: Protecting Heritage Seeds
Or How We Can Live to Be Ripe Old Raisins
Professional seed savers like Marsha Goldberg of Eagleridge Seeds are not only preserving the genetic heritage of our most valuable plants for tomorrow, they are also an invaluable resource for agriculture today. Goldberg’s very active Salt Spring Island farm specializes […]

12.8.13Marsha Goldberg: Purple Calabash Tomatoes
Climate Change and How a Tomato Changed its Colour
Longtime seed savers like Marsha Goldberg of Eagleridge Seeds on Salt Spring Island, have the opportunity to closely observe changes in nature. As climate changes, heritage plants are adapting to new conditions. Here, Marsha Goldberg describes the transformations she’s seen […]

12.8.13Marsha Goldberg: Marshmallow Root
A Food that Might Have Prevented the Irish Potato Famine
One of the benefits of seed saving is a deep knowledge of the plant life of your region. Marsha Goldberg, owner of Eagleridge Seeds on Salt Spring Island, reminds us that even now we only use a small amount of […]

7.16.13Where Have All the Bees Gone?
Clues to the Disappearance of a Vital Pollinator
The world’s bees are in trouble. In millions of hives around the world, worker bees are suddenly disappearing, causing the colony to die out prematurely. Since 2005, yearly losses in commercial honey beekeeping operations rose from 15 percent of the […]