Gardening

September has come and come and that means it’s the end of the gardening season in Northern Ontario. This year has been a strange one for the garden, as the weather has been all over the place and an invasion of pests created even more problems. Even so, there were successes to be found. As the weather cools, the final bits of gardening happen and then the focus shifts to cleaning things up and preparing the area for next year. There’s not much to see in the September 2022 garden, but it does give an opportunity to evaluate how things went over the course ofRead More →

August is practically over and that means we are nearly in the final month of the garden season. This is the month when the true potential of the garden can be seen, as the plants will reach maturity and even begin to produce a bit. This month has been a struggle for the garden. We’ve had a mix of cool and hot weather, along with bought of dry weather and days upon days of heavy rain. Pests have been a major issue in the garden this month as well, something I don’t normally see until September as things wind down. Despite all this, I amRead More →

July is the month when the garden starts to truly take off. Everything has been planted by now and the plants are working hard to establish themselves. The month has been a fairly good one for the garden. The weather started out on the warm side, however, it quickly reverted back to the usual cool weather. It’s a good thing I focus a lot of my growing effort on cool-weather crops. However, these cooler temperatures are not ideal for tomatoes and peppers. There was also quite a bit of rain over the month, which is generally a good thing, however, it certainly helped the weedsRead More →

The garden season has officially arrived in Northern Ontario and I am super excited. While I did start many plants ahead of time, planting as early as late March. Doing this, allows me to plant good-sized seedlings as soon as the threat of frost has passed – which is generally mid-June. Several plants will also be directly sown during the month, as they don’t need that head start. Now that June has come and gone, it’s time to share how the June 2022 garden is looking and what changes were made this year. This year has a lot of new features to the garden. ARead More →

September signifies the end of the growing season – at least it does where I live. This is the month where the final harvest occurs and the first frosts hit. This year was no exception to this, as on the first of the month we experienced a dip in nighttime temperatures that hit near-freezing. The scramble to harvest what remained of the garden hit that day. This is also the time to make sure to clean and properly store your garden tools. Without further ado, here is my September 2021 garden update. September 2021 garden update What’s growing At this point, not much is left.Read More →

As August comes to an end, this means the garden is hitting its peak. The plants have hit maturity and many are producing enough to start harvesting. Of course, August came with its own set of challenges, much like in July. We once again dealt with many days of hot weather, which is very unusual for here. The weeds have also started to take over, as I have been limiting my garden time because of the heat – high temperatures and I do not get along. Despite all this, I am still happy with how the garden has been doing for the most part. So,Read More →

July is coming to an end and that means it’s time for a garden update. This is the month where the garden truly starts to come into its own. The plants are getting well established and if the conditions are right, might be flowering or starting to produce. One of the biggest struggles this month was the heat and lack of rain. Only in the last week of the month did we get any rain. Growing a garden that focuses heavily on cool-weather crops and then having steady heat in the summer does not mix well. So how is the garden holding up in theseRead More →

June ushers in the arrival of the gardening season. For those who live in the North, you know how short and generally cool our growing season can be. That’s why it’s so important to get things in the ground on time. Of course, no two growing seasons are the same. In fact, the month started with abnormally high temperatures. Then in the middle of the month, our nighttime temperatures dropped to near freezing – which is quite normal but felt extra cold after that early heatwave. Needless to say, this has been quite an interesting start to the garden season but I won’t let thatRead More →

September is coming to an end. This is a big month for the garden. It often signals the end of the growing season, which also means the scramble to get the last of the harvest done. After having an unseasonably hot summer, September quickly brought in those cool fall temperatures. We experienced several nights of negative temperatures with several frosts, which did a number on the plants. In fact, I cannot believe the difference between how the garden looks now and what it looked like at the end of September last year. It’s amazing how much of a difference there can be each year. ThisRead More →

August is a strange month for the garden. It is when most of the plants are producing like crazy yet at the same time, it’s when everything starts to slow down. That is the side-effect of growing in a cool and short garden season. Well, most years it’s cool, however, this year was abnormally warm. Not only that, but there was a distinct lack of rain over the course of the month. Even with these challenges, the garden did pretty well this month. Without further ado, here is the August 2020 garden update. Let’s see how everything is growing. August 2020 garden update What’s growingRead More →