For the love of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squashes, potatoes, onions, radishes, peas, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, etc… how to grow them in containers, community gardens, and other small spaces.
Clockwise from Top Right: ‘Noire de Coseboeuf,’ ‘Constoluto Fiorentino,’ ‘Zapotec Pink Pleated,’ ‘Yellow Ruffled,’ ‘Tim’s Black Ruffles.’ This is the time of year when I typically roll out a few photographs that brag of my annual tomato harvest. I have started taking photos, but I have to say that the strange weather this season has …
Running along the theme of diversity in the garden, I’ve taken note of and photographed a few oddities this year and thought I’d share them. This first is one of the peach varieties of tomato — I don’t know which one it is specifically as the plant was a gift from a friend and was …
Yes, again! My zucchini aka summer squash harvest has been killer this year, and a few have got lost in the foliage too, which means we’ve accidentally grown a few monstrous fruits to boot. There will be squash (another film reference)! Or at least, I would like there to be, which is where freezing comes …
More squashes have joined the pile since I took this photo! Can you tell the real squashes from my ceramic collection? Earlier in the week, Toronto was flooded for the second time this season. We needed the rain, just not that much all at once! My garden is a mess. Vines that weren’t properly secured …
Barbie Doll Watermelons, that’s what I call them, because, well… that’s what they look like. Their real name is Mexican Sour Gherkin (Melothria scabra), but they also popularly go by mouse melon, cucamelon, and sandíita (meaning little melon in Spanish).
In the “How to Harvest” chapter of my book, Grow Great Grub, I explain why it is important to pick certain veggies such as zucchini, beans, and… ahem… cucumbers when they are young and immature. Whoops. I try to stay on top of rogue fruit by checking all around leafy plants, but alas, occasionally one …
I’ve been thinking a lot about diversity in the garden. As I wander around, observing everything that is growing, the beautiful diversity within each family and genus, and even within the same plant amazes me. I don’t have anything super profound to say about this right now, it’s just something that I am appreciating in …
Over the last few years I haven’t been growing enough cucurbits (namely squashes and cucumbers) to meet our eating demands, so last winter I resolved to dedicate more garden space to a range of types in the 2013 growing season. This meant cutting back a bit on my beloved tomatoes, but alas… While I was …
We’ve hit midsummer, a time in my area when the garden tends to go downhill. While there is much bounty to be had, many plants begin to suffer in the heat. Or it is just their time to go. Or we’re just too darn tired/hot/fed up/over it to keep up with garden chores. Sometimes we …
I bought the seed for ‘Pilar’ aka ‘Zapallito Redondo de Tronco,’ an unusual squash variety two years back from New World Seeds and Tubers. I tried to direct-sow the seed outdoors twice in that first year, but was unable to coax a single seed to germinate. This spring I over-sowed indoors underneath light to be …
I have long sung the praises of the perpetual aka perennial onion. Allow a few to multiply each year and you will have them forever. I started growing one such type, ‘Egyptian Walking’ onion (Allium proliferum) aka tree onion in my community garden plot well over a decade ago. The exact date is a lost …
Indeed they do. Or at least I do. We like spinach and we eat a lot of it, so it’s a good thing I sowed a nice-sized crop this spring. I grew two varieties: ‘Bordeaux,’ a stunning variety with bright pink stems and leaf veining, and ‘Monstrueux de Viroflay,’ an heirloom with monster-sized leaves.