Want free plant(s) to grow food at home?Lifecycles and the City of Victoria have teamed up to grow and give away thousands of seedlings to students and their families throughout the Greater Victoria School District. If your family needs soil, planters, tools and/or help planting your plants, folks from the "Get FED" project can come to your home to help you! Option #1: You can reserve and pick up plants and instructions from Shoreline Middle School out of the four types of plants we have had delivered to our garden cage! Still available: Delicata Squash Chard - Eldorado Chard - Rainbow Kale - Red Russian Kale - Siberian Basil - Sweet Genovese Lettuce Mix These were available but have already been reserved: Cucumber: Blue Sticks "Sweetie" Tomatoes: Purple Sticks Black Cherry Tomatoes: no sticks Zucchini: no sticks Option 2: You can pick out your own plants at certain times and certain places: The plants available at these sites may include the following: Cucumber Zucchini Delicata Squash Chard - Eldorado Chard - Rainbow Kale - Red Russian Kale - Siberian Basil - Sweet Genovese Tomatoes - Sweetie Cherry Tomatoes - Black Cherry Tomatoes - Elfin Cherry Tomatoes - Stupice Parsley - Italian Lettuce Mix To reserve plants to pick up from Shoreline, please email [email protected], by Sunday June 7 at 7pm, with the name and number of the plants you would like, as well as your name, phone number, and whether you will pick up your plant(s) on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. Any reserved plants not picked up by 5pm on Wednesday will be available for anyone to pick up on Thursday, June 11. Unreserved plants will be available throughout next week. For more info on these plants: https://lifecyclesproject.ca/get-growing/ Click here for how-to videos and kid-friendly instructions Are you not sure which plants you want or are able to grow at your place? Click on "read more" below to see CARE GUIDELINES for each type of plant. CARE GUIDELINES:
BASIL Sun exposure: prefers full sun Can grow in pots or in the ground Needs: Make sure plants get adequate moisture as basil doesn’t like to be water-stressed Harvest: Start harvesting once plants have a few sets of true leaves and are about 6” high. Prune the top set of leaves by cutting the main stem. This will encourage the two smaller buds below to grow and the plant to get bushier. Basil needs to be harvested regularly to encourage bushy growth and to delay the plant from flowering which will discourage further leaf growth. Continuously harvest top leaf sets and pinch off flowers, even if you don’t have an immediate use for it, basil can always be frozen or dried! Companions: Tomatoes and basil make excellent companions not just in the kitchen but planted side by side in the garden too! Basil also makes a great companion for peppers and helps repel aphids, asparagus beetle and mites from the garden. CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO ON BASIL HARVESTING CABBAGE Sun exposure: full sun Cabbage does best planted in the ground, but could be grown one plant in one large pot Space plants 18-32” apart Needs: cabbage likes rich soil, amend with compost or well-rotted manure and ½ a cup of complete organic fertilizer mixed into the soil below each plant. Cabbage is a long season crop, it will first focus on growing big leaves and then start forming a head. If a head isn’t forming it could be because there is too much nitrogen in the soil compared to phosphorus. Cooler conditions are needed for the cabbage to form a nice head, expect your cabbage to be ready in fall. Companions: plants well with many herbs, including chamomile, dill, mint, rosemary and sage. Avoid planting with peppers, potatoes or tomatoes. CHARD Sun exposure: full sun to partial shade Needs: Chard prefers rich soil and generous watering to produce large plants. Spacing: Can be planted closely (6”) for baby greens or further apart (12”-18”) to produce larger plants Harvest: as baby greens or allow to grow large. Harvest outer leaves by cutting individual stalks (stalks are tasty and somewhat celery-like). Companions: great with beans, Brassicas (kale, cabbage) and onions CUCUMBER Sun exposure: full sun Can be grown in pots or in the ground Needs: Cucumbers like rich, nutritious, warm soils and lots of water. Add plenty of compost or well-rotted manure, dolomite lime (to balance pH), and ½ - 1 cup of complete organic fertilizer (available at garden stores) mixed into the soil when transplanting. Cucumbers are trailing in nature (can reach 7-8 feet) and benefit from being trellised up. This saves a lot of garden space in small gardens and reduces the risk of powdery mildew caused in damp conditions. Avoid overhead watering cucumbers (getting their leaves wet) as this will encourage mildew, water at the base of the plant, early in the day. Harvest: regularly, before cucumbers get too big to encourage continuous production. If fruit is allowed to get too big the plant will stop producing more fruit. Companions: Cucumbers can be planted with many plants including Brassicas (cabbage, kale), lettuce, corn (can climb up corn), onions, peas, radish. Planting nasturtiums close are said to improve the flavour and growth of cucumbers. KALE Sun exposure: full sun to partial shade Can be grown in the ground or in containers Space: 18-24” apart Harvest: pick leaves from the bottom up as plants grow (leave smaller, inside leaves to grow) Kale is very cold hardy and can be left in the garden or replanted in August for winter harvests. In the following spring, the plant will produce flowers that are very tasty and can be picked as small broccoli florets. Companions: Brassicas, such as kale, benefit from being planted with many herbs, including chamomile, dill, mint, rosemary and sage. LETTUCE Sun exposure: full sun to partial shade, benefits from some shade in the heat of summer Can be grown in the ground or in containers Lettuce grows best in the cool seasons of spring and fall and has a tendency to want to bolt (go to flower) in the hot summer. Water regularly to prevent bolting and consider planting somewhere where it gets shade in the heat of the day. Can be planted into August for fall salads and extended with the use of a cold-frame or greenhouse. Spacing: Can be spaced very closely to harvest as baby-leaf lettuce or further apart (12-18”) for head lettuce Harvest: individual leaves or cut the whole plant 1” above soil and let regrow Companions: Lettuce pairs well with many plants including beets, kale, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, spinach, strawberries... MUSTARD GREENS/ MIZUNA Sun exposure: full sun to partial shade, benefits from some shade in the heat of summer Can be grown in the ground or in containers Mustards are cool season crops, they grow quickly and they bolt (go to flower) quickly in the heat. Flowers can be harvested and eaten. Sowing continuously every few weeks ensures continuous harvest. Can be sowed until September, for late fall / winter harvests. Very cold hardy plant! Space about 6” apart Water regularly, especially in the heat of summer! Harvest: Cut individual leaves or cut the whole plant down 1” above the ground and let it regrow. Young leaves tend to be more mild tasting that bigger leaves. Mustard greens tend to be much SPICIER when grown in the summer heat and milder and sweeter when grown in the cooler off-seasons. Eat fresh in salads or blanched / stir-fried PARSLEY Sun exposure: Can be grown in full-sun to almost full shade, but prefers a little bit of shade in the hot summer months. Can be grown in the ground or in containers Space plants at least 6” apart Harvest: individual sprigs from the outside of the plant (leaving the small, inside leaves) Sprigs can be eaten fresh or dried for preservation Companions: parsley has many friends and does great planted with tomatoes, asparagus, carrots, chives, corn, onions. Parsley is very cold hardy and can survive the winter here on the coast. It is a biennial, which means it has a two-year life span and will go to seed on the second year. SQUASH Sun exposure: full sun Needs: These very large plants need a lot of food. Plant in rich soil and dig ½ - 1 cup of complete organic fertilizer (available at garden stores) beneath each transplant. Harvest: fruit is ripe when your thumbnail does not mark the outside of the skin. To cure for storage let sit for about a week in the sun or indoors in a warm room with good air circulation before storing in a cool, dry location. Always avoid overhead watering squash (getting their leaves wet) as this will encourage mildew, water at the base of the plant, early in the day. Companions: corn, lettuce, peas, radish. Avoid planting near Brassicas (kale, cabbage) or potatoes TOMATOES Sun exposure: full sun and lots of heat! Grows great in pots, or in the ground Needs: tomatoes like rich soil that is high in organic matter. Add plenty of compost or well-rotted manure and mix in ½ - 1 cup of complete organic fertilizer (available in garden stores) into the hole before transplanting. Fertilize regularly for best results. Switch to a fertilizer that is high in P & K and low in N (look on fertilizer to see 3 numbers, ex: 3-10-10, which corresponds to N-P-K) for when the plant is starting to produce flowers and fruit. All of the varieties provided by the City of Victoria are indeterminate types and will need to be trellised up with a pole or string (tomato cages are designed for determinate types and are not appropriate for these varieties). Indeterminate varieties will continue to grow tall and produce more fruit until they are killed by frost. At the end of the season, water less frequently to encourage the fruits to ripen. Tomatoes need a lot of water to produce fruit. If fruit has ‘Blossom End Rot’ (bottoms are rotten) the plant could be not getting enough calcium, but most-likely the problem is not enough consistent, deep watering. Avoid getting water on tomato leaves as this encourages blight. Companions: Tomatoes don’t make the best of companions with many plants. They grow great with basil, peppers, nasturtiums, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce and parsley, but should NOT be planted with potatoes, brassicas (kale, cabbage) and dill. ZUCCHINI Sun exposure: full sun Needs: plenty of moisture, nutritious soil and lots of space. Use plenty of compost or well-rotted manure and dig ½ - 1 cup of complete organic fertilizer (available at garden stores) beneath each transplant. Spacing: Zucchinis are large plants and should be spaced 2-3 feet apart. Harvest: regularly to promote continuous fruiting Zucchinis have male and female flowers - mis-shapen fruit, or fruit that rots at the end is due to lack of pollination. This can be solved by hand pollinating. SEE THIS VIDEO ABOUT HAND POLLINATION (Note: this can also be done with a paintbrush or Q-tip - applied to the male flower first and then to the female flower. Zucchini flowers tend to be open and easier to pollinate in the mornings). Always avoid overhead watering zucchinis (getting their leaves wet) as this will encourage mildew, water at the base of the plant, early in the day. Companions: Zucchinis are great planted with nasturtiums, parsley, spinach, radish, beans, peas and flowers that attract many pollinators! Comments are closed.
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Ms. MenziesTeaches the Sustainability Exploratory class at Shoreline Middle School. Sustainability = the ability to survive and thrive... over time!
In this class we learn how to keep healthy through ensuring we have access to clean air, water, food, shelter, medicine, community, education, materials, energy, governance... ArchivesCategories |
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