Vegetables

Potatoes are easy to grow at home. Imagine being able to harvest “new” potatoes in the spring and early summer to eat with homegrown green beans! Mature potatoes can be stored so that you and your family can enjoy them for many months. Even if you don’t plant to fill your hall closet with potatoes, it’s still fun to grow a few plants, if only to experience the novelty of digging up your dinner. Here’s how to grow potatoes. Where to Buy Potatoes for Home Growing It is essential to start with certified disease-free seed potatoes. These are available at home improvement, farm, and garden centers, and can also be ordered online. It’s not usually a good idea to plant potatoes from the grocery store, as they’ve usually been treated so that they won’t sprout on the shelves (and you want them to sprout). When to Plant Potatoes Potatoes grow best during cooler weather. Plant potatoes 2-4 weeks before the last frost in the spring, when the soil temperature is at leas...

Turnips  are cool-weather vegetables that can be grown both in spring and fall, avoiding the hot summer months. They mature very rapidly and you can enjoy both the greens and the roots. Try this ancient root vegetable that’s been grown for over 3,000 years. Turnips are hardy biennials usually grown as annuals by the home gardener. We enjoy them most as an autumn crop, seeded in late summer, because they are usually sweeter and more tender than spring crops—and pests are less problematic. What’s wonderful about turnips is that they germinate in only a few days. Within a month, you can enjoy their bright greens, and within a second month, you can eat the swollen roots. Try them as a substitute for potatoes. PLANTING When to Seed For a late spring harvest, sow turnip seeds directly in the garden as soon as the ground is workable, usually 2 to 3 weeks before the average last frost date.  For an autumn harv...

Buying garlic that's not from China can be a challenge. Our domestic garlic industry has never recovered toits pre-1997 state, before the Canadian International Trade Tribunal found China was dumping its cheaper garlic in Canada. These days, domestic garlic production has become a "cottage industry," says Jim Brandle, chief executive of the non-profit Vineland Research and Innovation Centre near St. Catharines, Ont. And in spite of increasing consumer demand for locally grown produce, farmers are still reluctant to ramp up the supply.That may explain why your local farmers' market is constantly running out of the stuff. But don't despair. Gardening expert Mark Macdonald of the organic gardening store West Coast Seeds in Ladner, B.C., explains how to grow your own: Selecting There are two types of garlic: soft-neck garlic, the shipping-friendly kind typically found in grocery stores, and hard-neck garlic, that's commonly sold at farmers' markets, si...

In Ontario, garlic, a cool-season crop, is planted in the fall and harvested the following summer. This Factsheet provides information on the types of garlic grown in Ontario, garlic production from planting to storage, and pest control and weed management. Garlic (Allium sativum) belongs to the Alliaceae family, the same family as onions, shallots and leeks. The majority of Ontario-grown garlic is sold to the fresh market as whole, fresh bulbs, green garlic or scapes. Processed products such as garlic spreads or chopped garlic are also sold, but to a lesser extent. Types There are two types of garlic grown in Ontario - hardneck and softneck. Hardneck varieties (Allium sativum var. ophioscorodon) bolt during late spring/early summer, producing a tall, flower stalk or scape (Figure 1). Bulbils, which are small aerial cloves, are produced at the tip of scapes in place of a true flower. There is considerable variability in the size and number of bulbils produced by hardneck garlic....

While he always admired his parents’ agricultural lifestyle, 32-year-old Justin Smith readily admits he wanted to get away from the farm as soon as he was able. “I went to college in Ontario and then took a job in California upon graduating,” said the successful garlic producer. “It wasn’t until I got away from the farming world that I gained a new perspective about it. I began to be inspired to return to that way of living. “I met my wife (Corey) while I was living out west and together we decided to move back to Nova Scotia and try our hand at farming.” Although he had no formal agricultural education, he obtained a degree in geology and worked in that field for five years. Today, in addition to the garlic operation, he also works as a sales representative in the sporting goods industry to supplement the income from their farming pursuits. The garlic is grown on his parents’ land, with commercial sales of the product beginning five years ago. They operate under the pare...