It is time to spray your Fruit Trees, Roses, and other or other deciduous shrubs with a dormant spray!

The dormant spray kit contains Lime Sulphur and Horticultural Oil. The Lime sulphur helps to prevent the spread of fungal spores while the horticultural oil helps to kill the eggs of insects. The sulphur and oil can be combined and sprayed at the same time. You can use any type of sprayer including trigger sprayers, pressure sprayer, or tank sprayers.

Your Fruit Trees, Roses, and other ornamental shrubs can be sprayed on a clear day when the temperatures are above zero celcius.

Come in today to pick up your kit and have it ready for the next clear day.

Choose from a fresh selection of Seeds

Our seed suppliers have started to ship us their new seeds for 2012. These fresh new seeds are ready to grow. Now is a great time to to start many of them in your home to be ready to plant in your garden when the warmer weather arrives in April and May. Most seeds can now be started indoors in a sunny window.

You can choose from the following seed companies:

• Pacific Northwest Seeds
• Renee’s Garden Seeds
• West Coast Seeds

Click here for our Seed Starting Brochure

Click here for the list of our 2012 West Coast Seeds

Click here for the list of our 2012 Renee’s Garden Seeds

Grow your own Garlic!

Vampires beware it’s time to plant garlic. Fall is a great time to plant your garlic crop for next year. Growing good garlic is fairly easy. If you just plant the cloves in the ground anytime between September and March and it will probably grow, but not very well. If you want to grow large, healthy bulbs, there is more to it. Click here to download our Garlic Growing Tips Information Brochure.

This year you can choose from ten different varieties of garlic, including three varieties of certified organic garlic. They include:

• Regular White – regular type of white garlic, has a mild flavor.
• Elephant - has large cloves but very mild flavor
• German Hardneck – A very nice strain for our northern climates. Great for roasting due to large cloves.
• Legacy - A rocambole type hard neck garlic produces 4 to 6 cloves in a large bulb. Has a strong, full flavour.
• Mexican Purple – This garlic has a hot flavour when raw, but becomes milder when baked
• Music - Music is large beautiful and a well-formed porcelain garlic. Its flavor is very rich and musky, strong and robust and sticks around for a while.
• Red - The standard of excellent flavor in rocambole garlic. This is a delightfully mild, full flavored, productive garlic that store very well, present a nice appearance and has an excellent raw flavor.
• Russian Red (Certified Organic) – A rocambole garlic with a rich, musky flavour and is very hot when eaten raw. Grows great in the northwest.
• Inchelium Red (Certified Organic) – An artichoke garlic with delightfully robust flavour. A large and healthy garlic to grow resistant to most diseases. It is a good for storing but still peels easily.
• Italian Porcelain (Certified Organic) – A hardneck type that produces large bulbs with easy-to-peel purple cloves that do wonders for Mediterranean cooking.

It is time to start Your Winter Vegetable Garden!

As the summer begins to wind down you should be thinking about growing winter vegetables. There are many vegetable that you can grow during a west coast winter. You can start many of the vegetables from seed like lettuce, carrots, radishes, and many others. You can also buy plants that are already growing like broccoli, cabbage, kale, and swiss chard. You can even plant herbs like Sage and Thyme now for a fall or winter harvest.

Enjoy the Bounty of Blueberries!

Blueberries are excellent plants for the home gardener, providing not only delicious fruit, but plants that have outstanding ornamental value as well. Blueberries are easy to grow, require little care and are seldom bothered by pests. Fruiting occurs from July to October depending on the variety. In winter, the leaves as well as the bark of the young branches turn glowing shades of yellows & reds.

For more information about the varieties of Blueberries that you can choose from and how to grow them click here.

Savour the Flavour of Fresh Herbs!

If you enjoy cooking with fresh herbs there is nothing more rewarding than a herb garden full of Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, and Basil to use in your culinary creations. There are many flavourful herbs that are easy to grow in your garden or in pots on your patio. In addition to being flavourful many of the herb are very aromatic and make an excellent addition to your garden. The beautiful blue flowers of rosemary are as ornamentally  beautiful as they are culinarily delicious. I can not imagine a garden without at least a few herbs.

You can choose from a broad range of herbs including:

• Basil
• Bay Leaf
• Cat Grass
• Chamomile
• Chives
• Cilantro/Coriander
• Curry
• Dill
• Lemon Verbena
• Oregano
• Parsley
• Majoram
• Mint
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Savory
• Stevia
• Thyme

Taste the flavour of home grown Tomatoes!

The weather is finally warm enough to start thinking about putting tomatoes outside in the garden. It is still recommended that you provide some protection from the cold night temperatures. You can do this by covering your tomatoes with plastic or a white cloth like our “Crop Cover” or “Frost Blanket”. When the night time low is above 10 degrees Celsius, or 50 degrees Fahrenheit, you can leave them uncovered.

Whether you are a seasoned tomato growing veteran or a new gardener here are a few tips to help you grow better tomatoes:

1. Tomatoes are heavy feeder, they are the teenage boys of the plant world. You should add manure and fertilizer to the soil before you plant.
2. When you plant the tomatoes plant them deeper as new roots will develop along the stem helping your plants grow faster and stronger.
3. Water regularly all summer, twice a week early in the season and daily during the summer months. Tomatoes that do not get regular water are more likely to develop diseases and are less likely to produce as much fruit.
4. Fertilize weekly with a water soluble fertilizer like Miracle Gro Tomato Food 18-18-21 or monthly with a granular fertilizer like Evegro’s Vegetable and Tomato Food 10-15-19.
5. Add Lime to your soil before you plant and every month during the growing season. Lime helps balance the pH and provides Calcium and Magnesium to the plants.

With so many varieties of Tomatoes to choose from here are a few varieties that perform well in our climate:

• Ball Extra Early – a medium sized tomato that produces early
• Beefsteak – one of the largest tomatoes with lots of meaty flesh
• Early Girl – a medium sized early producing variety
• Sungold – a golden cherry tomato
• Sweet 100 – an excellent small cherry tomato
• Sweet Million – a smaller version of the sweet 100 that produces an abundant crop
• Tumbler – a great cherry tomato for hanging baskets that produces all summer until frost

In addition to these varieties you can choose from a selection of heirloom varieties including:

• Bloody Butcher – a medium sized tomato that is great for slicing
• Brandywine Black – a large heirloom tomato
• Japanese Black Trifele – a medium sized mid season tomato
• Latah – an early producing medium sized tomato
• Nyagous – a medium to large early to mid season tomato
• Prudens Purple – a medium tomato great for slicing
• Red Striped Roman – a roma type oblong, full and sweet
• Super Snow White – a golden yellow cherry type tomato that is super sweet
• Thessaloniki – a large beefsteak type tomato
• Wapsinpinicon Peach – a golden yellow mid to late season medium sized tomato

Be sure to stake your tomatoes as they grow to give them support as the fruit matures. You can stake them up with a basic bamboo or cedar stake or buy a “Tomato Cage” that provides support for the leaves as well.

Grow Your Own Potato’s!

Potatoes are one of the easiest vegetables to grow yourself. They require a nice sunny location in rich fertile soil. You can plant them from March to May and harvest them from July to October. You can grow white, red or yellow varieties that are good for cooking, frying, boiling, or baking.  Choose from the following varieties:

• Banana – yellow skin and flesh, buttery taste, late harvest, finger shaped, high yield
• Bintje – yellow skin and flesh, late harvest, medium size with a high yield
• Caribe – purple skin with white flesh, early harvest, very large size, high yeild
• Carlita (Organic) – white skin and flesh, early harvest, good for boiling
• Cecile – red skin with yellow flesh, finger shaped,
• Chieftan – red skinn with white flesh, early harvest, medium size, good yield
• French Fingerling – red skin with yellow flesh, creamy taste, late harvest, good yield
• Innovator (Organic)
• Kennebec – white skin and flesh, mid/late harvest, very large, high yield
• Mozart (Organic) – Red skin with yellow flesh, mid season harvest
• Nicola – yellow skin and flesh, good for salads and boiling
• Norland – red skin with white flesh, early harvest, large size, high yeild
• Pacific Russet – russet skin and flesh, early harvest, medium size, good yield
• Pontiac – red skin with shite flesh, mid/late harvest, large size, high yield
• Russet Burbanks – russet skin and flesh, late harvest, medium size, good yield
• Russian Blue – blue-purple skin and flesh, late harvest, medium size, high yield
• Seiglinde – golden skin and flesh, early harvest, medium size, very high yield
• Warba – white skin and flesh, early harvest, large size, high yield
• Yukon Gold - yellow skin and flesh, mid/late harvest, medium size, good yield

 

 

Photos courtesy of W&A Farms http://www.wafarms.ca/ 

There are many vegetables that can be started from seed at this time of year. Some can be planted directly outside. Others you should start indoors and transplant outside once the weather warms up. Some seeds that you can start outdoors now include Broad Beans and Radishes. Indoors you can start Celery, Leeks, Onions, and/or Parsley.

Some other things to do with the vegetable garden include:

• Spray your fruit trees with Lime Sulphur and Dormant Oil to prevent insect and fungus infections later in the season
• Clean up any dead or dying plants as they serve as food for insects
• Prepare your vegetable beds for spring planting by adding compost, manure, and/or lime
• Pick out seeds for the vegetables that you want to grow this summer