Fortunately it is only going down to 4 degrees tonight, but a floating row cover can help!
If you don’t have one, an old sheet will do the trick. The sheet would need to come off in the morning to let the sun in. The floating row cover can stay on for the next week or so to give you a 3 or 4 degrees extra warmth, protect from weed seeds blowing in on the wind and hungry animals that are looking for tender greens after a long winter.
Montreal has a short growing season, so you may want to start your seeds indoors. This also ensures good germination and can help protect your seeds from prey. Some vegetables, such as radishes, carrots, cucumbers, and squash, can be challenging to transplant, so it is important to know your vegetables – we suggest trying to seed start all your vegetables so that you can develop your techniques and see what works for you.
A small fly that lays eggs on the underside of leaves (especially beets and chard). The larvae burrow into the leaves creating brown filmy damaged patches on the leaves. Put yellow sticky traps around affected plants to trap adult flies. Remove damaged leaves as soon as they appear.
They cause the burn-like damage on Swiss chard and beet greens. You can save your plants by removing any damaged leaves right away, and inspecting the underside of healthy leaves and remove any eggs.
It is important to keep on top of leaf miner early in the season. The leaf miner can wipe out your chard or beet crops if left unchecked. Remove affected leaves and destroy. Check backs of healthy leaves for eggs and scrape off with your nail.
Japanese beetle is an invasive species, that has no natural predators. It is easy to recognize with it metallic green and cooper shell.
Japanese beetle damage makes your leaves look like lace. An infestation of Japanese can leaves behind skeleton plants.
Fortunately they are slow and easily trapped by shaking the affected plants over a bucket of soapy water. To be effective, shake daily. An application of nematodes in the spring and fall can help control population. However, it is recommended to do a second application in the spring.
There is a balcony gardening solution for every space, even a small one.
Chose a spot on your balcony, rooftop or window sill that receives at least 6 hours of sun. If you only get 5 hours, then you will want to focus on planting leafy greens and herbs. Watering will be key to the success of your garden. Gardening in smaller pots means that the soil will dry out faster so make sure that watering is easy. Place your garden is in a high-traffic area or space that you will visit frequently. Your presence is your best tool in having a successful vegetable garden.
The Potager Urbain is one of our best sellers. An Urban Seedling product, it is made in Montreal with 100% recycled materials. A fantastic option if you are looking for a quick garden set up, without building or digging. This is a garden bag that you unfold and fill with soil. The fabric allows for great drainage and aeration for growing healthy and happy vegetables. Easy to pack up at the end of the season and clean.
The Noocity Growbed is our first self-watering garden bed. It has a reservoir that waters your garden while you are away. Holes on the side let excess water drain out after a big rainfall. Thus low-maintenance grow bed is easy to assemble, easy to plant, and has great aeration for root systems. If you are installing your garden in a harder-to-reach area, the Noocity Growbed is a great option.
Do you have a smaller space? Our Jardin en sac line offers a wide range of sizes of pots, all made here in Montreal from 100% recycled material and are durable and reusable. These beautiful handmade pots are great for growing edibles as they have excellent aeration and drainage. Keep them close as these pots with their smaller soil volume need to be watered more often than the Potager Urbain or Noocity growbed.
If your available space is vertical, we also have solutions. The garden tower is the ultimate patio farm made of 100% recycled food-grade plastic. The garden tower is vertical organic gardening and vermicomposting combined. Lots of planting space and big soil volume.
If you would like to use walls or railings as garden spaces, try our hanging wall pockets. Metal grommets allow you to fasten them easily. These hanging pockets are made of 100% recycled material here in Montreal. Excellent for growing herbs, edible flowers, leafy greens, beans and strawberries.
Urban Seedling also offers custom living-wall installations, a great way to make the most of your growing space in the city. Hanging wall pockets are made from a 100% recycled materials here in Montréal. We fill them with our custom Urban Seedling soil blend and plant them with our organic seedlings. Each living wall is made custom to your needs. Contact us for a consultation today.
Bok choy is best left to harvest as a whole head. Wait to for it to be nice size and remove the entire boy boy for your next stir fry. All other Leafy greens are easy to harvest. Go out with a big bowl in the garden and harvest the outer leaves of our leafy greens (kale, swiss chard, lettuce, tatsoi, roquette). Harvest your salad daily and enjoy these tasty greens.
Cut back flowers to keep them on producing. Eat your herbs fresh or pick them on dry day for drying to keep in the your pantry. Harvest the tops of your basil to keep your basil plant bushy. Remove an entire section of leaves at a time. You will see two sets of smaller leaves on the stem – those will become entire branches post harvest. You can keep your herbs going all season.
Onions and garlic are ready to harvest when the leaves start to yellow and fall over. Pull them up, brush off the soil and lie them out in the sun for 1-2 weeks to let them cure for storage. Store in a cool, dark place or eat them right away.
Radishes are ready to pick around 25 days after being planted. If they are have been thinned they will produced a deliciously spicy bulb. You can check their size by gently sticking your finger in the soil and if you like their size, go ahead and pick them. Radishes can be reseeded in the fall for another radish harvest.
If planted in the spring, beets and carrots are ready to harvest end of July and beginning of August. A good way to know is to investigate the size of the root with your finger in the soil, if they are large enough to your taste, pull them up. Continue to harvest them as needed.
Carrot tops have a taste reminiscent of parsley and can be eaten raw in the salads, sautéd in garlic, olive oil along with your beet tops, kale and swiss chard. You can also cook carrot greens into à soup or a stock.
Beet greens taste a bit like beets and swiss chard. Harvest them as you need them and remember that beet greens are delicious in a sauté, in a quiche or raw salad.
To harvest peppers, hot or sweet, wait until they have turned colour and harvest by snipping the stem with a pair of garden shears or scissors. Did you know that there is no such thing as a green pepper? You can harvest them green if you prefer, but all peppers will change colour if you let them ripen.
Harvest eggplants the same way, once they have reached a desired size, and become slightly less hard, snip the stem.
Tomatoes ripen as when their colours change, they soften a bit to your touch and come off easily off the vine. Give them a taste and see how you prefer them. You can let them ripen on the window sill as long as do not have nicks are bruises.
Some vegetable seeds are very small and it can be hard to stick to the recommended amount per square foot. We have all been there, we end up sprinkling the lettuce, radish or carrots seeds!
Like us plants need space to be happy and healthy. As soon as the the little seedlings sprout, you can thin the sprouts. This means keeping the strongest looking seedlings and removing the rest. When they are small you can transplant seedlings, just do it quickly and early. We recommend planting greens from seedlings to get step up on the season. You should be focusing on thinning radish, beets, and carrot seeds Carrots and radish need 2 inches (5 cm) and beets need 3 inches (7 cm).
Having a raised-bed garden means that your soil warms up quickly and you can start planting mid-April as soon as the soil is thawed. Add fresh soil and compost to top up your bed. Spring crops include leafy greens such as spinach, kale, lettuce and radish. For better results start your leafy green seedlings 4 weeks before planting in your garden. You can also purchase a wide variety of leafy greens in our garden centre. Radishes can be seeded directly into the garden, and they will be ready to harvest in 25 days.
If the spring has been particularly cold or overcast, germination of seed-planted crops like peas, carrots and beets and radishes will be slow. Strategies to keep your spring plant in a bit longer and get your summer crops in quickly are as follows:
Colder weather is great for leafy greens so harvest away!
If the spring was cold, you will likely keep your greens in the garden. Eventually, they will start to bolt. A tall spike will start to grow from the middle of the lettuce plants and eventually flower. If you want to learn more about bolting, read through Bolting Explained. Lettuce becomes bitter and should be removed from the garden to make room for the summer crops. Kale and Swiss chard are the only greens that will not bolt and will stay in your garden all season.
You are now adding summer crops to your garden. To learn more about spacing check out our guide to plant spacing. As a rule of thumb, summer crops such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and cucumbers are planted one per square foot.
When we plant tomato plants, we take advantage of super tomato adaptation. Tomatoes can grow roots all along the stem. Remove the bottom couple leaves and plant the tomato deep in your garden so that only 5 or 6 inches are sticking out the top. This will give your tomato a much bigger root structure and make for a more vigorous and productive plant.
To maximize space in your garden, plant your tomatoes the Urban Seedling way by planting them in front of your peas. They will share the trellis for a time, but eventually the peas will start to yellow and the tomatoes will need to be intertwined into the trellis. Pull out yellowing peas and wrap tomatoes into the trellis as demonstrated in our video.
One you have harvested your root vegetables, onions, beets and carrots will have more space in the garden. The end of August and early September is a great time to replant leafy greens and radishes. You can purchase already started seedlings in our Urban Seedling garden centre. Get the most out of your fall harvest.