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Before the severe cold and damp of winter arrive, it's a good idea to take a couple of steps to care for garden tools. With a bit of simple care, you can extend the life of a garden hose or hoe by years. We have assembled some tidbits of advice here, but would love to hear any other ideas from our legions of gardening friends. Please feel free to add a response to this article.
Irrigation - Most importantly, don't let water freeze inside your irrigation tools. Hoses should not be left attached to outdoor spigots during freezing temperatures. Instead, detach your hoses, and run them over a fence, ladder, or other tall object to drain as much water as possible, and wind the empty hoses into tidy coils. Nozzles and sprayers should be detached and broght indoors, or into the garage or tool shed, so that wate
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All gardeners need to understand how to work with first and last average frost dates. Keeping these dates in mind provides a very good idea of how early to plant different kinds of seeds, and how long to expect a growing season to last. All vegetables take a certain amount of time to mature before they are ready to harvest, so it’s crucial to provide that time. You don’t want to sow tomato seeds in July, because they take several days (or weeks) to germinate, and the plants will not be mature enough to begin flowering for at least a month after that. By the time the first fruits are ripening, the weather will begin cooling down, which is no good for tomatoes.
What is frost?
As air temperature cools after the sun goes down, there is a certain point at which water vapor in humid air condenses into liquid water, and comes out of the atmosphere onto solid surfaces. This is known as the dew poin
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It can be easy to grow vegetables over winter if you equip yourself with the right gear. Outdoors, we use cloche protection, row cover, and mulches to insulate the soil and keep frost off plants. And we choose the hardiest varieties of plants that can deal with the low light levels, short days, and cold growing conditions.
Indoor gardening can be a challenge, the main challenge in growing food plants (at any time of year) is supplying adequate light. If you can achieve this, the range of plants you can grow is really up to your imagination – and determination. Indoor gardens are in many ways much simpler and easy to control due to lack of uncontrollable factors that may inihibit or contribute to your success.
Light, of course, is central to the process of photosynthesis. Proteins inside the tissues of plants contain chlorophyll, which uses light energy to turn carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into organic compounds, including s
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What constitutes spring, exactly? Is it a date on the calendar, or is it a change in the weather? Does spring begin when the Forsythia blooms? What the heck is an equinox? How should a gardener truly decide when it’s the right time to plant seeds?
If you’re a literal-minded person, you might consider the spring equinox (or vernal equinox) to mark the onset of spring. From this point of view, spring will commence at 11:21pm on March 20 th this year. We can say it’s precisely that time because the equinox occurs at an exact moment, and not over a period of days. All winter, the northern hemisphere has been tilted slightly away from the sun. As summer approaches, the tilt changes so the north half of the planet tilts slightly towards the sun. The equinox occurs when Earth’s tilt is neither toward nor away from the sun. If you lived on the equator, the sun would appear to be directly overhead at this time of year. At noon, you would cast almo
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Climate Zones offer general guidance to the kinds of plants that will succeed in your area. The warmer your climate, the higher the number of the Zone you live in. Zones are affected by altitude, exposure to open water, and also protection from the elements. Microclimates like English Bay in Vancouver can provide enough protection to grow palm trees. However, neighbours on a hilly street in North Vancouver may find themselves in different Zones.
The figures below offer a general guide to determining your Zone. Think of the minimum winter temperature in your area in a typical year.
Coldest Temperature in your local region = Your Zone
Below -45°C (-49°F) – Zone 0
-45°C (-49°F) – Zone 1
-45 to -40°C (-49 to -40°F) – Zone 2
-40 to -35°C (-40 to -31°F) – Zone 3
-35 to -29°C (-31 to -20°F) – Zone 4
-29 to-23°C (-20 to -9°F) – Z
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