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Our gardening success

Cindy Chamandy
Horticulturalist

Growing your own garden, whether it’s an annual/perennial garden of your favourite flowers or a vegetable garden to feed
your family (and your soul!) can be so much more successful with just a little bit of planning.
Is the environment the right fit? Do your plants need full sun or partial shade? Do they prefer a wet boggy environment or
moderately moist soil? Do they require nutrient rich soil or are they happy with roadside gravel? All of these considerations
will greatly impact your success. When growing your own vegetables, nothing beats good, rich soil! By good soil, I mean,
soil that has good structure and lots of organic matter. The structure of soil is the clay, sand and silt composition. A certain
amount of each provides a varied particle size that supports water movement and root growth. Organic matter improves
soil structure if the mixture isn’t quite right. It helps clay soil with drainage and sandy soil with water retention. It also helps
to create air pockets for roots to grow into.
What kind of organic matter is best? I’m a big fan of all kinds of compost. Mushroom compost is a wonderful addition to your
gardens, but any kind of compost will do. If you make your own compost - even better! Our new veggie gardens are growing
in a mixture of topsoil, cow manure and mushroom compost and WOW are they growing fast!

In addition to having great soil there are a few other
considerations that might ensure a successful garden. A
perennial garden looks best when plants bloom at different
times throughout the season. Make sure to include plants
that bloom early in the season, mid season and late in the
season. A trick to remember - garden centres generally carry
plants that are in bloom (they look best to the consumer), so
try to visit once a month from spring to fall when shopping for
plants to get a variety of bloom times.
When planting vegetables, consider companion planting.
Some edibles grow better with a friend! Tomatoes prefer to
partner with basil, carrots and peppers. Beans grow well with
broccoli and cabbages. There are even some plants that are
beneficial to ALL of their friends. The flowers you find in our
veggie gardens are not only beautiful and delicious, but are
also helpful to their garden companions. Borage is one of
my favourite companion plants. It has fuzzy, blue star shaped
flowers that are mildly cucumber flavoured and helps deter
damaging pests. It attracts bees and wasps for pollinating
and also adds trace minerals to the soil. Now that’s a super-
plant! The nasturtiums that our chef has been adding to
so many delicious dishes deter many different pests in
the garden and they are known to improve the flavour of
tomatoes and cucumbers. The scent of marigold repels
tomato worms, slugs and other garden pests.

12 | BEAUTY, GRIT & GRACE