Here is a look at our vegetable and herb garden of 2012! Paul and I are trying out some old favourites and new varieties this year, as well as an experimental planting of seeds and green onion bulbs in a soil bed along the fence in our backyard. Starting with the veggies, we planted everything in containers as the spot that gets the hot afternoon sun in our backyard happens to be right in the middle of our yard. We tried putting everything in containers on the deck last year and had a lot of success, so we're doing the same thing this year.
We purchased all of the veggies at Urban Harvest on Queen West in Toronto. They grow organic veggies from non-GMO seeds, many of which are heirloom varieties. We love supporting their small business, especially since they place an emphasis on organic gardening and ecological diversity.
We're growing two varieties of sweet pepper: Tequila Sunrise and Corno di Toro. Paul and I love our hot peppers, so we have four different varieties: Red Rocket, Hungarian Wax, Red Cayenne, and Chinese Five Colour Hot Pepper. We have two plants growing of each variety of pepper for a grand total of 12 pepper plants!
There are four different types of tomatoes growing, most of which are cherry tomatoes that are best suited to growing in pots. We've got: Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato, Isis Candy Tomato, Red Pear Cherry Tomato, and Baxter's Bush Cherry Tomato. The Isis Candy and Red Pear are new ones for this year, so it will be exciting to see how they grow!
And here we have the herbs...we purchased all of the herbs from Richter's Herbs because they also grow using organic, non-GMO seeds and have a huge variety to choose from. The herbs are growing on a stand up at the top of our deck where they have a bit of protection from the wind by being closer to the house, but still get plenty of sunlight. It is great to have the herbs so close to the kitchen - we can just open the back patio door from the kitchen and can pick some fresh herbs for cooking!
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| Zaatar and Lemongrass |
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| Salad Burnet |
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| Four varieties of Basil |
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| Four varieties of Basil |
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| Four varieties of Mint |
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| Mint, Dill and Cilantro |
Since we have way more herbs this year than last year, we had to expand and plant herbs in the spots for planters on our deck! We actually like having the herbs in the planters even more than flowers because they look great and smell amazing.
On the right side of the deck, we're growing Vietnamese Cilantro, Rex Rosemary, and Lady Lavender.
On the left side of the deck, we're growing Greek Oregano, Blue Boy Rosemary, and Garlic Chives.
This plot of soil in the backyard is an experiment to see what will grow there. At the moment, there are tons of cherry blossoms scattered throughout the soil from our neighbour's tree. This giant cherry tree blocks out much of the sunlight, so the plot only gets a few hours of sunshine a day in the afternoon. We are hoping it is enough light to grow some plants that don't mind a bit of shade. We planted some green onion bulbs that are already coming up. Also, a couple of the herbs that like the shade and moist soil have been planted - Bloody Dock and Sushni (salad greens).
Everything else is being grown from seed, so it will be interesting to see what pops up! Hopefully, not too many weeds! I made this diagram:
The diagram will be helpful to remember what exactly was planted where - what grows, and what doesn't. As you can see, we planted three types of beans (Golden Wax, Royal Burgundy, and Tender Green), Cherrybelle Radish, Pak Choi, Tres Fine Endive, Rainbow Swiss Chard, Red Russian Kale, and Wasabi Arugula. Hopefully everything grows!
There you have it - the beginnings of another wonderful fresh veggie garden! I'll be posting more updates later!
Ooo, you have so many plants! Such an exciting variety, too, I hope they'll all grow well.
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