Our mission is to cultivate a sacred space to grow, preserve, and protect heirloom and Indigenous seeds in accordance with Rotinonhsyon:ni cosmology, to ensure the availability of healthy, viable seeds for our collective future generations.
The Gardener’s Handbook is a reference guide for home gardeners that provides useful tips on growing vegetables, fruit, ornamental plants and lawns.
Master Gardeners of Ontario Inc. is an independent non-profit charitable organization dedicated to helping home gardeners.
Soil Health
Learn about different soil types and the amendments you can add to improve the structure, drainage and moisture retention of your soil.
A soil amendment is any material added to a soil to improve its physical properties, such as water retention, permeability, water infiltration, drainage, aeration and structure.
Learn the dirt about organic matter, and why it’s important for your garden.
One of the best ways to have a beautiful garden is to build healthy soil. Your plants rely on soil for nutrients, oxygen, water and much more. If your soil isn’t balanced and healthy, your garden won’t have much chance of success.
One of the most important things in gardening is taking care of the soil. It is easy to forget, as we grow in our gardens, that the soil beneath our feet is teeming with life.
It isn’t difficult to build a new garden. Most people start by tilling their soil, digging up some dirt, and putting in a few plants. Then you can add compost or mulch your garden. Before you know it, you’re making good soil for your crops and vegetables. But the success of your garden depends on how healthy your garden soil is.
Do you have a hard, clayey material in your backyard, with which you expect to grow a fecund garden? Or perhaps a sandy soil with no nutrients to offer your much loved plants? Well do not despair, there are ways to improve soils.
Grow on a strong foundation and you’ll produce healthy, nutritious vegetables and beautiful flowers year after year.
Barren…
That was the first word that crossed my mind when I set out to work on my new kitchen garden this year.
It’s right under my laundry room window, and is the perfect spot, considering it gets plenty of southern sunlight and is right next to our new porch.
The first part of the Understanding Soil Nutrients series will be on nitrogen. As vegetable gardeners, nitrogen can play a key factor in whether our vegetables grow successfully or are doomed for failure. Too much nitrogen can mean big, bushy plants that have brilliant foliage, but little or no fruit. Not enough nitrogen causes browning foliage, and plants with stunted growth.
Soil compaction is a global issue that has resulted in reduced crop yields of between 25 and 50 percent in North America and Europe. This problem costs the US economy about US$1.2 billion every year.
Don’t be too quick to blame horrendous-sounding afflictions like “verticillium” and “fusarium” or any other diseases for the sickly yellowing of your pin oak’s or geranium’s leaves. The problem may be that your soil’s pH is out of whack. Every plant has its preferred range of soil acidity, and when the pH level is out of that range, a host of ills may follow. A basic understanding of pH will not only help keep your garden healthy but also assist you if things go bad. Here is what you need to know to make smart decisions about managing your soil’s pH.
The soil pH value is a measure of soil acidity or alkalinity. Soil pH directly affects nutrient availability. The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14, with 7 as neutral. Numbers less than 7 indicate acidity while numbers greater than 7 indicate alkalinity.
The following labs are accredited to perform soil tests for pH, buffer pH, P, K, Mg, Mn index, Zn index and Nitrate-N on Ontario soils.
Gardening is a lot like baking. You need to have the right steps and ingredients to get a good end product. Soil testing is an integral part of the recipe. Knowing what a soil test is, how to take one, and how to interpret the results will make a world of difference in your garden.
Have you ever grown potatoes in your garden? Growing potatoes is fun and not that hard! Home gardeners can grow unique varieties that are not sold in local supermarkets. Potatoes come in all different shapes, sizes and colors.