Garden Wisdom Blog

Microgreens Growth Chart Microgreens are simply tiny vegetables, herbs, and flowers that are harvested at a very immature stage, just as the first pair of true leaves are emerging. It’s a one-off harvest as they don’t grow back. But there are some good reasons to grow microgreens. First of all, they are incredibly nutritious and easy to digest. In this regard, they are much like sprouts – they have all the nutrition and flavour of mature plants, but they lack tough cell walls, so your body can break them down completely and quickly. Microgreens can be grown anywhere, at any...

Toasted spices add interesting texture to this classic Tunisian carrot salad recipe from Executive Chef Adam Hynam-Smith, co-owner of El gastronomo Vegabundo, Ontario’s first gourmet food truck. This salad can be served on its own or is fantastic with fish or a grilled steak. From the cookbook Curbside by Chef Adam Hynam-Smith, Whitecap Books. Serves 4 Salad Ingredients 8 large carrots, peeled olive oil, to coat and to finish 1/2 cup (125 mL) kalamata olives, pitted and quartered 1 1/2 Tbsp (22 mL) coriander seeds, toasted 4 tsp (20 mL) cumin seeds, toasted 4 tsp (20 mL) caraway seeds, toasted...

Spring and summer, 2015… Hot and dry! The whole west coast of North America has been deprived of our spring rainfall and exposed to really unusual heat. From California’s record breaking drought right up to Haida Gwaii, there has been less than one millimeter of rain from March to July. Climatologists tell us that this is all part of a pattern and that gardening in an El Niño year is just something we have to put up with. But how does the unusual weather affect our gardens? 1. Germination. Most seeds need to be planted quite close to the surface...

With careful planning, seeds can be sown from winter to autumn in order to keep the garden productive pretty much all year round. Here are some tips for seed sowing for the longest harvest window. Determined growers sometimes think of the garden as a member of the family, deserving care and attention regardless of the season. Because seeds take time to mature into edible crops, this is a kind of meditation in forward thinking. The year round gardener must always be planning six months ahead. Succession Sowing Starting out, many gardeners think of seed sowing as a single event that...

Do you run a market garden or a small organic farm? Are you growing any West Coast Seeds products? Send us some photos! Use your cell camera or your fancy SLR, but take some pictures and send them our way. In return for your photos, we will post them here and on our Facebook page, with information about your farm, your farm store, and anything else you would like the public to know. Tell us about your farm. Where do you grow? How big is your farm? How long have you been farming? Do you have CSA spaces available? Does...