The sun is out! The weather is warming up! It’s time to get ready to garden. It’s not quite warm enough yet to remove the plastic from your garden beds and it’s still working to keep your garden warm. At this point it would be a good idea to poke holes the plastic to help with drainage. You’ll want to keep that plastic on until you are ready to plant.
If you don’t have plastic coverings on you garden it’s time to think about getting your soil mixed up, fertilized and ready to go. We just received a fresh batch of our soil mix here at the center so come pick up what you need. When cleaning and prepping your garden you want to keep your friendly neighborhood pollinators in mind. Native bees and other helpful insects have left cocoons in the debris and loose soil under the snow. You want to wait until it’s getting up to about 10 degrees at least once a day to make sure you don’t inadvertently damage or destroy these cocoons before they hatch. When we get up to those lovely warm temperatures you’ll want to start clearing and mixing with chicken manure fertilizer.
You can also click here for more handy gardening tips and tricks
Lawn Care
At this time of year, you’ll also want to consider your lawn as it’s starting to wake up from that long rest under the snow. Whether your lawn is clover or grass, it’s going to need some TLC. You’re going to want to aerate your lawn, and start topping it up with some fresh soil. This is also the time of year when you should be planning to reseed your lawn with clover or grass.
Upcoming Workshops
Want some help learning more about vegetable gardening in the city? We have some workshop dates coming up with Tereska including:
We suggest starting your leafy-greens and fruiting vegetables at the end of March. By now your seedlings should have come up and start showing their true leaves. Make sure that you do not have them covered! Remove any domes or plastic and let that air circulate! This will greatly reduce chances of molds or diseases. If you have planted in cell trays, or have planted many seeds in one pot, it is time to transplant your seedlings.
Each plant needs it’s own pot to grow in! Leafy-greens like lettuce, kale or spinach should each have a 3″ pot, and fruiting-vegetables like tomatoes, peppers or eggplants should each have a 4″ pot to grow in. We like Cowpots, because they degrade easily so can be planted directly garden. Once the true leaves show up, you should water once per week with Kelp Fertilizer to keep seedlings growing well!
If you haven’t started any seedlings at home – not to worry! We start all of our 85 varieties of vegetables, herbs and edible flowers! The cold hardy vegetables will be ready for purchase at our Garden Centre by the end of April.
To build more resilient communities, we must support the links between citizens, community organizations, businesses and the neighbourhood or borough. This is exactly the mission of the Grand Potager: Centre for UrbanAgriculture. During this conference, Tereska Gesing share the dreams that led to the development of this inspiring project and will reveal her vision of the future.
Following the conference, join the guided tour and discover this thriving urban agriculture hub that brings members of the Montreal community closer together!
Are you looking for something to do Easter Monday? On April 22, celebrate Earth Day as a family at the Grand Potager. Activities for children from 10:00am to 2:00pm to learn about growing your own fruits and vegetables and caring for our planet earth
11:00 easter egg hunt in the vegetable gardens. For children 0 to 10 years old please.
Late March is a great time to start both leafy greens and fruiting vegetables ahead of time. For those of you who want to try your hand at starting seeds at home this year, check out this handy guide and video for tips! We also will be covering seed starting at our workshop next weekend. Starting your own seeds gives you access to all sorts of interesting varieties of vegetables, herbs, fruit and flowers that you might have a hard time finding in stores.
Volunteering opportunities
This year we are launching a weekly ‘Saturdays in the Greenhouse’ program during the Grand Potager Urban Agriculture month of May! On our volunteer page there is a form to fill out to get on our volunteering list, and scheduling program to book a day and a time you would like to come in. It’s a great way to get your hands dirty and learn more about growing your own food!
Earth day Easter Egg hunt!
The stars are aligning and this year April 22nd is both Easter Mondayand Earth Day! To celebrate, we are offering fun activities for the whole family in line with growing food and protecting the planet and at 11AM we will even have an easter egg hunt in and around our vegetable gardens! Free event. See you there! Monday April 22nd 10AM – 2PM at the Verdun Greenhouses!
Our prebooking is started! For our existing clients: To benefit from our Early Bird Special and get 10% off of your Vegetable Garden Replant service, get in touch for an estimate right away. To qualify for the discount, you will need to get us your deposit by April 1st.
For new clients, now is a great time to contact us for to build a new vegetable garden or for Horticultural and Landscaping services. Our garden centre will be open as of April 1st if you would like to come and get materials to build your garden yourself.
With the spring fast approaching, it’s time to dust of your gardening gear and start planning what you want to grow this season. If you are feeling like you could use some tips and tricks, or are a beginner and don’t know where to start, fear not! This Saturday at 1pm is the first of our 10$ intensive vegetable gardening workshops. Its a 1 hour crash course on who to make your garden beautiful, actually productive and easy to maintain. You can sign up by clicking on the link above. See you there! Saturday March 2nd 1pm 7000 boul. Lasalle, Verdun Quebec H4H 2T1
If you missed the Seedy Weekend at the Planetarium, or if there are some seeds you still need to get, come and see the wonderful local seed producers Quebec has to offer at our Verdun Seedy Saturday. There will be free workshops every half hour on gardening related topics starting at 11am. Check out the Facebook event for a list of vendors, workshop schedule, and details on the kids corner. While you are there please share the event and invite your friends! Saturday March 9th 10am-3pm 7000 boul. Lasalle, Verdun H4H 2T1
To maximize the harvest in small spaces in Montreal, we suggest planting three times during the year. The first time as soon as you have a reliable 3 degrees at night with cold hardy vegetables like leafy greens and root vegetables, the second time once you have a reliable 10 degrees at night with the warm-loving fruiting-vegetables and the third time at the end of August to fill in the empty spaces in the garden and take advantage of the end of the season. If you would like more information and an example garden plan take a look at our article on Making your garden plan in our Help! (how to garden) section of our website.
Our 2019 vegetable gardening workshop calendar is out! The workshops offered by Urban Seedling are back for a 3rd edition! The first workshop is Saturday March 2nd, 2019.
Take advantage of workshops specifically dedicated to growing vegetables in the city with our 1 hour classes led by myself Tereska Gesing, founder of UrbanSeedling and a professional specialized in urban agriculture! With these workshops, I will guide you through the different steps of creating a vegetable garden, the best way to overcome the obstacles to gardening in the city and will cover the particularities of Montreal’s growing season.
This weekend! Come see us in our booth at the Montreal Seedy Saturday weekend. Catch my Vegetable gardening workshop for free at 9:30 tomorrow, or 4pm Sunday
There will be local seed producers with hundreds of varieties of seeds will be on hand: horseradish, tomatoes of all colours and shapes, asparagus, hot peppers. Food biodiversity begins in our gardens and plates.
Big news in Urban Agriculture! We are super excited to be a part of this growing movement.
On November 30th, 2018, a major event for urban agriculture in Quebec was held, the founding meeting of the brand new organization “Cultiver Montréal”, whose main mission is to support, encourage and contribute to the development of all forms of agriculture in the Greater Montreal area by: bringing together and coordinating local actors; sharing information and resources; promoting and raising awareness; and political advocacy.
Urban Seedling Workshops, a great way to learn about urban agriculture
The workshops offered by Urban Seedling are back for a 3rd edition! Starting from Saturday March 2nd, 2019, take advantage of workshops specifically dedicated to growing vegetables in the city with our 1 hour classes led by Tereska Gesing, founder of Urban Seedling and a professional specialized in urban agriculture!
During these workshops, Tereska will guide you through the different steps of creating a vegetable garden, the best way to overcome the obstacles to gardening in the city and will cover with you the particularities of Montreal’s growing season.
You will find out how to plan, plant and care for your home organic vegetable garden, whether you are gardening in your balcony in your backyard or even on your rooftop.
You will learn how to :
Plan and build your vegetable garden
Put together the perfect soil mix and learn all about soil fertility
Urban Seedling is a Montreal-based company that helps people grow their own fresh food in the city. For the past 6 years, we’ve helped people across the city grow fresh vegetables, herbs, and fruit in backyards, front yards, balconies, and rooftops.
About Tereska Gesing
Tereska Gesing, speaker
Professional and passionate specialized in urban agriculture, Tereska wish to facilitate access to urban agriculture for Montrealers through her company Urban Seedling as well as by her many community involvement. She offers conferences and workshops specialized in urban agriculture in companies and schools.
Réseau Cultiver Montréal; the new core of urban agriculture in Greater Montreal
On November 30th, 2018, a major event for urban agriculture in Quebec was held, the founding meeting of the brand new organization “Cultiver Montréal”, whose main mission is to support, encourage and contribute to the development of all forms of agriculture in the Greater Montreal area by: bringing together and coordinating local actors; sharing information and resources; promoting and raising awareness; and political advocacy.
Alternatives has been leading this initiative since 2010 as a project within their organisation. We owe them thanks and recognition for the great work in developing our industry and mobilizing the actors to raise the profile of Urban Agriculture in our fair city. Thanks in large part to this work, Montreal is now considered a global leader in Urban Agriculture.
Composed of organizations representing various sectors of urban agriculture from commercial producers, to well as social organizations involved in urban agriculture in Montreal, the Réseau Cultiver Montréal is an inclusive and promising project that will definitely inspire while highlighting local initiatives.
Considering that the urban agriculture community is mature enough to be able to take part in the major decisions being made at the City of Montreal, and in other important bodies, and considering that the various organizations and companies want the voice of all urban agriculture actors to be heard, and not just that of a few major players, it was decided to incorporate Cultiver Montréal as a non-profit organization.
“This is an important and significant moment for the community today! Nearly 70 people representing some 45 organizations active in urban agriculture gathered for truly interesting and passionate discussions on the future of agriculture in Montreal. I am sincerely excited for the future and very happy to have been involved from the beginning in the creation process of this organization, which will bring together the various initiatives already present on the territory in addition to pooling our respective knowledge and expertise and thus benefit the entire community! »
mentions Tereska Gesing, co-founder and owner of Urban Seedling.
From left to right : Michel Lambert and Gaëlle Janvier d’Alternatives, Claudia Atomei d’AU/LAB, Marie-Anne Viau de Santropol Roulant, Sara Maranda-Gauvin de On Sème, Guillaume Vallée-Rémillard de GRAME, Tereska Gesing from Semis urbains and Lauren Pochereva from Ça Pousse!
The main objectives of Réseau Cultiver Montréal are :
Support the coordination of areas for cooperation, consultation and regional and local networking;
Identify themes or issues to be addressed, particularly based on current strategic planning, by identifying development opportunities that meet the needs and challenges of Cultiver Montréal’s members;
Bring regional priorities to various public and private bodies in order to:
Share ongoing initiatives, needs and best practices;
Promote and support policies that promote the sustainable and equitable development of Montreal agriculture in accordance with a healthy and favourable environment and the proper development of living ecosystems;
Invite government representatives, companies, researchers or others as appropriate and appropriate to the topic being discussed to the committees.
Advocacy for the inclusion of urban agriculture to all government and non-governmental bodies;
Act as an incubator for structuring regional initiatives and as a regional financial lever;
Serve as a unifying tool and actively collaborate in the deployment of structuring regional actions and projects;
Support collaboration between diverse communities in urban and peri-urban agriculture; and gender and ethnic diversity. To promote the inclusion of all and support the recognition of indigenous territories;
Organize events as tools for common visibility in order to promote actions and actors at the network level (ex: Cultiver Montréal fairs);
Raise awareness of agricultural issues among Montrealers;
Organize or offer technical training to friends and members.
The next steps will be to take charge of the organization of the Montreal Seed Saturday weekend, the Rendez-vous des agricultures montréalaises, and the Cultiver Montréal Fairs. The Réseau Cultiver Montréal is also deepening its collaboration with regional bodies such as the Conseil-SAM, MAPAQ, UPA and Ville de Montréal to ensure that it can properly represent its members.
A special thanks to: Michel Lambert et Gaëlle Janvier d’Alternatives, Claudia Atomei d’AU/LAB, Marie-Anne Viau de Santropol Roulant, Sara Maranda-Gauvin de On Sème, Guillaume Vallée-Rémillard de GRAME, Tereska Gesing de Semis urbains et Lauren Pochereva de Ça Pousse! formed a sub-committee to synthesize the last two and a half years of consultations during the Rendez-vous to extract the mission and objectives desired by the community for this type of initiative, and to draft general regulations and values statements.
We would like to take this holiday season as an opportunity to thank you so much for your support of Urban Seedling and our mission to get people growing fruits and vegetables in the city! We had a great season, with lots of exciting new projects on the horizon for 2019.
If you are looking for a great last-minute gift, Urban Seedling gift certificatesare the way to go! Get in touch by email today – there is still time to send it by mail. You can also make an appointment to pick one up at our offices in Verdun.
Gardening is not only a relaxing and enriching activity, it is also a great time to spend with your family, and an excellent gift to give to yourself or a loved one; the gift of knowing how to grow your own food, and the understanding of how the fruits and vegetables grow that we eat every day! This year for the holidays, Semis Urbains proposes offering a gift certificate as a gift to introduce young and old to urban agriculture through a series of workshops to be held in 2019 at our the Verdun Greenhouses.
An Urban Seedling gift certificate as a gift
Offer an Urban Seed Gift certificate (in the amount of your choice) redeemable at our Garden Centre located in Verdun, where you can purchase a wide range of tools and essential items to maintain your garden in addition to our organic seeds. This gift certificate is also be valid to participate in our various workshops held throughout the year at the Verdun Greenhouses.
The certificate offered can be used for the following services :
Series of workshops offered by Urban Seedling in the spring;
Products for sale at our Garden Centre located at the Verdun Greenhouses;
Various vegetable garden creation services, horticulture or edible landscaping services.
Offering agriculture as a gift means offering autonomy!
Creation or improvement of educational gardens, the organisation 100 Degrés invites you to submit your projects!
Are you a school, an early childhood education centre, a community organization, a municipality, a cooperative and you are concerned about strengthening the ties that people in your community have with agriculture and their food? Do you think it is important that they be better equipped to be aware of the value of food and make responsible consumption choices?
With this call for projects, 100 Degrés, in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ), wishes to support projects to create or improve educational gardens. The objective is to promote the learning and experimentation, in the field, of agricultural concepts in order to raise awareness of the value of food among young and old and to help them develop the necessary skills to become consumers capable of making responsible and informed food choices.
The selected projects will be eligible for financial support of up to $15,000. The funding aims to raise awareness among the youth and the not-so-young about food providence, healthy eating, and bring Quebecers closer to agriculture. To learn about the journey from the farm to the plate.
Eligible projects must allow the creation of new educational vegetable gardens, or enhance or offer added value to an existing project.
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Interesting facts about educational gardens:
There are currently 82 educational gardens in Quebec.
A recent study shows that more than 35% of pedagogical gardens are started by teachers or other education professionals, and that the young people who attend them spend about 8% of their time there, or 2 hours per week.
Gardening naturally leads individuals to develop a different relationship with food and to change their eating habits (Burt et al. 2017)
This activity arouses curiosity about the origin of food, how it is produced and how it travels from the land to the plate.
It is an excellent way to reconnect young people and adults to their surroundings, as well as to agriculture, local food, nature and the environment
Who can submit a project?
Non-profit organizations (e. g. day camps, Low income housing, CPE, etc.)
Cooperatives (e. g. food cooperatives, etc.)
Public organizations (e.g., school boards and institutions, CEGEPs and universities, municipalities, youth centres, etc.)
The submitted project must:
Have more than one partner. For example: a partnership with the day camp, community group, CPE, community club or other to have users in the summer when the school is closed
To call upon an expertise, therefore a specialized horticulturist, or an urban agriculture company like ours
A high frequency and intensity of use and a clear educational vocation
The submitted project must be completed by March 31, 2020
The evaluation is based on the following criteria:
Relevance – in relation to a need in the community, i.e. to clearly demonstrate who benefits
Impact – potential for sustainability over several years and with a large number of users
Feasibility – reasonable budget and time frame, with clear expertise included, achieved in 2019
The deadline for submitting your projects is December 7.
As an ambassador for the 100° organization, the co-founder of Semis Urbains, Tereska Gesing, can give you advice on how to submit your projects. Feel free to contact us for more information.
Shocking but true! Here in Montreal there is a risk of frost tonight. Your leafy greens should be fine, but if you want to keep your tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and zucchinis going you should cover them with a floating row cover or old sheet. It’s worth int! The temperature should be going back above 20 degrees by the end of next week, so the season is far from over!
Garlic is here
This year we have Music and Chesnok Red varieties in our greenhouse. If you are done with your garden for the year, you can plant garlic cloves in the garden as you close up the garden. Open up the head of garlic and plant each clove about 6 inches apart, about 1.5 inches deep. If you are keeping your garden going, you can plant your garlic right up until the ground freezes! We are closing up our gardens the last week of October and the first week of November.
Harvesting leafy-greens
If you planted fresh leafy greens at the end of August and the beginning of September, you can start harvesting the larger outer leaves and let the inner leaves grow. Just make sure not to remove more than 30% of the leaves at once. You will be able to harvest fresh greens right up until the end of October.
Harvest party at the Greenhouses
Our harvest party is right around the corner. The Grand Potager, Urban Agriculture Centre invites you to un 5@7 in the Verdun municipal greenhouses! For those who joined us last year you know what this is an event not to be missed. Delicious snacks made from the greens from our urban gardens, will be served along with some drinks. Join us to celebrate our second year and discover the greenhouses. There is a guided tour before hand if you would like details on the Grand Potager Garden Centre.
