Homegrown
April 12, 2012
WELCOME to this issue of Homegrown, a newsletter bringing you practical advice on growing vegetables, fruit, and other garden edibles.
Click here to subscribe to Homegrown.
Click here to view past issues.
If you like this newsletter, please forward it to a friend.
And don’t forget to explore my website,
The-Locavores-Garden.com, for lots of fun and practical gardening information.
Steven Biggs
Gardener, Garden Writer, Garden Coach, Horticulturist
Practical, no-nonsense advice for the edible garden.
 
Follow me on Facebook and Twitter for ideas about gardening, food, and farming. Like my Facebook page to get a chapter from my book
No Guff Vegetable Gardening.
Contents
1. Grow
2. Eat
3. Laugh (Kids in the Garden)
4. Learn (The No Guff Front)
5. Note
6. About Homegrown
Great Gardening Talk Next Week
EDIBLES IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE, April 17, 7 pm
Next week I’m giving a really inspiring, really fun fund-raising talk about Edibles in the Urban Landscape for the Ontario Historical Society at the historic John McKenzie house in Toronto (North York).
Hear about front yard veggie gardens, “veggiephobia,” fun plant choices, and fitting veg into your landscape. It’s a cool venue—and it’s next door to a very cool community vegetable garden, the Parkview Neighbourhood Garden.
Seating is limited, so click here for more information about the April 17 talk—and then RSVP.
1. Grow
DORMANT PRUNING FRUIT TREES
In March I pruned the long-neglected apple and pear trees in my yard. Since moving here over two years ago they’ve been on my radar.
Your goal is to “open up” the canopy to allow in more light—and with full-size trees such as the one pictured, to keep down the height so you can pick the fruit. Trees are now budding so it’s late to dormant prune (sorry, it took me a while to get out this newsletter), but read below about summer pruning and training.
TIP: I didn’t prune as much as I really wanted to... That’s because if you prune too much you will stress an older tree. So my old trees are on a three-year rehab program!
SUMMER TRAINING FRUIT TREES
You can still prune and train young fruit trees. Your goal is to allow light into the middle of the tree—and build a framework of branches in the form you have chosen.
In the tree shown, I’m making one central leader—a main trunk in the middle. So I pruned out weak and crossing branches.
TIP: I’ve used bricks and twine—a crude-looking setup—to get branches to grow horizontally. After a few months (when they stay in place) I can remove the ugly training accessories.
Some of the branches I’m bending down are bigger than they should be (thicker, harder to bend, and less co-operative! I ought to have done this last year but didn’t get around to it…
STARTING SEEDS
The kids are having fun writing seed labels!
We have a lot of our seeds started. My tomato seeds are well underway, indoors. If you don’t have yours started, it’s later than I’d like, but it’s not too late. If you already have tomato seeds growing, see that they have enough space to grow well. Mine are in very small containers and now need potting up into bigger containers where they will have more room to grow (and where they don’t need watering twice a day.) Any time now I’ll start the cucumber and squash clan in pots, indoors.
When it comes to outside seeding, I have nothing in yet…but should have already planted parsnips, carrots, beets, chard, lettuce, spinach, peas, and broad beans. I’m hoping to tackle that tomorrow…
TIP: Seed starting dates are guidelines—not the law. If you’re a bit late with something, try it anyway!
GROW FIGS WHERE YOU THINK YOU CAN'T
In my soon-to-be-released, fun, and practical book about growing figs, you'll find all you need to know to grow exotic fresh figs, even if you’re in a tempestuous temperate climate.
In this book, a Fig Pig (me!) living in a coldish climate shares his passion for figs so that others in fig-unfriendly places can see that growing this fabulous fruit isn’t rocket science.
IT'S GOING TO PRINT NEXT WEEK...STAY TUNED AND PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!
2. Eat
In my last newsletter I had worms in this section. It prompted a lot of questions. So again, in the spirit of using fruit and veg scraps to feed your garden, I’m doing more on worms today.
I needed another worm composter, and my neighbour gave me an old plastic drawer unit he was throwing out. Here’s how I transformed it into a tiered worm composter: (1) cut out the solid bottom of the drawers and inserted a webbed plant tray; (2) drilled holes in the sides of the drawers to allow air circulation; and (3) set it atop an old refrigerator tray that catches moisture dripping from the bottom.
TIP: To allow your worms to go from a “digested” lower drawer up into a higher drawer in which you are now adding scraps, make a column of shredded paper. Top it up regularly as it packs down as it becomes wet.
3. Laugh (Kids in the Garden)
”Daddy, I want to help,” implored Quinn as I lifted the flat of pansies out of the car.
We filled up the planter with soil, and then I explained that we would make holes into which we’d plop the pansy plants.
That’s when Quinn’s face lit up even more as he said, “Wait Daddy.” Soon he was back, toy digger in hand, ready to make holes for the pansies.
4. Learn (The No Guff Front)
From the No Guff Website
No Guff in The Sun
The Sun had a nice write-up about No Guff Vegetable Gardening and about Gardening From a Hammock by my friends Dan and Ellen.
IF YOU LIKE MY NEWSLETTER, YOU’LL LOVE THE BOOK
Click here to buy it.
5. Note
SAVE THE ORCHARD FROM BULLDOZERS
LONDON HOME & GARDEN SHOW, April 20-22
MIDLAND GARDENERS’ GATHERING May 6
BURLINGTON GREEN May 17
- Trying to figure out what to grow in a small space? Then you need a Wow crop. I’ll be telling Burlington Green about edible Crops that Wow! Click here for more information.
OTHER UPCOMING GARDENING TALKS
PLANTCATCHING
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Looking to exchange seeds or plants? Here’s a neat website: www.plantcatching.com. It is the work of Montrealer Nicolas Cadilhac, a garden enthusiast and software developer.
EDIBLES WORKSHOPS
Have useful garden “stuff” that belongs here? Drop me a line to tell me about it.
6. About Homegrown
I am Steven Biggs, a garden writer and farm writer, and publisher of Homegrown. I write about gardening, agriculture, and the food system.
AS A LIFE-LONG GARDENER, I’ve managed to garden wherever I’ve lived—creating allotment gardens, container gardens, indoor gardens, and gardens in the overgrown backyards of rented houses.
I garden in Toronto, Canada, with the help of my kids Emma, Quinn, and Keaton. I share the kitchen with my wife Shelley (although she points out that sometimes I am bossy in the kitchen).
Along with a degree in agriculture (horticultural science major), my work experience spans plant propagation, greenhouses, biological controls, nursery and conservatory plants, and horticultural supplies.
If you’re interested in the agri-food system, visit my personal website (StevenBiggs.com) and read some of my articles that look at farming issues and the food system.
Click here to view past issues.
If you like this newsletter about growing vegetables, please forward it to a friend.
And don’t forget to explore my gardening website,
The-Locavores-Garden.com, for lots of fun and practical gardening information.
COMMENTS? IDEAS? FEEDBACK?
I'd love to hear from you. Just reply to this newsletter and tell me what you think!
Contents © Steven Biggs
Garden writer, horticulturist, garden educator, garden coach
Toronto, 2012
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ZESTFUL, FUN, INFORMATION-PACKED, OPINIONATED—even slightly irreverent—this graphic-novel-meets-gardening-book empowers readers to make their own decisions in the vegetable garden because the authors, two garden coaches, talk frankly about issues…and don’t always agree.