Growing North

Growing North is my contribution to advancing year-round sustainable urban farming in Northern climates and communities. Through developing my urban space into gardens, relaxation space, a micro-orchard and year-round greenhouse, I hope to learn, develop methods, advance my abilities and inspire/embolden others to do the same. I’ll admit. When one thinks of NorthWestern Ontario gardens are NOT what come to mind. Snow, fishing, fall colors, amazing scenic lakes – yes. Gardens – no. So why start developing and blogging about gardens and growing in the North? It’s true, we don’t have a very long growing season, nor do we have the best soils. But we DO have an amazing amount of sunshine and are fairly isolated from many crop pests or diseases. And seriously, the pioneers did just fine so what is our problem in this modern age of information?! Surely we can do better, not worse. Being in the north, we have an unfortunate reliance on what gets shipped in for fresh vegetables and greens for the majority of the year. And if there are supply problems, those supplies go down in volume and quality and the price shoots straight up. Now, I’m not sure if you have tried canned green beans (Read: soggy, colorless, mushy, tasteless, stringy-things), but if you have you have … my condolences. And if that is what you had as a child, I can’t fault you for not liking your greens. That is not how vegetables should be. They should be bursting with flavor, color and texture, and be a joy to eat or cook with. I often hear folks lamenting that they would love to grow their own fresh foods, but they don’t know how. Most of the gardening information available is for a warmer climate & over the last two generations, most of the northern knowledge has been lost. So it’s is easy to become discouraged and stop trying. So to answer the question; Why growing in the north? It’s simple – To share my learning process, my excitement, my mistakes, my failures & my wins.