HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?
It’s a question that is increasingly being asked in backyards as urban types turn to the land. Fortunately, with expert advice and a little experimentation, answers are close at hand—even if those hands lack green thumbs.
It’s a question that is increasingly being asked in backyards as urban types turn to the land. Fortunately, with expert advice and a little experimentation, answers are close at hand—even if those hands lack green thumbs.
Remember that cardinal rule of Calgary gardening that people always stress? You know, the ironclad, etched-in-stone, violate-at-your-peril dictum: “Never plant before Victoria Day.” Yeah, well, forget about that. It’s about as extinct as root cellars, though more happily so.
That is just one of the pearls of wisdom offered by Calgary gardening gurus to a rapidly burgeoning class: total rookies looking to get into the food production game. This is not to say that canvassing old-timers has outgrown its usefulness. By all means, say the experts, seek to befriend that Italian gentleman down the block with the honest-to-God apricot tree and a yard bursting with heritage everything. Talk to anyone and everyone who seems to grow luscious-looking crops because, if there’s one thing that accomplished gardeners like doing, it’s talking about it.
Just know one thing before you ever turn a spade or open that first seed packet. “Sometimes, you fail,” says John Duncan, green goods manager and resident horticulturist at Greengate Garden Centre (greengate.ca) in Midnapore. Duncan grew up in the Shuswap but wound up in Calgary after taking the four-year horticulture program at Olds College, so he knows a little about revising expectations. “You’ve got to have patience, which, if you’re a beginner, means going in with modest plans. If you keep it simple, your successes will greatly outweigh your failures.”
Being on the young side as far as gardening experts go, Duncan has noticed a demographic shift in his clients over the past few years. “Baby-boomers are moving out of their large homes and into condos with little garden space,” he says. “Meanwhile, their kids are living in inner-city places where yards often have well-developed soil and good sun exposure. Their interests involve growing food more than the ornamentals their parents loved.”
Needless to say, this cohort has much to learn. Fortunately there are an increasing number of service providers like Chelsie Anderson (chelsiesgardens.com) who are there to help. Anderson designs and maintains residential gardens in addition to writing and broadcasting about it. Call it genetic: her mother is Donna Balzer, now of Qualicum
Beach, B.C., who for many years has been a leading garden media personality in our city.
Anderson advises first-time food-growers to begin by doing a critical assessment of the target space, with an emphasis on sunlight. “dots of people think their yards are sunny because when they are, that’s when people are out there enjoying them. But in fact, there might be total shade from buildings and trees in the morning or afternoon, and that has a major effect.” As for assessing soil quality, Anderson notes that our native soils are generally very good. “Existing soil is the best soil,” she says. “Typically, your lawn grows in the best part of what you have. There’s already an entire system in place, so build on that if you can.”
Being clay-rich, our soils are well blessed by mineral nutrients, even if they are susceptible to compaction due to watering and being trod upon—something you really want to minimize. One thing you can’t overdo, however, is amending the soil with rich, organic compost that will supply the micronutrients that vegetables require. “Virtually every soil deficiency can be mitigated by adding compost,” says Anderson, “which is why an active composting program is a must for any food grower.” She recommends the metal, box-like kpeedibin composter for residential use, having seen inferior results from the black plastic model sold widely by Green Calgary (greencalgary.org). However, that has more to do with newbies who wrong- ly presume that those are magic devices that simply make compost out of everything you throw into them.
“heople tend to want things to be automatic,” notes John Duncan at Greengate. “But, like everything in gardening, proper composting takes work. You can’t get around that.” By that he means alternating green matter with layers of soil and brown organics, while regularly turning, aerating and moistening, no matter the container. And, if your budget allows, contributing extra commercial compost is always a good idea. “It’s not very glamorous, but I recommend to beginners that they invest most of their money in building rich soil. It will always pay you back in spades.”
Although this weekend would be a good time to get busy in the yard, you’ve got a great excuse to hold back. The Calgary Horticulture kociety (calhort.org), celebrating its 110th birthday, is hosting its annual garden show at kpruce Meadows katurday and kunday. Given the recent explosion in nurseries, garden stores and related trades, the event figures to be the densest concentration of local gardening expertise ever gathered in southern Alberta.
One of those experts is Kath Smyth, CalHort’s resident horticulturist and a woman who’s approaching a half-century in the plant biz. khe’ll give two talks, one about exceptional plants and design tips for the time-pressed, and a second about zone envy, a persistent affliction of those who have moved here from Ontario or British Columbia with
"Our environment is perfect for what are termed cool-climate plants, like the cabbage family, salad vegetables and the onion family." - Kath Smyth
the erroneous belief that they can somehow trick our fickle climate into supporting plants that have never grown here before. “People hear the zone has changed and they start getting big ideas,” says Smyth, in her capacity as CalHort’s online advice guru. “Like the guy the other day who’d fallen in love with a California lilac. Well, dude, that’s Zone 7, there’s no way it will grow here. And by the way, what’s wrong with our awesome lilacs?”
Still, our zone has indeed warmed—the official designation went from 3b to 4a—and with that comes new growing possibilities. “When I came to Calgary in 1991,” Smyth recalls, “we had 82 to 85 frost-free days. In ’99 we saw 100. Now we’re up to 112.” No wonder that, as Smyth has discovered, there are Texans who envy us for things like tulips and summer lettuce. “Our environment is perfect for what are termed cool-climate plants, like the cabbage family, salad vegetables and the onion family. And with our long, sunny days, hot-season plants like tomatoes and peppers are doing better than ever. Mine went crazy last year. I even had eggplants.”
And as much as you should always heed the wisdom of elders and experts (and, certainly, the instructions on the seed packets), feel free to cheat. “We all do, at some level,” says Smyth. “It’s human nature.” Find your microclimates. Take a flyer on tomatillos or kiwi or cucumbers. And, by Demeter, goddess of the harvest, go out there today and throw some lettuce and brassica seeds into the warming earth.
They can always handle a little cold. Leave Victoria Day for tanning and drinking, as it was meant to be.
Where to Begin?
If you have a sunny, lawn-covered backyard and the latent urge to grow food there, can you do it this season without a rototiller or a massive shovel job? Absolutely. Sure, you would be better off if, last fall, you had covered an area and caused the grass to die naturally. But it’s never too late.
As Chelsie Anderson says, the most common rookie mistake is, simply, “Not getting started. People always think it’s more complicated than it is.” In this situation, she advises, “I’m a big believer in what’s called lasagna gardening.” This is a technique in which you start by covering your prospective plot with wet cardboard or multiple sheets of newspaper. Then, the lasagna-like layering can begin, using a variety of ingredients that may include dead leaves, peat moss, grass clippings, dirt and straw. In essence you’re building a horizontal compost pile in which you can plant seeds this season. By late summer the cardboard and grass roots should have broken down to afford easy shovel penetration.
An even quicker way, says Anderson, is simply covering the cardboard with good quality soil. “As with compost, I recommend buying soil in bulk from a place like Burnco,” she says. “If you can get a dump truck to drop a pile on your site, you’re way ahead of the game. Then you can just go ahead and plant easy-to-grow foods like lettuce, arugula, chard or peas. Even if the new soil is only a few centimetres deep, they’ll do fine. They’re not going to be outstanding this season, but you will be eating and enjoying them.” Despite the fact that what you’ll have built is essentially a raised bed, you don’t absolutely require the wooden walls you often see. “You can make a slit with an edger and tuck the cardboard into the soil along the border,” says Anderson. “That will keep the grass from creeping in for a while.”
If you are an apartment dweller, try approaching any of our many community gardens via the links at calhort.org. It’s likely too late to lease a patch, but it’s never a bad idea to wander into your local one. Everybody needs help, and many spots simply go uncultivated when summer plans change. Be friendly.
Another route for the less industrious is merely having a garden kit installed. Yes, that is now a thing. One of the YYC Growers co-op members is Dirt Boys (dirtboys.ca), who for a flat fee of $750 will set you up with a four feet by eight feet raised bed filled with top-quality soil. Your turnkey garden also includes a rain barrel with downspout diverter and a compost bin ready to rot.
"I recommend to beginners that they invest most of their money in building rich soil. It will always pay you back in spades." - John Duncan
The seemingly small instant garden should give you a clue as to how productive a tiny growing space can be. Depending on your household’s appetite for greens, you can quickly find yourself with an overabundance which, at worst, will make great compost, but more likely great friends once you give it away. As for what grows fast and well, says Anderson, “Kale is great and super-productive, with a season that stretches late into autumn. I like to plant numerous varieties. Any brassica, like broccoli. Tomatoes, if they have full sun. Garlic does well here—it almost becomes a weed. And the scapes it shoots out in the spring are a gourmet product. Beets are great, try bull’s-eye or golden varieties. Mesclun lettuces. Try edible flowers too, they’re great pollinators: nasturtium, pansies, marigolds, even dandelions are edible. And any herbs like parsley, oregano and thyme.”
One thing Anderson cautions is that, “Plants really do prefer being in the ground.” Container gardens and nifty wall-type planters are tempting, but they dry out blazingly fast in summer. If you take frequent weekend trips or otherwise vacation in summer, expecting a neighbour to keep things sufficiently hydrated is a lot to ask.
The Forever Food Forest
Permaculture is a word you’ll hear frequently in enlightened gardening circles. Coined by an Australian environmentalist 40 years ago, the term originally meant “permanent agriculture,” although it has expanded to describe an integrated system of growing based on a broad set of social and ecological principles. The concept is always on the mind of many gardeners, including Adrian Buckley of reGenerate (regeneratedesign.ca), a three-person Calgary firm specializing in what it calls “human habitat design,” turning homes, schools and community gardens into permaculture food producers.
Whether you engage a professional like reGenerate or wade in yourself, Buckley is big on the planning process. “After all,” he says, “you’ll be planting a whole landscape of things that can be there for a long time. Be very clear about what your goals are, and start small because it’s easy to get overwhelmed.” Much will depend on the site: how does water flow and accumulate? What’s the current state of the dirt? As he puts it: “Vegetables are just a carrier. The real star is the soil.” You also need to realize that understanding plant interactions can get rather complex, so Buckley recommends practical guides like Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway and Boreal Herbal: Wild Food and Medicine Plants of the North by Beverley Gray.
Most gardeners know about useful herbaceous perennials like chive, mint and rhubarb. Fewer will be familiar with French sorrel, a tangy leaf that you plant once and enjoy in salads and pastas for years. Ostrich ferns grow in the shade and produce spring fiddleheads. Sunchokes are tubers that look like ginger but have a nutty, sweet flavour and can be cooked in every way imaginable. “And if you have the space, try asparagus,” says Buckley. “Just remember it will be three seasons before the first crop can be harvested.”
Between our lengthening frost-free season and the diligence of prairie cultivators, we also have more tree- and bush-fruit options that can have magnificent yields. Always consult the resident expert at the nursery or garden store before buying any fruit; many have specific siting requirements, and, for pollination purposes, some must be planted in multiples or in conjunction with known pollinating partners in your neighbourhood. Also, if you have a hare issue in your yard, some shrubs can be decimated.
You can’t go too far wrong with prairie classics like saskatoons or
Nanking cherries. Buckley suggests gold raspberries, or the Wyoming black. Currants, red or white. There’s also a little-known candidate called Chokeberry or aronia, said to be a super-food. Hinomaki gooseberry. And don’t forget the first fruit of the season on the prairie: haskap, also known as honeyberry.
As for trees, consider any apple that ends in “land,” like Norland or Goodland, or late-season varietals such as September Ruby and Hardy Mac. Pears are fairly easy to grow, and numerous kinds of hardy plums are now available. And if you crossed paths with last season’s bumper crop of sour cherries, you’ll definitely want to investigate the Evans and Romance series.
An orchard in Calgary? Yes, it can be done.
The Do-Nothing Solution
Suppose you’ve got no fallow land or spare time or fingers that function, but you still want fresh, locally grown produce. Well, YYC Growers (yycgrowers.com) has your back. Founded in 2013, YYCG is an outgrowth of the SPIN farm movement (small plot intensive), started by producers aiming to grow food commercially on urban lands.
“We soon found ourselves competing against one another,” recalls co-founder and now president, Kye Kocher. “So we banded together as one outlet to aggregate the sales. Two years ago, we diversified by adding farms from the nearby countryside. That has allowed us to expand the volume of more land-intensive products like carrots and potatoes, and bring greenhouses into the mix. Now we’re a co-op with 19 farmer-members, roughly half urban and half rural, and we produce food all year long.”
As a distributor, YYCG sells directly to restaurants and via booths at Bridgeland and Hillhurst-Sunnyside Farmers’ Markets. But most of its produce goes to subscribers of its Harvest Box CSA program (community shared agriculture). This season, a family-sized summer box will cost $52.50 per week, though it will require you to sign up for a minimum period. What you’ll find in the box is an array of whatever’s in season. “We are constantly increasing the variety,” Kocher says. “People love getting a box and finding surprises in there like honey, mushrooms and oatmeal cookie dough.”
YYCG is in growth mode in every possible way, so it’s always interested in new subscribers. But there’s an additional way for the public to get involved: by loaning an empty backyard to the cause. “People can get in touch with us via the website if they have a suitable patch of land that’s at least 1,000 square feet,” Kocher explains. “We’ll match you up with one of our farmers and together you can negotiate the terms of the lease as well as the form of compensation.” It can include produce or even cash to cover irrigation costs.
"People love getting a box and finding surprises in there like honey, mushrooms and oatmeal cookie dough." - Kye Kocher