After the mad rush of spring planting and garden maintenance, it is a relief to take a more leisurely, yet studied approach to the perennial garden during the month of June. June is the perfect time to purchase and plant perennials. In June, the garden centre will feature larger, more mature, flowering plants than often are available during the spring. …
You Can Grow Hops – Prairie Gardens
Alberta has the perfect climate to grow Hops! You can grow your own Hops to make your own delicious beer! And they are beautiful vines in your garden! Highly decorative, fast growing, trouble free, and cold hardy, hops provide a dual purpose interest to gardens that few other plants do. Create a privacy screen, and use them to brew your …
CSA 2021 – A Word from Farmer Tam
The Long Haul Farmer Tam’s Blog January, 2021 Seven acres of broccoli is a lot of broccoli. A lot to harvest. Ambitious and naïve. It was 1987 and our first year of growing vegetables on a large scale. We had decided that our twenty five acre farm should be able to support us with a living wage by growing food …
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS 2020
Safety Measures and Guidelines We have put some adjustments in place for the health and safety of our staff, visitors, and animals. These modifications are designed to comply with public health orders and guidelines. Before You Visit Please do not visit the farm: If you have travelled within the last 14 days If you have been in contact with anyone …
Ready to Rot?: An Introduction to Compost- Mackenzie Martins
The word compost comes from the latin com meaning “together” and post meaning “to bring”. It is the bringing together of organic matter into a process of decomposition, which produces a soil conditioner rich in nutrients. From home gardeners to small scale farms like Prairie Gardens, composting is one of the best things we can do for our plants and …
Unforeseen Moments on the Farm- Kaitlin Baronas
When I arrived at Prairie Gardens, just over two months ago now, I didn’t think many things would be different. I have lived in rural farming country my entire life and so when I got the apprenticeship here in Bon Accord, Alberta I thought the weeds would be weeds, the soil normal, the weather similar if not colder in the …
It’s All About the Stinging Nettle – Eric Shapiro
On the seventh day of my apprenticeship at Prairie Gardens, I, along with Mackenzie, another apprentice, were told to collect some stinging nettle. Wear gloves, they said. I guess stinging nettle hurts, I thought. That should give you an idea of how much I knew about stinging nettle, in other words, pretty much nothing. I’d vaguely heard of the name …
2020 CSA – Farmer Tam’s Garden Report
Hello everyone! Just a Note to say how much we appreciate your support this year! We have planted over 25 acres of vegetable gardens this spring! It has been an exceptionally busy spring, as we work within COVID protocols, with reduced staff and lots of rain! We are very proud to say that almost everything is in the ground and …
Farmer Tam’s CSA Welcome Essay – [Now that it’s rained – I have time to write!]
The Sense of Place. (You are Home in a world of Change). I have lived on my farm for 36 years. It’s a farm to care for and worry over, to love and to grow. Memories, stories and images and tears and futures and pasts and visions and dreams exist here. My heart is here. My land is here. My …
