From My Garden

By Bob Ewing

This book is based on my personal experiences as a gardener, garden writer, workshop facilitator, lecturer, and permaculture designer. Most of the gardening I have done has been undertaken in urban environments. I have created small to medium gardens for myself and others on balconies, decks, and backyards. I love growing plants in containers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob Ewing
• Release date: Mar 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9781540124548

Book preview

Lorne Publishing: http://www.lornepublishing.com/

Bob Ewing [e-mail]

Chicory, edible wild. Bob Ewing photo

From My Garden is dedicated to my partner, best friend and love, Jocelyn Paquette.

Bob Ewing photo

BACKGROUND:

This book is based upon my personal experiences as a gardener, garden writer, workshop facilitator, lecturer and permaculture designer. Most of the gardening I have done has been undertaken in urban environments. I have created small to medium gardens for myself and others on balconies, decks and backyards. I love growing plants in containers.

Container gardening is an excellent way to begin the gardening adventure. It is also a perfect way to maximise use of space. A garden does not need to be large to be rewarding and bountiful.

I do have experience on larger gardens, as well but if left to my own devices a raised bed in a community garden and a few plants on my balcony would be my bliss.

I enjoy community gardens, so much more happens there than simply growing food and herbs.

This book addresses our love of gardening, providing how-to information as well as essays to encourage the reader to step out of the box and create something that reflects who they are.

Smart Gardening:

Smart gardening involves understanding that repeating the same activities year after year, in a changing environment, will lead to frustration and failure.

The smart gardener knows how to create a garden that is resilient, or, in other words can withstand any drastic shifts that may take place, locally.

Growing food, for many gardeners, is often repeating the same actions year after year, even if the previous year was a disaster due to too little or too much rainfall, cooler temperatures than expected, and so on.

The grower continues to plant the same annual plants. The exact location of the plants may be shifted. Tomatoes and potatoes are grown in a different spot than the previous year, but they are still grown.

The use of annual food plants means the beginning of the gardening season can be a busy one. Backyard gardeners are often rushed, trying to prepare the soil and get the plants in on time.

This book will help you design and plant a garden that matches, your interests, time and needs.

The last chapter focuses on permaculture design what it is and how it applies to the backyard gardener.

PLANTING FOR THE POLLINATORS; Bees & Sunflower, Bob Ewing photo

From My Garden includes articles from my From My Garden weekly column in the Campbellton Tribune and articles originally published on Hupages.com. Some of the articles have been edited to provide the reader with more information than they originally contained.  I have included at the beginning a number of basic gardening tips covering subjects such as watering and plant placement.

Introduction:

My gardening passion was inherited from my parents. Mom loved flowers. She grew hollyhocks, peonies, lilies and many more. Dad’s passions were tomatoes, roses and compost. I have retained much of what they taught me.

This book is a compilation of articles I published in the Campbellton Tribune over the past three years. During that period, I wrote one column per week, every week. I have included a few additional articles, from Hubpages, on topics I find important.

I have added some information to a number of the articles. My column was limited to 500 words so some of the articles have been expanded to include information I could not add in the original article.

Gardening is about much more than growing a few vegetables, flowers or herbs. It can become a way of being, a way of living lightly on the earth.

A thriving garden is a work of art, beautiful throughout all its stages. Enjoy the read. If you have any questions send me an email [e-mail]

Gardening Tips;

These tips will help the beginning gardener get the garden off to a sound start. They will also remind the experienced gardener about the basics. It never hurts to brush up on the basics;

Right Plant Right Place (RPRP)

The right plant right place rule or RPRP. When you place a plant where the conditions give it what it needs (water, soil, light) that plant will do well and reward you with fruit and flowers throughout the season.

For RPRP to work you need to know three things:

One: what are the conditions where you are planning to garden, for example how much sunlight and/or shade?

Two: Be sure the plant gets the water it needs. If you are in a dry area, use plants that can tolerate the dry conditions, if the site is wet, use plants that like it wet.

Three: will the plant grow in your garden’s hardiness zone.

Hardiness Zone:

Plant hardiness zones—also known as planting zones or growing zones—help gardeners understand which plants can survive their region’s climate. Find out which planting zone you’re located in and grow a great garden, one that thrives. There are a number of online sites that will enable you to find out which hardiness zone you occupy. One of my favourites is the Old Farmer’s Almanac 

https://www.almanac.com/content/planting-zones-us-and-canada

PH: WHAT IT IS.

pH is a measure of how acid or alkaline the soil is. This is important to know because pH affects how easily plants will absorb nutrients from the soil.

The soil pH range is measured on a scale of 1 to 14, with 7 as the neutral mark — anything below 7 is considered acidic soil and anything above 7 is considered alkaline soil.

Vegetables and herbs, generally require a pH between 5.5 and 7. However, to find out the proper pH for your gardening choices visit this site:

https://www.almanac.com/content/soil-ph-levels

Watering:

Water is a vital component for sound plant health. Either too much or too little water will impact the garden’s yield. Water early in the morning or after sunset in the evening. Let the water sink in, it is the roots that need to drink.

Do not water every day, unless the plants are growing in containers. The soil in containers dries out faster that the garden bed. See the section on container gardening for more information.

Understanding Shade:

Shade gardens can be glorious and to make full use of the shade your garden offers, you must first understand shade itself.

Light or Dappled shade, is bright enough that most plants will grow there, even those that claim to need full sun. In this case the sunlight moves across the garden and never stays in one place for long.

Open shade may be found in that small space beside your garage or shed that has a northern exposure. The light there is bright but it rarely receives any direct sun.

Medium shade this is the drawing line between plants that will accept shade and those that do not. Usually found under small trees or near decks and stairwells, for example.

Deep shade allows no obvious sunlight to enter where trees, fences and buildings block the view. This is the home of some ivies and mosses.

Sunflowers love the sun. They turn their flowers to follow it.

Sunflowers, Late Summer: Bob Ewing photo

CONTAINERS:

There as many ways to grow plants as there are plants. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration but there are so many possibilities that if you want to grow you can.

I am a container gardener. I have created gardens in a variety of ways