Yum … Planning for Year-Round Veggie Harvests
It can be hard to change a habit or a mindset, even for gardeners. Take, for example, growing vegetables. This is an activity typically associated with spring and summer, but it need not – indeed, it should not – be limited to two seasons.
Fall and winter veggie gardens can be equally rewarding, if not more so. They offer up freshly harvested produce during months when it’s not readily available. As a bonus, they provide us with a certain, if modest, sense of achievement. That said, what is more satisfying than serving oh-so-fresh, home-grown veggies to winter visitors from ‘away’? It’s great food for the body as well as the (smug?) Vancouver Island soul.
We are so lucky to be living in a place where good planning makes it possible to harvest produce from our gardens during every month of the year. The key word here is “planning.” Knowing when to sow seeds is important, but it is just as crucial to know when and how to transition from one crop to another.
It is also important to remember that successful vegetable gardening in any and every season depends on starting from the ground up. In other words, the healthier the soil, the better the crop and the greater the productivity.
This doesn’t mean that you need a backyard to have a productive garden. Allotment spaces, containers on balconies and patios, window boxes, walkway borders, vertical options such as wall trellises and pallet gardens – all of these will work just fine.
This month the Sooke Garden Club is focusing on “Planning Your Year-round Veggie Garden.” Kayla Siefried, site manager and community education coordinator at the Compost Education Centre in Victoria, is the featured speaker. She will discuss the basics of gardening in our specific climactic region and demonstrate ways to care for the soil and plan for growing year round. She will also offer suggestions for protecting crops in winter and touch on the issue of pests and diseases.
Kayla Siefried practices organic gardening and permaculture both at work and in her urban backyard. Her knowledge comes both from her formal education/training (environmental studies, permaculture, gardening) and from living and working on permaculture-inspired food-growing farms in Canada, Australia, Ecuador, and Cambodia. Her activism comes from the importance she places on advocating for and living an environmentally sustainable life.
Join us on Wednesday, March 27, 7 p.m., at St. Rose of Lima Church on Townsend Road. A parlour show is on the agenda, and contest potatoes will be available. New members are always welcome. Questions? Email us at sookegc@gmail.com.