Get Out of My Garden, You Sucker!!

As your tomato plant is growing you have to keep an eye out for suckers...which are not bugs but small branches that are trying to join from an existing branch.  So, how do you find a sucker? Here is a picture of one.

Suckers suck the energy out of the plant therefore taking the nutrients away from the plant. The best way to get rid of it is to pinch or snap it off.  It allows the plant to grow taller and produce more tomatos which are better tasting!

See you next Sunday!

Happy Gardening...The Green Gourmet Gardens Team!

Janice

Happy Mothers Day!

We are starting early to plant our gardens because the weather forecast looks fabulous.  If we do get frost over the next few weeks, here are a few tips to protect your garden.

• If you have empty plastic milk jugs hanging around your garage, you can cut the bottoms and place them over your plants.  This will create a mini green house and protect your plants against frost.
• You can also use a card board box...open the lid during the day to let the sunlight in and close it at night to protect the plants from frost.
• Best method of all is using floating row covers that are available at any garden centre.  They come in rolls usually about 4 or 5 feet wide and they come in various thicknesses depending upon what you are looking for. You roll it over the garden and hold it down with rocks.  It will allow sunlight and water to get through, retains heat and keeps bugs out.  Don't use clear plastic covers because they allow the heat to escape.

See you next Sunday!

Happy Gardening!

The Green Gourmet Gardens Team

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May has finally arrived...yeh!!  The long weekend is rapidly approaching.  Are you ready to plant a  garden?  Do not hesitate to buy a garden today...call us and we will build it and deliver it by the long weekend in May!  Please visit our site for the benefits of raised bed gardening  http://greengourmetgardens.ca/

If you are too busy right now to plant seeds then don't worry you can purchase your plants into June from a garden centre.  Garden centres are offering a wider variety of vegetable and herb plants because more and more people are interested in planting their own garden. The cost benefit ratio is remarkable! As an example a tomato seed costs approximately $.02 cents and nursery stock $2.00 and one plant could produce a crop of 20 or more tomatoes.  Who said that healthly eating is expensive! Most grocery stores are purchasing mass produced genetically altered vegetables that are grown for quantity and not taste.  Just think, you can grow your own vegetables for taste. Now, that makes good shopping sense!

Happy Gardening!

The Green Gourmet Gardens Team

First of all thank you to all who are viewing our blog, we hope you find it helpful!

Start giving some thought to what you would like to plant in your garden.  We are always tempted to buy alot of plants and packages of seeds when we arrive at a garden centre however it is better to make your "grocery list" prior to shopping.  Think about trying 2 to 3 new varieties this year so that you can experiment and see how they grow.  When you are buying package seeds, remember the seed packet will last approximately 3 years so don't throw them away if you don't use them all.  Most seed packages will give you instructions on spacing and depth.  We do recommend that you still follow the square foot gardening principles and plant seeds according to the space available in your square foot garden.  We are a big fan of the author Mel Bartholomew who is an expert in square foot gardening.  Visit your local book store or library to read a few of his books.  Square foot gardening allows you to get a greater harvest in far less space.

Stay tuned to our blog next Sunday!

Happy Gardening!

The Green Gourmet Gardens Team

Here are some watering tips for your garden!

Depending upon how much rain we get, we do recommend that you water 2 to 3 times per week.  The soil shouldn't have too much moisture because you could potentially rot the root system of the plants.  A good way to check to see how much moisture is in the soil is by sticking your finger a few centimetres into the soil (not your hand!).  If your finger comes way damp, leave the soil be and if it comes away dry, then water.  Just don't sprinkle your garden with water but soak it.  By soaking it you stimulate deeper root growth.  We recommend watering at night.  Remember that transplants and seeds require more attention to how much water compared to mature plants. 

Happy Gardening!

The Green Gourmet Gardens Team

Time to get growing! April is the month to get excited about growing your own veggies and herbs. The weather forecast in Ontario looks good so here's to a great growing season!

Once you have your raised bed garden from Green Gourmet Gardens, fill with 1/3 compost (for nutrients), 1/3 peat moss (for moisture retention) and 1/3 coarse vermiculite (for moisture retention and aeration) measured by volume and not weight.  The reason why we recommend this mix is because it holds moisture in raised bed gardens. For any existing gardens once you have the mix, every spring add more compost. 

The next step would be to section off your garden into one foot squares.  We use either household string or garden twine to mark off the one foot squares.  The following is an example.

Once your garden is set-up, April is a great month to seed for the following vegetables; lettuce, spinach, green garlic, salad greens, radishes, green onions and peas.  These vegetables can tolerate frost and even a little snow.......and hopefully the snow is gone!  Essentially, they prefer cooler temperatures.

Follow our gardening blogs every Sunday for our garden advice!

We would like to send out a special thank you to all our customers!  We are starting our deliveries this week. 

Happy Gardening!

The Green Gourmet Gardens Team

Gardening is supposed to be fun and trust us it isn't rocket science!  At Green Gourmet Gardens we don't  believe that you have to have a green thumb to garden...you just need a garden.  We build  customized and standard sized raised bed gardens out of western red cedar.  Why cedar?  It lasts longer and it is echo friendly.  They plant 5 trees for every tree that they cut.  Food will taste better when you grow it yourself and think about how much you can save on your grocery bill!  Follow us and we will show you how easy it can be.  Every Sunday we are going to offer advice on raised bed gardening starting on April 15, 2012. Vist our website today to see our raised bed gardens..built any shape or size and we will deliver.

Happy to be gardening!

 The team at Green Gourmet Gardens
  http://www.greengourmetgardens.com/tips.html

Getting your kids to help you grow your garden is one of the best ways to get your kids eating their veggies! Gardening is also a great way to educate children about saving the environment. There is a great book for kids 3 to 10 years old called Kids Gardening by Tina Forrester. The book covers basic soil preparation, seed-starting and detailed instructions for growing vegetables. The projects in the book are simple and fun and will definitely get your kids interested in growing their own garden!