The Three Seasons
One of the biggest hurdles I struggled with when I started growing my own fruit and veg was timing my planting. The most common advice you’ll hear in Southern Ontario is to put everything in the ground on Victoria Day long weekend (around May 24th) - this blanket date is easy to remember, and works well for ornamental plants, but following this may limit how much your edible garden produces
There’s a better way to tackle your planting schedule to increase plant health and that’s through understanding our Three Growing Seasons
Yep! When it comes to gardening - very specifically in Southern Ontario* - we can divide our year into three parts
COLD - The dead of winter, think snow and frozen ground
COOL - The spring and the fall, think cool nights and sunny days
HOT - The peak of summer, think strong, high sun and warm nights
I don’t like to give firm dates for these because Mother Nature does it when she’s ready - I know you’ll feel it and see it when the season’s change
COLD
First thing we’ll do is knock this one off the list!
You can absolutely have a year round veggie garden in Canada (check out the fabulous Niki Jabour for more on that) but it takes quite a bit of planning and infrastructure that’s beyond the beginner gardener - so I definitely encourage you to look into this eventually but for now we’ll keep it to the two easier seasons
COOL + HOT
I like to think of these two plant divisions kind of like people. We all know people who love the cold weather and when it gets too hot they’re sweating and totally uncomfortable. But there’s also people (like me!) who loooove the heat and are miserable and bundled up all winter
We can divide our plants into Cool Loving and Heat Loving types too! They might be able to survive the opposite temperature, but they’ll do their best in the season that they prefer
GROWING GRID
On top of the two growing seasons we also have two growing types - long and short. Some plants (like radishes) can go from seed to edible in 20 days, while others (like sweet potatoes) can take over 150 days.
So if we have two seasons and two types that means we can put each plant into one of four categories
But! This is Canada remember - so which one of these would not be used to describe our weather?
Our summers are definitely hot but they’re relatively short so we’re not able to grow plants that need a long period of heat to make their produce. This includes things like vanilla,mango, cinnamon etc. For example, pineapples can take up to 3 years to produce fruit and they need it hot the entire time!
If climate change keeps going we might be growing pineapples in Toronto in a few hundred years, if there are any humans left, but not this year!
PLANTING TIMING
So that brings us to my trick to increasing your produce, we’re going to put our plants into one of the following three categories and that will help us understand the timing it needs to flourish
Here’s how I like to visualize the year:
SHORT + COOL
Twice a year - in the spring and the fall - we move through the Cool growing season. They’re both fairly short but if you follow the “plant everything Victoria Day weekend” rule you’ll be missing the second cycle and lots of potential produce!
Some of the these plants may die off or change their taste once the hot summer comes - this is important to know because many new gardeners think they’ve failed when that’s EXACTLY what’s supposed to happen and you’ve done nothing wrong
Here’s some plants that will grow quickly and happily in the Cool parts of the year
Radishes
These have a very short turn around - 20 to 30 days in most cases and they’re cold tolerant. What this means is you can put the seeds in the ground around May 1st and they’ll be ready to harvest by Victoria Day - so that patch of land that would have sat empty from May 1 to 24 can be used to grow food well before our Hot plants are ready to go out!
If you plant out Radish seeds in the hot summer they’ll struggle and may not develop their root veg at all - but if you’re patient and wait until the fall you can put them in any empty soil you have open and get a second harvest!
Lettuce
Lettuce also does it’s best growing in cooler, wetter conditions. They’re sensitive to dry soil so the summer is hard on them.
Like all life, it wants to reproduce and the hot summer sun tells it that there are pollinators buzzing all over so it’s time to get busy. When it gets that signal it’ll “bolt” - which is when the lettuce plant starts sending out flowers. This creates hormonal and chemical changes in the plant that make the leaves taste super bitter and gross.
This is a very common trouble spot for new gardeners!
Head lettuce can take about 50 days to mature so if we plant it on May 24 it’ll be “ready” in mid July, except we know it’s hot af by mid-July and that baby will have bolted by then. So knowing this type of plant does better in the cold helps us to plan better - we can put it out in early May which brings us to mid June and et voila, tasty, non-bolted lettuce will be waiting for you.
Similar to radishes, lettuce seedlings will struggle in the summer so after your first crop it’s best to wait until the fall to plan the second rotation.
SHORT + HOT
This group encompasses most of the traditional edibles most people think of like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and cucumbers
These guys like the heat, but we don’t have a lot of that, so the first issue you’ll run into is maximizing your growing season. The best way to do this is to plant out seedlings (also called starts) instead of seeds. Once you’re feeling more confident, you can definitely start them from seed yourself inside under grow lights but this is a bit of an investment in regards to materials and time, so if you’re a beginner check out the garden centres first.
I live in a small, one bedroom apartment that’s already covered with enough plants! Due to my lack of space I buy most of my warm crops as seedlings - there’s no shame in that. It does limit you to more basic varieties while learning to grow your own seedling opens the doors to rarer cultivars.
The second issue is making sure you don’t put them out too early. I use the “how does it feel outside method” rather than the temperature - once you have a solid streak of days where there’s warm sun, and you can sit outside in a light sweater and feel comfortable, and the nights might be chilly but there’s no frost in the morning - then it’s time to go.
When it comes to your garden (and most of life, I think) you’ll have the most success from listening rather than telling - sure, you can tell your plants “Its May 24. The book says you go out...make it work!” but I prefer to listen, and feel and think like a plant. Last year my hot crops when out in early June, perhaps this year will be before May 24 - we’ll find out when the time comes if we’re listening for it
LONG + COOL
This on is a bit more tricky - they may want a long, cool season but if they need significant time to develop then they're going to live through the summer
Potatoes + Brussel Sprouts
These are great examples because they are very cold hardy and can go into the ground around May 1st but getting big, mature potatoes or brussel sprouts will take all the way until the fall.
You’ll want to remember in July and August that these guys are not at their happiest - you’ll want to make sure they’re getting enough water and also be understanding that they won’t be growing as aggressively as they did in early Spring.
If you’re a new gardener it’s easy to become discouraged when you see tons of Spring growth that stops in July, or plants whose leaves are wilting by mid afternoon - but understanding that’s totally what’s meant to happen can keep your spirits up
WHAT TYPE OF PLANT IS IT?
Since this is 2020, the most obvious answer is Google which is definitely a great resource but I have a simple trick that you can use - even if you're never gardened before, I bet you already know the answer to many of them!
Ask yourself this:
When I think of this plant, what meal or dish is it commonly found in? What part of the world does that dish come from traditionally? What's the weather like there?
And more often than not you have the answer already inside you. It's pretty much guaranteed that if a culture uses a plant heavily in its dishes it's because that plant grow easily there
Wanna try?
Eggplant Parmesan with tomatoes and basil
(Italy - Mediterranean - hot)
Potatoes, carrots and rosemary
(Ireland - North Atlantic - cold)
Spicy salsa
(Mexico - South America - hot)
Tzatziki with oregano and cucumbers
(Greek - Mediterranean - hot)
Broccoli and bok choy
(China - Northern Asia - cool)
Tomato, pepper and turmeric curry
(India - South Asia - hot)
See? You got this!
The next step is figuring out if it's short or long growing season. We know if it's cold tolerant we can do both short or long, it's the hot loving ones that are the main concern
You can find that info from the back of a seed package, on the seedling pot or by googling " name of plant days to maturity" - anything under 60 I'd call short and anything more I would consider long
From the examples above the only plant we can't grow here are easily are olive trees. Everything else on that list will grow happily in Southern Ontario
I’ve also put together a quick reference chart - scroll to the bottom to see it.
CONCLUSION
I really hope this helps you with planning your garden this summer! It was something that took me a while to understand but once you get into the rhythm of it you'll find it comes naturally!
Remember to consider the four types - cool/hot and short/long and how they work together, and if in doubt look to food to help guide you
And of course, I'm always one message away! If you're having trouble figuring it out please don’t hesitate to reach out to me for some advice
Best of luck this year!
REFERENCE CHART
✓* - Plants that prefer warmer weather but have a long growing season. Don’t start these ones too early