Urban Seedling workshops for school

With the “Seed to plate certificate” workshops of Urban Seedling, make your school even greener!

It is a well-known fact that children love getting their hands dirty! With vegetable gardens in their schools, children have an exceptional opportunity to learn where their food comes from while developing an interest in growing fresh vegetables. It offers a chance for participatory education in the context of outdoor activities!

The Urban Seedling workshops offer participating schools a complete service from planning, construction, planting and maintenance of their garden. Through this program, we aim to fully involve students and teachers in workshops that focus on vegetable gardening. In addition, we offer summer maintenance services to keep your garden healthy!

Workshops and customized programs

We can also customize the workshops offered to meet the wants and needs of your establishment, whether by installing indoor growing solutions, offering additional workshops or proposing new workshop ideas (parent-child workshops, workshops for teachers, etc.).

A vegetable garden is a wonderful way to build relationships with the community, between parents and teachers, and between the children themselves.

Our typical workshop curriculum includes:

1. Garden closing and garlic planting – Late October.

2. Biodiversity: Beneficial insects in the ecosystem – Mid November.

3. Composting: Living soils workshop – Mid December.

4. Garden Planning: Kids plan out what to plant in the gardens – Mid February.

5. Seed starting: Kids set up the system and plant seedlings for their gardens – Mid March.

6. Garden planting: Kids plant their seedlings in the gardens outside – Beginning of May

7. Garden planting and Maintenance: Kids plant summer seedlings outside, learn about garden maintenance tasks – Beginning of June.

8. Harvest party: Harvest all of the vegetables in the vegetable garden and make a huge communal salad – Late September.

The order of the workshops can be easily changed depending on when you choose to implement the program in your school.


It’s not over!? – Fall planting service!

We have been getting through our planting and plant delivery service for the fall season. While we do our best to make sure no one is left out it can always happen that a garden may slip through the cracks. If you have a fall planting or plant delivery included in you package and we have not yet contacted you to confirm a date, please get in touch with us at info@urbanseeling.com and we will schedule your garden right away.

We don’t want anyone to miss out on this last season of gardening!

What to plant?

For anyone who is wondering what gets put in the garden at this time of year, I have your answer. Just like in the spring, the veggies that really love the cooler weather are mainly the leafy greens. That’s right! You may think salad season is over, but think again. Kale, Swiss-chard, bok-choy, spinach, and all the other leafy greens love this time of year. You can also seed radishes during these cooler days. It’s not over yet folks!

Harvest!

While planting may not be over, you still need to make sure you harvest as much as you can from your fruiting vegetables that are still producing. We are looking at warmer weather next weekend but you want to make sure you don’t forget about your peppers and tomatoes before the frost comes. Harvesting is as important a maintenance job as weeding and watering but so much more rewarding when you get to literally enjoy eating the fruits of your labour.


Summer heat causing horticultural headaches??

Water! Water! Water!

It’s gotten really hot out there, so while you’re hanging out at the pool or finding other watery ways of keeping cool, don’t forget your hard working plant friends in the garden. They are going to need some extra love with the garden hose at this point of the season.
Can’t be around enough to make sure your garden is hydrated? No problem, you can always use a watering timer to help you out with that.

Plant problems?

Have you noticed brown leathery spots appearing on the bottoms of your tomatoes or peppers? This is called blossom end rot and means there is a calcium deficiency in your soil. Sudden extreme heat and growth spurts can cause your plants to redirect nutrients to the leaves, essentially starving the fruit. Heavy rainfall can also wash the calcium away from plant roots. The solution is simply to add fertilizers that are rich in calcium to replenish the nutrient content of your soil and remove all the affected fruits.

Diatomaceous Earth!

With the hot weather and the productive season of your vegetable garden gaining momentum, you may also begin to see pests that think your lovely healthy plants look pretty tasty. Slugs, snails, aphids, leaf-hoppers and other pesky bugs can be controlled by dusting your plants and soil with diatomaceous earth. It is important to do this during a period of dryness to avoid it being washed away and wasted by rainy days. While this is an excellent natural repellent to damaging insects, it can also keep away insects that are beneficial to the garden, so be sure not to over-use it.


Eat your greens!?

Your garlic needs a moment

This is the time of year that will make or break your garlic bulb’s growth and it will only take about 3 seconds plus some eating time!

Garlic scape

Shown above is a photograph of the garlic flower we need to cut! This curly tail coming out of the top of your garlic is the garlic flower, also called a garlic scape, and it is taking all of the energy of the plant in order to go to seed. We don’t want that, we want to redirect that precious energy to make the bulbs underground grow big and beautiful. At 2 curls you will need to break this off! The best part is that these “garlic scapes” are fresh with green garlic flavour and very delicious to eat. Around this time of year you will notice these for sale all over at local farmers markets! 

Chop these off, eat them fresh or fried. Enjoy!

It’s time to EAT your GREENS!

Things are getting hot out here, this week especially is reaching humidex values of 40 degrees celsius! This means that both you and your garden need to drink lots of water!

Because it is so hot, your spring greens ( ie. lettuce, tatsoi, mizuna, & radish), all will be finishing up their life cycles. Please refer to the video in the title above to get the best tips about how to harvest those loving greens while they are at their best. What’s great about life’s cycle is that once you remove those spring plants this weekend then your summer veggies (ie. aubergine, tomatoes, peppers) can use that free space and nutrition to start producing your summer goods! If your greens have already started flowering, it is important to cut the flower at the base of the stem and Let’s start making those salads!

To learn how to make space for your summer vegetables watch:

Summer plant lovin’ 

As we head into the next summer growing phase, these plants you have growing are high calorie fruit producing plants! This means that they heavily eat a lot of the good stuff that your soil holds in order to live their best life. In order to get the most potential out of these plants you will need to fertilize once in July when the plants need to boost to grow in size and then once again in August when they start to produce flowers to boost the energy for the fruit production.  This is an agricultural essential for getting that healthy and abundant fruit that we want. Here at our Urban Seedling hub, we have stocked up with organic nutrient-rich fertilizers called fish emulsion and algae formula.

Feel free to grab your bikes and come restock when need to! We stock the best for our plant friends. 


Eat your greens!?

Get your summer hoppin’

We have HOPS in the garden center. The hop plant is a vigorous, climbing, herbaceous perennial, usually trained to grow up strings and trellises. They can be used as decorative greenery in your garden, medicinally or as flavoring beer and other beverages as they impart floral, fruity, or citrus flavours and aromas. The two varieties we have in stock at our garden center are the Centennial and Chinook for $20 (tax included) per plant.

Late start? No problem!

We still have tons of plants in the garden center to help you get your garden going for this summer including tomatoespeppers (hot ones too), auberginesstrawberries and many more. We are will also have a fresh shipment of soil for this weekend so we have all you need to get caught up with the planting season.

EAT your GREENS!

If your summer vegetables (peppers, tomatoes, aubergines, etc…) are in your garden already, they will soon need some extra room to grow. Don’t forget to harvest those leafy greens while they are at their best, and so that your summer veggies can start producing. If your greens have already started flowering, it is important to cut the flower at the base of the stem and Let’s start making those salads!

Learn how to make space for your summer vegetables:


Summer is finally here!?

The heat has arrived, let you garden enjoy it.

The good weather has arrived, night temperatures are getting warmer and warmer, summer has officially begun! It’s time to remove your floating coverand let your plants enjoy it!

How to maintain your vegetable garden

It is very important to spend a little time daily or weekly in your garden. The plants are in full growth, which is why it is important to weed your garden, you can do it manually or with a hoe. It is also time to thin your seedlings, for example; your radishes, carrots and beets that you have planted. Every plant needs space and nutrients and any competition prevents them from having access to them properly.

Watering, not to be neglected.

We had a cold and rainy spring, but now that the sun is among us! However, it is important not to forget to water your vegetable garden. To avoid flooding it is very important to touch the soil to check its humidity level before each watering. If it needs water, favour the morning and late evening period, watering in the middle of the day can be lost due to a high evaporation rate and can even create burns on the leaves of plants. You can always opt for automatic irrigation with our irrigation programmer.

New Arrivals in the garden center

For the first time in the history of our garden center, we have received hop plants! In addition, this week marks the official release of summer vegetables. Come visit us in store to see our many varieties and start your summer planting!


Start thinning your root vegetables?

Start thinning your root vegetables

For gardeners that planted early, your root vegetables radish, beets and carrots are starting to sprout. Every plant needs enough space to grow and be happy, this means thinning. Thinning means removing the weak looking sprouts and leaving the strongest looking ones. Carrots and radish need 2 inches (5 cm) and beets need 3 inches (7 cm). To help you better thin your root vegetable check out our video and thinning page for a visual aid and tips

Planting fruiting vegetables

Starting next week temperatures will be above 10 degrees at night, this means that we can start planting fruiting vegetables like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Plants will be available for sale in our garden centre starting next week. Fruiting vegetables should be planted one per square foot. Click here For tips on transplanting your fruiting vegetables into the garden 

Visit our garden centre

If you have not started your garden yet, don’t worry!  Our garden centre is open all weekend 10- 4pm including this holiday Monday from 10-4pm. Come in and consult with our garden centre experts for all your gardening needs. We can help you select all your plant and seeds to get you started gardening.

Urban Agriculture Month continues!

Coming up for Urban Agriculture Month in the Grand Potager: Come and discover how to grow ethnic and rare plants, the mysteries of hops, urbanbeekeeping and learn how to make a successful garden in a low light situation!

 May 22nd – Low-light Gardening: Making it work! with Urban Homestead Montreal – Autosuffisance urbaine Montréal

 May 23rd – Culture du houblon urbain with Montréal Houblonnière and Botaphyte 

 May 26th – Les abeilles et l’apiculture en ville with Rucher Reine Noire

 May 29th – La culture des légumes ethniques et rares with Hamidou Horticulture


It’s Urban Agriculture Month!

Frost in the forecast! Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!

The temperatures are warming slowly but surely but there is still a potential for frosty nights coming up this week. If you have already planted your leafy greens and root vegetables, don’t worry. You can simply tuck them up under a floating row cover to keep the frost from getting to your plants. The row cover will also protect your garden from weed seeds and animals. Row covers let 85% of the sunlight through it so you can leave it over you plants for a week or so.

Planting and transplanting your early vegetables.

Our leafy greens and root vegetable seedlings are ready! You can come find them and lots of other helpful gardening materials and supplies at our garden center. It is also a good time to start thinking of sowing your root vegetable seeds in your garden and transplanting any leafy greens you may have started inside. If you need a little help with this process you can visit our blog for useful tips, come to one of our upcoming workshops with Tereska, or sign up for a garden coaching session with one of our experts.

It’s Urban Agriculture Month!

May is urban agriculture Month at Grand Potager!  A variety of activities are available in the greenhouses. Depending on the events, you can discover mushroom growing in the city as well as learn how to create, plant and maintain your first vegetable garden. Take advantage of the expertise of urbanagriculture specialists during workshops and training sessions!


? Plant today! The leafy vegetables are ready.

Seedlings and fruit at the Garden Centre!

The season is finally launched!

We’re planting leafy and root vegetables outside as of today!

We are very happy to announce that leafy vegetablesherbsedible flowersand even fruit trees and shrubs have finally arrived. The temperature is getting warmer, so you can even start planting them right away to maximize your season. To learn more about early planting, read our article Gardening with the seasons.

Gardening Festival Cultiver Verdun this weekend!

This Saturday May 4th and Sunday May 5th there will be a huge sale of seeds, seedlings, vegetable plants and trees, herbs, flowers and fruits
It’s at Camp Ethel on the roof of the Ethel parking lot – pedestrian access between the Palco and La vie en rose on Wellington!
This Sunday we are giving a free conference on vegetable gardening in urbanareas from 1:15 pm to 2 pm. Come and see us, for the purchase of plants, fertilizers, crop pots and much more!
Special visit – workshop 12:15 Saturday from the Horticulteur extrême Albert Mondor

Changes on the horizon

We want to orient ourselves to better respond to your requests. Please take 3 minutes to complete this survey to help us get to know you better and your gardening habits. You could win a $100 gift certificate for our products or services.
Thank you very much. It is very much appreciated!


Preparing your yard and garden for the spring

Garden Prep Tips

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:

  • Thursday April 25th, 2019 5 PM
  • Sunday May 5th, 2019 11 AM
  • Thursday, May 16th, 2019 6:30 PM
  • Saturday May 25th, 2019 1 PM
  • Thursday, June 6th, 2019 6:30 PM

Visit our website for tickets.


? Caring for your seedlings – upcoming events ?

Reserve your vegetable garden

Seedling care tips

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.

100 degrès conference 

at the Verdun Greenhouses

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!

Earth Day Easter Egg Hunt!

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.


? Seed starting at home – volunteering opportunities

Start your seeds indoors

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!