Creating a Foraging Garden
You can start by making use of not only the back but your front yard as well. And if you are in an apartment or shared home where you don’t have access to a yard I would suggest checking to see if there is a community garden in your neighbourhood or look into renting a garden plot this is very common as well. The wonderful thing about that type of situation is you’ll likely meet some other avid gardeners who are willing to share all kinds of knowledge with you!! A definite perk!
So, let's just go with the idea that you are expanding your garden in the city. Where you live determines everything that you can grow so you will need to know what zone you live in that is easily figured out by a quick google search, but I am attaching a chart here for easy reference.
Once you have determined your zone, make a list of all the things you want to grow, once you have done that then you can easily determine if what you want will grow in your zone. For example, I am in a zone 3 and as much as I would love to have a cherry, and peach tree in my back yard our winters are just to cold and growing season not long or hot enough, so I will always be buying this type of thing from the farmers market or in the grocery store. However! Our wonderful friends to the east at the university of Saskatchewan are breeding some types of these fruits to hardiness that can tolerate our climate in fact I planted three different types of these cherry bushes last year to see how they hold up!
Ok so I’ve gotten slightly off track, now that you have determined from your list what will grow in your area it’s time to hit the garden centre for some seeds, and or started seedlings, in a cooler climate such as mine many things do better start from seedlings such as corn, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes. I always do my root vegetables from seed. Once you have a season under your belt you can start all your plants on your own indoors and then transfer your seedlings on or after the may long weekend which is the rule of thumb for this zone.
Getting the soil ready- what’s your soil like? You want a rich dark soil if possible and you will want to rototill it to loosen and prepare. If you don’t have the best soil, say it hard or a bit clayey you will want to get some good compost into that. You can buy it at the garden centre but lots of cities have a great compost program and you can often go pickup a truckload from the city for free!! Once you have that mixed in and now is a good time to add some fertilizer as well you are ready to plant. Some vegetables require more sun than others so layout your plant types accordingly this is always specified on the back of the seed packet as well as seed spacing and planting depth. Southern exposure in Zone 3 is a must. Now don’t forget, much of gardening is trial and error and weirdly one-year somethings will do amazing and others not and the next it can be the other way around with no real rhyme or reason. So don’t beat yourself up for any failures and don’t stop trying!
So don’t beat yourself up for any failures and don’t stop trying!When you are planning your garden don’t stop at vegetables! I like to plant what I refer to as a foraging garden. I want to and want my family to be able sample all kinds of things when they are in the garden, so consider berries there are all kinds of them! However, remember that berries are perennials so you will need to plant them in a spot that is permanent. Some grow on bushes and lots of fruit grows on trees so I would encourage you to plant these instead of just leafy trees. Plant a cut garden of beautiful flowers to bring in fresh bouquets! This way you can utilize the entire yard front, and back and not only will it look beautiful but you will be harvesting all kinds of yummy goodness throughout the growing season!!
Let’s get planting Sista’s
Much Love, A. xo
