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Originally Posted by Table 5
Curious if there are any good resources (websites/books etc.) about backyard vegetable gardening, that are relevant for Calgary’s climate? Apart from planting a few raspberry bushes, I’m a complete newbie with food gardening, so looking to learn…especially if it necessitates trips to Lee Valley.
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Hi there,
I have learned after 5 or so years of planting a vegetable garden in my backyard in Calgary, a substantial size too, about 30' x 20' is my garden area, with about 20' x 12' of that as actual garden bed being lined around my back corners by raspberries and strawberries. We added a 10x8 greenhouse last year to it, which will house all my things that can get damaged by hail, particularly tomatoes and peppers, some lettuces.
Things that grow well for me are those things that stay underground until harvest. Any root vegetables you can think of, I usually grow a bunch of potatoes, radishes, carrots, and a bunch of other normal favorites. If you want tomatoes, be prepared to cover them with an old sheet during heavy rain/hail storms or you will have a bunch of damages tomatoes, which sucks.
Herbs in planters, deeper the planter box the better, they will grow large, but can be brought inside if hail is coming! I also have issues with slugs eating my lettuces I grow in the ground, so I am going to get some copper mesh this year to see how that goes.
The best thing to grow in Calgary in terms of lettuce like produce is kale, that stuff grows until December if the weather is nice. Frost doesn't bother it that much at all. The second best for me has been spinach, grows like crazy and you can just keep on picking it all summer long, mine is already producing enough for a single salad each week (started in the greenhouse in a pot, moved a few weeks ago outside).
If you have a south facing area in your yard, try to put your veggie garden there, the more sun the better. My garden gets sun all day long up until about 4 or 5 pm because of our fence we built to keep the dogs out of it.
PS, some plants are poisonous to animals, like the leaves of rhubarb and potatoes, so keep them out of those plants (we learned that lesson too).