The year 2024 has likely been the most challenging yet. While the gardening season in 2023 was difficult due to rough weather, 2024 has posed health challenges. I wasn't even sure if we would have a garden in the spring. Looking back, I think we should have kept our gardening efforts to a minimum. ...
Preparing the Garden for Winter in a Cold Climate
Preparing the garden for winter in a cold climate is essential for the soil and perennial plants. Since we are in Zone 3, winter temperatures can drop to -40 degrees. Although this extreme cold doesn't happen often in our area, it can occur after a warm spell when most snow melts. Therefore, ...
Repairing a Geodesic Dome Greenhouse
One of the advantages of a geodesic dome greenhouse is that it can be easily constructed. However, this also comes with a weakness, as it requires regular maintenance and repairs. The dome is built using struts that are typically 1-2 inches thick and 2-4 inches wide, which can be susceptible to rot. ...
Using rocks to build raised beds and borders in the garden
Building raised garden beds and creating pathways and borders helps us to get the most out of a small urban garden space. There are many different materials to choose from. Today, we are looking into the pros and cons of using rocks to build raised beds and borders in the garden. Why use ...
Growing Aronia and Goji Berries in an Urban Garden
Growing berries in an urban cold-climate garden is a great idea, we have grown many of them. When it comes to the antioxidant scale, two stand out as superberries, scoring up to 10 times higher than the rest of the delicious berries that can be grown. These two are Aronia and Goji Berries. If space ...
Ten Years Yard-to-Garden Initiative Update
After ten years of our yard-to-garden initiative, we are evaluating what has been successful and what may need to be changed. We are discussing an urban yard in Alberta, Canada, which is in growing zone 3. We are applying permaculture principles, cultivating annuals and perennials in a somewhat wild ...
Simple DIY Solar Food Dehydrator
Dehydrating food is a great method for preserving it, especially in our sunny climate, where it makes sense to utilize solar energy for this purpose. A simple DIY solar food dehydrator does the job beautifully. In this blog article, we share how we built one. Material needed A recycled window (in ...
Growing raspberries in a cold climate
Raspberries are one of my favorite berries. Growing raspberries in a cold climate is not difficult, because raspberries are quite hardy. Caring for the raspberry patch was one of the first tasks I learned in my childhood on my parent's homestead. If you did not have the opportunity to learn ...
5 Ways to Preserve Vegetables, Fruit, and Herbs
Food preservation is essential when living in a cold climate with a short growing season. To eat homegrown food all year round, we must store it away. Here are five ways to preserve food that we use. These are the five ways to preserve vegetables, fruit, and herbs. Long-term food ...
What to do with a garden overgrown with weeds
There are great intentions to grow a large vegetable garden in early spring. However, life can get in the way, and before you know it, seeds and weeds are happily growing together. This can happen to the best of us for various reasons. The pictures in this blog post are real and feature our country ...
