Home gardening on ‘The Rock’
Local gardeners offer advice for newbies
Do you want to grow some food this year? Don’t let winter slow you down. As experienced gardeners will tell you, now is the perfect time to begin planning and planting your garden.
“We normally recommend people start planning their garden as early as January, as that’s when our seed becomes available for the upcoming season,” said Jackson Mclean, manager at The Seed Company by E.W. Gaze in downtown St. John’s.
“As for planting, some vegetables like onions, leeks, and many flowers can be started indoors in February and March. Starting early is a good way to make the most of our short growing season and ensure that your plants reach full maturity.”
Founded in 1925 by Ernest Walter Gaze, Gaze Seed Company was the first of its kind in Newfoundland to specialize in high-quality vegetable and flower seeds. It quickly became a one-stopshop for farmers and gardeners on the island. Originally located on Water Street, The Seed Company is now located on Harbour Drive.
Now run by Gaze’s greatgrandson Peter Byrne, the store is still a vital resource for local gardeners. Their wide selection of top-quality seeds, fertilizers and locally made supplies combined with knowledgeable and helpful staff keeps their long tradition of being a one-stop-shop alive.
“The typical Jiggs’ dinner veggies such as potatoes, turnip, cabbage, carrots and turnip greens are popular for our climate, especially with older growers,” Mclean said.
“We’re finding that our younger customers are more interested in growing different and unusual vegetables such as cucamelons – tiny watermelon-like fruits that taste like lime – rare tomatoes and extra spicy peppers. These can be grown in our climate but do best in a greenhouse or cold frame.”
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
Local backyard farmer Ralph Rice has decades of experience growing food for his family. Born in Springdale in Central Newfoundland, Rice remembers helping his dad in their garden. That’s where his interest in gardening began.
Like many Newfoundlanders at that time, the Rice family relied on subsistence crops like cabbage, carrots and turnip to put food on the table.
“We grew a lot of potatoes because we were a large family,” Rice said.
In 1994, Rice and his wife Dianne bought their own property in Goulds, a rural neighbourhood in St. John’s. They raised two daughters there while Rice rekindled his love of gardening.
“I had a little plot and just as an experiment I took a gardening course from Ross Traverse,” Rice said.
Born in Newfoundland, gardener hall of famer Traverse is an agricultural specialist dedicated to engaging people with horticulture. He spent almost two decades working for the provincial government before retiring in 1995 to start Traverse Gardens, a greenhouse business in Torbay.
Following the workshop with Traverse, Rice built a greenhouse to grow bell peppers, jalapeno peppers and a variety of tomatoes, including cherry tomatoes. He also grew corn and spinach in his yard. His corn ranged from four to six inches long and he was pleased with the results.
“My first greenhouse was probably eight by ten, I guess, and it was a lean-to on my shed,” Rice said. “I used it until it became too dilapidated to be used.”
“In my greenhouse now, I grow several types of tomatoes. I still grow the cherry tomatoes in planter pots, but I also grow three or four different varieties in the ground. Same thing with bell peppers. I continue to grow them in my greenhouse.”
THIRD TIME IS A CHARM
Built next to his 15x20 foot potato garden, this is Rice’s third greenhouse, one that he anticipates lasting much longer than his previous two.
“I worked offshore for several years,” Rice said. “The years I was working offshore, I didn’t do much gardening, to be honest with you. When I got transferred back onshore, I disassembled the second greenhouse I had built and started from scratch and built another one.
“This one is larger. It’s twelve by fourteen feet. I put plastic panels on the roof and the walls. For the bottom two pieces of the greenhouse, I used pressure treated plywood. Then above that I used the plastic panels on the walls and the plastic panels on the roof.”
In his greenhouse, Rice uses a combination of planting directly in the ground and in pots hanging from the ceiling. He also recently built a shelf in the greenhouse.
“I find growing from the soil itself, you have much larger volume of earth, so there’s less temperature fluctuations and you grow into the fall later, because of the heat retention,” Rice said.
Rice’s experiments with different soil mixes over the years led him to a kind of recipe he follows, but not religiously. He uses a combination of compost, sheep manure, cow manure, quality potting mix, topsoil, kelp and seaweed along with some fertilizer and garden lime.
Considering the rising cost of groceries, Rice and Mclean view growing food as a solid way to save money and improve your overall well-being.
“Growing certain food items at home can certainly save money,” Mclean said. “For example, one three dollar pack of our pelleted carrot seeds can yield over one hundred large carrots. When’s the last time you saw one hundred carrots on sale for three dollars?
“Of course, some time and effort has to go into growing them, but that’s also some quality hobby time that’s good for mental and physical health. Growing your own is always a win-win.”
JOIN THE GROUP
Apart from visiting the store for specific products and guidance, Mclean welcomes all gardeners to join The Seed Company’s Facebook group Backyard Vegetable Farmers NL for daily tips, inspiration and helpful conversations. They also have a newsletter subscription on their website.
“You don’t have to invest a lot of money into having a garden, because you make use of the three Rs,” Rice said. “Reduce and reuse and recycle.”
“You can reuse coffee containers, you can start seeds in egg cartons, you can use buckets for potatoes and tomatoes and carrots, and you don’t need a lot of space. It’s just how you can arrange the vegetables so that the higher ones are in the back and the shorter ones are in the front so they can all get sunlight.”
In the process of planning his garden for the upcoming season, Rice recommends that novice gardeners start small and enjoy the journey.
“There’s something nice about watching plants work their way up through the soil in spring,” Rice said.
“Don’t be overwhelmed. The beauty about gardening is that every year you get to start fresh. Don’t take on too much, and try some things, and then every year you can add a little more.”