Grow Your Own Wellness

Good health is rooted in the outdoors, and connecting with the earth and tasting its delicious bounty can nourish the mind, body and soul.

How about veggies from your own backyard? All you need are seeds, sun, soil and water for some good-for-you, garden-to-table wellness. Bring on the happiness with juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumbers and colourful cabbages.

Food gardening is a wonderful way to get some exercise, fresh air and feast on fresh veggies and herbs that are healthy and safe. Your veggie garden can be a small, sunny patch in the backyard,  a window box brimming with culinary herbs, or a shared community plot – the beautiful bounty is a rewarding way to shave dollars off your rising grocery bill, and it’s so satisfying to savour the delicious rewards of your labour.

Prepping, planting and tending a garden sows the seeds of good health – it reduces stress, boosts energy and mood, and gets us outside. Freshly-harvested vegetables have a higher nutritional content than veggies that have been sitting on a store shelf or in the back of a truck for days as they travel from farm to table. Gardening organically keeps harmful synthetic fertilizers and pesticides out of your body and wasteful packaging out of the environment.

So get ready, set, garden! Many veggies and herbs are easy to grow, and a perfect place to begin for novice gardeners. The key to success is to start with the right site and good soil, and easy crops. Salad greens are among the easiest. There are just so many different greens to choose from – lettuce, kale, spinach – and once planted, they offer continuous harvests throughout the season.

So get your salad tongs ready. Cool-season crops, like lettuce, spinach, kale, parsnip, Swiss chard, and snow peas, can be directly sown in late April and early May. Seedling transplants are ideal for broccoli, cabbage, parsley, cauliflower and onions and can be transplanted in early May too. Transplants give you a head start in short growing seasons and are readily available at garden centres.

The middle of May is a great time to sow seeds for carrots, beets and radishes. Wait ’til the third week of May to transplant tomato seedlings, along with sowing seeds for turnip, celery and summer squashes. And June’s warm sun and soil invite seeds of cold-sensitive tomatoes, eggplant and peppers.

Most herbs are also very easy to grow and add big flavour to your cooking. Direct sow mid-May and in no time you’ll be reaching out your back door for a bounty of fresh parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme and Greek oregano.

Just where does your garden grow? Chase the sun. Be sure to locate your veggie garden in as much sun as possible. Except for leaf lettuce and spinach, veggies and herbs thrive best with at least eight hours of sun a day.

Use nutrient-rich soil with compost to support quick growth. Water consistently to avoid stressing out plants. Organic fertilizers can be used to boost crops during summer, and a mulch of straw or composted leaves beneath crops helps keep things cool and moist, encourages earthworms, and cuts down on watering and weeds.

Maximize space by growing up. Set up supports like trellises to grow vining crops up (beans and peas), instead of out. Plant shorter crops, like lettuce, chard, and carrots underneath and in between taller crops like tomatoes, green beans, eggplants and peppers.

If you’re thinking of a bigger veggie garden, include colourful annual flowers like nasturtiums, zinnias, sunflowers and sweet alyssum – they’ll attract pollinators and beneficial insects, which can help boost your veggie crop.

Keep your garden productive by sowing seeds every two weeks for crops like radishes, lettuce and spinach to ensure a continuous harvest throughout the season.

Make free fertilizer by raking fallen leaves onto the veggie garden each fall. Leaf mulch is the perfect fertilizer and a natural soil insulator, promoting the activity of beneficial insects like earthworms.

Meanwhile, get inspired with a visit to our bountiful gardens, including our seasonal food gardens which nourish our guests with an abundance of fruits, greens, veggies and even edible flowers. Come, nurture the seeds of a new hobby and take pride in growing your own organic food that’s good for you and the environment.