3 Things to Prepare for Spring in YEG

Here we are in March 2022 in Edmonton, perched at the precipice of winter and spring and WOWIE!!! has it been a long and snowy one!

As COVID restrictions seem to lift, the collective sighs a breath of unmasked CO2 and dreams about the possibilities that await the warm season ahead.

Some of us dream about sports, and outdoor gatherings and others like myself, dream about the garden. If you like veggie gardening or are new to it and want to get started, here is a list of things you can do RIGHT NOW to help you prepare for the spring and get your idle, chapped, germ filled, frost bitten hands moving again...;)

1. Design your garden and decide what you want to grow

Even if you only spend 20 minutes writing a list and sketching up a little drawing, make sure you know what you want to grow and then do a little bit of research to see what needs to be started indoors. Some plants need to be started in late March to be ready for transplanting in May (usually May long weekend). Having a rough diagram of your plot(s) and planning out where you want to plant things will help greatly in knowing what can fit where and how many plants/seeds you will actually need. Wastage is a thing and too many plants can be a waste if you have no one to take your leftover veggie orphans. Look at last years plot design to see what did well where and make sure to rotate your crops. If this is your first year growing, congrats! Just make something up to your best knowledge and try it out! Gardening is always an experiment even for the most experienced gardener. If you can, try to log what did well and use that knowledge for the next season. Also ask your green thumb friends or family what they are growing. Maybe you can trade during harvest time so you wont feel the need to grow everything. If they pushed a ton of zucchinis on you last August maybe don't grow any yourself. Your friends will thank you for taking in their extras.

2. Set up your indoor grow area

This can be as simple as commandeering a south facing window or as complex as getting shelving and grow lights etc. I purchase one grow light per year and grow my collection slowly over time. Asking a friend to let you commandeer their window (as well), may also be an option. You can also opt to barter with a friend for those tomatoes and pepper plants.

Yet another option is to only plant things that can be directly sewn in the soil. Often times, a simple garden done well ( and within your time/energy budget) is better than nothing at all.

3. Create the right soil conditions for your babies.

I want to take this time to talk about work composting and how fun and rewarding it can be.

Worm composting to put it simply is taking the red wiggler worm ( a species of exotic warm weather worms that eat a lot faster than our cold weather kind), putting it in a box with holes in it, placing it in a dark safe location in your home and feeding them so that they make rich organic compost (called worm castings) for you to use during germination and seedling phase of your garden. With work castings, you can amend some crappy used potting soil and use that to grow your seedlings with out spending any money really. Its rewarding because your using your food scraps to feed the worms and ultimately feed your food! Its debatable weather or not you should add worm castings to your garden soil unless you can be certain that there are no left over eggs or worms in your castings.

Here is a link to some tips on garden design, indoor growing, and soil:

http://www.wildgreen.ca/videos.html

This link will take you to my friend Claudia Bolli who is an amazing resource for gardening in Alberta as well.

Have fun gardening friends!