Welcome to our short season cold climate garden in Alberta, Canada. Whether you're scratching your head over which varieties to pick or trying to stretch out that precious growing time, we've got your back with some down-to-earth tips and tricks. And hey, it's not just about the plants - it's about building a tight-knit community of fellow gardeners. We're all in this together, sharing our stories, cheering each other on, and growing together, one season at a time.
Hey, so sorry for the late reply. We are doing great, I’ve just returned to work full time and unfortunately the garden had gotten quite neglected. I do plan on doing a video soon, showing the successes and failures in the garden this year :) thank you for reaching out, hope you are doing great as well!!
Very few people point out that the indigenous tree sisters was a plant and forget it crop. All was harvested in the fall when the corn and beans were dry.
Which beans and corn did you end up planting? I’m planning for next year’s garden and I’m not certain which seeds to get. Also, what do you do with all the squash you end up with a the end of the year?
Just a little advice on the Basil , if you pick below the flower at where it branches out, the basil will continue to grow and be more bushy. You can use the leaves that you pick off in the meantime.
Yes, we are trying the no-till method. The boxes are for the walkways. The cardboard holds the beds in place as they get established and prevent the weeds (theoretically, lol). They will break down but the plan is to fill them with wood chips so you won't see any cardboard, just wood chip paths :)
Wow your garden is thriving despite the really cold spring we had. My garden Is so behind and peppers are producing peppers but ther are really small. I have already picked a few peppers but with this heat they are starting to look much happier so I'm hoping they will grow bigger. My onion I was worried about but I can now see them forming their bulbs which Is good. Lost most of Mt garlic and I'm pretty sure I will not be getting any Cucumber harvest again this year. It got up to 36 degrees on Wednesday and alot of my bush beans and tomatoes were burnt but they will recover. All the best for the rest of the season
The cool weather stuff really has done well this year. This heat wave has knocked them back but now the heat loving stuff will thrive hopefully. Sorry about your garlic, hopefully you can have more luck next year. I am just hoping for a late frost so I can get a cucumber harvest. That heat was very intense, glad we seem to be through the worst of it, at least for now. Best wishes for a great rest of the season for us :)
They have seemed slow, just starting to show signs of bulbing up now. The ones I planted first seem further behind than ones planted later, it's been a weird year.
After watching your video I raced out and scoured what was left in the stores for seed and I'll eat. Got 10 tendergreen bush bean plants germinated and growing direct seeded. First year gardening for me, thank you. I was just going to go with what I had.
That's awesome!! Fresh beans from the garden are one of my favourites (and so good pickled too). So great you are gardening, every year is a bit different and even the experts are still failing and learning. But also sooo rewarding, happy gardening :)
Yes they will grow through, usually by the time I am planting they are growing through the bottom. They do get wet, as long as you don't handle them when they are first watered they stay together nicely (I like to put them in the tinfoil trays so I can bottom water them, it works really well!).
Great video! We need more Zone 3 gardening tips. Quick question. Its my first season growing German Chamomile in Zone 3. Will it reseed itself the next year or should I start them indoors again? Im afraid its too short of a growing season for it to reach maturity and flower. Thanks
Thank you :) Yes it will reseed and have time to grow. I just did my first small harvest of chamomile from plants that reseeded from where it was growing last year!!
Actually the best compliment i get about my garden which is huge is ...........there's no weeds ! Personally i can't tolerate them and do my utmost to find each and everyone ........but i understand the point , if they don't bother you then don't bother
I do agree a well, weeded garden is very ascetically pleasing. Also then there is no competition for the plants you are growing. We are slowing changing things into no-till beds so I am trying to be very aggressive with weeding these next few years so they can stay no-till, lol :)
@@FiveCanadianAcres Honestly the no till idea has me confused ? I till my garden at least four times prior to planting and I till between the rows all summer , better root development and as i say ......imagine trying to sleep and someone keeps pestering you , eventually you give up .....i think it works on weeds , roots as well , keep disturbing them till the die off and become organic material ......not everyone's view i understand but if the ground is keep loose and light , better root development , better for water to get to where it's needed ?
Was looking at previous videos and this one caught my attention .I order seeds from all over North America and am reaching across the pond now into the UK and Russia etc as they have unique seeds and many have cold climate or short season varieties .I have found most seed companies or distributors in the USA will ship to Canada , I have and am placing another order with Baker for next year , but i have ordered from California , this year from Maine .............and most sell bulk or way more seeds per package then the ones here other then if an option is available but it's just on select veggies , and i try to have a fifty fifty split between flowers and veggies so bulk flower seeds saves me a bunch , Stocks this year i couldn't order from as they had some difficulties they said and were only selling to basically large companies / greenhouses .But i find most out of country sellers give more seeds and at a lesser price so even with the currency exchange it still makes sense .........and different varieties.....
I may have to expand my orders a bit more next year. I have ordered from Baker creek before, lot's of great options there. I have not ordered from overseas before, will have to check into that for next year. I would really love to expand my short season varieties, especially when adapted to the cooler weather too (some of my siberian tomatoes can really handle a lot more than the more tropical ones).
@@FiveCanadianAcres Northern Europe has a lot of cold short season varieties , It's figuring out the currency exchange etc that i need to figure out , but there are a few suppliers who sell the seeds
I always plant on the May long weekend or one week prior depending on the weather .Last year it was first week of may , this year i started on the May long and finished after a week and a few days , although i have a habit of buying seeds once i think i am done and then plant in June .But so far my Potatoes are blooming , tomatoes which i buy seedlings are also blooming along with the bought pepper plants .There have been some seeds which didn't grow so i reseeded them and they are all standing now .Here in Manitoba we seem to have rain every other day and the sunny days are not as warm as usual ,,.......had one day of plus 30 so one wants more sunny days .I alter my Romaine lettuce as one can only eat so much so those i plant a month apart so it's manageable .......all the rest has more then enough time usually to grow to full potential .But each year has it's difficulties , last year Hail took out my garden in July , this year it's rain and lack of sun but so far it's all doing fairly well
Sounds like a great plan!! It has been cool and rainy here in Alberta as well. But everything is growing well, just a bit slower for some. Looks like we may finally be getting some summer weather here soon!!
I spent 10 minutes searching for this video I had seen in my feed. I searched Fall Gardening Canada within the last week, but YT wouldn’t show it, gave me California videos instead lol. Thanks for sharing. I’m in SK and all the cool weather lettuces are still loving this weather. It seems all regular dates have gone out the windows this year so I am winging it! I hope you have a good bountiful summer 🌱
Glad you finally found it, I hate it when YT does that to me, lol. It has definitely been a different year this year, will be a record setting lettuce year for sure :) Thank you, hope you have a bountiful summer too!!
Good information! On a "normal" year, I may plant things like lettuce and Artic peas for a fall harvest, but because of when and how I plant, planting later maturing varieties with early maturing, is my version of fall gardening...lol. This year though, I just got the "spring" garden in on June 28th...lol...so I guess it is just a garden this year...lol.
That's a good way to fall garden, the different maturing varieties. Next year I want to try some longer maturing broccoli, to see if I can get some really big heads. With the year we are having it may just be spring all summer, lol. Your garden should thrive :)
I struggled to get carrots going this year so I am just going to keep seeding them wherever I can find space for the next couple weeks. Planning to start some more brassicas in pots in the house for fall crops and put them out late July. We keep swinging from dry and really hot to cool and very wet this year. Makes the pests happy but my seedlings are struggling.
Sounds like you have a good systems going there :) We are just starting to get some hot days here, which is needed as my peppers and tomatoes were struggling. Hopefully your seedlings can pull through with those pests!
Great video. Counting back from the first frost date is so important and so helpful And it’s amazing what you can grow twice in a season when you do this
@@FiveCanadianAcres 2 of broccoli .. impressive .. oh wait, that’s what the farmer does in the field behind my house!!! Ha .. putting two and two together .. sheesh!
I live here is zone 3 as well and have found that "Renegade" spinach really grows well in this area. It's my third year growing it and it's never bolted.
I plan to produce a system like this as well and its really interesting to see it in the works! Another thing i wonder is if adding rocks through the lines of water would send the water along.
I've seen some gardens use rocks to send the water somewhere but may not work in a raised bed 😅 Nonetheless, i would love to see and help veggies lessen their stress during heavy rains
Prairie Plantgirl tried one of my delicious early season tomato the Thourburg Terracotta and she loves it and has it on her repeat list for her coming season . Something you might like also as they only just a few days after Black Krim which is often a early to ripped tomato. I'm subscribed hopefully I'll learn a little more I'm Ohio 6a thanks for helping. I don't like my tomatoes less than our 50s degrees and peppers less than 60s they need heat more. Our longer season I prefer inderderment tomatoes but have both Thanks
I do have one of those planted :) I grew it last year and loved it too, such beautiful tomato and tasted great! I have the Black Krim as well. (I planted one more row after this video with all my coloured tomatoes). I will have to make note as they ripen this year, always trying for the earliest I can. We have had such cool temperatures this spring I am afraid my peppers and tomatoes are suffering. It's looking like we may finally start getting some heat by the end of this week, just hope things weren't stunted too much!
I plant my spinach no later than the middle of August. Usually there isn’t much fall harvest with it. The spinach overwinters in the garden and starts growing early in the spring. It is usually my first spring crop and I harvest it until it starts to bolt in June. I pull the plants in June and plant my hot weather vegetables. This is the only way that works for me. I am also in Alberta. I always plant chard in the spring for summer greens. Hope it will work for you.
I forgot to say the variety. Last summer I planted bloomsdale and seaside spinach. The bloomsdale bolted before the seaside spinach but it still did well this spring.
Put tyres around the tomoto plant, it will get protected with colder wind. The temperature will remain little hot ,it will work like blanket. You use tyres and then cover it with rubber tyres tubes. Keep adding tyres as per as need. Jay bharat.
We’re south east of Edm and I’ve noticed our trees and bushes have bloomed weird/randomly this year too. The lower branches on our apple tree bloomed all the way and the top ones are just starting… same for all our lilac bushes. The only one that gone crazy is our Saskatoon berry bush, which is in it’s third year and should give us a nice harvest now that I put netting around it to keep the magpies from eating them all! The cold spring has definitely delayed everything but the rain has been good after such a dry winter.
That is strange! Hope your saskatoons produce lots, we have some wild on our property and they seem to have bloomed well too. Also hope you managed to avoid that frost they were calling for, we escaped it here thankfully.
@@FiveCanadianAcres it’s the third year of our one lonely bush, lol. The birds have always gotten all of them the past few years but not this year! It has a ton of buds so I put netting around it! We didn’t get the frost in our area as we are in town but more north and west got it. It’s always windy here so that helps keep the frost away this late in the spring.
@@FiveCanadianAcres I think its actually a chard, but it tastes and looks like a spinach. I have grown it here in northern bc during the heat waves and it did not bolt it was pretty awesome.
