Covid19 isolation guidelines have really impacted everyone’s way of life. People are working from home more, children are being homeschooled, people are forced to cook their own meals and meal planning has gained significant importance. All these changes coupled with the arrival of spring have many people thinking about starting a garden. But starting a garden can feel overwhelming and some may simply not know where to start. So here are 8 basic tips to help you get started whether you plan on having raised beds in your yard or just having a few planters on your apartment balcony.
1 – Determine your last frost date – The last frost date is the average date of the last light freeze you can expect in spring. It’s based on historical data for your area and varies based on region. To find your last frost date, you can go to the Farmer’s Almanac website. It’s important to know your last frost date as it will determine when you can plant what.
2 – What to plant before the last frost date – The last frost date indicates the last day for a light freeze. This means that many hardy vegetables can be planted before your last frost date. Also, if you are starting from seed, seeds are not necessarily impacted by a light freeze (although some may not germinate if the ground is too cold). So here is a small list of common vegetables that you can plant from seed (i.e. direct sow) well before your area’s last frost date: kale, spinach, beets, carrots, broccolini and Swiss chard.
3 – What to plant after the last frost date – Assuming that you don’t have a green house, you will want to wait before planting more delicate vegetables. This includes tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, beans, snow peas and green onions.
4 – What to start indoors – for urban gardeners and people living in small spaces without access to great sunlight, I do not recommend starting seedlings indoors. It is messy, cumbersome, costly (you will need to buy supplies) and can take up a lot of space. Furthermore, for many of my Toronto peeps who want to plant veggies like tomatoes and peppers that need to be seeded 8 weeks prior to your last frost date, you are already too late! I would recommend focusing on planting hardy vegetable seeds outside and wait till May to purchase your more delicate seedlings from your local garden centre. I know that Covid19 makes getting access to seedlings more complicated, however I have seen many garden centres adjusting their practices to service their clients. Even at Blind Pig Farm, I often buy my tomato seedlings and don’t start them myself. However, if you are still determined to start planting indoors consider planting cucumbers, zucchinis and other squash as they need to be started indoors only 4 weeks before the last frost date, so you still have time!
5 – Pruning, staking and trellising – This is probably the thing that most new gardeners get wrong. Once you have planted your seedlings, they do require ongoing care as they grow. For plants like tomatoes and peppers, you need to stake 
them and prune them as they grow. This means that you need to provide each plant with a stake to keep them from toppling over. You can usually go with a shorter stake for peppers (and sometimes no stake at all) however I would recommend a 7 foot stake for tomatoes particularly grape or cherry tomato plants. And remember, as the plants grow, you will have to continuously go back and tie the tops to the stake. You also need to prune some veggies. Tomato plants produce ‘suckers’ as they grow. These are off shoots that will often produce more foliage but not much fruit. These ‘suckers’ need to be constantly pruned. It might sound complicated but it’s not. There are great YouTube videos that you can reference. Here is one that I found useful – Tomato Pruning Video. For peppers, pruning keeps the plants shorter and bushier which limits the need for staking and increases production. To be honest, I don’t often prune my peppers but I will certainly do it this year. Here is a helpful video for peppers – Pepper Pruning Video. Finally, trellising… this applies to many cucumbers, snow/snap peas and some beans. These plants grow like vines and need somewhere to go. You can buy a trellis or simply make one. I usually put a couple of wood stakes in the ground and then attach metal or plastic netting across them. It works great. If you don’t want to bother with trellising but still want to grow cucumbers and beans, you can look for varieties that don’t need trellising like bush cucumbers and bush beans.
6 – Watering and spacing – Keeping the ground moist but not drenched is very important for seeds and seedlings. Keep a constant eye on them. As the plants grow, you need to monitor your watering as overwatering can promote bacteria and fungus growth. Spacing vegetables adequately at planting or thinning post-planting (simply plucking some seedlings out to control crowding – I thin my kale, salad greens, beets, radishes to name a few) are also key to minimizing problems and promote plant health. Also, for vegetables like tomatoes, you need to avoid getting the plant leaves wet. Water them close to the root and avoid sprinklers. I also follow this general rule for my cucumbers, peppers, eggplants and squash. Watering and spacing information can easily be found online from different seed companies. I recommend using the West Coast Seeds website.
7 – Container gardening – Although it may be obvious to some, if you are planting in containers (that includes starting seedlings indoors) make sure to buy POTTING mix. Potting mix is a combination of different mediums that minimizes compaction, provides good drainage and good moisture control.
8 – Row Covers – I would consider investing in some row covers. These are material covers that you can use to protect your 
plants in case of unexpected frost, protect seedings from wind damage and protect against bugs all while allowing rain and some sun to get through. I use them a lot at the farm to protect my early plantings ( I currently have my kale, spinach and beets covered – for context, we also had snow the last two days!) You can find these covers at many garden centres and even online on Amazon. I sometimes buy the thinner covers and double them up if the weather gets too cold.
This is certainly not a complete guide. It’s more a collection of key observations and experiences collected over the last 4 years of growing vegetables in Ontario. It’s the information that I would share with friends looking to start a garden for the first time. I hope these tips help you get started! For more information, here are some websites I recommend:
West Coast Seeds – https://www.westcoastseeds.com/
Johnny’s Selected Seed – https://www.johnnyseeds.com/
Vegetable Academy – Urban farmers based in Saskatchewan with great information for urban gardeners in cool climates – https://www.vegetableacademy.com/
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