Veggies? What are those?

Before we were ever flower farmers, we were gardeners. Although when I say we, I really mean my mom Carol because I was just a small kid before I started flower farming. As a child we always had a veggie garden. As our flower farm grew, we took space from where we once grew veggies and started to grow flowers there. Each year we cut back on the veggies and grew more and more flowers. Lucky for us my brother Will started up a vegetable CSA a few years ago and gave us the best of both worlds. We were able to get all fresh summer veggies we needed while being able to focus on flowers. If you're interested in joining his CSA he still has a few spots available. Just go check out @bergmann_csa on Instagram or contact @will_bergmann !

As a flower farm we focus on the non-edible produce, but each year are a part of starting the veggie CSA in the greenhouse. So even though most of our knowledge is flower based, we like to think we know a few things about veggies too. And because so many in our community grow veggies and have asked us for some tips, we thought why not do a post on them.

If you like greens (I'm talking lettuce, spinach, kale...) guess what, you can already seed those in your garden! In fact lettuce especially hates heat and so if you seed it too late your crop will get bitter and go to seed. Like radishes, beets, chard, onions, carrots? You can do those now too! All these veggies love the cool temps of spring, and most are also frost tolerant. As soon as your soil warms up you can start to seed these. Just be sure you don't have wet, cold soil as this can lead to your seed rotting in the ground before it gets a chance to germinate. We recommend row seeding for all of these. There's no need to transplant them when you're able to direct seed them now. Simply make yourself a row, and seed generously according to the package. Then lightly cover with soil, and either wait for the rain or water (we recommend the latter). Make sure that between seeding and them popping out of the soil that they don't dry out too much. If seeds start to germinate and then don't have enough moisture to continue they die before they even break through the soil. Once your plants start growing, thin them out by pulling a few out here and there. You can still use these in salads and other recipes so don't let them go to waste. By thinning out your rows, it allows the remaining plants to grow bigger, so don't skip this step! It's also important to make sure your seed isn't old. Some veggie seeds can easily be kept from year to year, but others like lettuce don't keep well so you are best getting new seed each year.

A special note about kale and radishes; the flea beetles love them. We recommend covering the row with a light row cover or cloth while they grow to keep the beetles off your plants. Be sure the weave is fine enough that beetles cant get through and light enough that it doesn't hinder the growth of the plants.

If you like leeks, you can transplant them now. If you wanted to seed them, unfortunately you're too late as they need to be started quite early. Same goes for onions, we recommend onion sets because if you seed them now you may never get to harvest them.

For things like beans, peas, corn, zucchini, and other other squashes you're best waiting till just prior to last frost so that when the plants emerge from the soil they don't freeze. They will be plenty happy being direct seeded so no need to transplant.

For veggies like cucumbers, tomatoes, melons, and peppers it's a good idea to wait until after the last frost (towards the end of May) to plant. They are all quite susceptible to frost, so don't plant them out too early. You may get some success by direct seeding these, but we recommend planting as small plants first because of our relatively short season. This will help you get a jump start and therefore have produce earlier. You can start them by seed indoors if you'd like or purchase them as small plants from your local garden centre but be sure that the plants aren't huge when you plant them out. If your plants are too large or root-bound, they go into shock when planted and can really struggle to produce. When selecting plants, we always look for ones that are compact, green, and mid-sized. We don't look for the biggest or the ones that already have fruit on them. This can be tempting and often yields short term results but if you're looking for plants that will be most successful don't choose the biggest plant with a tomato on it. Most of these plants like to be planted slightly deeper or the same depth as the pot they've been growing in... except tomatoes! Tomatoes love to be planted as deep as possible. Tomatoes grow roots from the stem, so planting them deep allows for a strong base to support a heavy tomato plant. You should prune the bottom half of leaves off the tomato and plant at least half of the plant underground. All of these plants also require quite a bit of space so keep that in mind when planting them. Your tiny cucumber plant is hopefully going to get quite large, same goes for any zucchini, squash, and melon. Most of these love warmth, and also require more water. Cucumbers (they'll get dry and bitter without consistent water), squash, and melons require consistent watering. In the hot summer months it's especially important to keep an eye on moisture levels. No matter what you transplant, ALWAYS soak prior to putting the plant in the ground, and then water it again when it's in the ground. If you don't soak your plants you risk them drying out and being set back further, so really give them a good drink before and after transplanting.

We haven't grown potatoes in a number of years due to potato beetles, and we don't grow cabbages, or broccoli because of bug issues so I can't be much help to you if those are things you're wanting to grow. Sorry! A great local resource for growing veggies is @fromsoiltosoul check her out if you're looking for some more tips!

Our last tip is to plant some flowers! I know it sounds biased, but it's a fact that veggies do better when they are in close proximity to flowers. The pollinators that flowers attract will help your veggies immensely and as an added bonus they're also really pretty. We hope this gives you a few tips on veggie growing. We wouldn't call this our area of expertise, but we have grown a LOT of veggies over the years. We're going to get back to what we know we're best at though, so we'll be back to flowers for our future posts. :) Till then, happy planting!

M

Ps. All the pictures on this post are by my talented brother and sister in law @wjbphotography