Quinte West Gardens-Growing Community
47 Guelph Street Trenton, ON, Canada

Heirloom seeds have a lot to offer. From one generation to the next these seeds produce plants with the same characteristics as their parent plant. Their produce is also superior in taste to those grown from hybrid seed. Continuing with this week's theme of local online seed companies, here are some local sources of heirloom seed. If you know of any others please feel free to comment below. Terra Edibles Foxboro https://www.terraedibles.ca/ Urban Tomato Peterborough https:...//urbantomato.ca/ Heritage Seed Perth https://www.heritageseedandproduce.com/homepage.html See more

Zinnia's are a must have in any garden. These easy to grow annual flowers come in a wide splash of colours and bloom profusely all season long. We love them in our dry river bed garden and so do the butterflies. This year I've spotted a new cultivar called Polar Bear that I'm excited to try and thankfully there is a local source online for purchasing seeds. Head over to Floribunda Seeds to view their online catalogue.

Is anyone getting excited about planning next year's garden? Now is definitely the time to start browsing seed catalogues and dreaming about all the wonderful flowers and vegetables that you want to add to your garden in 2021. To get you started, every day this week I will be sharing a link to a local seed business that offers online shopping.... Today's feature is Vicki's Veggies Farm located in Prince Edward County.

Wishing all of our friends near and far, a very Merry Christmas.

Throw back Thursday Last year we successfully grew giant pumpkins in our pumpkin patch. It was not an easy task. We had a lot of foliage eaten by a resident groundhog early in the season and then the squash vine borer had to be battled. In the end, three 150lb plus beauties were grown and we were quite proud of our success.

Care & Share Food Bank will be closed for the holidays, starting Monday, December 21, 2020 and re-opening on Monday, January 4, 2021. Happy Holidays to all!

Enjoying some fall foliage at the Gardens. The leaves won't last much longer on the trees with all this rain and wind. Here's hoping everyone has managed to get their gardens tucked in for the winter.

Last year Ken started a composting system at the Gardens. It was constructed of items we had on hand - mostly cinder blocks and pallets. He put a lot of research into this project and made it both practical and very user friendly. This past weekend we were able to top up our garden beds with wheel barrow after wheel barrow of dark, rich compost thanks to Ken's hard work. This will certainly get our vegetable gardens off to a great start next season.

Thankful to have had great weather yesterday for our annual Fall clean-up day at the garden. In a few short hours we were able to get the raised beds & the pumpkin patch topped up and ready for winter.

Are you doing any fall pruning in the garden? Can't remember what plants you should or shouldn't be trimming? This article will help guide the way.

These amazing filet beans have been a vigorous producer all season and are one of the last crops we are still harvesting in the gardens right now. The seeds were given to one of our board members by a gentleman named Louis, and as we didn't know their actual name we affectionately referred to them as Louis' beans. Well it turns out Louis' beans are a french variety called Fortex Filet pole beans. The beans themselves are sweet, crunchy and stringless. They grew to staggering lengths and their vines smothered our string trellis. We loved them so much we are considering letting a few dry on the vines so that we can save some seeds for next year.

Today is World Food Day. World Food Day (WFD) was founded by the United Nations' (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1945, and has been observed annually, every October 16, since 1981. The event was established to increase awareness of world hunger and poverty and to inspire solutions for world change.... #WorldFoodDay #FoodHeroes

These old compost bins are the perfect item for growing potatoes. In early spring we bury the sprouted potato chits in a foot of soil and every few weeks as the plants grow upwards we keep topping up the bins. Here we are at the end of the season and just look at how big and healthy these plants are. Now for the fun part... tipping over the bins and searching for the potatoes.

This fall we have one new chore to perform: removing the tubes from our bee house to check for cocoons. There are a few holes that have been closed over so it does look promising. Any viable cocoons we find will be removed and stored over winter and the entire bee house and tubes will get a good cleaning. This is our first year putting out a bee house and we are learning a lot as we go.

Today marks the Autumnal Equinox. With crisp, cool temperatures and leaves beginning to change, there's no better time to get outdoors and enjoy the splendour of fall.

Lots of work being done on our orchard and children's area. The clover has seeded nicely, paths have been marked out and perennials have been planted. Trying to get as much done before the cold weather settles in.

Throw back Thursday. This time last year we invited the community to the gardens as part of Doors Open Quinte West. We had fresh picked produce to sample, seed give-a-ways and lots of fun activities for the kids to enjoy. Understandably, Doors Open will not be running this year, but we do hope to participate in this event in the coming years.

If you are looking to start saving seeds from your favourite flowers, now is the time to check your garden for ripened seed heads and start collecting them. Seeds from annuals (such as the Calendula in the first picture) can be stored indoors in a dry container for sowing next spring. Seeds from most perennials (such as the Coreoposis and Rudbeckia also pictured below) will need cold stratification and can either be scattered now in the garden where you want them to grow, or sown in pots and kept outdoors over winter.

As we head into Autumn, most of the produce we have grown has been picked and the beds are starting to look bare. However, we are excited to report that we are closing in on almost 1000lbs of produce picked and donated for this season. This year we donated to a number of local charities and churches; including the Care & Share Food Bank, Cooked with Love for those that Need inc St. George Church, Trenton United Church and Community Partners For Success This is definitely a labour of love and we couldn't do it without the ongoing support of our community.

Who doesn't love a plant sale? Tomorrow, starting at 8:30am the Brighton Garden Club is hosting a plant sale at the Brighton Curling Club. It's a great opportunity to grab some perennials and shrubs for your garden as well as speak to professionals in the gardening business.

Last year we tried growing loofah at the gardens and had mixed success. The few gourds that we did grow, Colette was able to dry and craft into wonderfully luxurious home made soap sponges. This year we have been much more successful and there are many large gourds ripening on the vine. I know many of our followers were also trying their hand at growing loofah. If you were successful this year and want to try making soap sponges I have included a link to an easy how to video. https://www.youtube.com/watch

Sunflowers are an easy to grow annual that add a lot of wow factor to the garden. They are a good source of pollen for bees, the seeds are a favourite for birds and we just love taking pictures of them. Anyone else enjoying these beauties in their garden?