5 Easy Steps To Get Started
By Ava Green
There’s a common myth that you need a lot of space to grow vegetables, but whether you have a few containers, a small sunny corner, or a larger garden bed, there’s lots you can grow! Here in Norfolk County, which is Zone 6 in Southern Ontario, some vegetables can go in the ground as early as the beginning of May, while many others are usually safe to plant around the May 24th weekend, once the risk of frost has passed. Here are five simple steps to get you growing your own food this season if you’re new to vegetable gardening.
Step 1: Decide What You’d Love To Grow
Start with a list of the vegetables you actually want to eat. Coming into Eising Garden Centre with a list in hand makes choosing plants so much easier! When building your list, consider:
- Vegetables you love
- High-value vegetables, the ones that are expensive at the grocery store but easy and economical to grow yourself
- Anything that tastes better when it’s freshly picked, like tomatoes, cucumbers, and fresh herbs
Step 2: Make a Simple Plan
You don’t need an elaborate design; a rough sketch on a scrap of paper is just fine. The goal is simply to get a sense of your space and where things will go before you start digging. We recommend starting a garden notebook or journal to track what you plant each year and how it performs. It will be especially helpful next spring!! A few planning tips to keep in mind:
- Most heat-loving vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, eggplant and beans, need at least six hours of sun per day
- Cool-weather and shade-tolerant crops like lettuce, chard, kale, radishes, and beets do well with just three to four hours of sun
- Spacing in a vegetable garden can be much tighter than in other types of gardens. Less empty space means fewer weeds and bigger harvests. Square foot gardening is an excellent method to explore
- Layer your garden beds with plants that are great companions. For example, basil and marigolds planted beside tomatoes are said to improve flavour and repel pests. Carrot and beet seeds tucked in beside and between your lettuce plants (which are a cool-weather crop) are a smart pairing; as your lettuce finishes in the summer heat, your carrots and beets will be sprouting up to take their place. This is referred to as succession planting and optimizes the space in your garden
- Make use of vertical space with poles or trellises for peas, pole beans and cucumbers
- Tuck herbs into any gaps between your vegetables; they’re useful, beautiful, and most pollinators love them
Step 3: Prepare Your Space
Once you’ve chosen a spot with enough light, it’s time to get the soil ready:
- Remove any sod or weeds before planting. If you’d rather not dig, the No Dig gardening method uses a layer of cardboard as the base for the new bed. This suppresses weeds naturally and breaks down into the soil over time
- Add a good-quality compost to your soil by either spreading a layer across the top of the garden bed or scooping some into each plant hole
- For container gardening, almost any container works, just make sure it’s deep and wide enough for the mature size of your plants. Also, drainage holes are a must! Fill containers with a soilless mix containing compost, peat moss or a peat alternative, and one of the following: sand, vermiculite, or perlite. Avoid using garden soil, triple mix, or topsoil in containers, as they compact easily and will restrict root growth. Learn more about soil mixes, amendments, and fertilizers here
Step 4: Water and Feed Consistently
Consistent watering and feeding are the foundation of a productive vegetable garden:
- Vegetables need regular, reliable watering. Inconsistent moisture leads to stressed plants and poor yields
- Always water the soil, not the leaves. Plant roots take in water, and wet foliage can invite disease. Water deeply so moisture reaches the roots. Use your fingers to check how far down the water has penetrated into the soil
- Containers dry out faster than garden beds and will need more frequent attention
- Morning is the best time to water. If your plants are struggling on a particularly hot afternoon, a second watering is fine. Just be sure to aim at the base of the plant and avoid the foliage, which can scorch in direct sun
- Feed with organic fertilizers throughout the season to keep your plants healthy and productive. Follow the package instructions for the product you choose
Step 5: Plant Flowers for Your Pollinators
A vegetable garden without pollinators is a garden that won’t reach its full potential. Attracting bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects to your garden is one of the best things you can do for your harvest. Some of our favourite pollinator-friendly flowers for the vegetable garden include marigold, calendula, nasturtium, borage, sunflowers and culinary lavender. As a bonus, most of these are edible, so they earn their space twice over.
It’s Time
Starting a vegetable garden is one of the most rewarding things you can do with an outdoor space. There’s a quiet satisfaction in growing something from seed or a seedling and bringing it to your own table.
Start simple, grow what you love and don’t be afraid to learn as you go.
The team at Eising Garden Centre is always happy to help you choose the right plants for your space and answer any questions along the way. This could be the season that changes the way you think about your garden!
Resources:
Why Use a Garden Journal?: https://eising.ca/why-use-a-garden-journal/
Square Foot Gardening: https://www.almanac.com/planning-square-foot-garden-grow-more-less-space
Fertilizers & Soil Amendments: https://eising.ca/fertilizers-soil-amendments/
Companion Planting: https://eising.ca/companion-planting-with-herbs/ and https://eising.ca/incorporating-vegetables-into-your-garden/
Optimizing the Gardening Season: https://eising.ca/optimizing-the-gardening-season/
No Dig Gardening Method: https://charlesdowding.co.uk/blogs/no-dig-resources/beginners-guide
Reading Plant Tags: https://eising.ca/full-sun-part-shade-what-do-plant-tags-actually-mean/
Growing Vegetables in Pots: https://eising.ca/planters-are-for-more-than-flowers/
What’s the best way to brighten up your garden? Add lots of annual flowers in the Spring! Here in Southern Ontario, the May holiday weekend is usually safe from frost - and go time for planting tender annuals!
At Eising Garden Centre, you’ll find a wide array of beautiful annual blooms. Here are ten of our sun-loving favourites to try.
Cosmos
With daisy-like blooms in radiant shades of pink, red, and pure white adorned with mellow yellow centres—Cosmos are irresistible. They're perfect planted along a fence or at the back of a border, where they can lean on a little support. Depending on the variety, Cosmos can grow anywhere from 12 to 80 inches tall!
Zinnia
Bold, structured, and bursting with colour, Zinnias bring serious wow factor. Their cheerful blooms come in red, green, orange, yellow, purple, pink, and white. Depending on the variety, Zinnias grow between 6 and 36 inches tall and spread about 12 inches wide.
Calendula
Decorative and useful, Calendulas are edible flowers with culinary and medicinal value. Their soothing, antiseptic properties make them popular beyond the garden. Calendula come in gorgeous, bright shades of copper, orange, gold, and yellow blooms and grow 10 to 24 inches tall.
Marigold
Tough and reliable, Marigolds handle heat and humidity with ease, thriving even in the driest parts of your garden. They offer a beautiful range of bloom types—from large, ruffled flowers to small, delicate blossoms—and a palette of cream, yellow, orange, red, and bi-colours. Depending on the variety, Marigolds can grow from 6 to 36 inches tall.
Amaranth
If you're after drama, Amaranth is your plant! Reaching heights of 3 to 5 feet, these bold beauties flaunt long, rope-like clusters of maroon or red flowers. While low-maintenance, Amaranths may need a bit of support to stay upright as they mature.
Portulaca
Perfect for hot, dry, and neglected spots, Portulacas deliver a brilliant show of colour with minimal effort. Their rose-like blooms come in vivid shades of red, pink, yellow, white, orange, and purple. Low-growing at just 4 to 8 inches tall, they're ideal for the front of borders, or alongside driveways, and patios.
Salvia
With tall spikes of bold purple, red, blue, pink, or white blooms, Salvias are garden standouts. Growing 8 to 24 inches tall and often blooming continuously, they quickly become must-haves for flower beds or large containers.
Geranium
Drought-tolerant and tough as nails, Geraniums have long been a gardener’s favourite. Regular deadheading (removing spent blooms) will reward you with non-stop flowers until frost. Their lush foliage and bright flowers—ranging from salmon, white, purple, violet, and orange to red and pink—also shine in mixed containers. Geraniums typically grow between 8 and 24 inches tall.
Petunia
It’s no surprise Petunias have remained beloved for generations. They grow quickly, bloom prolifically, and require little care. Available in mounding or trailing forms—and sometimes carrying a heavenly scent—Petunias are perfect for flower beds, hanging baskets, pots, or window boxes. Growing 6 to 18 inches tall, they come in white, yellow, pink, purple, red, bi-colours, and even black!
Dahlia
Dahlias can become a full-on passion project—and it’s easy to see why. Their breathtaking blooms come in a stunning range of sizes, shapes, and colours. While Dahlias can be a bit particular (they love rich, well-drained soil and plenty of water, but hate soggy conditions), they are absolutely worth the extra attention.
Sunshine + Food + Hydration = Success
All of these annuals thrive in full sun and will reward you with even more blooms when given consistent water and fertilizer.
Adding a continuous-release fertilizer to your soil at planting time—or feeding weekly with a balanced, water-soluble fertilizer—makes it easy to keep your garden thriving all summer long!
*TIP: Check our handy Plant Finder for more details! https://plants.eising.ca/11110015/
Growing Vegetables in Pots!
A few years ago, I was walking through town with a friend as we discussed planting vegetables in our tiny front gardens. It seemed like an unusual idea until we spotted not one but two front gardens with pumpkin vines rambling amongst the shrubbery. What a novel way to cover the ground without mulch and have the bonus of showy, bright blossoms and bold foliage! Of course, this is eventually followed by the standout feature of brightly coloured pumpkins. It’s built-in fall decorating!
Right now, everyone is looking for ways to reduce grocery bills, and growing a few vegetables amongst the flowers and shrubs can make a big difference. If your garden is on a patio or balcony, there are lots of ways to add edible plants to maximize your space and beautify it at the same time. Who says vegetables can’t be ornamental and beautiful?!
Gaps and Small Spaces
If you have a new shrub and flower garden that has gaps or there’s a space in your garden where you’re not sure what to plant, consider tucking in a potted vegetable. In a cool, shady space, try some luscious lettuce bowls. Shade allows lettuce to grow more slowly in the heat of the summer. Keeping lettuce in a cool, shady spot will prevent it from bolting and becoming bitter.
If you have a small garden, a patio or a balcony, pots with compact varieties and hanging baskets are a terrific alternative for growing vegetables, herbs, and some fruits. These are some of the options we offer at Eising Garden Centre (based on availability) that can be purchased fully planted, or you can grow your own from seed if you have time, space and lights.
Trellised Planters and Patio Pots
For patios, balconies, or even a gap in the garden, there are lots of vegetables that can be grown in a trellised planter.
Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and eggplant all love warm soil and growing in pots provides the heat to help them thrive. Eising trellis pots are planted with specific varieties that are smaller but pack a flavourful punch.
Sweet Snackabelle, Candycane Chocolate Cherry or Red, Mocha Swirl and Fresh Bites peppers.
Little Sicily, Patio Hybrid, Candyland Red, Rapunzel and Tidy Treats tomatoes.
Eising Greenhouse also carries eggplants in trellised pots - a patio pot with Patio Baby eggplants is a perfect choice if ratatouille is on the menu!
All of Eising's trellised planters would look lovely plopped into one of our decorative outdoor cover pots!
Herb Planters
Many herbs thrive in a sunny and warm spot with well-drained soil, making a pot the perfect container for them. Herbs also make great companion plants with other vegetables and can be tucked into other pots. Most herbs also love to be harvested frequently, especially when they’re given these ideal conditions.
Lettuce Bowls
Lettuce bowls are a great way to grow greens in small spaces. Our 10” bowls are chock full of a variety of lettuces and are never boring!
👍Tip: Try the “cut and come again” method for harvesting lettuce, which prolongs the plant’s life. Simply pinch off the outer, mature leaves each time you pick the lettuce and leave the centre of the plant to keep growing.
Hanging Baskets
If there’s a spot to hang a basket or place a shepherd’s hook, you will want to grow one of the edible options we offer.
Topsy Tom tomatoes.
Pot-a-Peno and Peppers From Heaven peppers.
Tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries are all available in hanging baskets. Our deliciously sweet everbearing strawberries are also available in 4.5" pots and bareroot, which are great options for window boxes.
👍Tip: Pick strawberries as they ripen to encourage your plants to produce more. Also, remove runners as they grow to allow your plants to send energy into growing fruit instead of bigger plants. Painting rocks to look like strawberries is said to deter birds from feasting on ripe berries.
Citrus and Figs
Consider growing a beautiful and fragrant lemon, orange, fig or grapefruit tree in a patio pot. Just keep in mind that it will need to come indoors in the fall.
Container Plant Care
Whether you’re growing edible plants in the garden, a pot or a hanging basket, don’t forget to give them the care they need to maximize productivity:
- Water regularly, deeply and in the heat of the summer, frequently. Watering early in the morning is ideal. Pour water on the soil, not the foliage to prevent diseases like powdery mildew.
- Feed your vegetables and fruits throughout the growing season with fertilizer or compost.
- Remove dead foliage and prune plants as needed. Especially herbs.
Once you start foodscaping by including vegetables with your flowers and ornamental plants we’re sure you’ll want to keep looking for innovative ways to grow your own food! Who knows, maybe even pumpkins by the front porch!