In the Montreal Regions
May 17, 2020
This being the long weekend in May, means it's planting time again. Traditionally at least. I'm afraid though, my planting hasn't started at all. I did venture out to our local Canadian Tire and Maxi outdoor nurseries (where I go every year) to buy some vegetables to plant. When I got to them though there were hardly any veggies left (but looking at the spaces there, I question whether they had very many to begin with). Mostly they were selling flowers, so I bought of few those - perennials so that once they're planted they're planted and will regrow year after year (hopefully, though the ones I planted last year aren't showing any signs of existence this year, so I don't know what to think).
I did manage to get 6 tomato plants (all the same variety - usually I have 6-10 tomato plants each year but all different varieties, got one variety and don't ask for more because they didn't have any). Same with lettuce. Yeah, I have seeds and might plant some of those as well, but these were small leaf lettuce plants, which looks like we might actually get some lettuce out of them unlike the seeds I planted in the last couple of years. I also got a pot with 4 cucumber plants in it. So if all goes well we have our basic salad veggies covered. As we generally have a soup or salad with every meal, it'll be nice if the basic salad veggies grow as per expectations.
Otherwise a got a couple of herb plants - a Russian Tarragon plant (the one I had before just keeled over on me before I managed to do anything with it, a few years ago) and a curry plant. Mmmmm it smells like curry.... Until yesterday I always thought curry was a blend of spices put together to taste that way, I didn't even know a curry plant existed. See? They say you learn something new everyday. Well that must've been my "something new" yesterday! I just wish these plants like the curry, tarragon and other plants that I've grown in the past like sage and rosemary were all perennials. The only ones that seems to be in this region are chives and dill. Maybe there's others but I'm not aware of them, except for mint and that grows like a bad weed basically.
I plan on going back tomorrow to see if any of them restocked with vegetable plants and if so what and see what I can pick up then. Depending on what I am able to get might dictate how extensive my gardens are this year. At first I didn't want to plant anything, but then I thought, well I went to a lot of work to lay that Weed Matting (How to Lay it Down Video Here) and planted a variety of perennial plants in and around it - some of which are coming back and showing already, like the chives, strawberries and grapes, and thought the rest of that matting would be wasted if I didn't use at least some of it. So since we eat a lot of salads, I figured if I could at least plant the base veggies for salads that would be good. But the whole thing hinged on whether I could get tomato plants or not. I did, but 6 of only one kind so they'd better be good tasting and good sized. As I've never been able to grow even one cucumber by seed and only via small seedlings transplanted into the garden, that was the second priority. So I got those and the tomato plants first and then happened upon the lettuce plants and the herbs afterwards. I'm hoping I can maybe get some spinach plants and collard greens as well. Maybe eggplant and pepper plants - don't know, because they don't seem to have a long enough growing season here to get very big. Kale grows like bad weeds for me, so might wind up planting more of that if none of it comes back up again where it was planted originally (it's supposed to be perennial too). The rest will be seeds for corn, beans, peas, carrots, zucchini, parsnip maybe beets. And if there's any space left over perhaps a potato plant or two. But that hinges on whether I can get some of the plants at Cdn Tire & Maxi, because if I can't then, it'll just be the basic salad veggies and the herbs, that I'll plant. We still have raspberries, rhubarb, strawberries, onions, chives, arugula, mustard, (maybe kale), dill, mint, morning glories (aka winter spinach), grapes, blackberries and a couple other berry types that are perennials that comes back year after year.
Anyhow to help out some COVID19 housebound first time would be gardeners in the region, I found a couple of pages with various tips and tricks and planting schedules for the region (I didn't know about the planting schedules until just a few minutes ago, myself, so I'm very glad I searched for this information for you). So enjoy planting your garden and taking care of it. It'll give you something to do during the lockdown besides staying inside and staring at the same 4 walls or screens all the time and in the end you'll be reward with food you grew yourself from scratch. So you'll know how it was grown and what was used on it.
Keeping It Tidy & Controlling Weeds: Black Mat is an Unbeatable Solution This is a YouTube video explaining how to use the weed matting.
Chicken Farming : Profitable Chicken Rearing For Beginners - epub ebook downloadable at the longfiles link. I realize that not everyone is even allowed to have backyard chickens, let alone want them (I know I don't), but for those who do, this is a book for beginners.
When to Plant Vegetables in Montreal, QC This site has much more than just a planting calendar. There's information on all sorts of gardening related topics here.
How to plant a vegetable garden in Quebec A short article from CAA Quebec, with some practical tips and advice.
A bumper crop of tips for the budding gardener An interesting article from the Montreal Gazette with a variety of tips, tricks and information for beginning gardeners.
For more information on gardening, click the word "Gardening" in the column on the right side of the page to be taken to all the pages with information on gardening.
Enjoy and best of luck with your gardens!
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