Once you have harvested your beets, carrots and oignons, we encourage all of you to fill the empty squares in your garden with leafy-greens like lettuces and asian greens. This will help you maximize your garden space and the rest of the season.

These leafy greens need your love and attention. Cut back any branches from other plants that could be shading your new leafy-greens. They need lots of sunshine to grow. The well established plants in your garden and in the rest of your yard can create a lot of shade for your fresh new plants.

Slugs are also on the hunt for tender young things to eat. Your new leafy greens are especially susceptible. They can decimate your entire planting in one night. You can remove slugs manually from the garden, construct beer traps. If you have really voracious slugs in your garden, a ferrous sulfate product like Safer’s Slug and Snail Bait sprinkled among your seedlings can be a great way to protect your new plants.

At this time of year fruiting vegetables will start to focus their energy into ripening their fruits. Leaves may start to turn yellow, or some may start to wilt. This has been a particularly difficult year for diseases like Septoria leaf spot in Tomatoes and Powdery Mildew in cucumber and squash. This a good time to do a garden clean up. Remove dead or diseased leaves and plants and dispose of them in the garbage – not the compost. Keeping the garden clean reduces pests and disease. Slugs love debris so keeping your yard and garden clean will help to control slug populations as well.

The gardening season is not over! The fall is an even better time to grow leafy greens than spring as they love the cool weather, and this cool weather keeps them from getting bitter and going to seed

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In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn the basics of home-made vegetable ferments. You’ll leave with your very own jar of kraut and master recipes to get you started fermenting at home!

What you will learn:
-A brief history of fermentation and culturing
-Tips on fermentation vessels and storage
-The food safety of fermented foods
-The health benefits of a healthy intestinal flora, microorganisms and pre-digestion
-Learn about Sauerkraut and Lacto-Fermented Vegetables

Please bring a small cutting board, knife, and your favorite spices.

Fermenting foods is a fun and simple process. It’s much more than just a way of preserving food: it’s a method of self-sufficiency, a crucial historical component to all agricultural movements, and utterly delicious. Taster samples included.

Hot peppers make a delicious fermented treat! Come learn how to make these pickled delights at our fermentation workshop.

To harvest peppers, hot or sweet, wait until they have turned colour and harvest by snipping the 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 the desired size, and become slightly less hard, snip the stem.  Your peppers and eggplants are sun loving crops so make sure to clear around them and cut back any tomato vines that may be shading them.

We have been seeing lots of powdery mildew in the gardens. Remember to remove any diseased leaves from cucumbers, zucchini and tomato plants. As needed spray your affected plants with a baking soda solution every 2 or 3 days to keep disease under control. Powdery mildew  is present in many gardens and it is important to act quickly to keep it under control.

Tomatoes will start ripening soon. Cut off any extra branches to focus energy onto the ripening of the fruit. Make sure to support plants with extra watering and weekly applications of fertilizer. Chicken manure is great for the extra calcium content. We also like to use Kelp fertilizer at this time of year.

Harvest onions, garlic, beets and carrots. We will fill those extra spaces in the gardens at the beginning of September with leafy-greens seedlings. Beans and peas are ready to harvest as well. The more you pick, the more the plant will produce. If your pea plants are producing less or starting to yellow, you can remove them from the garden.

The persistent rain and cooler weather are behind us, so it is very important to be watering your garden daily. A good long soak in the early morning is best. If that is not possible, water later in the day. Watering at high noon means that much of the water will be lost to evaporation.

Slugs have started to become problematic as well. Hunt them down in the evening by looking on the underside of leaves and remove them from the garden. You can also dig a small yogurt container into the garden in a couple of key locations and fill with beer to drown the slugs. Empty regularly. If your slug population is out of control, you may have to resort to a product like Safer’s Slug and Snail Bait. These ferric sodium granules are very effective are approved for organic gardening.

The time has come to start harvesting beets and carrots. To know if they are ready start by investigating the size of the root with your finger in the soil, if they large enough to your taste, pull them up. Continue to harvest them as needed. Don’t forget that the green tops of beets, carrots and onion are all edible and delicious.

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 to 2 weeks to let them cure for storage. Store in a cool, dark place or eat them right away. Potatoes are also ready for harvest. Dig up the tubers to make space for some more leafy greens to plant in a couple of weeks.

Carrot tops have a taste reminiscent of parsley and can be eaten raw in salads, sautéd with garlic, olive oil along with your beet tops, kale and Swiss chard. You can also or cook carrot greens into a soup or a stock now that the weather seems to be cooling off.

Beets greens taste a bit like beets and Swiss chard. Harvest them as you need them, and remember that beet greens are absolutely delicious in a sauté, in a quiche, or raw in a salad.

The very rainy and mostly cold weather has been hard on the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and eggplants.

Come and learn how to transform those tasty vegetables into delicious fermented treats. Join us on August 25 for a fermentation workshop at the Verdun Greenhouses. Make your first jar of sauerkraut and lean master recipes to get you started on your home fermentation journey! Sign up by clicking here and learn more about this great workshop.

And other fruiting veggies

Cucumbers require hot weather and lots of water! Once they take off cucumbers grow quickly. They are vining crops and require a trellis, stake or rope on which to grow. At Urban Seedling, we grow three varieties: lebanese cucumber, field cucumber and dragon egg cucumber. Cucumber are planted one per square foot. Make sure that there are no leaves or weeds shading your plants.

Inconsistent watering is a problem for cucumbers and will develop bitter or weirdly shaped fruit. Cucumbers have very shallow roots so keep soil moist. Avoid watering the leaves of the plant to keep leaf disease such as powdery mildew at bay. Remember to remove any diseased leaves from cucumbers. As needed spray your affected plants with a baking soda solution for control.

Insects are key to pollinate your cucumbers. If your plant blooms and does not produce fruits you may not have enough insect activity and need to pollinate your cucumbers by hand using a soft paint brush. Move pollen from male to female flowers with the tip of your paintbrush.

Cucumber beetles love to feed on young cucumbers plants and carry bacteria and disease in their mouths. The beetle spreads this bacteria by chewing on the plant. Once infected, plants die quickly.You can prevent the beetle by hunting them and removing them from the garden, installing yellow sticky traps or using a floating row to protect your young cucumber plants.

PEPPERS, EGGPLANTS, ZUCCHINI, BEANS, PEAS
As soon as your fruiting veggies are big enough to your taste harvest them! The more you pick, the more the plant will produce. Young tender veggies taste better too. Fruiting vegetables need the most heat and sun, so make sure to give each plant enough space by keeping your garden well weeded, and cutting or tying up any large leaves or branches that are overshadowing your plants.

There is no such thing as a green pepper! You can pick them green, but all peppers will change colour to red, orange, yellow or brown once they are ripe. Sweet peppers are sweeter, and hot pepper hotter if you wait.

BEETS, CARROTS, ONIONS, GARLIC
Root vegetables are going to be ready to harvest over the next few weeks. To figure out if they are ready, simply investigate the size of the root with your finger. If it is large enough to your taste, pull it out! Harvest them as you need them, vegetables are always best when they are eaten fresh-picked.

The most important thing to remember at this time of year is to make space for each plant in your garden. Any leafy greens or brassicas that have gone to seed (really tall and making flowers and seed pods) need to come out of the garden. Remove any large leaves that are overshadowing other plants. Any radish needs to come out of the garden. Most lettuces have gone to seed and need to come out as well.

If you have brocoli in your garden it is likely going to flower. Harvest now! Cabbages are also ready to harvest at this time. Harvest before they start to split. Splitting usually happens after a big rain fall. Harvest heads as soon as possible. Make a delicious kraut to enjoy this summer and fall with all your barbecued veggies and meats. All you need is salt and cabbage! Check out our fermentation workshop this fall.

If you  have peas in your garden, harvest time is here. Harvest your peas early and often! The more you pick, the more you will get. Enjoy them while the harvest lasts. Remember peas shoots also make a delicious addition to a salad. Continue helping your tomatoes onto the trellis as they grow, gently twining them onto your trellis netting. It is important to remove any suckersthat you cannot find space for on the trellis.

The roquette (arugula and sylveltta) is flowering white and yellow flowers. Make sure to cut back flowers to keep your plants producing. Cut back the flowering stocks at the base and do not forget to enjoy the flowers in your next salad!

If you have not harvested your garlic scapes do so now! It is important to remove them all from the garlic plant so that the plant’s energy goes into producing bulbs instead of flowers. The scape is the curled end above the top leaves. Simply snip off. You can chop it up to add to any dish, throw them on the bbq or blend all of them together to add to a pesto. They are a delicious delicacy – so be sure to enjoy!

The herbs are growing nice and big now. Use them to prepare aromatic and savoury vinegars. Harvest on a dry day, chop herbs and cover with apple cider vinegar, white or red wine vinegar. Let it infuse for 6 weeks, stain and pour it into a nice bottle. Great for marinades, salad dressings and they make a wonderful gift! This glowing nasturtium vinegar has a bit of a kick but delicious for those who like it spicy!