Garden Wisdom Blog

Inspired by Chinese cuisine? Your garden can be too! Many of the greens we associate with Asia are hardy and thrive in cool spring weather. These crops are very easy to grow, and early maturing. Try planting some in short rows, and then plant some more in two weeks. You’ll get a much longer harvest period this way, instead of having too much mature all at once. Pac Choi These little, spoon-like stir fry staples are often referred to as Bok Choy. Unlike many mescluns, these greens feature thicker stems and leaves, making them sturdier for stir fries. Our stir...

Baby leaf lettuces are bred for their appeal at an immature stage. As baby greens they have traits that are particularly attractive for salad mixes. The leaves are succulent and tasty, with good texture, and they come in a variety of shapes. For growers Because these lettuces are ready to harvest in only 35 days from planting, they make very good sense for market growers. In fact, many of our grower customers depend on baby leaf lettuce production to provide reliable income throughout the year. If you can supply to one or two restaurant accounts, your income is set in...

Wireworms represent the larval stage of the click beetles of the family Elateridae. There are around 9,300 species worldwide, but it is a small handful of species that cause problems in our fields and gardens. Click beetles are 1-2cm long, quite narrow in shape, and can be brown, grey, or black. Most obviously, when turned on their backs they use a special mechanism to right themselves, which produces an audible “click.” The larvae themselves are tan to orange in colour, cylindrical, hard-bodied (unlike many garden grubs), and 1-4cm when mature. These larvae may live in the ground for 2 to...

Our seed potatoes are grown on this farm in the Pemberton Valley. What’s so special about seed potatoes from West Coast Seeds? Well, for a start, they are certified organic. That means that the farm where they are grown is monitored, and maintains a very high level of hygeine. The soil these potatoes are grown in is enriched with organic matter and guaranteed to be free of chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Our growers depend on established organic practices like crop rotation and the use of beneficial insects in order to maintain healthy, robust, genetically clean crops. Our seed potatoes are...

The Lower Mainland of BC tends to enjoy very damp spring and early summer weather. This dampness creates the ideal habitat for Woodlice – often called sow bugs or pill bugs. These are the small, grey, segmented animals that can be found beneath rotting wood, garbage cans, plant pots, and so on. They gather, sometimes in large numbers, anywhere where moisture collects and lasts throughout the day. Woodlice are actually crustaceans of the suborder Oniscidea, and are more closely related to shrimp than to insects. There are more than 3,000 species of woodlice in the world, and dozens of different...