Growing your own veggies? Here's the top tips from local green thumb pros
Win Czum and her husband, Ted, are what most of us would call serious" vegetable gardeners.
In their Dundas garden, they grow 300 heads of garlic every year (down from 800 just a few years ago), peas, beets, onions and lettuce. Kale, spinach and basil. Lots of basil. Peppers, sweet and hot, produce well, and kohlrabi, Scarlet Runner beans, acorn and butternut squash, and French sorrel all thrive.
Win and Ted, married 53 years, grow, preserve and freeze enough produce to keep them going year round.
In a time when food shopping sometimes seems perilous, many gardeners are looking to increase their vegetable patch" and some non-gardeners are taking the plunge into growing their own food. (Seed sales, this spring, have gone through the roof, suppliers say.) In a socially-distanced telephone chat, Win tells us what she's done so far in her garden and what is yet to be done, and offers a few tips to those wanting to up their garden veggie game.
Good morning, Win. Tell us a bit about you and your garden.
We've lived 20 years in this house. The veggie garden measures 40 feet by 25. It was already here. I grew up on a farm in England actually and my mother always had a veggie garden. I've always had a veggie garden no matter where I've lived. It's fairly sandy soil here so it drains quite quickly. So about a month ago I planted some seeds, some peas, some radishes, lettuce, kale. I grow some things from seeds, some from seedlings.
What have you been doing in your garden so far this year?
Some cleanup was done and because our garden wasn't good last year - I don't know if the weather contributed but I think the soil needed some amendments - we added some manure, some compost, some black loam and some peat. We got two cubic yards plus we have a big compost bin at the back. The compost went on the fall because that's the best time to do it and I added the soil and peat moss in the spring.
Where do you get your seedlings this year?
You know where I go? And I'm letting out a secret: Down to the Portuguese market on James Street North. There's two of them there, right across from the armouries. I get my veggie plants there, I have for a few years. They're great.
What will you be doing over the next few weeks in your garden?
The next few weeks, I'll get these seedlings planted out. Some tomatoes, peppers. I have to pick up some zucchini yet. And plant some of the warm-weather seeds like beans. I already have teepees made in my garden for the Scarlet Runner beans. I like them because I like the red flowers. I'm going to plant a bit of corn this year, and some beets. And kohlrabi. What else? I've got leeks. And onions. I've planted some onion sets already and I've got the little seedlings too. And of course the garlic planted last fall. We have sorrel that grows every year. And we have a rhubarb patch and some blackberry bushes. I think that's probably it.
What are the favourite vegetables or fruits that you grow?
I love tomatoes straight from the vine. Nothing better than that. I like cucumbers. Everything I plant, I like, of course, but tomatoes in particular. Especially a little cherry tomato. And the peppers straight from the vine too.
What would your best advice be to someone who has decided to make a vegetable garden for the first time?
Preparing the soil is one important thing so you're not disappointed later on in the season. So, start with good prepared soil, compost, fertilizer. And maybe start off with a small area and a possibly raised bed to begin with.
Start with seed that's easy to grow like radishes and kale and lettuce and things like that. Other things, start off with seedlings. I would probably not try to start seeds indoors the first year because if you don't have the right environment then they don't grow or they get spindly.
Have some patience. Don't plant things too soon.
Get the right tools for the garden: a fork, a spade, a hoe, a rake, a trowel.
What do you think is the biggest success in your garden? What are you happiest with?
I've got to say garlic. (Laughs). Lots of garlic.
There's a real esthetic sense to your garden as well. I mean yes, it's productive but it's also a very pretty place. There must be times you walk out in the morning or the evening and you just look at it and think, you know, this is really something special.
Yes, it is. It doesn't trouble me that we are in a staycation right now. Everything is lush and looks ready to burst. I always say we have a European garden. We don't have a manicured landscape garden.
Do you have a disappointment or a lesson learned from your garden?
I think we crowded our garden sometimes. It makes the plants susceptible to disease and such. But every year there's always a disappointment with something. It's all trial and error anyway. You learn by your mistakes.
(This conversation has been shortened and edited for clarity and conciseness.)
Rob Howard lives and gardens in Hamilton and has been writing about gardening for more than 30 years. Find him on Facebook at Rob Howard: Garden writer or email him at GardenwriterRob@gmail.com