Greetings Gardeners!
Welcome to summer – warm days, warm nights and anticipation of the harvest to come, as our gardens grow. As the nursery season comes to a close, I look forward to the next stage of my growing season: maintaining the market garden, working on infrastructure projects and harvesting. A big thank you to all of you who supported the nursery this year: I couldn’t do it without you!
Container Gardening Tips
Containers are a great way to extend your growing space – anything can grow in a container and anything can be a container! Remember to match the size of the container to the size of the plant or combination of plants in the container. Smaller containers should have smaller, shallow-rooted plants in them, such as lettuce, peas, herbs and annual flowers. Larger containers are best for larger-rooted plants, such as broccoli, tomatoes and shrubs. Use a well-drained, nutrient rich potting soil. Using garden soil in containers results in compacted soil with no aeration and will affect plant growth. Potting soils are usually peat-based and have additional amendments to make them light and well-drained. Some potting soils have fertilizer included in them and some don’t. If your potting soil is without fertilizer, be sure to give your containers supplemental fertilizing with a water-soluble fertilizer. Containers should be watered when the top two inches of soil are dry – give your container a good soaking, until water comes out of the bottom of the pot. This will set your container plants up well to handle a little bit of drought, if watering gets away from you. If containers do become too dry and plants are wilted, give the container a good soak and put it in the shade for a day or two: the plants will generally recover.
Feature Plant: Mignonette
One of my favourite annual flowers, mignonette (Reseda odorata) has been grown since Victorian times, where it was used to mask unpleasant odours. It is an unassuming-looking plant with subtle flowers that packs a punch when it comes to fragrance! Rather sprawling in nature, it makes a great filler in container plantings. I like to put a few plants in all of my containers to enjoy it’s fragrance all season long. It is also a wonderful pollinator plant, especially for smaller insects such as hover flies. Highly recommended!
At the Nursery this Weekend
It’s the final weekend of the nursery season and all annual stock is half-price! Come on out and stock up! I have a great selection left and they are ready to be planted.
The nursery is located at 103121 Alaska Highway, 10 mins west of Haines Junction, just past Bear Creek, on the right. Watch for the sandwich board! Open Friday 2pm-7pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am-4pm. See you there!
In Growing Harmony,
Jolene
