More than One Edible Part! These Plants are a Great Addition to an Edible Landscape

By Steven Biggs

Harvest More…Harvest Something Different

Whether you're creating a vegetable garden or an ornamental edible garden, plants with more than one edible part are a great way to harvest more from your garden.

They're also a fun addition when preparing meals. There's been growing interest in nose-to-tail cuisine. For vegetable gardeners, the equivalent is stem-to-root cuisine!

Keep reading for 12 plants with more than one edible part.

Radish

Radish is a vegetable garden staple because it's virtues are many:

Radish seed pods are a tasty addition to an edible landscape!

• Easy to grow.

• Quick to mature.

• Suited to in-ground beds, raised beds, and containers.

• Can be inter-planted with slower-growing vegetables such as beets and carrots, and then harvested as those other crops need more space.

The radish root is what we most often eat. But there's more...

Radish: Other Edible Parts

• The crunchy, mildly peppery seed pods are edible too.

• The flowers are edible and make a nice garnish—or toss them into a salad

• Some people use the leaves too. We've made radish-leaf pesto. Not my favourite—but taste is a personal thing.

Looking for crops for the shoulder seasons? Winter radish is a good winter storage crops. Find out about 25 storage crops to grow.

Rose

Rosehips and rose petals are both edible and a good fit for edible landscapes.

I swore off growing roses for years, having battled black spot on Mom's roses. But there are some fantastic disease-resistant roses out now. No-fuss for busy gardeners.

Roses are a must-have plant in an edible landscape. They add visual interest, they attract pollinators, they can be a focal point...and they have more than one edible part.

Most people think of rose hips (the fruit) when thinking of roses for edible landscaping. They're used for rosehip tea, rosehip jelly (and I've heard of rosehip vodka!)

Rose: Other Edible Part

You can use the rose flowers too! The petals are edible.

Use rose petals to make a rose petal jam, as a garnish, or add chopped rose petals to a bowl of cherries.

The inner, white portion of the petals can be bitter, and if it is, just remove this part.

Hear edible flower expert Denise Schreiber give her favourite edible-flower tips.

Arugula

Edible arugula flowers belong in any vegetable garden.

Peppery arugula leaves are a favourite in our household, whether in a salad or wilted on a pizza that's just come out of the oven.

Arugula is a great crop for the early spring edible garden. It tolerates cool conditions, and it's fast growing.

Arugula: Other Edible Part

Along with the leaves, arugula flowers are edible too. Let some of your arugula plants bolt and flower.

We use arugula flowers on salads and as a garnish. Like the leaves, they are mildly peppery.

Grow a Container Vegetable Garden

And get an early harvest of crops that usually take too long!

More on Container Veg

Fig

Nothing beats a fresh fig! It's an exotic touch for edible gardens in cold climates.

(Remember, if you're in a cold climate, you can still grow figs as a potted plant, or as a plant that you tip over and protect for winter. Find out how here.)

Fig: Other Edible Parts

Use fig leaves in cooking for the unique taste.

There are a couple of other parts to the fig plant that make it a fun fit for an edible landscaping.

Fig leaves are packed with flavour. I describe the flavour as a mix of toasted almond and coconut. It's subtle. (You don't actually eat the leaf, but extract flavour from it.)

In our household, we like fig leaf panna cotta and fig leaf granita.

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• Find out more about using fig leaves in cooking.

• Here's a fig leaf panna cotta recipe I love.

Before we finish with figs, here's one more idea for you:

Save the branches you prune from your fig tree for smoking meat. I like to smoke meat with apple or cherry...but fig smoke has a delicious taste of its own.

Cauliflower and Broccoli

Grown for their flower heads, these plants—along with kohlrabi, which we grow for its stout stem—have more edible parts!

See this recipe for cauliflower steaks!

Other Edible Parts

• Use young leaves raw, in salads

• Older leaves can be chopped and added to stir fries and soups

• If you trim off the end of the stalk as you prepare cauliflower and broccoli heads to cook, keep those bits of stalk for stir fries. (I always add them to my beet borsch)

Find out how to make borsch like my mom did.

Create Your Own Unique Edible Landscape

That fits for your yard, and your style!

More on Edible Landscaping

Lemon

Like figs, potted lemon trees make a fine addition to edible landscapes, even in temperate regions.

A potted lemon tree is an elegant touch in a garden design.

Lemons add a sensory element to the garden too. Along with the lemon fruit, there's fragrance of the white flowers. Nothing beats the smell of lemon blossoms on a patio!

Lemon: Other Edible Parts

Lemon leaves impart a citrusy taste to food. These are wedges of halloumi cheese wrapped in lemon leaves, cooking on the grill.

Those fragrant lemon blossoms are edible too!

Don't stop there: Lemon leaves are packed with tasty goodness. They're tough—so don't eat the lemon leaves, but use them for their lemony flavour.

• Use them like bay leaves.

• Or wrap what you're cooking on the grill and it cooks the lemony flavour into the food. (Then just removed the charred leaves.)

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A favourite in our household is wedges of halloumi cheese wrapped in lemon leaves and grilled. (Halloumi has a high melting point, so you can grill it without it oozing down into the BBQ.)

Find out more about cooking with lemon leaves.

Interested in growing a lemon tree in a pot? Here's more to help you grow a potted lemon tree. Lemons are a great plant to add season-long interest to your edible landscape.

Fennel

Florence fennel, a.k.a. "finocchio." Mom always included sliced fresh finocchio on a veggie platter.

I love to braise fennel bulbs in white wine.

Fennel: Other Edible Parts

Fennel flowers are edible, and the pollen can be tapped onto plates as decoration.

• Beyond the bulb, the fern-like fennel leaves make a fine garnish.

• Fennel flowers are edible too. (Or, tap fennel flowers over a white plate to decorate it with the yellow pollen.)

• Fennel seeds are edible. Sprinkle a few over a bowl of granola. I like to add them when I make sausage.

There's also a cousin to the bulb-producing Florence fennel: Bronze fennel.

Bronze fennel is a perennial with aptly named bronze-coloured leaves. They're beautiful—and tasty. There's no bulb; this is a perennial edible we grow for its leaves, and its edible flowers.

If you're gardening to attract beneficial insects (pollinators, parasites, predators), fennel is a musts-have plant in vegetable gardens and edible landscapes.

Find out about other edible perennial plants like bronze fennel that you can weave into an edible landscape.

Beet

Beet root is a great root vegetable for winter storage.

Beet: Other Edible Part

‘Bulls Blood’ beet leaves are a colourful addition to an edible garden.

Beet leaves are often overlooked.

• Use small beet leaves fresh, as you would small chard leaves.

• Larger leaves can be cooked. (An incomparable trio is beet leaves, sour cream and dill.)

Beet leaves are also nice chopped into a pot of borsch. (Here's how Mom made borsch.)

Most people don't think of beets when looking for visual appeal...but for colourful beet leaves—a vibrant red—check out 'Bull's Blood.'

Carrot

Baby carrots are a favourite summer treat at our house, and over the winter we enjoy carrots stored in our garage.

Carrot: Other Edible Part

Carrot leaves are edible, bringing their own unique flavour when added to sauteed greens or a frittata. Or, make them into a pesto.

Dill

Dill seeds are a great way to enjoy the flavour of dill through the winter.

Dill is up there with fennel when it comes to bringing beneficial insects to your garden. The flowers are a magnet for beneficial insects.

I cook with lots of dill, so when I have a glut of dill in summer I chop and freeze lots for the winter.

Dill: Other Edible Parts

• Use dill flowers as you would fennel flowers.

• And...I use the seed. Dill seed into a beet-and-feta salad is a delight. Or a few dill seeds into a pot of borsch.

Garlic

Garlic is a great crop for a home garden because you can grow enough of it in a small space for an entire household for a whole year.

And it stores well in a cool basement, even without a proper root cellar.

Garlic scapes

Garlic: Other Edible Part

Along with the bulbs, there are the garlic "scapes" that make a fine pesto.

And there's more...hear Doug Oster explain how he gets 5 harvests from his garlic.

Squash

Winter squash is a great storage crop.

Vining squash varieties are also a great addition to vertical gardens.

Squash: Other Edible Part

• Eat some of your squash flowers. (Stuff them with a wedge of cheese, dip in batter, and deep fry, you won't regret it.)

• Cook squash shoot tips. Hear chef Alan Borgo talk about squash shoot tips.

Squash flowers are edible. And don’t forget the edible shoot tips!

More Edible Landscaping Ideas

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Edible Landscaping: See My Ornamental Edible Garden

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Guide: How to Grow Ground Cherries and Cape Gooseberries

By Steven Biggs

Unhusking the Husk Cherries

Looking for an easy-to-grow fruit for a northern garden?

Here are a couple of sweet, tangy annual fruit crops that are a snap to grow. They're great for container gardens too.

As you peel back the papery husk, inside you find a round, shiny yellow- or orange-coloured fruit.

(The whole business of peeling back the husk makes them very fun for kids...and adults too!)

In this article we take a look at the ground cherry (Physalis pruinosa) and its lesser known cousin, the cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana). They're both part of the nightshade clan—in the same plant family as tomatoes, peppers, tomatilloes, potatoes, and eggplants.

But they don't taste a bit like epplant or pepper, as you'll read below.

Ground Cherries

Ground cherry plants are fast-growing and sprawling, with small yellow-and-black flowers. They're probably the easiest to grow out of the nightshade clan.

A ground cherry plant will grow up to about one metre (3') high.

The taste of the berry is sweet and fruity. Some people liken them to pineapple.

Ground cherries are called by a few different names, including husk tomato, husk cherry, strawberry tomato, and golden cherry.

Cape Gooseberries

While it's not related to the true gooseberry, the tanginess of the cape gooseberry might account for it borrowing the name.

I've also seen this fruit called by other names including golden berry, goldenberry, physalis, and Peruvian groundcherry.

Growing cape gooseberry is worth the extra wait. The fruit is slightly larger, more citrusy, and a darker colour than ground cherry fruit.

Cape gooseberry plants are larger and more upright than ground cherry plants, getting up to about 1 ½ metres (4-5') tall. The fruit is slightly larger, citrusy, and a darker colour than ground cherry fruit.

Out of the two husk cherries, I prefer cape gooseberry.

But...there's a tradeoff: It takes longer to mature. As I explain below, there are a couple of things you can do to get cape gooseberries to mature more quickly in a northern garden.

(Cape gooseberry is a perennial in warmer climates...but we grow it as an annual in northern gardens.)

How to Grow Ground Cherries and Grow Cape Gooseberries

Both of these fruits are grown as annual crops in cooler climates. They're a good fit for the veggie garden or a container garden.

To get fruit as early as possible, start seeds indoors.

Start Ground Cherry and Cape Gooseberry Seed Indoors

A tray of ground cherry seedlings. Grow ground cherry and cape gooseberry seeds the same way as tomato seeds.

Treat ground cherry seeds and cape gooseberry seeds the same as you would tomato seeds.

That means:

• Plant seeds 6-8 weeks before the average last frost date for your area

• Plant cape gooseberry seeds earlier, as plants are slower to mature in cold climates (I aim for 8 weeks with mine, while I plant ground cherries about 6 weeks before the last frost)

• Heat from below helps to speed up germination (a heat mat, or placing seed trays on a heated floor or radiator)

One other thing to think about:

Both of these crops self-sow, meaning that fallen fruit that you don't pick up gives you lots of little "volunteer" plants the following year.

Because ground cherries grow fairly quickly, I often let some of these little ground cherry plants grow. They fruit later than my transplants, but are still worth the space. But don't bother with volunteer cape gooseberry plants in a northern garden...they need too long a season.

Grow Ground Cherry Seeds

Ground cherry with the husk peeled back. They make a great garnish!

There are a few varieties of ground cherry seeds available.

Common ground cherry varieties include:

• Aunt Molly’s

• Cossack Pineapple

• Golden Husk

There are also lots of unnamed ground cherry seeds for sale.

When it comes to cape gooseberry, I've never seen any named varieties.

Transplanting Ground Cherry and Cape Gooseberry Seedlings

Time your transplanting as you would for tomatoes.

You can transplant ground cherry and cape gooseberry seedlings into the garden when there is no longer any danger of frost and the daytime temperature is warm. I aim for 15-20°C (60-68°F).

If you've already transplanted your seedlings and the temperature dips, place floating row covers over them to keep them a bit warmer.

And don't forget the soil temperature: Cool soil sends them into a tizzy. If it's been a late spring, and the air is warm but the soil hasn't had time to warm up, it won't hurt to wait a bit before planting them.

Choose a Location

Ground cherries and cape gooseberries grow well in a wide variety of soil types.

Avoid very heavy and wet soils.

A raised bed is a great option for the cape gooseberry plant. That's because the soil in raised beds heats up more quickly in the spring—and that extra soil heat is helpful in a short season.

How to Plant Ground Cherries

When planting outdoors in the garden, space ground cherries and cape gooseberries about 60 cm (2') apart.

As you transplant seedlings, keep the soil level the same—don't bury the stem as is commonly done with tomatoes. That's because ground cherries and cape gooseberries don't root as readily from the stem as tomato plants do.

And here's something you'll be glad you did once harvest time rolls around: Mulch around the plants so that fruit that falls to the ground stays clean.

Growing Ground Cherries

Because cape gooseberry plants have a more upright growth, they benefit from a tall cage.

With their squat growth, ground cherries don't need any support or special training.

If you want, you can keep the plant a little bit more upright using a cage—but there's really no need.

Growing Cape Gooseberries

Because a cape gooseberry bush has a more upright growth, it benefits from a tall cage—or even from staking so that it doesn’t bend over on a windy day.

How to Grow Ground Cherries in Containers

Grow cape gooseberry and ground cherry in containers for an earlier harvest.

Container growing has two advantages in a home garden:

• Warm Soil: The soil in containers heats up faster than the soil in the garden

• Heat: You can situate containers for maximum heat and sunlight to speed up harvest (e.g. next to a warm wall or on a warm driveway)

Cape gooseberry plants benefit from extra heat in cool climates with a short season. This black sub-irrigated container has warm soil, and gives constant soil moisture.

Consistent soil moisture, warm soil, and well-fed soil give the best results.

To maintain soil moisture, consider a sub-irrigated pot (self-watering pot.)

Find out how to make your own sub-irrigated pot.

Harvesting Ground Cherries and Cape Gooseberries

The papery husk turns from green to a tan colour as the fruit inside ripens. The colour of the ripe fruit depends on the variety, ranging from light yellow through to a pale orange.

Ripe ground cherries drop off the plant; ripe cape gooseberries remain on the plant.

If the fruit is still green, it's unripe. Don't eat it. That's because, like it's nightshade kin, the stems, leaves, and unripe fruit contain things that can upset your stomach.

Don’t eat green fruit, they contain toxins that cause stomach upset.

If you leave fallen ground cherries on the ground for a while, sometimes all that remains of the papery ground cherry husks is a fine netting—and you can see the golden fruit inside.

Store Ground Cherries and Cape Gooseberries

Plants continue to grow and flower all season long. So when the first fall frost threatens, you'll have green, unripe ground cherries and cape gooseberries.

Pick these green fruit and let them ripen indoors. When spread out to ripen, many of them will ripen. I put mine on a tray, in a cool room in my basement and enjoy them for weeks after the first fall frost.

Save Ground Cherry Seeds

Each ground cherry fruit is full of many small seeds.

Save and dry ground cherry seed for for the following year. They can stay viable for a few years.

I simply smear some of the seed-filled flesh onto a paper towel. Once it's dry, I put it into an envelope and label it.

Save cape gooseberry seeds in exactly the same way.

Eating Ground Cherries and Cape Gooseberries

Emma shows off a ground-cherry-blueberry crostata she made.

I was once in the Lac St-Jean region of Quebec and found locally made ground cherry liqueur. It was divine—a rich yellow colour, both sweet and tangy.

Fresh ground cherries and cape gooseberries are so tasty that we don't often have a lot left for other uses.

Wondering how to eat ground cherries? There's lots you can do with them:

• Ground cherries as garnishes (peel back that papery husk and they look quite attractive!)

• Ground cherry jam

• Ground cherry cobbler

• Ground cherry crostata

• Dried ground cherries

Ground Cherry Pests

Three-lined potato beetle larvae enjoying cape gooseberry leaves. Easy to solve with soapy water.

Ground cherries and cape gooseberries are about as trouble-free a crop as you'll get.

If you have a problem, the most common is one of the pests that go after other nightshade crops. They include:

• Tomato hornworms

• Cutworms

• Colorado potato beetle

• Three-lined potato beetle

In a home garden, hand pick hornworms and colorado potato beetles. When three-lined potato beetle larvae start making holes in my cape gooseberry leaves, a soapy-water treatment solves the problem.

Prevent cutworm damage by using a newspaper collar around young plants as you transplant them into the garden.

One year a raccoon took a shine to my cape gooseberries...and I'd find empty husks on the ground around the cape gooseberry plants. Toronto has an unusually high density of raccoons, so I don't expect this will be an issue for most people. If it is, a simple solution is to physically exclude the raccoons. Cage the plants. It's what we do with our melons.

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FAQ

Can you grow ground cherries indoors?

There is no need to grow your ground cherry plants indoors, even in a northern climate. That's because you can get a sizeable harvest even where there's a short growing season.

These are nicely branched ground cherry plants. They can get up to about one metre high.

If you really want to grow them indoors (I've never tried) the key would be a light setup suitable for indoor growing. A windowsill over the winter would not be bright enough.

Do ground cherries grow back every year?

The plants die over the winter, but ground cherries often "volunteer," which means new plants grow from seeds left over from prior years.

Are tomatillos and ground cherries the same thing?

No.

Tomatillos (a.k.a. husk tomatoes) produce larger fruit than ground cherries. And unlike ground cherries, the fruit completely fills its husk at maturity, and actually bursts open. While ground cherries are consumed as a sweet, tomatillos are usually picked green for use in savoury dishes.

How many ground cherries do you get per plant?

More than you can count!

How do you overwinter ground cherries?

You don't. Start new plants each spring.

Do ground cherries ripen after picking?

Yes. As the first fall frost approaches, pick green cherries that are almost full size but still green. They will continue to ripen.

More Information About Growing Fruit

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Guide to Growing Saskatoon Berries: Planting, Pruning, Care

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Guide to Growing Saskatoon Berries: The Prairie Berry (a.k.a. Juneberry)

By Steven Biggs

How to Grow a Saskatoon Bush

As an Ontarian, there was a fruit that I never ate growing up.

But I heard lots about it from Mom.

She grew up in Western Canada, and talked about the saskatoon berries that her parents grew. And when I finally saw a saskatoon bush, on a trip to her childhood home, I was surprised that the row of bushes was taller than me. I'd been expecting something puny, like the wild blueberry bushes we get in Ontario.

What is a Saskatoon Bush?

The saskatoon bush (Amelanchier alnifolia) is a native North American fruiting bush. It has a wide range: Wild saskatoon bushes are found in Alaska and Yukon, and in the harsh conditions of the prairie landscape.

It has a few aliases: South of the border you might hear it called juneberry (june berry), shadbush, and western serviceberry. And in the east, it's sometimes called serviceberry—like it's many kin in the Amelancheier clan. (There are many serviceberry species, some shrubby, some growing as small trees.)

The saskatoon bush (Amelanchier alnifolia) is a native North American fruiting bush.

(If you’ve ever grabbed a handful of wild serviceberries or saskatoons and them spit them out because they’re pithy and dry, it’s time to try the domesticated version! The flavour and texture of the wild berries varies a lot, can comparing them to Saskatoon berries is like comparing a crabapple to a big, red, juicy apple from an orchard.)

Saskatoon Fruit

Ripe saskatoon berries look a bit like blueberries...but the similarities end there. They have a taste of their own, a bit nutty and slightly almond-like.

(In case you’re interested, they’re actually related to apples and mountain ash, so it’s no surprise they’re very different from blueberries.)

The saskatoon fruit turns from green to red as it ripens, with fully ripe fruit eventually turning deep purple—almost black.

Saskatoon Bush Size

Saskatoon bushes can grow to approximately 5 metres (16’) high when not pruned.

But in commercial production, they're often kept shorter, under 1.5 metres (5’) high.

An Ornamental Edible

Along with the attractive fruit, saskatoon bushes have showy spring bloom, with clusters of upright flowers.

Saskatoon bushes are a great addition in an ornamental garden too. Along with the attractive fruit, the spring bloom, with its clusters of upright flowers, is very showy.

In the autumn, the leaves paint the garden with a showy orange colour.

Saskatoon Berries Cold Hardiness

It's as tough as nails! No surprise for a plant that’s native to the Great Plains, it takes harsh, dry conditions.
There are a few things that affect hardiness, but it takes temperatures as cold as -50°C (-58°F), and probably colder.

How to Plant a Saskatoon Berry Bush

Choose a Location

Select a location with a well-drained soil. Saskatoon bushes are tolerant of many soil types. So a clay soil with some soil moisture is fine, as long as the soil is not waterlogged.

Full sun is ideal for the best fruit production. It does respectably well in home gardens with partial shade, although the harvest is less than full-sun locations.

If you get late spring frosts, a sloped location where cold air can drain away is best. South-facing locations in cold areas are not ideal, as they warm up more quickly in early spring. That causes flowering while there's still more risk of frost.

Planting a Saskatoon Shrub

When planting most trees and shrubs it's good practice to keep the depth the same as it was before. Not deeper.

There are exceptions to every rule…and the Saskatoon is an exception.

You can plant your saskatoon bush at the same depth; that's fine. But you can also plant it a bit deeper.

Here’s why:

Saskatoon bushes have a habit of suckering—of sending up new shoots beyond the original bush. The bush gets wider over time, and you can end up with a little Saskatoon thicket!

But when planted a few inches deeper, they're less likely to sucker.

After you've planted, keep it well watered for the first year until it's established. Mulch the soil surface around the bush to control weeds and keep in soil moisture.

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Saskatoon Bushes in the Landscape

Saskatoon berries are very versatile in a home landscape.

Here are a few ideas:

• Saskatoon Hedge. If it’s an edible hedge you’re after, look no further than the Saskatoon! It’s really ornamental too!

• Saskatoons in a Food Forest. In forest gardens, Saskatoons can be grown as shrubs or small trees, and are tolerant of partial shade.

• Saskatoon Berries in Containers. Because of their excellent tolerance of harsh conditions, Saskatoon berries are great candidates for container gardens.

I have an edible hedge in my garden that has a saskatoon bush, haskaps, and Nanking cherry.

Find out how to grow an edible hedge.

Check out these 5 types of cherry bushes to grow in an edible landscape.

Saskatoon Berry Care

Pruning Saskatoon Bushes

Regular pruning helps maintain vigour and encourages annual fruit production. (With saskatoon, like many fruit trees and bushes, plants often fruit more heavily every second year, something called biennial bearing.)

With pruning, we're helping the plant grow in a way that's beneficial to us. Importantly, we want to pick saskatoon berries without a ladder! (More fruit within reach means more for you, less for the birds!)

Here are a few more thoughts on pruning your saskatoon bush:

• Prune out older, less fruitful wood

• Remove diseased branches

• The best fruit production is on wood from the previous season (older wood gives some fruit, though not as much)

• Some saskatoon shrubs favour one main leading branch (leader) when unpruned. Prune back leaders for a well-branched bush form

• Prune when dormant

Remember, prune your saskatoon shrub to control size and to create a multi-stemmed shrub.

With pruning, there are two main types of cut we make:

• "Heading" cuts, where we cut a branch back only part way to the main branch they come from, encourage branching

• "Thinning" cuts, where we cut right back to the main branch, are used to remove weak or unwanted growth

Feeding and Watering Saskatoon Bushes in a Home Landscape

If you have a well-fed soil that has been amended with lots of organic matter, you might not need to give any additional feed.

Sandy soils don't hold moisture or nutrients as well, so if you're on a sandy soil, be sure to amend the soil with lots of organic matter.

Mature service berry bushes are very hardy and won't require irrigation. While establishing newly planted bushes, water for the first year until well rooted.

When to Harvest Saskatoon Berries

As saskatoon berries ripen, they first turn red or pink. Not all fruit ripen at the same time.

Saskatoons are self-fertile, meaning you get fruit even if you have only one bush. There's no need for a second bush.

Not all flowers open at the same time; and not all fruit ripen at the same time. Fruit on the outside and sunniest part of a bush often develop faster. So expect to pick more than once.

The fruit ripens six to eight weeks after flowering. If you're growing more than one variety, flowering and ripening times vary by variety.

As berries ripen, they first take on a red colour. Next, as they turn to dark purple, you can begin tasting them to figure out if they're close to optimal ripeness. On rip fruit, the flesh is usually pink or red.

How to Use Saskatoon Berries

Our favourite way to use serviceberries is for fresh eating. We graze some in the garden, mix with other fruits for fruit salad, or use them on cereal.

Fresh berries don’t last too long once picked because during picking the skin tears a bit as the stem detaches.

Saskatoon berries go from pink to blue, often to a purple-black colour. Taste some to determine if they’re fully ripe.

Here are a few other ways to use the fruit:

• Jams and jellies

• Pie

• Muffins

• Syrup

• I've even heard of wine...though I haven't tried it!

And if you want some for using later, freeze them directly in freezer bags—or make some into dried berries.

A few saskatoon berries go nicely atop a crème brûlée! Find out how to make crème brûlée—gardener style!

Propagating a Saskatoon Bush

In the nursery trade, saskatoon bushes are often propagated by cuttings and tissue culture. Sometimes they are seed-grown, but there can be more variability with seed-grown plants.

For home gardeners, rooting saskatoon cuttings is a bit more tricky, as you need controlled conditions.

But its tendency to sucker makes it easy for home gardeners to propagate. The suckers it sends out are from underground stems (called stolons). They shoot up a little way away from the main plant. These can be removed from the parent plant using a spade.

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Saskatoon Berries Varieties

Because saskatoon berries are grown as a commercial crop, there are a number of cultivated varieties. You will probably find the best selection at a specialist nursery.

Here are things to look at as you compare saskatoon varieties:

• Fruit size

• Fruit colour (there are even white-fruited varieties...but they're usually grown as ornamentals)

• Bush height and spread

• Bloom time

• Disease resistance

Pests and Diseases of Saskatoon Shrubs

In a home garden setting pests and diseases are infrequent.

Here are three to watch for:

• Rabbits. They enjoy snacking on young branches on new bushes over winter (use tree guards or chicken wire if this might be a problem)

• Birds. Don't leave your harvest too late -- and consider netting if birds are likely to be a problem (or just grow more bushes so there's lots to share)

• Saskatoon-juniper rust. This disease needs both the juniper and Saskatoon plants to finish its life cycle. It causes raised yellow areas on leaves and misshapen fruit. Cut out the woody galls on juniper that host the disease (you'll see yellow growths on them in spring). If it’s a problem, look for rust-resistant varieties (Arcadia, Broadmoor, Buffalo, Calgary Carpet)

Saskatoon Berry FAQ

What's the botanical name?

Amelanchier alnifolia (Although there are also a couple of cultivars that are hybrids with Amelanchier stolonifera)

How long will a saskatoon shrub live?

With pruning and good care, a saskatoon shrub fruits well for decades, by which point you'll have taken off suckers to make yourself even more plants!

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More Information on Growing Fruit

• 5 Types of Cherry Bush to Grow in Edible Landscapes and Food Forests

• Guide: How to Grow a Quince Tree

• How to a Grow a Mulberry Tree

• The Guide to Medlar

Course on Home Fruit Growing

Want to Water Less and Harvest More? Try Sub-Irrigated Planters

By Steven Biggs

Wilted by Noon

When I first started container gardening on my garage rooftop, I watered every morning. But in the heat of summer, my plants were parched and wilting by noon.

A sub-irrigated planter is an excellent way to solve the problem of parched plants. We want to prevent wilting, because it’s a sign of stress. Drying out is a stress for the crop.

And that stress can delay (or reduce!) your harvest.

Consistent soil moisture is best. Not sopping wet. Not dry.

And that’s where a sub-irrigated planter helps: It keeps the potting mix consistently moist, but not too wet.

This sort of planter is also known as a SIP, a self-watering container, or a self-watering planter.

Keep reading and I’ll explain how a self-watering system works and how you can make your own.

Fill tube at left

Gauge showing reservoir water level

What are Sub-Irrigated Planters?

Sub-irrigation planters are simply planters with a water reservoir at the bottom. The reservoir is right under the soil.

Through capillary action, water wicks up through the potting mix, giving plant roots a consistent supply of moisture. Then, as the plants use water in the soil (creating a moisture gradient) more water wicks upwards from the reservoir.

There are many commercially produced sub-irrigated planters available. Some are fairly basic and resemble a normal container. Others have a gauge that shows the water level in the reservoir.

Self-Watering Planters vs. SIPS vs. Sub-Irrigation Planters

These are all different terms used to describe the same thing: Containers that have a water reservoir below, so that moisture can wick up into the soil.

By the way, they are not truly “self-watering.” The gardener must still fill the reservoir. (If you like do-it-yourself projects, you can automate this with irrigation, see below.)

Benefits of Sub-Irrigated Planters

First, though, let’s look at the benefits of these self-watering containers.

Less waste:

• There is less waste of water and fertilizer because it's a closed system, with less runoff

Higher yield because:

• A continuously moist growing medium means the plant has no water stress (plant growth can slow, or flowers drop when the plant is under stress…)

• When gardening in a container, the growing medium is warmer than soil in the garden, and that means that harvest begins earlier

Fewer weeds because:

• The soil surface is not regularly moistened from overhead watering, giving dry surface conditions are not as good for weed seeds to germinate

• The other reason that the soil surface is not as wet is that the farther you are from the reservoir, the less moist the soil (remember, it's going against gravity!)

Less disease because:

• With no overhead watering, there's less splashing of disease organisms from the potting soil onto the leaves

• And with tomatoes, SIPS usually solve blossom end rot (which actually is not a disease, but a physiological disorder that's caused by swings in soil moisture)

And the benefit of a SIP system that goes without saying: You spend less time spend watering!

Where to Grow in a Sub-Irrigated Planter

I made a garden on my garage rooftop using sub-irrigated (self-watering) planters.

As with any sort of container garden, a SIP makes it possible to grow on patios, decks, driveways.

You can also use them to grow over top of areas with tree roots or compacted soil.

If you’ve been eyeing up a space next to that water-hungry cedar hedge, this is your solution!

If you’re concerned about soil contamination, making a container garden is a simple solution.

Find out more about soil contamination.

What’s Inside a SIP

Here's what you'll usually find in a self-watering planter.

• A water-tight area (the reservoir) at the base of the container (underneath the potting mix)

• Something to hold the potting mix above the reservoir area: it could be a false bottom such as mesh, or hollow containers, or tubing

• A way to add water to the reservoir (a fill-tube that extends above the soil surface)

• A wick (the wick is usually the potting mix itself, but a fabric wick can be used too)

• An overflow hole, so that if there's too much water, it can escape

How a Sub-Irrigation Planter Works

Think of how water moves up a sponge. Or put a piece of paper towel in water and watch the water move upwards.

The same thing happens in a self-watering planter.

The water that's stored in the reservoir moves up through the soil.

Create Your Own Unique Edible Landscape

That fits for your yard, and your style!

More on Edible Landscaping

Plants That Thrive in Sub-Irrigated Planters

Annual vegetable and herb crops do well in sub-irrigation planters.

Avoid plants that are susceptible to root rot when overwatered. (For example, I grow potted lemon trees, and they hate “wet feet,” soil that says consistently wet. Read more about potted lemon trees.)

Potting Soil for Sub-Irrigated Planters

Choose a potting soil with good wicking properties. Do not use garden top soil or sand.

Sometimes this is easier said than done...because you won't find "wicking" on potting soil labels.

(A bargain isn't always a bargain when it comes to potting soil. If you see discounted bags at big-box retailers, be wary.)

The large compressed bales of potting mix made for commercial growers have a more consistently good quality. If in doubt, start with these.

If you're making your own peat-based potting mix, here’s an important point:

There are different qualities of peat. The darker peat from lower down in a bog is not as good at wicking as the lighter coloured, "blond" peat that comes from the top of a bog. Blond peat isn't always available at garden centres; you might need to go to an outlet that supplies commercial growers to find it.

Make Your Own Sub-Irrigated Planter

It's fairly simple to make your own self-watering planters.

Below is a series of pictures from a batch of planters I made for my garage rooftop garden.

The materials I used were inexpensive, and available at a hardware store:

• Plastic storage bin

• Weeping tile (4” bendable plastic drain used around the foundation of buildings…the term used for this seems to vary by region)

• Dishwasher drain pipes

• Landscape fabric

The tools needed to make these were:

• Drill to make overflow hole

• Saw or utility knife to cut the weeping tile and dishwasher drain pipe

• Scissors to cut the landscape fabric

At the time I made these, I spent about $20 per planter, a fraction of what commercially available self-watering planters cost.

Making a Planter, Step by Step

Supplies to Make a Sub-Irrigated Planter

Plastic storage bin

Weeping tile (4” bendable plastic drain used around the foundation of buildings…the term used for this seems to vary by region)

Dishwasher drain pipes

Landscape fabric (not shown)

Weeping Tile with Fill Tube

Weeping tile coiled around the bottom of the bin.

A hole cut into the weeping tile with a utility knife allows a piece of dishwasher drain hose to be installed as a fill tube.

Landscape Fabric

The reservoir space created with the weeping tile is covered with landscape fabric so that potting soil doesn’t fill up the weeping tile.

Don’t Forget This!

Drill a drainage hole near the top of the weeping tile.

The hole shown here was too small…and was blocked by a piece of perlite, so i had to drill a bigger hole.

Recycled Items to Make a Self-Watering Planter

I've also made self-watering systems using materials from the recycling bin, or things we already had on hand.

Here are examples of items you can use:

 For the Water-Tight Reservoir

Retrofitting a large plastic pot to make a sub-irrigated planter. The reservoir is made from old flower pots, which are covered with wire mesh. The wick (not shown) is fabric. The mesh is covered with landscape fabric so that the potting soil does not fill up the reservoir.

• A water-tight container such as a pail

• Or, a liner to make a water-tight area in a container with holes (for example, pond liner or construction plastic)

To Hold the Soil Above the Reservoir Area

• Drainage pipe

• Downspout extenders

• Downspouts

• Weeping tile

• Upside-down flower pots

• Landscape fabric, or old t-shirts

For a Fill Tube

• Water bottles

• Dishwasher drain hose

• Pop bottles (“soda” bottles if you’re in the US)

• PVC pipe

Retrofit Containers into a Sub-Irrigated Planter

A hypertufa planter with sub-irrigation.

You can retrofit any traditional pot into a sub-irrigation system…even if they have holes in them.

Use a liner to make a water-tight reservoir area at the bottom, and then create an overflow hole.

Planter Maintenance

Potting mixes lose structure over time as the organic matter decomposes. Plan to refresh the potting mix periodically. How often you need to do this depends on the mix, and the conditions. Pay especial attention to the soil in the lower area that acts as a wick.

If you're using a fabric wick, check it annually to see its condition. Fabrics made from natural fibres break down fairly quickly.

Sub-Irrigated Planter FAQ

How deep should a sub-irrigated planter be?

Making a sub-irrigated planter from a smaller, shallower planter. This is perfect for shallow-rooted crops such as leafy greens.

A soil depth of about 30cm (12") is usually lots. Remember, gravity is working against the wicking action...and when the soil is very deep the water doesn't wick all the way to the top.

The larger the plant you’re growing, the larger the volume of soil that you'll need. A smaller container with a 15 cm (6") soil depth can be fine for many smaller crops, such as leafy greens. If you're growing something that gets larger, for example bush-type tomatoes, a larger volume of soil is suitable. (That's why I used the storage bins in the example above. Along with determinate tomatoes, we use them for okra, peppers, and eggplant.)

Can I cover the soil on a self-watering planters?

Plastic mulch over the soil holds in moisture and deters squirrels from digging up transplants in the spring.

Yes. A plastic mulch holds in moisture and stops weed seeds from germinating. There are biodegradable plastic mulches that last for a single growing season.

Lay the mulch over the potting mix, and then tuck it in tight at the sides. Once it's snug, you can cut and X in it with a sharp knife, and then plant into the X.

A springtime challenge for us is squirrels digging up newly transplanted seedlings from our planters. A simple solution is the plastic mulch, which seems to deter digging. (Soil is out of sight, and it’s out of their wee little squirrel minds.)

Or, if you don't like the look of the plastic, burlap works well too. (It's a natural fibre, so doesn't hold in as much moisture, but it deters digging and reduces growth of weed seeds.)

What about watering plants in a SIP from above?

This is fine. It will keep the soil surface moister, so there's more chance of weed seeds germinating. But there's nothing wrong with this...other than it can be much slower than filling using a fill tube.

Can I reuse the soil in my self-watering planter?

Over time, as the organic materials in soil break down, potting soil loses its structure. When is has less structure (fewer bigger particles and fewer air pores) it doesn’t wick as well.

So for best wicking, fresh potting mix work best.

But...replacing potting mix every year is both wasteful and expensive. I usually mix in some new soil mix every year, about 20 per cent.

What is an Earthbox?

It is a well-known brand of sub-irrigated planters.

Is a “global bucket” a sub-irrigated planter?

Yes. I suggest you search online to find out more about this easy-to-make pail-in-pail SIP planter that has a reservoir.

What is a wicking bed?

With a wicking bed, we're taking the same ideas we use in a sub-irrigated planter—just on a larger scale. Now we’re talking about a raised bed. A wicking bed has a water reservoir, fill tube, and overflow just like a SIP does.

If you’re researching wicking beds, you’ll see that the names SIP and wicking bed are often used interchangeably. For me, if it’s a moveable planter, it’s a SIP. If it’s a permanent bed, it’s a wicking bed. But don’t sweat the lingo—as long as you understand how it works inside.

Find out more about wicking beds.

Are there any things to watch for with SIPS?

Yes, salt build-up. Normally, excess salts that can accumulate near the soil surface wash away with watering, and then drain from the bottom of a container. But with a SIP, we’re not washing down salts with water, and any runoff is captured.

That means it's a good practice to flush out your SIPs in the spring. Water heavily from the top, enough to cause lots of water to drain through the overflow holes and carry away excess salts.

How can I automate watering in my self-watering planter?

An irrigation spaghetti tube goes into the fill tube on the SIP.

You can set it up with automatic irrigation that refills the reservoirs.

You want what’s called “spaghetti tubes,” small tubes that run from an irrigation line. One tube goes to each planter. (This sort of system is often used to irrigate container gardens, with “drip emitters” at the end of each spaghetti tube to regulate how much water comes out and onto the soil surface in the container.)

But when you’re setting up spaghetti tubes and drip emitters for a SIP garden, just put the tube and drip emitter right into your fill tube, so that when you turn on the irrigation, you’re replenishing the water in the reservoir—not wetting the soil surface. (That way, less water is lost to evaporation, and you’re not creating conditions suited to weed-seed germination.)

Experience will teach you how long to leave on the water supply to fill up the reservoir.

More on Growing Vegetables

Articles and Interviews

Course

Get great ideas for your edible garden in Edible Garden Makeover. Planning. Design. Crops. How-to.

How to Make a Wicking Bed

By Steven Biggs

Make Your Own Wicking Bed

Harvest more. Water less.

Wicking beds are a great way to maximize the use of space in a small garden. They also save time for busy gardeners.

What’s a Wicking Bed?

A wicking bed is simply raised bed with a reservoir—a water storage area—at the bottom.

They work the same way that sub-irrigation planters (a.k.a. SIPS or “self-watering” pots) work.

Find out more about sub-irrigated planters.

Water wicks upwards from a reservoir below into the soil above through capillary action.

Keep reading to find out how to make a wicking bed.

Less Plant Stress

When plants get thirsty—when there is “water stress”—it can have a big effect on yield.

Because wicking beds prevent water stress, the increase in yield can be considerable. Of course, no one minds the time saved by having to water less frequently.

Even in the heat of summer, when the tomato plants are quite big, we water our wicking beds about once a week.

We turbo-charged our backyard tomato production using wicking beds.

Another Reason to Use a Wicking Bed

Our neighbour’s large black walnut tree is beautiful. But walnut trees give off a compound called “juglone.” And juglone affects the growth of many plants…including tomatoes.

We tried growing tomatoes in the backyard many times…and they always died.

BUT MY DAUGHTER Emma had a vision of a tomato plantation in our backyard, near that walnut tree.

I wondered if we could solve the problem by growing in wicking beds, because the tomato roots would never get into the juglone-contaminated soil below.

It worked—and we now grow tomatoes right under the walnut tree.

Find out how to stake and support tomato plants.

Create Your Own Unique Edible Landscape

That fits for your yard, and your style!

More on Edible Landscaping

Make Your Own Wicking Bed

Be creative with the materials you choose. We decided to use cedar fence posts to make our wicking beds.

Below are photos of wicking beds that I made with my kids using cedar fence posts.

I chose cedar fence posts because they are long-lasting and not much more expensive than dimensional lumber.

Beds made with dimensional lumber often sag outwards over time...and I’m not interested in rebuilding my wicking beds any time soon.

I chose pond liner to create the reservoir because I already had pond liner here.

Be Creative

Be creative! You might want to make a wicking bed from salvaged material—or maybe you want a bed that ties in with the aesthetic in your landscape.

On the practical side, I’ve see wicking beds made from large plastic bins and from recycled lumber.

On the ornamental side, I think red brick would look smashing! One day…

Materials List for My Wicking Bed

• Cedar fence posts.

• Pond liner. The pond liner holds water in the bottom of the bed. Once the sides of the liner are bent upwards and fixed into place, it creates a shallow water storage area at the bottom of the bed--about as high as the weeping tile.

• Weeping tile.

• 3/4” gravel. Use “clear” gravel, which means that it does not have smaller pieces of gravel that will fill up the spaces in between. That way the space is available to hold water.

• Dishwasher drain tube. To create a fill tube.

• Landscape fabric. Its purpose is to keep the soil from filling up the piping and the spaces between gravel.

Steps for Making a Wicking Bed

Cut posts to length and notch the ends.

Place notched posts directly on the ground. Level the ground first.

Nail spikes into the corners of the posts to keep them in place.

Install liner at the bottom by placing it on the ground, and up about 8-10 inches at the side. Secure temporarily with staples, to keep it in place until the gravel pins it into place.

Place coils of weeping tile in the bottom. The tile permits water to quickly move through the reservoir, and it also holds up the soil above.

Add gravel. It supports the weight of the soil above, while the spaces between the pieces of gravel fill with water. Water moves upwards through the gravel by capillary action.

Note the fill tube at the far end, a piece of drain hose installed into the weeping tile. This permits filling of the reservoir with a hose after soil has been added.

Cover with landscape fabric to keep soil out of the reservoir area. Note the depressing in the top-right corner: While in theory water wicks up the gravel, I also created this soil-filled wick that dips into the reservoir.

Approximately one foot of soil works well. If there is too much soil, the water will not wick all the way to the top.

Watering my Wicking Beds

I know that there is enough water in the bed as I'm filling it because once the storage area is full of water, I see water coming out of the side of the bed. It's low-tech—but it works.

One More Reason for Wicking Beds

Soil contamination is another reason to consider growing in a wicking bed. Soil contamination can be a concern in areas where there is a history of industry, and also on former orchard lands where sprays with heavy metals might have been used.

Find out more about soil contamination and what to do about it.

Another Way to Add Growing Space in a Small Garden

Straw-bale gardening is a great way to grow on paved areas and areas with poor soil.

Find out more about straw-bale gardening.

More on Growing Vegetables

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Garden Career Pivot

By Steven Biggs

Working in Horticulture

I’ve had a number of readers and students ask about working in horticulture. Some are ready for a career change. Some are thinking about schooling.

But for me, working in horticulture involves going beyond working with plants and soil. It also include the internet and a way of expanding what I can earn in the field of horticulture. Read on to discover what I mean.

(And, yes, snails fit into my own story, as you’ll see below.)

The Great Snail Race

“There is a whole big family of snails I was just getting,” Keaton told me matter-of-factly.

He looked down at them as they moved from his cupped hand onto his shirt. The most daring of the snails was already halfway up his shirt.

But the adventures of the snail family didn’t end with the trek up Keaton’s shirt.

That slow climb up the shirt was just the beginning.

Keaton and the snails.

Next, the snail family sailed across a big puddle on our driveway, on a barely seaworthy scrap of wood. And once they’d sailed to the far side of the puddle, the adventures continued on the slide…with a snail race.

From Rat Race to Snail Race

I cherish that memory. It was a wet walk home from the schoolyard as Keaton collected all those snails.

At the time, my day revolved around walks to and from school. Morning drop-off. Midday drop-off. Afternoon pickup.

It wasn’t all snail races. I was at my desk working before the kids woke up. And between drop-off and pickup I’d snatch moments at my desk whenever I could.

The routine wasn’t something I imagined when I was at my previous job.

The routine was the result of an unwise (but fortunate) decision. I’ll tell you more about that decision in a moment.

But as a result of that decision I was out of the rat race. I was no longer a stressed-out commuter. I enjoyed small pleasures like snail races. And after wanting to quit the city, I was really enjoying city life.

I Started My Garden Work as an Imposter (At Least I Felt Like It)

It was 2006.

Even though the rat race was in the rear-view mirror, I hadn’t quite found myself. At least, I hadn’t convinced myself.

Asked about my profession, I’d hesitatingly respond, “garden and farm writer.” In hindsight, there was no need to hesitate.

My experience checked the right boxes:

• I’d been a gardener since I was a kid. As a teen had my own gardening business. As a student I got a degree in agriculture and went straight into the horticulture industry. Check.

• And in all of the jobs I’d had along the way, I’d been the person who would put together disparate bits of information into written guides and lists. I get a kick out of sorting and packaging information. Check.

Today

Keaton holding a copy of my first book, No Guff Vegetable Gardening.

My gig today is garden communications. I juggle a few things that relate to gardening and communications. I work as a college instructor, broadcaster, speaker, and writer.

I’ve been honoured to get recognition for my magazine articles, books, and broadcasting. And I was recognized as one of the “green gang” of Canadians making a difference in horticulture.

Most important for me is the flexibility. Almost all of what I do is online. That means I camp with my kids in the summer. If I want to go ice fishing for a day in winter, it’s my call. I can’t not work—but I can weave work around other important parts of my life.

Thinking of a Change?

There’s a need for people in the horticultural industry.

If you’re looking for horticultural work, here are just a few of the roles you can consider:

• Landscaping

• Landscape design

• Greenhouse technician

• Retail

• Wholesale supplies

• Research

• Consulting

Here’s a neat apprenticeship option here in Ontario.

Want to grow food? Here’s a neat program near Toronto.

Deciding Who’s the Boss

A lot of people like being an employee: It gives structure and security.

There’s also the option of creating your own work. It’s the path that I followed.

And that brings me back to my unwise decision—the one I mentioned earlier.

How an Unwise Decision Turned Me Into a Garden Writer

My unwise decision was a career change. But I made it for a good reason: Balance.

I was aiming for more family time and less commuting time. To change the balance in my life, I left a job in agricultural marketing to work as a recruiter.

Why as a recruiter?

For no other reason than the office was a bicycle ride from my place. I wanted to be closer to home.

I figured that because I was good at working phones I would be fine in this phone-based work. But there was a problem: I was not good at it…

Months passed. I was still not good at it. Meanwhile, my wife Shelley was just about to wrap up maternity leave, and we weren’t excited about the prospect of daycare. Plus I needed to help my parents more.

It was a collision of life events—not any foresight on my part—that got me to take the leap. The leap from employee to self-employed.

One other thing really helped. An internet connection.

An Internet Connection can be a Gateway

Connecting with work on the internet is easier now than when I started. (I took an HTML coding lesson so I could manage my first website!) Things are much more user-friendly now.

But even though it’s more user friendly, an internet connection or a website or a social media following isn’t a guaranteed income. It’s just a gateway to other people.

So if you’re thinking of creating work, your challenge is to figure out what value you can provide.

First: Take Stock

What are you good at; and what are you not good at?

I suggest you make a checklist for yourself.

For example, my checklist at the time of the great snail race would have looked like this:

Growing food had become a big part of my life — the kind of thing to put on your list as you take stock of your unique experiences

• Good on the phone (too much time spent as call-centre slave!)

• Not good at being pushy with people

• Write well

• Can shut up and let people tell me their story (from working on a help desk)

• Like to sniff around for leads (from a short career tangent into fraud prevention)

• Know how to grow (I’d turned my small urban backyard into a mini farm)

So if you’re thinking of change, stop now and make your own list like this.

Jot down your life experiences. It may seem insignificant; it’s not.

Next: Take Time

As you think about how your different life experiences give you a unique perspective, be open to new ideas.

The final nudge into a garden-focused career arrived when I was on a plane. I unknowingly sat beside an editor for an online magazine. We chatted, and she asked if I wrote…

Then: Grow New Skills

If you want to give people value that they’ll pay for, you might need new skills, or to brush up on skills you have.

In my case, I took night school courses on writing and journalism. Then I joined a garden writer’s association, a farm writer’s association, and a professional writer’s association because I really didn’t know how to go about becoming a “real” writer.

You Might Feel Uncomfortable

I left the house for my first garden writer’s meeting feeling like a fraud. Then I nearly walked out the door when I arrived. It was a sea of grey hair. A bit intimidating for a 30-something. But I met another writer who I then collaborated with to write my first book.

At the first farm writer’s convention I went to, I felt like a misplaced urbanite. But I swapped business cards with an editor, and that led to a decade-long gig writing farm-business articles.

Keep Pivoting

On assignment writing a farm business article, with the kids.

Industries change. Work changes. And your personal needs will change.

• When my kids were little I’d pack them up and take them out on assignment to write an article about a farm. We had a few fun adventures.

• As they got bigger, I jumped into the topic of gardening with kids, and my daughter Emma and I did videos and books together. (You can see some of that here.)

• Now they’re all teenagers. I have my workdays to myself—and I’m blogging and podcasting on a regular schedule. I’ve been honing my interviewing skills, and I love it.

• When the pandemic came and people moved to online learning, I pivoted and started teaching my own online gardening courses.

It can feel uncomfortable sometimes, but put yourself outside of your comfort zone.

Set Your Expectations

My daughter Emma signing copies of her book Gardening with Emma.

I see lot’s of online get-rich-quick and passive-income schemes.

My experience is that I can sell something I create when it gives people value and when they want it.

Passive income is an fair goal: After I put the work into a book or online masterclass, there is some passive income from future sales. But there’s also ongoing selling needed. So it’s not entirely passive.

The other thing you’ll want to hash out as you set your expectations is just what you want. This brings me back to the idea of balance.

For me, balance looks like this these days:

• Make 3 meals a day for my hungry teenagers

• Time with my dad

• Time in the garden (so I can write about it)

• Write about what I love

• Regular garage band practice

• No social media apps on my phone

You’ll see my expectations go beyond income-earning activities.

With the expectations I set, I work long days. Some nights I’m teaching until 10 p.m. – then I’m up at 5 a.m. to blog before the morning maelstrom of household teenage emotions puts me in a haze.

Ultimately, the mix you choose should be emotionally and financially sustainable for you. And it should be something that you like enough you can keep doing it. (I’ve had writing assignments that were so painfully mind-numbing that I froze. They weren’t sustainable. I quit those gigs.)

Next Steps

So whether you’re an urban person focused on life balance that includes gardening, or a rural homesteader considering ways to add to the homestead income, here are two questions to start with:

1. Employee or self-employed

2. Online work or location-dependent work

As you’re thinking about those questions above, start your creative process:

• Take stock of your unique experience and skills

• Take time

• Grow your skills

• Be uncomfortable

• Be prepared to pivot

• Set your own expectations for success

25 Storage Crops to Help You Plan a Vegetable Garden that Feeds You Year-Round

By Steven Biggs

Plan a Vegetable Garden that Includes Storage Crops

I have a plan to turn a room in my basement into a proper root cellar. Braids of onions hanging from the ceiling, homegrown squash on shelves, lots of root vegetables…

But I don’t have a root cellar at the moment.

Maybe it’s the same for you.

The good news is that you can store a lot of homegrown food even if you don’t have a root cellar.

And having lots of vegetables to store starts with your vegetable garden planning. Choose crops that you can store in the garden. And choose crops that store well in protected areas other than a root cellar.

This articles helps you plan a vegetable garden with storage crops in mind.

Storing Crops

I like to think of crop storage two ways. I recommend a bit of each in your vegetable garden plan.

1. In-Garden Storage: Leave cold-tolerant crops in the garden to continue harvesting as the growing season wraps up.

2. Harvest and Store: Harvest crops and store in a protected space.

In-Garden Storage

When cool weather arrives, some plants pack it in and die. Think of basil…a little sniff of cold and it drops its leaves in protest.

But some crops do very well in cool temperatures. They soldier on even as fall frosts arrives.

Even with these cold-tolerant crops, growth slows down and stops as days get shorter and shorter. But you can continue harvesting what’s there.

Leafy Greens for In-Garden Storage

Here are my favourite leafy crops for in-garden storage. And to be clear, I’m not suggesting that I harvest any of these winter-long here in Toronto. I don’t. But they have good cold tolerance, and I’ve often picked them from under a dusting of snow.

(If you want to take you year-round harvesting to another level, think of using a combination of cold frames and cold-tolerant crops.)

Kale is very cold-tolerant. If you can only grow one cold-tolerant green, start with kale.

• Kale. For cold-climate gardeners, kale is a great season extender. It’s very freeze tolerant. It keeps going as light frosts arrive in the fall. Then as things freeze hard, it still hangs on. I’ve sometimes picked kale in January from under the snow. (The winter-harvested leaves are a far cry from tender, baby kale, by the way. But if you cook it accordingly, it’s a great homegrown addition to the menu.)

• Celery. Reliable until hard freezes arrive. (And if you’re thinking celery isn’t a leafy green, you’re right. Except my favourite type of celery is “leaf” celery. Leaf celery, as the name suggests, is more leaf, less stalk—and it’s far less demanding and easier to grow than regular celery.)

• Chard. Reliable through those first fall frosts, until hard freezes arrive. Chard also looks great, so if you’re interested in edible ornamental gardens, consider this as you plan your vegetable garden. (Maybe you have ornamental beds that would benefit from a pop of fall colour from one of the many colourful chard varieties.)

• Parsley. Reliable until hard freezes arrive. Like chard, also a great ornamental plant. Use it as edging alongside annuals somewhere near your house, so that during muddy fall weather, it’s easy to quickly grab a few sprigs for supper.

Parsley stands up nicely to fall frosts.

A Couple More In-Garden Storage Crops

Keep harvesting cardoon until there’s a hard freeze.

• Leek. Like kale, a plant you can keep harvesting into winter. And when there’s a mid-winter thaw, you can go get some more. The leaf tips begin to brown mid-winter…but that’s fine because it’s the lower portion we eat.

• Cardoon. Cardoon keeps going through light frosts. It’s leaves wilt, and then spring back up as the day warms. (If you haven’t grown cardoon before, remember to blanch it or it’s horrid…my first forays into cooking cardoon didn’t win me any favours with my family!)

  Here’s more on blanching.

  Here’s more on cardoon.

In-Garden Storage Using Straw Bales

As fall frosts arrive, there’s no rush to harvest many of the in-ground root crops. Carrots and parsnips are improved by frost.

A simple way to extend the time you can leave them in the ground is to place a straw bale over top of them. It insulates them and the ground below.

With a heavy mulch, you can leave carrots and parsnips in the ground until the soil freezes solid. Where I am, that’s midwinter. And the longer they’re in the ground, the better they last.

One more thought on leaving roots crops in the garden late: Remember that while carrots and parsnips usually grow under the soil and protected from the first freezes, beet roots often shoulder their way above the soil surface. Those exposed shoulders are quicker to freeze…and that affects the quality.

Create Your Own Unique Edible Landscape

That fits for your yard, and your style!

More on Edible Landscaping

Harvest-and-Store

First things first: A root cellar is nice…but if you don’t have one, there are other ways to successfully store your harvest. Think about your storage options now, as you plan a vegetable garden. That way you can plant accordingly.

Here are different places you might be able to store your harvest:

Swiss chard with some frost on it. It will spring back up once the sun comes out.

• Garage. My garage doesn’t freeze, so I use it to store root crops (and apples that I buy by the bushel…great way to save money). My garage stays just above freezing, and is fairly humid, making is well suited to storing produce.

• Clamp. This is a traditional way or insulating harvested root vegetables outdoors, using soil and straw.

• Cooler area in a heated basement. I have a room in my basement where I shut off the heat vents. It’s cooler (and darker) than the rest of the house. It’s not as humid or cool as a proper root cellar, but is excellent to store winter squash, garlic, and onions.

• Unheated basement. A friend had an unheated basement with an earthen floor…perfect for stored crops!

• Sunroom. If you have a sunroom that stays just above freezing through the winter, I’d be thinking about food storage…

• Breezeway. Some houses have a minimally heated breezeway between the house and garage. It’s just calling out for food storage!

• Attic. If you have an accessible attic, another option for cool storage! The logistics of carrying food up to an attic aren’t ideal, but if it’s all you have, worth a try.

Successfully Storing Crops

Storing crops in the right conditions can really extend the storage life.

• Root crops can go into perforated plastic bags, or into moist sand or sawdust in crates. This prevents them from drying out.

• Newspaper comes in handy too: cover trays of green tomatoes with a sheet of newspaper; and wrap cabbages in a sheet of newspaper.

• Only store unblemished produce. If you have crops that aren’t good enough to store, cook them up or freeze them.

Create Your Own Unique Edible Landscape

Harvest-and-Store Crops

Dry Bean

When the pods turn light brown, just pull up the entire plant to hang upside-down under cover to dry further. Great storage crop for long-term storage.

Beet

Leave a half inch of stem on the roots as you prepare to store beets. Then they won’t “bleed” as much. Look for varieties recommended for storage. A favourite of mine over the years has been ‘Cylindrda.’

My favourite storage crop! (I make beet borsch with some of mine every year.)

Cabbage

Not a crop that lasts all winter in a root cellar, but you can keep it for a couple of months. The outer leaves dry, and you’ll peel those off as you prep the cabbage for use in the kitchen.

Use midsummer transplants to grow cabbages for winter storage. Harvest as late as possible for storage.

(Don’t forget that you can also use some cabbage to make sauerkraut. Find out how to make your own sauerkraut.)

Cabbage, along with other cole crops such as broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts are also excellent for in-garden storage as they keep going through early fall frosts.

Carrot

Use midsummer transplants to grow cabbages for winter storage. Harvest as late as possible for storage.

Sweeter after some frost. Look for varieties recommended for storage. ‘Bolero’ is a variety that I like for storage.

Cerleriac (a.k.a. celery root)

Often overlooked, and a great addition for gardeners growing for storage.

Garlic

Easy to grow lots in a small space, and easy to store for gardeners without many storage options, because it and onions like things dryer than the root crops.

Horseradish

As you’re planning your vegetable garden, remember that this is a deep-rooted perennial. So pick a permanent spot for it.

Jerusalem artichoke

A somewhat invasive perennial, so pick a permanent spot for it.

Onion

Braided onions drying before going into storage.

Store onions after curing. Like garlic, important to dry and cure for a couple of weeks before storage. If not properly cured, doesn’t last as long.

You don’t have to braid onions. Another way to store them is to hang them in a mesh bag—so there is good air circulation around the onions.

Parsnip

Sweeter after they go through some frost.

(One year I grew far too many parsnips, and had the brilliant idea of making parsnip wine. Alas, it was horrid…couldn’t even use it as cooking wine.)

Peppers

Often overlooked, but smaller, thin-skinned pepper varieties are easy to dry. Once dry, you can hang them in your storage area, where there’s good air circulation.

Grow a Container Vegetable Garden

And get an early harvest of crops that usually take too long!

More on Container veg

Potato

Plan for your storage potatoes to be ready late in the season. During the summer, storage spaces aren’t usually as cool as they are in the fall—so your potatoes can sprout quickly when stored too early.

Don’t put early potato harvests into storage. Plan for a later harvest for storage.

Radish (winter)

So often overlooked, and a great addition in a storage-focused garden.

Root Parsley

Ditto above.

Rutabaga

My mother-in-law’s must-have cooked veg at the Thanksgiving table!

Squash

Pick before light frosts for best storability.

Tomato (keeper)

Keeper tomatoes in the spring.

It’s easy to overlook tomatoes as a storage crop, but there are thick-skinned tomato varieties that can last until spring! They’re called “keeper” or “winter” tomatoes.

These aren’t great for tomato sauce, but are nice chopped into a salad or bruschetta.

Find out about keeper tomatoes.

Find out my top tips for starting tomato seeds indoors.

Get ideas for different ways to stake tomatoes. 

Learn about ripening green tomatoes indoors.

Turnip

A quick-to-mature crop. Remember, the greens are edible too!

Watermelon

Watermelons last a month or so, a nice treat to stow away for a snowy day!

Want Green Veg Over the Winter?

Find out how to grow microgreens indoors.

Need More Ideas to Plan a Vegetable Garden?

Articles and Interviews

• Hear an agronomist share top tips for winter vegetable gardening.

• 7 Vegetable Garden Layout Ideas To Grow More Food In Less Space

• More articles about growing vegetables.

Courses on Edible Gardening

5 Types of Cherry Bush to Grow in Edible Landscapes and Food Forests

By Steven Biggs

Grow Cherries in an Edible Landscape or Food Forest

A cherry bush is a great addition to an edible landscape or food forest. Here’s a Nanking cherry bush.

The noise!

If you’ve grown cherries, you might have had a flock of birds descend on a cherry tree. Starlings, especially, are so loud that I wonder how they manage to eat and squawk at the same time.

But they do. And they clean out a tree quickly.

The gardener can watch (and listen) – or, go look for a ladder to get up there and compete with the birds for the cherries!

A ladder… Who needs the bother of a ladder in an edible landscape or a food forest?

In a home garden or landscape setting, simplicity is key. Ladders are not simple. Nor are fruit trees that need shaping and regular pruning.

Luckily, there are a number of cherries that grow as bushes.

Some have larger fruit that you can pop right into your mouth. Others, long prized by foragers, have smaller fruit suited for jams, jellies, juices, and wine.

Keep reading for bush cherry crops you can add to your garden.

Benefits of a Cherry Bush vs. a Tree

A bush makes a lot of sense in a home garden or edible landscape.

• When you have a bush with multiple stems, you can renew it by lopping of some of the stems so that new stems take over

• More branches means more yield

• Cherry insurance! (More branches means more chance of some surviving a challenging winter)

• Foil the birds…because a bush is easy for you to quickly pick (and easier to net if you’re so inclined)

• Cold hardiness, because low-growing branches are insulated by snow

In this article, I have 5 different cherries that you can grow as a bush in your edible landscape or food forest.

These all grow on their own roots (so no grafting required), and are all self-fertile—so you don’t need to worry about growing two varieties to get fruit.

Forget the Ladder…Grow a Cherry Bush

Dwarf Sour Cherry Bushes…from Saskatchewan

The University of Saskatchewan fruit breeding program has produced some great high-yielding hardy bush cherries. (So good that even the BBC wrote about them!)

The bush-like form and the high-quality fruit is the result of breeding Mongolian cherry with European sour cherry.

The bush-cherry cultivars in the University of Saskatchewan “Romance” series have different bloom times, bush size, and fruit colour.

Here are the cultivars:

• Carmine Jewel

• Romeo

• Juliet

• Valentine

• Cupid

• Crimson Passion

Here’s more about the story behind these cherries.

Here’s where you can find out more about ripeness.

Hear bush cherry expert Bob Bors talk about cherry breeding and haskaps at the University of Saskatchewan. https://www.foodgardenlife.com/show/grow-haskap

Landscape with Fruit

That’s easy to grow in a home garden!

More on Fruit

Evan’s Cherry in Alberta

Dr. Ieuan Evans with Evans cherries.

Prunus cerasus

When Dr. Ieuan Evans moved to Alberta, he was disappointed to find very few people growing fruit.

But he heard about a very fruitful cherry tree near Edmonton, so he visited – and got pieces of it to propagate. (Just in time, as the property was slated for redevelopment.)

He gave away rooted suckers of this fruitful cherry as fast as he could grow them. It was very cold hardy AND very fruitful.

What’s now known as Evans cherry is an especially cold-hardy cultivar of the European sour cherry.

It can grow as a tree or a bush.

Hear Ieuan Evans talk about finding the Evan’s Cherry in Alberta.

Nanking Cherry Often Overlooked

Nanking cherry bush in flower.

Prunus tomentosa

This is the cherry bush that my grandfather grew in his Calgary yard.

It’s compact, extremely fruitful – and a beautiful addition to a landscape. I grow it in my front yard, and when it blooms, pedestrians always stop to take selfies in front of it.

These small sour cherries are delicious fresh. They’re also great for use in the kitchen. I like to make them into a cordial.

The fruit is smaller than the University of Saskatchewan and Evan’s cherries. But they’re absolutely prolific.

I have an article all about them. Find out more about Nanking cherry.

Chokecherry (a.k.a. Choke Cherry)

Chokecherry fruit grow in easy-to-pick clusters.

Prunus virginiana

Chokecherry is a native north American species that grows as a bush or small tree. There are a few cultivars, but most people know it because wild chokecherry plants arrives in gardens uninvited—thanks to critters that drop the seeds.

I have a patch of chokecherry in my garden. When a purple-leafed plant appeared, it was the perfect addition to an otherwise underused corner of my garden.

The flowers of chokecherry are a cluster that looks a bit like a bottle brush. And when those flowers become fruit, the pea-sized fruit are all in an easy-to-pick cluster.

This astringent fruit is aptly named. It has supreme pucker power! With processing though, the fruit is delicious. Use them for juice, jam, and syrup.

Hear Quebec agronomist Laurie Brown talk about growing and using chokecherry.

Chokecherry flowers

Pin Cherry (a.k.a. Pincherry)

Brightly coloured pin cherries light up the landscape!

(Prunus pensylvanica)

Pin cherry is another native North American species that grows as a shrub or small tree. I love the smooth, brownish-red bark.

Like chokecherry, the fruit are small. They’re more suited to fresh eating than chokecherry, giving you a tasty sour cherry taste without all the astringency.

While chokecherry flowers and fruit grow in a bottle-brush-like cylinder, pin cherries are on long, slender stems, with a few stems attaching to a branch in the same spot.

The bright red cherries light up a landscape. Use them to make jelly, juice, syrup, and wine.

Bush Cherry FAQ

Can I swallow the seeds?

All cherry seeds contain a cyanide compound, and consuming large quantities of fruit without removing seeds can make you sick. So spit out the pits!

More on Fruit and Edible Landscapes

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Guide: How to Grow Lemon Trees Indoors That Actually Produce Lemons

By Steven Biggs

Can You Grow a Lemon Tree Indoors? Sure!

If you’ve seen lemon trees growing outdoors in warm climates, you might be wondering how you can grow a potted lemon tree indoors, without it getting too big.

Many lemon varieties grow into small trees when grown in the ground outdoors in warm climates.

(Keep this in mind if you plant a lemon tree in the ground in a greenhouse – it can get big!)

If you know a few simple things about how lemon trees grow and how to care for them indoors, you can enjoy the fragrance of lemon flowers and harvest your own lemon fruit indoors.

This guide to growing a lemon tree indoors explains what you need to know.

Lemon Tree Size

You can keep a lemon plant small. When it comes to the ultimate size of your lemon tree, remember that as the gardener, you’re the boss. You’re the one with the pruning shears!

Here are things (besides pruning shears!) that can affect the size of your lemon tree indoors:

• Most commercially produced lemon trees are grafted. That just means that a piece of a lemon variety with nice fruit is attached (“grafted”) onto another variety that has roots with desirable traits (a.k.a. the rootstock). Some rootstock varieties have a dwarfing effect, keeping the lemon tree smaller. (A common dwarfing rootstock is called ‘Flying Dragon’).

• If you have grown a lemon tree from seed, or your lemon tree is a rooted cutting, it will be growing on its own roots. There’s a good chance it will get bigger than lemon trees grafted onto a dwarfing rootstock.

Pot Size

This potted lemon tree is over 50 years old. Pruning and pot size keep it compact.

The smaller the pot, the smaller the lemon tree.

Think of how bonsai trees that are hundreds of years old can grow in very small pots.

It’s a combination of a small pot, along with root and stem pruning that will keep your citrus trees small.

Lemon Variety

There are many lemon varieties—just like there are many apple varieties. As well as differences in the fruit, there can be differences in the way the plant grows. Some are more compact than others.

A good example is the Meyer lemon tree, which is naturally dwarf and more bush-like than many other lemon varieties. (Meyer lemon trees are actually a hybrid that has some tangerine genes in its bloodline!)

(I think a potted Meyer lemon tree is a great starting place for first-time gardeners. They're compact, and very fruitful. I've harvest 50 lemons from a knee-high potted Meyer lemon tree.)

Indoor Lemon Tree Leaf Drop

A lemon tree that’s been growing in cool, humid fall conditions outdoors will often drop leaves when brought indoors for the winter. It’s ugly…but common. They grow back.

Lemon plants are evergreen, meaning that they have leaves on them year-round.

It is common for some leaves to drop off as the temperature and light levels change with the season.

(Especially if you have a potted lemon growing in cool, humid autumn conditions outdoors and then you bring it into the dry air of a centrally heated home. It might just drop its leaves in protest!)

What Kind of Light do Indoor Lemon Trees Need?

Bright light is best. Look for a location that has at least 8 hours of bright light per day. That usually means a south-facing window.

When the lemon tree is growing in full sunlight, the growth is more compact, and there will be better fruiting and flowering.

If you don't have bright natural light, try a grow light. (I've seen pictures of an indoor lemon tree doing very well under a grow light...in the Yukon!)

Indoor Lemon Tree Harvest

Lemon trees have flowers and fruit at the same time. Pictured are fruit at different stages of maturity.

Lemon is one of my favourite citrus trees because lemon trees can have fruit and flowers at the same time. That means that while you’re enjoying the smell of lemon blossoms, there might also be small immature fruit on your lemon tree—and some larger ones.

Ripe lemons can remain on the plant for many weeks. There’s no rush to harvest them.

The size of the lemon harvest you can expect depends on a few things:

• Variety

• Plant size

• Growing conditions

• Season length

Indoor Lemon Tree Pollination

Pollinate flowers on lemon trees growing indoors using a small paintbrush.

Do you need 2 lemon trees to get lemons? No!

Every lemon bloom has male and female parts. They are also “self-fertile,” meaning you don’t need pollen from a different lemon tree to get pollination.

Outdoors, wherever there is a breeze, or a bee, pollen from the male part naturally drops or is transferred onto the female part of the flower and a small fruit starts to form.

Indoors, use a small paintbrush to transfer pollen between flowers.

Partially or imperfectly pollinated blooms can form fruit that drops off early. Not enough water can also cause small fruit to abort.

Tip: Lemons can make a lot of flowers in a cluster. Sometimes up to 12-15 booms. If they all become lemons, it’s a lot of work for the plant. Thin out the little lemons to 3-6 fruit per cluster.

Lemons can make a lot of flowers, sometimes 12-15 booms in a cluster. Thin out the little lemons to 1-6 fruits per cluster.

Indoor Lemon Tree Care

Watering Lemon Trees Indoors

When lemon trees are watered too often, the roots rot. Healthy roots are bright, like the ones pictured.

Top tip for indoor lemon tree care: Watering is the #1 key to success for indoor lemon trees.

Lemon trees don’t like to be in continuously wet soil. They hate having “wet feet”. Too much water can rot the roots.

After watering, the soil at the bottom of the pot remains quite wet until your lemon tree draws on that water – so don’t just water when the soil at the top of the pot looks dry.

When watering your potted lemon tree, touch the surface of the soil, and put your finger into the soil to see if it’s moist below. A good rule of thumb is to keep the soil on the dry side of moist.

In doubt? Pick up the pot to feel how heavy it is.

Frequency of watering will depend on: 

• Soil

• Pot type

• Plant size

• How fast the plant is growing

• How dry the air is

• Temperature (and, yes, heated floors will definitely cause the soil to dry out more quickly!)

Keep Your Lemon Tree Through the Winter

And enjoy fresh homegrown lemons!

More on Lemons!

Pruning an Indoor Lemon Tree

Prune lemon trees so branches are well spaced.

Here are some general pruning tips for lemon plants:

• Remove crossing branches

• Prune so branches are well-spaced

• Cut back to a bud or a branch

• Remove fast-growing, upright branches (water shoots)

• Remove suckers coming from below the graft union on grafted plants

Indoor Lemon Tree Pests

An indoor lemon tree can get the same pests as an outdoor one...but indoor conditions are often better for the pest!

The two most common pests of indoor lemon trees are:

Scale on an Indoor Lemon Tree

The adult stage of scale insects are immobile and have a shell. Scrape them away with your fingernails, or use a cotton swab soaked with rubbing alcohol.

Scale insects can be dabbed away individually with a cotton swap dipped in rubbing alcohol. If the outbreak of scale is larger, try rubbing them off with your fingers, spraying the tree with a high-pressure water source, or using a biological control such as a predatory mite. 

Before noticing scale, you might first notice sticky spots on the floor below, or a dark, sooty coloured film (mould) on leaves. Scale insects give off sticky liquid, and that’s the cause of the sticky spots below, and the mould, which feeds on the liquid. Wash leaves with a soft cloth to remove sooty mould.

Spider Mites on an Indoor Lemon Tree

Watch for spider mites when growing lemon trees indoors. They’re hard to see without a magnifying glass…you might only see little spots moving on a leaf. If leaves begin to look stippled, check for spider mites.

Spider mites do well in the dry air in centrally heated homes. Higher humidity helps minimize leaf drop and make conditions less suited to spider mites

Seasonal Moves for a Potted Lemon Tree

Moving Your Indoor Lemon Tree Outdoor for Summer?

Gradually harden off plants in the spring over a period of a couple of weeks. Don’t go cold turkey and put them in full sun without hardening them off or there can be sun scald and wind burn.

Moving Lemon Trees from Outdoors to Indoors  

If you’re bringing a potted lemon tree indoors for the winter, consider moving it indoors earlier rather than later, so there is less of a drastic change in temperature and humidity. This helps to minimize leaf drop.

While the fragrance of the flowers makes it nice to have lemon trees in a bright kitchen or living room window, your lemon tree does not need to be at room temperature. It will do better in cooler temperatures.

Here are examples of protected spaces that have cooler temperatures:

• A bright attic window

• A sun room (it does not need to be fully heated, keep the temperature just above freezing)

Find Out How to Grow Your Own Lemons

Harvest more lemons this year. Grow Lemons in Cold Climates Masterclass shows you how to grow a lemon tree in a pot or outside with protection. And get lemons!

Pots for Indoor Lemon Trees

Do not us pots with reservoirs (“self-watering” or “SIP”). This is because this sort of pot keeps the soil constantly moist…and lemon tree roots can rot in wet soil.

A decorative pot with no drainage holes is a recipe for soggy soil and root disease. Make sure to select a pot with drainage holes so that the roots don’t rot!

Lemon Tree Pot Size

When deciding on pot size, consider:

• The size of pot you can move

• Young plants that have not attained the final desired size can be moved to a bigger pot annually, early in spring or early summer once the roots fill the current pot.

• Whether the roots are likely to quickly fill the pot. “Overpotted” lemon plants (plants in pots that are too big) won’t use up soil moisture as quickly—so there is more chance of root rot.

Repotting Lemon Trees

sale

Grow Lemons Where You Think You Can't

Covering everything from lemon varieties, to location and watering, to pruning and shaping, to overwintering, dealing with pests, and more—and including insights from fellow citrus enthusiasts—this book will give you the confidence you need to grow and harvest fresh lemons in cold climates.

Mature plants don’t need to be repotted annually. Remove and replace the top few centimetres of soil every couple of years.

Soils break down over time and air pores collapse, so you will eventually want to repot the plant in new potting soil.

Lemon Tree Potting Soil

If you’re moving your lemon tree outdoors for the summer, a heavier soil can prevent the pot from tipping over in the wind.

Here’s what I do for potting soil:

• For young plants that are growing quickly and that I’m moving to bigger pots regularly, I use a lightweight soilless potting soil. It’s great for fast-growing plants.

• For lemon plants that have reached a size I want to keep them at, I add some garden loam to my potting soil for added weight (so they don’t tip over when I put them outside for the summer.)

The potting soil products available to you will depend where you are. The key thing is to tailor your watering to the mix you’re using—and don’t over-water. (I spoke to a grower who make a very well-drained mix because he found he was always heavy-handed on the watering!)

Indoor Lemon Tree Fertilizers

Potted lemon plants must be fed! You’re getting a small amount of soil to support all that plant and fruit development.

Start feeding in the spring, as plants begin to grow. Cut back on feeding in late summer as cooler temperatures and less light cause plant growth to slow.

There are many fertilizing products on the market, both organic and conventional. And each lemon grower has a favourite formula.

Not sure where to start?

• Look for “all-purpose” or “general-purpose” product. Make sure it has micronutrients

• Decide what suits your style of gardening (do you want to mix solutions regularly – or apply slow-release fertilizer granules just once in the spring)

More on Micronutrients and Potted Lemon Trees

“Interveinal chlorosis” (yellowing between leaf veins) on a lemon tree.

Micronutrient deficiencies are common with lemons. So make sure the fertilizer contains micronutrients.

“Interveinal chlorosis” is a fancy way of saying yellowing between the leaf veins. And it's a common thing to see on lemon tree leaves.

It's often iron, zinc, or manganese deficiencies. These deficiencies can even occur when the micronutrients are present in the soil, but the soil is too alkaline. That alkalinity prevents the lemon plant from taking up the micronutrients.

What to do for Micronutrient Deficiencies in Potted Lemon Trees

Forget lab analyses. Here are some other things you can do:

• Use elemental sulphur to lower the soil pH. Available for home gardeners at garden centres.

• Occasionally use a water-soluble fertilizer for acid-loving plants.

• Some areas have a lot of lime in the water, and it builds up in the potting soil with repeated watering. So just repot your lemon more often.

• Flying Dragon rootstock is intolerant of lime – so you might find lemons on their own roots are less troubled by high pH than grafted lemons on Flying Dragon.

Growing a Lemon Tree FAQ

What should I do if I don’t have full sunlight?

Ripe lemons last a long time when left on the the tree.

If you’re growing your lemon tree inside year-round, this can be a problem. You might want to add supplemental light, or grow your lemon under artificial lights.

But…if, like me, you put your lemon tree outdoors for the summer, think of indoor overwintering as simply a way to get your tree to survive the winter.

What about other citrus plants?

Another favourite citrus tree of mine is yuzu, a very cold-tolerant citrus with a very fragrant rind. It grows very well in a pot—and the fruit are very useful in the kitchen. Another very cold-tolerant fruit tree is mandarin orange.

How long can I leave homegrown lemons on the tree?

They last weeks, often months, on the tree. Don't pick what you're not ready to use.

What can I do with my Meyer lemons?

Lemons lined up to process into lemon curd. Meyer lemon curd is my favourite!

Lots of Meyer lemons is a good problem to have. My favourite uses are Meyer lemon curd, or sorbet.

How long before my indoor lemon trees will produce fruit?

Seed-grown fruit trees go through a juvenile stage where they don't bear fruit.

But a rooted cutting or a graft from a mature fruit tree can bear fruit right away. I've seen a six-inch tall lemon tree flower and form fruit. (My recommendation is to pick it off, so that energy is used to grow the plant bigger.)

Can I grow Meyer lemon trees from seed?

If you grow a lemon tree from seed it will likely grow up to be like the parent plant. (This doesn't happen with many fruit trees, apples are a good example of fruit trees that have offspring different from the parent plant.)

Keep Your Lemon Tree Through the Winter

And enjoy fresh homegrown lemons!

More on Lemons!

More on How to Grow Lemons

Tomato Staking Guide: How to Support Tomato Plants

By Steven Biggs

Tomato Stakes, Cages, Trellises

Support tomato plants. Pick a method that suits your garden and your style of gardening.

Joe stakes his tomato plants.

I don’t.

My neighbour Joe’s backyard is all garden. Full-on tomato production. He fills it with row after row of tomato plants, neatly staked, pruned, and trained.

My garden is maxed out on tomatoes too. But my tomato patch looks entirely different from Joe’s.

I grow some tomato plants in cages. The tomato plants on my driveway (where I can’t hammer in a stake) are supported by a trio of stakes in a teepee formation.

In another area, I grow tomatoes up twine.

Joe and I both grow our tomato plants in ways that suit our garden layout and approach to gardening.

This guide to staking and supporting tomato plants will help you pick a method that fits your garden.  

To Stake or not to Stake

When tomato plants are staked or supported, the fruit isn’t touching the soil.

The easiest way to grow tomato plants is to simply let them sprawl on the ground.

This is how tomatoes are often grown on a field scale. Take a road trip to a tomato-growing region such as Leamington, Ontario, and you’ll see fields with tomato plants sprawling on the ground.

There are reasons for home gardeners to support tomato plants:

• When tomato plants are staked or supported, the fruit isn’t touching the soil, meaning clean tomatoes, and less chance of rot and insect damage

• Upright plants take up less space…so if you stake tomatoes, you can fit more plants into your garden

• An upright tomato plant has more air circulation around the leaves—and that reduced the chance of disease

In my garden we have a high-density approach to growing tomatoes because my daughter grows over 100 varieties in our urban yard. We grow them much more densely than many gardeners, but it works well because we support and prune the plants.

Tomato Support Depends on Plant Type

The type of tomato plant you grow affects the need for staking and pruning.

• “Dwarf” tomato plants are quite compact and usually don’t need any pruning or support. Great for container gardeners!

• “Bush” tomato plants (also called “determinate” tomato plants) get to a certain height and then don’t get any taller. The harvest window is shorter. Great if you want a concentrated harvest for sauce-making or processing. Stake or cage determinate tomato plants to increase planting density and to keep tomatoes off the ground.

• “Indeterminate” tomato plants keep getting taller and taller all summer long. Great if you want an ongoing harvest. This is the sort of tomato plant often grown in commercial tomato greenhouses. Prune and support indeterminate tomato plants to optimize production—and know that they can get very tall by the end of the summer.

Tomato Staking and Support Ideas

There are lots of ways you can stake and support tomato plants. Pick one that suits your garden and the amount of time you want to spend tending your tomato crop.

Here are ideas for supporting your tomato plants:

Staked tomato plants with wooden tomato stakes.

Tomato Stakes

Tie your tomato plant to a stake. A lot of gardeners keep one main stem, pinching off side shoots (called suckers). See ideas for tomato stakes below.

Tomato Cages

Grow the tomato inside a supportive cage-like frame. Plants in cages can be wider—so having more than one main stem is common. See below for a tip on making your own tomato cages.

Grow Tomato Plants up Twine

Visit a commercial tomato greenhouse and you’re likely to see tomato plants growing up a piece of twine suspended from above.

We use a variation of this twine method in our garden, where we make tall A-frames with bamboo, and run a horizontal pole between them—six feet up in the air. Then we dangle pieces of twine from the horizontal pole, and train our tomato plants up the twine. This way we can space our tomatoes very closely together so that we can fit more tomato varieties into the garden.

We make tall A-frames with bamboo, and run a horizontal pole between them.

Then we dangle pieces of twine from the horizontal pole, and train our tomato plants up the twine.

Florida Weave for Tomatoes

The “Florida Weave,” where twine supported by two end stakes is woven around the tomato plants for support.

In this method of supporting tomato plants, we weave the tomato stems between horizontal rows of twine. Start by putting stakes at both ends of your tomato row. As plants get taller, keep adding rows of twine, and weave the stems between them.

Grow a Tomato Arch

If you have an archway in your garden, use it for tomato plants.

Indeterminate tomato varieties get taller, and taller, and taller. As they reach the top of the arch, you can train them down the other side.

Tomato-Staking Tip

Don’t get hung up on supporting tomatoes the “right way.”

There are many ways to do it—and you just need to pick one that suits the way you want to garden and the type of tomato plants you’re growing.

Make Your Own Tomato Cages

Make a tomato arch with cattle panel wire.

A lot of the so-called tomato cages sold at garden centres are just too small to be useful. And if you find larger cages, they can cost you an arm and a leg.

We make our own tomato cages from the sheets of wire mesh used to reinforce concrete.

• Cut the 4’ x 8’ sheet into two 4’ x 4’ sections (bolt cutters work well)

• Then, bend the mesh into a cage

• The bending takes effort as this is a strong material (I find that it works best if I place a board over the line I want to bend along, and then stand on the board as I bend the wire upwards)

These homemade tomato cages are long-lasting. Our oldest ones are over 15 years old and going strong.

If you’re creative, you might come up with other materials to make your own tomato cages. I’ve seen old bundle buggies used!

Be creative! A bundle buggy as a tomato cage.

My daughter Emma and I made our own tomato cages by cutting and bending wire mesh.

Tomato Stake Ideas

Bamboo stakes are an option for staking—but be sure to get large enough stakes as smaller ones might be too flimsy.

I’m not a fan of the flimsy plastic-coated stakes sold at garden centres.

There are lots of other things you can use to stake tomato plants. Here are ideas:

• Iron rebar

• Iron t-bars

• Lumber (1x2 and 2x2 stakes are common)

• Bamboo

• Metal pipe

Bamboo and wood rot over time. But they widely available and relatively inexpensive.

My favourite Tomato Stake

My favourite tomato stake is iron rebar. Here’s why:

• It’s long lasting

• It’s thin, making it easier to push into the ground by hand (iron t-bars last a long time too…but need hammering into the ground)

• As it oxidizes, it becomes brown and blends into the surroundings (compared to the hideous brightly coloured stakes I sometimes see for sale)

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Best Twine for Training Tomato Plants

If you opt to grow tomato plants up twine, keep in mind that by the end of the season, a tomato-laden plant weighs a lot. We’ve used natural-fibre twines such as just and sisal some years—but they aren’t always up to the task for the whole season.

If you can find it, get a tomato twine. Such a thing exists; it’s what’s used in commercial tomato greenhouse operations.

How to Stake Tomato Plants in Straw-Bale Gardens

The tomatoes in this driveway straw-bale garden are supported with bamboo tripods.

If the concept of straw-bale gardening is new to you, read this article.

Straw bales break down as the summer progresses. That’s what we want. But the result is that what seems like a firmly anchored stake in the spring will move (unless you drive the stake deep enough that it goes right through the bale and into the underlying soil.)

In our driveway straw-bale garden, we make tripods out of lumber or bamboo, tied together at the top. If the base is spaced out and balanced, they support tomato plants all summer.

How to Support Tomatoes in Containers

Determinate tomato plants in containers will probably need some sort of support, such as the cage shown here.

If you’re growing dwarf tomato plants, they likely won’t need support.

But if you’re growing determinate tomato plants, you’ll probably want to support them. I find that cages work well.

Note: When growing in containers, the shorter the better. That’s because if the plants and stakes are too tall, there’s a chance of the container tipping over in the wind.

The Great Tomato Debate

In our book No Guff Vegetable Gardening, my co-author Donna and I made up the following table to help gardeners think about a tomato support method that works in their garden.

Tomato Support FAQ

How often should I prune and train my tomato plants?

Ideally you don’t want to let suckers get too big before pruning them out…it’s a waste of energy that would be better spent growing tomatoes! In the summer when they’re actively growing, check them once a week. (But don’t sweat it if you miss a week.)

What should I do when the tomato plant gets taller than the stake?

Pin this post!

Find a taller stake, or bend over the top of the plant and allow some stems to grow from down below.

Should I leave one stem or more than one stem?

It’s up to you. But here’s what I do: For tomatoes on twine, I leave only one stem. In a cage, I allow 3 or 4 to grow because the plant has more space.

What should I use to tie the tomato plant to the stake?

I use a natural-fibre twine such as sisal or jute because at the end of the season I can compost it or let it fall to the soil where it decomposes.

Here are more ideas for tying tomato plants to stakes:

• Dad used to cut up black garbage bags into strips because it made a soft tie that didn’t damage the tomato stem

• My neighbour Sally used strips of old panty hose as tomato ties

• You can buy purpose-made ties…but don’t waste your money

Will the tomato cage tip over when the plant gets big?

Can do. I drive one stake into the ground and secure a corner of the cage to it. That prevents any tipping as the plants get bigger.

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Guide to Making the Best Borsch

By Steven Biggs

How to Make the Best Borsch

When Mom served her homemade borsch we’d empty the pot. It was rich, filling, tangy – and always topped with a dollop of sour cream or “smetana.”

Her borsch was different every time, because she used what she had in the kitchen, and in the garden or cold cupboard.

But it always had beets.

Garden-to-Table Cooking…in Winter

I think about borsch as I plan my vegetable garden because it’s full of vegetables that store well.

Beets, carrots, onions, and garlic all keep well in a cold room or root cellar.

(Mom sometimes used dried lima beans, another food that stores well.)

Borsch Backstory

There are many variations on borsch.

Make the best borsch! Most recipes use red beets, but if you’re growing yellow or white beets, you can use these too (but the final colour of your borsch will be different.

Some are thicker and stew-like; some more soup-like. Some are tarter; some are sweeter.

It’s eaten hot or cold.

There are summer and winter styles, depending on what’s in the garden.

It’s not just the ingredients and cooking styles that vary: So does the spelling of the name. You might come across borscht, borsch, bortsch, borstch, borshtch, borsh, or borshch.

That’s because it’s a staple in many Eastern European cultures.

What most variations share is lots of chopped veggies—especially beets. And there’s usually a combination of tangy and sweet.

Depending on the recipe, the tanginess might come from vinegar, sour cream, sauerkraut, kvass (a drink made from fermented grains), or lemon juice.

The Stock for Making Borsch

Mom’s borsch was decidedly full of meat. The stock depended on what she had on hand.

I simmer a ham bone or smoked pork hock for the better part of a day to get a rich stock.

You can also make a great borsch using vegetable stock. (See the recipe below.)

Essential Ingredients

Here are two ingredients that I love in borsch:

• Dill

• Sour cream

When there’s fresh dill available, I always use it. Through the winter, I use chopped, frozen dill saved during the summer.

Sometimes I also add dill seed—which is like little nuggets of dill flavour. Use dry dill seed in the winter, and in the summer, try fresh dill seed.

Sometimes a dollop of sour cream is served atop a bowl of borsch. I like that…but I also like to mix a bit into the borsch when I’m almost done cooking to give a tangy, creamy finish.

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Top Borsch-Making Tip

During cooking, you lose colour contrast as the ingredients in your pot of borsch all take on the red colour of the beets.

So create contrast in texture by chopping the different vegetables into different sizes and shapes. (I like long, thin strips of cabbage!)

Then, when it’s serving time, the dollop of sour cream on top is like a white island in the sea of red. If you top this combination with fresh chopped dill, you’ve added two more colours to your ruby-coloured soup.

Serving Ideas

Toasted, buttered rye bread is all that you need with a bowl of borsch. I love a caraway rye bread (which has caraway seeds in it.)

Storage

I make soup by the pot. I keep enough in the fridge for the week, and then freeze some to use at a later time.

Beet Borsch Recipe

Click for Printable Version

Ingredients:

The Veggies

Remember, chop the different veggies in different ways to create texture. The quantities below are approximate. Vary it up depending on what you have on hand, what you like, and the size of the veggies.

• 6 medium beets, peeled and chopped

• ¼ - ½ head of cabbage, shredded

• 2 onions, chopped

• 2 large carrots, chopped

• 1 stalk celery, chopped

• 1 leek, chopped

• 1 potato, peeled and chopped

• 3 cloves garlic, crushed

Liquid

• 4 cups water

• 1 tbsp. vinegar

• 2 cups stock (I make mine from a ham bone or smoked pork hock, but you can use chicken or vegetable stock, depending on your preference)

Herbs and Spices

• 3 tbsp. chopped dill

• ½ tsp. caraway seeds

• Salt and pepper to taste

Thickener

• ½ cup sour cream or kefir

• 1 tbsp. flour

Optional

• ½ cup dry lima beans

• Or, if you have shelling beans in the garden, substitute these for the lima beans

• I like to chop up and add the beet leaves and stems to the soup too

Directions

1. Soak lima beans in water overnight

2. Combine chopped vegetables and liquids in a large pot 

3. Cook over medium heat

4. Add vinegar as soup begins to boil

5. Simmer for a couple of hours, until the vegetables are soft

6. Add dill, caraway seeds, pepper, and salt

7. Simmer for a few more minutes

Final but important step: The flour thickens the borsch just a little bit. Mix flour into the sour cream or kefir, and then stir this mixture into the soup and simmer for a couple of minutes. (Don’t add the flour straight to the boiling soup or you might get little dumplings!)

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How to Grow Tomato Seeds Indoors

By Steven Biggs

Learning How to Plant Tomato Seeds

When I was 10 years old my grandfather helped me sow tomato seeds. My first yellow-fruited tomatoes.

I had the perfect teacher. Dido was a life-long gardener and retired market gardener.

He was visiting us from Calgary that spring. We didn’t have much in the way of seed-starting supplies at our place. So he just grabbed an unused wash basin. We put a couple of inches of potting soil in it, sprinkled seeds on top. And then a thin layer of soil.

I gave lots of yellow tomatoes to the neighbours that summer!

His no-fuss approach to gardening coloured mine. There are lots of great supplies, gadget, and tricks…if you want. But you can also keep gardening—and growing tomato seeds—really simple.

In this article I share ideas about how to grow tomato seeds in a way that suits your situation.

Choose a Tomato Variety

Find out how to grow tomato seeds in a way that suits your situation.

Before planting, select a variety that gives you what you want.

Here are things I think about as I choose tomato varieties:

• Colour

• Size

• Taste

• How long it takes to mature

• Plant stature

• Disease Resistance

• How I use the tomatoes (sauce, sandwiches, packed lunches)

• Storage properties (there are storage—a.k.a. “keeper” tomatoes!)

Find out about “keeper” tomatoes.

Get tomato-choosing tips in this article by my tomato-crazy daughter, Emma.

When to Start Tomato Seeds Indoors

Grow tomato seeds indoors to get a head start on the growing season. These seedllings are growing in a wooden mandarin crate.

We grow tomato seeds indoors to get a head start on the growing season. That head start gives us an earlier harvest.

When it comes to timing, the date of the last spring frost is our guidepost. You’ll often see this date called the “last frost date” or “average last frost date.”

Find out the average last frost date for your area, and then count backwards 6 to 8 weeks.

For example:

The average last frost date around here is mid May. So working backwards 8 weeks, I know that I should be starting tomato seeds indoors around mid March.

This is not an exact science.

So don’t sweat the exact date. Aim for approximately 6-8 weeks. But don’t start too early, because you could end up with leggy seedlings.

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Supplies for Growing Tomato Seeds Indoors

The supplies you need to grow tomato seeds depends on your approach to gardening. As I mentioned above, you can keep it pretty simple.

Cell packs are a good option if you’re growing a lot of seedlings.

Here are basic supplies:

• Potting soil

• Pots or containers (ideas below)

• Labels

• Seeds

Optional goodies:

• Heat mat

• Fan

• Dome or cover

Containers for Starting Tomato Seeds

You can buy purpose-made containers for starting seeds. Or you might already have things you can reuse for seed-starting. (Horticulture creates a lot of plastic waste…and a bit of creativity with seed-starting containers is a great way to generate less waste.)

Here are ideas for seed-starting containers for tomatoes:

Plug trays are an option if you want to start lots of seeds.

• Cell packs (the plastic containers with multiple holes, often used for bedding plants – a good option if you’re growing a lot of seedlings)

• Plug trays (trays with a number of smaller holes, more commonly used in commercial greenhouses)

• Pots

• Crates (I’ve used wooden mandarin orange crates)

• Newspaper pots (paper pots wick moisture and dry quickly, so adjust your watering accordingly)

• Egg cartons (like egg shells below, too small for growing tomato plants to the final transplanting size, but if it’s all you have, they’re OK for getting seeds started before transplanting into a bigger pot)

• Egg shells (There are lots of cutesy pictures online of seeds growing in egg shells. My suggestion is don’t bother, they’re impractical)

Newspaper pots are easy to make. They can be planted directly into the garden as the roots grow right through the newspaper.

If you’re using biodegradable, natural-fibre pots (peat pots are common, and I’ve even seen pots made from cow manure) a word of caution: Bury the entire pot when planting in the garden, or the whole thing is a wick, wicking water away from plant roots.

Soil for Starting Tomato Seeds

Top Tip: Don’t use garden soil.

That’s for two reasons: First, many garden soils have a structure that packs down, preventing little roots from growing. The other thing is that garden soil can harbour diseases that kill young tomato seedlings.

Use potting soil.

You might see potting soils specifically for seed-starting. These are made with ingredients that are more finely ground, so that there are no chunks of material blocking the way of little germinating seeds.

You don’t need the finely ground potting soils.

A general-purpose potting soil is fine. (A finely ground soil mix is important for commercial growers who need uniform, optimal seed germination; but in a home garden we usually have more seeds than we need, so having the odd coarse chunk in the potting soil is no big deal).

If the soil is dry, moisten it before using it.

Light for Your Tomato Seedlings

Lights for growing tomato seedlings. I use fluorescent lights. Note that the trays are propped up to be as close as possible to the lights.

Good light is important for growing compact plants. When there’s not enough light you end up with leggy plants that topple over.

There are lots of lighting options. The simplest and least expensive is to grow seedlings in a bright window (south facing is best.)

If you don’t have a bright window, you can start seeds under lights. There are many types of lights available.

Here’s the thing to know: Your tomato seedlings don’t need the same light as an indoor hydroponic vegetable crop.

You’re not trying to create perfect conditions to grow a plant right through to harvest. The lights just need to be good enough to give you healthy, fairly compact tomato transplants. 

So save yourself some money and don’t go overboard on lighting.

My lighting for growing tomato seedlings is fluorescent shop lights. You don’t need full spectrum lights, nor do you need the strongest lights. Remember: You’re growing a young plant to transplant outdoors – where it will spend the rest of its life in sunlight.

Some light are adjustable, allowing you to move the lights close to the seedlings. Mine aren’t, so instead, I prop up trays of plants closer to the lights by putting something underneath them.

Use a timer so that you don’t have to remember to turn the lights on and off every day. I leave mine on for 16 hours a day.

Landscape with Fruit

That’s easy to grow in a home garden!

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Planting Tomato Seeds

Fill your container loosely with potting soil, leaving a bit of space at the top.

• If you’re planting an individual seed, place it on top of the soil

• If you’re planting a number of seeds in one container, space them out on top of the soil

Then place a thin layer of potting soil over the top. You don’t need to put much potting soil over the seed: Cover with a depth of soil similar to the seed width…up to about one-quarter inch. (Too deep and they might not grow.)

Then tamp very gently and water.

What we’re trying to do by covering with soil and tamping is to make sure the seed is in contact with soil, which helps with uniform germination.

(NOTE: A lot of people “bottom water” seedlings. This just means sitting a container in water so that water wicks upwards. The reason is that a strong jet of water from a watering can can move around seeds and soil. So feel free to do the bottom watering if you like, although I find that watering gently, by putting my finger over the tip of the watering can to slow the flow of water, is enough to prevent making a potting soil sinkhole.)

Tomato Seeding Density

Depending on how many plants you’re growing and how much space you have, you can seed more or less densely:

Grow 2-3 seeds per pot, and then thin out extras as the plants begin to grow.

Low Density

If you have lots of space and aren’t growing a lot, give each seed its own pot or section within a cell pack. One seed per pot takes up far more space initially. But if you want to keep things very simple, this is a good way to do it because it can cut out the step of transplanting later on.

Remember that a bigger pot dries out more slowly; water them accordingly so they aren’t waterlogged.

Tip: It’s rare to have every single seed germinate. To avoid having empty pots where seeds haven’t germinated, place 2-3 seeds per pot, and then thin out extras as the plants begin to grow.

High Density

If you want to start more seeds in less space, plant a number of seeds together in a container, and then separate and transplant them as they get bigger.

Labelling Tomato Seeds

A tray of labelled tomato seedlings.

If you’re growing more than one variety, label them as you plant them. There are years I was sure I’d remember what was what…and I forgot. You can buy purpose-made plastic labels; or, if you want to use less plastic, wooden popsickle sticks or wooden tongue depressors work well (but don’t last all summer.)

Hygiene

Damping off disease can wipe out a whole crop of seedlings quickly. It’s a fungal disease that moves around your growing area along with runoff from watering plants. It gets there in contaminated soil and on previously used equipment and pots.

The easiest way to avoid damping off is to use disease-free potting soil and clean supplies. If you make your own potting soil using compost, consider sterilizing it. Many commercial potting soils are made with peat and inert ingredients—and these tend to be disease free.

New pots and cell packs are likely disease free, but if you’re reusing pots and cell packs, sterilize them. First, scrub off any soil that’s caked on. Then dunk them in a solution of 10 parts water with 1 part bleach, and then let them air dry. (Note: This is a strong smelling solution, so I do this outdoors or in my garage.)

How Many Tomato Seeds to Grow

Planting extra tomato seeds is cheap insurance against plants lost to accidents.

I always grow extra plants.

Then I share leftovers with friends.

Conditions for Germinating Tomato Seed

Temperature

Find a warm spot to germinate tomato seeds. Pictured here: Germinating a flat of tomato seeds beside a heat duct near the basement ceiling — a warm location.

Room temperature is fine for germinating tomato seeds, but you can speed things up and get a more uniform germination if the temperature is warmer.

Here are ways to give your seeds warmer conditions:

• Place them on a heated floor

• Set them on top of a hot-water radiator

• The fluorescent fixtures in my light tray give off heat, so if I put seed containers on the rack above

• Some appliances give off heat – check to see if the top of your fridge is warm

• Or get a heat mat (a water-resistant heating pad for plants)

 Once a half to three quarters of the seeds are up, I remove the container from the heat.

Humidity

The seedlings on the left are uncovered, to get air circulation. The seeds on the right are covered with a plastic cover to keep the humidity high during germination.

As a seed germinates, it needs moist surroundings until it grows roots and can take up water on its own. If it dries out at this vulnerable stage, it’s game over.

The air in centrally heated homes over the winter is often quite dry. You can keep the humidity higher right around the seeds by covering them. I use the clear plastic domes designed to go over top of plant trays. Or, cover a tray with a sheet of glass or plastic; or cover an individual pot with a plastic bag.

Light

Don’t worry about light while germinating tomato seeds.

So in summary, as you’re getting your tomato seeds to germinate, think warm and humid. (In a previous house, I’d germinate my seeds atop a shelf in the basement, near the heat duct at ceiling level, where it was nice and warm.)

Conditions for Growing Tomato Seedlings

Once your tomato seedlings are up and growing, the best conditions are different from what we want when germinating seeds.

Light and Temperature

As seedlings begin to grow, we want bright light and cooler temperatures. That’s because with warmer temperatures, growth is lanky. With cooler temperatures (combined with bright light) the plants will be more compact and sturdy.

See if there’s a cooler spot near a window. In my case, my grow lights are in the basement, in a room that is cooler than the rest of the house. It’s perfect for growing tomato seedlings.

Humidity and Air Circulation

High humidity while seed germinate is good. But as the plants grow, we want lower humidity and some air circulation, which reduces the chance of fugal diseases. The moving air also gives stronger stems. (Some people use a fan to improve air circulation.)

So in summary, once the plants are growing, you want cooler, brighter conditions than for germination.

Caring for Tomato Seedlings

Water

It’s easy to kill seedlings by overwatering them.

Keep the soil moist, but not sopping wet.

If in doubt about the amount of moisture in the soil, use your finger. (Whatever you do, don’t waste your money on a gadget that tells you soil moisture!)

(If you forget to water and your seedlings flop over, there might still be hope. I remember the seedlings I grew with Dido: we came home one day and they were flopped right over…looked like they were doing yoga. He shrugged and watered them—and they sprang back up within an hour.)

Feeding Tomato Seedlings

Check your potting soil mix to see if it contains fertilizer. Some do. And if it contains fertilizer, you might not need to feed.

Otherwise, once your plants have a few leaves, you can begin to feed them. I use a water-soluble fertilizer.

Don’t overfeed. It can damage delicate seedling roots. (I feed at half of the rate recommended on the label.)

Note: Don’t worry about feeding before the seedlings have a couple of sets of leaves. They’re still drawing from stored energy in the seed.

Thinning and Repotting

Transplant tomato seedlings after they get “true leaves.” These plants are beginning to grow true leaves.

If you planted a few seeds together in a container, once they get big enough to handle, you can separate them and give them more space.

Transplant tomato seedlings after they get “true leaves.” (The first leaves that appear are “seed leaves” so it’s the third and fourth leaves that are the true leaves. You’ll quickly see the difference.

I use a popsicle stick or pencil to tease apart soil and gently lift up a seedling and its roots. (There are purpose-made gadgets for this…not necessary.)

When picking up seedlings, hold them by the leaves. That’s because it’s very easy to crush the stem. (If you crush a leaf, it can grow a new leaf…if you crush the stem, it’s game over.)

Transplanting Tomato Plants in the Garden

Moving tomato seedlings outdoors to a cold frame in the spring so that they are hardened off for planting into the garden. If the light is bright, we cover the top of the cold frame with something to shade the plants below.

When it’s time to move your tomato seedlings to the garden, there’s one last thing to remember. Your seedlings have grown in the house, in moderate conditions. Once they’re outdoors, the light is brighter, the temperature swings, and there’s wind.

So we “harden off” seedlings, which simply means we get them used to outdoor conditions. We do this by putting the plants outdoors, in the shade, for a few hours each day. Give them a longer stint in the sun each day, and keep doing this for at least a week.

FAQ - How to Grow Tomato Seeds

Can I plant tomato seeds directly in the garden?

Yes, but your harvest will be weeks behind plants started indoors. (Tomato plants sometimes come up on their own in the garden where tomatoes fell to the ground the previous year…but the harvest is late.)

Should I soak my tomato seeds?

No, it’s not necessary.

Can I save my own seed?

Absolutely. It can be as simple as smearing some seeds on a paper towel, or you can clean them more through a fermentation process. In our household, I do the former, while my daughter does the latter.

Note: If you save seeds from hybrid tomato varieties, the seeds you end up with will be different from the parent plant. If you plan to save seeds, look for “open pollinated” varieties.

Is it too late if I start my tomato seeds only 4 weeks before the last frost?

No, but your harvest won’t be as early.

Can I start my tomato plants 10 weeks before the last frost?

Yes, but when they’re started indoors early, there’s more chance of ending up with lanky plants, unless you have very good growing conditions. If I had a greenhouse, I’d consider starting a few plants earlier—for an earlier harvest.

Where can I find the average last frost date for my area?

The easiest way is to do an online search. Some seed companies list dates, as do some master gardener groups and extension agencies.

More About Growing Tomatoes

Hear Tips from Tomato Experts

One More Idea…

We always grow microgreens indoors over the winter. It’s a perfect crop to grow under lights with your tomato seedlings.

Find out how to grow microgreens indoors.

Course: Make an Awesome Edible Garden

Force Rhubarb Indoors

By Steven Biggs

Force Rhubarb Indoors for a Mid-Winter Harvest

Rhubarb and candles?

One day I got chatting with my neighbour’s fence installer, who was interested in my garden.

I was picking rhubarb as we spoke, so I mentioned that I also force rhubarb in my basement over the winter.

That’s what got us on the topic of candles.

He was from Yorkshire, England, an area that once produced 90 per cent of the world’s forced rhubarb. He explained that the tradition there is to tend and harvest the crop, grown in big, dark sheds, by candlelight.

After we chatted I went online to see pictures of Yorkshire forced rhubarb. It’s beautiful! The long stems are bright red, and they’re topped with small yellow leaves. Farmers grow this forced rhubarb in the dark to get very long, tender stems. A small amount of light can change the way the rhubarb grows, but because the candles give a faint light, they don’t affect growth.

It’s easy for home gardeners to force rhubarb over the winter too. (You can opt out of using a candle if its’ not your style! I don’t use one.)

My winter-forced rhubarb. Not quite as nice as what they grow in Yorkshire, but still a nice winter treat.

How Forcing Rhubarb Works

Let’s back up to get a handle on what we’re doing. When we force rhubarb indoors over the winter, we’re tricking a dormant rhubarb root into thinking it’s spring.

We trick it by putting it somewhere warm.

That warmth stimulates growth.

If you’ve ever grown plants in conditions where there’s not enough light, you’ll know that they get lanky, with long stems.

The rhubarb sends up long stems too, and the leaves stay quite small while there’s no light.

If there’s light, upward growth slows, and stems and leaves develop a green colour from photosynthesis. It doesn’t take a lot of light to change the growth. Hence the candles.

Rhubarb grown in the garden is more green and fibrous than forced rhubarb.

Why Force Rhubarb Indoors

What makes forced rhubarb special is that by excluding light, we get very long, tender stalks with a sweeter, milder flavour than rhubarb grown in the garden.

(Intrigued by the idea of excluding light to change quality? Here’s a fun article about blanching veg.)

• Forced and outdoor-grown rhubarb are two very different things. The former has a delicate flavour and beautiful colour. The latter is greener and more fibrous.

• Fresh forced rhubarb is a nice addition to the menu over the winter.

There’s one other reason to consider forcing your own rhubarb: It fits in nicely with rhubarb patch care.

In the right location, a patch of rhubarb grows larger each year. When a clump of rhubarb is well established and thriving, you simply “harvest” some of it in the fall by dividing the clump once the leaves have died back and it is dormant. Like plants in a perennial flower garden, dividing and bringing in fresh soil and compost is a good practice to keep a rhubarb patch thriving. As you divide the rhubarb patch, keep the hunk of root that you dig out for forcing.

Steps to Forcing Rhubarb Indoors

In the Summer

When conditions are good, a rhubarb patch gets larger every year. Don’t dig anything yet, but select a part of your patch that you can “harvest” for indoor forcing once the patch is dormant in the fall.

In the Fall

When you divide your clump of rhubarb in the fall, you get roots that you can force indoors over the winter.

The rhubarb should be dormant before you dig out a piece for winter forcing. Wait until the leaves have died back before digging. (But do it before the ground freezes!)

Then harvest the part of your rhubarb patch that you chose during the summer. Rhubarb crowns are woody, so you’ll need a spade to chop down into it.

Pot up the dormant root. Some years I pot the roots into recycling bins. Some years into large black nursery pots. Crates might work well too. Just like a houseplant, you want excess water to be able to drain from the bottom. (Also think about what to put underneath the potted rhubarb root if you don’t want water on the basement floor.)

Once the rhubarb root is potted up, store it somewhere cool until it’s time to force it. I put mine in my garage until mid-winter, when I’m ready to bring it in the house to force it. The roots are very cold tolerant, so if your storage area freezes, that’s fine.

There’s no rush to bring the dormant rhubarb root indoors. Let the root remain dormant and at a cool temperature for a few weeks.

Where to Force Rhubarb Indoors

In a previous house I forced rhubarb in the cold cellar under the stairs.

The rhubarb will grow when it is placed somewhere warm. Remember, you’re simply tricking the plant—making it think spring has arrived.

• In a previous house, I put the rhubarb in a dark cold cellar under the stairs.

• In my current house, I put the rhubarb in my furnace room.

Taking Care of Forced Rhubarb

Care is simple: Just water the soil as it starts to get dry. It should be moist, not wet.

Don’t feed the plant. It is using energy stored in the thick, fleshy roots.

Supplies to Force Rhubarb Indoors

• A container to pot up the dormant rhubarb root

• Potting soil

• Candle (optional!)

Harvesting Forced Rhubarb

Harvest stalks when long enough to use. How big they get will depend on how much root you dug out, and how much energy was stored in that root.

Repeat a few times.

You’ll find that the longer you leave the forced rhubarb root to produce stalks in the dark, the skinnier and skinnier the stalks become. That’s because as the plant continues to send up stalks in the dark, it’s using up its stored energy.

(I find I get about three harvests before stem size gets too skinny to make it worthwhile harvesting.)

When you find the stalks are very skinny and no longer worth harvesting, you can move the plant to the light to just let it grow. Or, if you don’t have space, put it back into your cold-storage space until spring.

Grow a Container Vegetable Garden

And get an early harvest of crops that usually take too long!

More on Container Veg

Force Rhubarb Outdoors

By the time spring arrives, your winter-forced rhubarb root will be done producing rhubarb.

But you can also force some of your in-ground rhubarb plants. Again, it’s a combination of darkness and extra heat that gives you long, tender stalks.

You do this spring forcing right in the patch, without disturbing the plant.

Here’s what to do:

A rhubarb forcer, a purpose-made terracotta pot with a removeable lid for forcing rhubarb.

• As you see buds start to swell on the crown, cover a part of the patch with a large inverted pot or garbage can. (To exclude the light and get nice, pink stalks, cover the drainage holes of the pot to keep out light)

• You can insulate the sides of pots with leaves or straw if you want to speed up the process by making it warmer inside

• Pick once the stalks reach the top of the pot

• Give the roots you forced “time off” over the summer to recharge – don’t pick from them

There are also purpose-made terracotta rhubarb forcing pots. They’re beautiful, but I’ve never seen them for sale here in Ontario. And I suspect that if I found them, they’d cost and arm and a leg.

Supplies to Force Rhubarb Outdoors

• Healthy, established rhubarb plant

• Large pot

• Tape to cover holes in the pot

• Straw or leaves to insulate the outside of the pot

Rhubarb Forcing FAQ

What if my indoor forcing area has some light in it?

If there is enough light, you will not get the elongated, bright red stalks. Instead the plant will produce more compact stalks with some green chlorophyll in them. Not the end of the world…but you can get green stalks all summer. So create a dark space using a curtain or tarp.

Why are my forced rhubarb stalks smaller than the ones I see at the grocery store?

Commercial growers will often let rhubarb plants grow two or three years without harvesting any stalks before using the root for forcing. That means the root has a lot of stored up energy. In a small home garden, where the gardener is forcing roots that have been harvested from, there won’t be as much stored energy.

What should I do with the rhubarb plant after forcing?

Commercial growers often discard roots that they’ve forced. But you can plant the spent rhubarb root in your garden or share it with a neighbour. But don’t harvest from it for a couple years – allow the plant to recover and store energy.

I just planted my rhubarb. Can I force it?

No. There won’t be enough stored energy in the root to give you good results…and if it’s a small plant, you might kill it. Commercial growers often grow plants in the field without harvesting anything for two or three years to allow the plants to store up energy before forcing.

What about bugs?

Because the potted roots were harvested in cold temperatures, and then stored somewhere cold, don’t worry about bugs. 

What’s a rhubarb stick?

Some people refer to rhubarb stalks as “sticks.”

More on Rhubarb

Ontario Farmer Brian French forces 10,000 square feet of rhubarb over the winter.

Hear how he forces rhubarb, and find out his rhubarb-growing tips.

Want More Ideas?

Cauliflower Steak with Yuzu Marinade

By Steven Biggs

Cauliflower Steak?

As the chef addressed our group of garden writers, he told us that he’d used a Korean-style marinade on the cauliflower steaks.

Cauliflower steaks? Yup. And not cauliflower crumbs glued together with insipid, sticky filler.

I walked over to the grill to have a peek. There were big, sizzling, round slabs of cauliflower, sliced so the central stem held everything together.

High-School Farm-to-Table Meal

We were at Muir Ranch, an urban teaching farm and teen-jobs program on a 3-acre field behind John Muir High School in Pasadena, California.

They’d set up a long table beside the field to feed us. Students were ferrying around food.

Feeding a Diverse Crowd

That farm-to-table meal was in 2015, and I hadn’t had cauliflower steak since.

Cauliflower steak is a fun way to use locally-grown cauliflower when it’s in season. Here are some Ontario-grown beauties.

But recently I had an entertaining dilemma.

I was feeding a group of friends with diverse diets. I needed an entree that was:

• Vegetarian

• Low-carb

• Gluten-free

• Keto-friendly

Farewell soy sauce…see you, sugar…bye-bye bread crumbs!

So I went hunting for my photo of the cauliflower steaks, to see if I could remember how it was done.

I set out to recreate the cauliflower steaks I’d enjoyed at a very fun farm-to-table meal.

A Perfect Fall Meal

A cauliflower steak is a great dish for feeding friends on diverse diet regimes. (Unless you’re ardently anti-vegetable, like my late Uncle Bill.)

This is also a great recipe if you’re looking for new ways to serve up locally-grown produce. For long stretches of the year here in Southern Ontario, grocers stock puny shrink-wrapped cauliflower shipped in from across the continent.

But it’s November as I write this, and there are fantastic Ontario-grown cauliflower.

Large and snow-white.

Perfect for carving into steaks.

Add in Yuzu

I had one other thought in mind as I planned dinner: Feed my guests some of the yuzu fruit I’ve grown.

If yuzu is new to you (excuse the rhyme!), it’s a citrus fruit, and the rind has a floral smell and taste.

For northern gardeners looking for a fun, exotic crop to grow in a pot, yuzu is a cold-tolerant citrus.

Grown in the ground, yuzu can go to about -10°C (14°F). In a pot it can’t get quite as cold…but I stow mine in a cold garage or greenhouse that I keep just above freezing for the winter. (Grow it just like you would a lemon tree in a cold climate.

Find out how to grow lemons in cold climates.

Find out how to grow yuzu.

Some of my harvest of Toronto-grown yuzu fruit

The cauliflower steaks were a hit with my guests.

How to Make Cauliflower Steaks

The cauliflower steaks were a hit. If you like the sound of them, my recipe is below.

Carve Cauliflower into “Steaks”

I cut 2 steaks from each cauliflower head. Cut it from bottom to top, along the centre of the stem so that the outlying sections are held in place. After you’ve halved it, make a second cut to shave off the rounded side, leaving you with a flat steak.

(The rounded part that you shaved off will include lots of small bits. I set them aside to make a cream of cauliflower soup later in the week.)

Make a Marinade

Because the chef who made those steaks at Muir Ranch mentioned a Korean marinade, I thought I’d combine ingredients for a Korean-inspired marinade, and then add in my yuzu fruit. I made a fairly big batch – enough for the 3 heads of cauliflower. You might not need this much if you’re doing just one head of cauliflower.

Cut cauliflower from bottom to top, along the centre of the stem so that the outlying sections are held in place.

• 4 large cloves of garlic (hardneck ‘Red Russian’ garlic from my garden)

• Grated ginger root, about 2” of it (I use a microplane, but a fine grater is OK too)

• 5 tbsp. tamari sauce (soy works well too…but I used gluten-free tamari for my gluten-free guest)

• 3 tbsp. rice vinegar

• 6 tbsp. sesame oil

• 5 tbsp. of a brown-sugar like zero-calorie sugar replacement (OK, I’ll be honest here – just use brown sugar unless you’re on a special diet.)

• 1 tbsp. sambal oelek hot pepper sauce (I’ve seen a lot of Korean recipes calling for gochujang hot sauce…but we keep sambal oelek in our kitchen…and you can use whatever hot sauce suits your taste)

• Zest and juice of 2 yuzu fruit (Substitute lemon juice and rind if you don’t have yuzu)

I spread the marinade on the cauliflower steaks a couple of hours ahead of cooking them. Put it on both sizes, and around the outer edge.

Grilling the Cauliflower Steak

I flipped the steaks part way through, and used a fork to test the softness.

I decided to go for high heat, with the lid of the BBQ down. That’s because I like cauliflower when slightly charred or browned, which gives it a slightly nutty flavour.

I flipped the steaks part way through, and used a fork to test the softness. I like cauliflower on the firm side.

Serving Cauliflower Steak

These were whopping big steaks…nearly as big as our dinner plates, and probably more cauliflower than even the most ardent health-food nut eats in a week.

So I sliced the steaks in half, down the middle, before putting them on a serving platter.

And one other thought: Put steak knives out with your table setting. The main rib can be hard to cut if your cauliflower is on the firm side.

Cauliflower Steak FAQ

What if I don’t have a sugar substitute?

Unless you’re on a special diet, just use brown sugar. That’s what I usually use in my Korean-style marinades.

Can I use purple cauliflower?

I’ve never tried that, but I think it’s an awesome idea. Try the yellow cauliflower too.

Can I cook cauliflower steak in the oven?

Why not? I love to dry-cook cauliflower in the oven at a high temperature so that it browns and develops a nutty flavour. Just do the same thing with a steak. Put it on a baking sheet, at a high temperature, around 425°F (220°C)

More Ideas

Here are more cooking ideas, and more information on growing your yuzu in a cold climate. Grow a potted yuzu tree the same way you would a lemon tree.