This year, the infamous 2020, has offered little to cheer about. If years were clouds, this one would be pretty dark. At times like this, it is important to regularly take stock of all things positive in our lives – the silver linings, as it were. So it is with gratitude that we take this moment to recognize the good fortune that BUFCO has enjoyed in 2020....
25 November, 2020 Installations Musings
Like many gardeners I go kicking and screaming into winter. Grey skies, slushy sidewalks and short days without time spent in my lush and colourful garden is a bummer, plain and simple. However, when I bundle up and venture out despite my reluctance, I discover little glimmers of life in the sleeping garden. When I look closely, I find seeds everywhere. And where there are seeds, there is hope! And a reminder that it's seed saving time....
25 November, 2020 In Your Garden
The growing season is winding down with shorter days and cooler temperatures, and our gardens are starting to look a little rough around the edges. It’s time to bring in the final harvests, tidy up, and put away what we can for the winter....
16 October, 2020 In Your Garden
When to harvest? Before the squirrels do! September is upon us and overflowing baskets of garden goodies are everywhere. But harvesting in Zones 5 and 6 is not just an autumn endeavour. It's a season-long process that begins with the first herbs of April, rolls right into asparagus, ramps and cold hardy greens in May, and continues through early summer with the first appearance of heat-loving crops and last year's garlic. By late summer our fridges, counters and cold cellars are crammed with a stunning array of homegrown goodness....
01 September, 2020 In Your Garden
We all know what a home is – a place where you live, raise a family, each, sleep, play, socialize, perhaps work. A homestead is all that and more – it’s also a place where you grow and preserve food, raise animals, make compost, create biodiversity, build for the future, set roots and stay put, reduce consumption, invest in the land, and ultimately, find an ever-deepening relationship with self-sufficiency and independence....
18 March, 2020 In Your Garden
Pollinators range from butterflies, bees, beetles, small mammals, birds and bats that are responsible for facilitating 90% of the pollination of our world’s flowering plants. They may feed off pollen or distribute seeds. These pollinators do a lot of work that benefits humans, as they provide us with fruit, vegetables, nuts, and one half of the world’s oils, fibers and raw materials. They also help prevent soil erosion and increase carbon sequestration. To put it simply, we, and ecosystems in general, depend on them for our very survival....
12 February, 2020 In Your Garden
Whether you use the most sophisticated and expensive in-ground irrigation with the latest tech, or your basic hose and nozzle system, you will need to shut things down for the winter. Not doing so can lead to broken hoses, burst pipes, a lot of waste and potentially great expense....
07 November, 2019 In Your Garden
Autumn is a bittersweet time of year. The days are getting noticeably shorter yet garden-weary plant-lovers can now look forward to a winter rest. But before that can happen there is much to be done before putting your gardens to bed and putting your feet up with a hot toddy. ...
11 October, 2019 In Your Garden
Microgreens are densely seeded edible plants that are harvested and consumed prematurely. Microgreens are a nutritional powerhouse, holding up to 40 times more vitamins and nutrition than their mature counterparts.
Personally, I love how a sprinkle of microgreens can instantly transform my go-to meal of nuked frozen vegetables (don't judge me!) from slimy mush... to a posh affair worthy of the name "salad bowl"....
Question: Why did the chicken cross the road?
Answer: There is no right answer.
Attention garlic lovers! Why buy grocery-store garlic grown half way around the world when you can grow your own right at home? It’s an easy-to-grow, low maintenance crop that produces two harvests - first the edible flower stalk (called a garlic scape) in early June, and then the fat, juicy bulb in late July to early August....
15 August, 2019 In Your Garden
So you’ve harvested all your garlic, and it’s curing in a nice, cool, dry place. Maybe you’re eating some that’s fresh from the ground (I hope so!) And once again, you’re looking at your too-large harvest wondering “what the heck am I going to do with all this garlic!?” There are a few things you can do to make your garlic last, abating that otherwise inevitable “ack! I let it rot!” guilt, the gardeners’ dilemma....
14 August, 2019 Recipes
We've always struggled with powdery mildew at the BUFCO Lab, so when Arlene heard about compost tea, she immediately tried spraying a compost tea concoction on a rosemary plant covered with powdery mildew. Lo-and-behold, the compost tea appeared to reversed the disease. So, when we saw the first signs of powdery mildew on our otherwise prolific tomatoes last month, we knew we had to try applying compost tea....
13 August, 2019 BUFCO Lab
Last month one of BUFCO’s long-standing Toronto clients had us designing and implementing a landscape beyond our normal comfort zone of raised bed installations and edible garden plantings. Removing an array of large, well established and pretty uninspiring ornamental shrubs, establishing three gardens (organic annual edibles, organic perennial edibles, and a pollinator garden), laying a flagstone patio, laying a series of flagstone stepping stones across a huge yard and through the gardens took us happily and excitedly down a new path. And at the end of that path was this Herb Spiral....
19 July, 2019 Installations
Where do you live? Not what town, city or Rural Road, but rather, in a condominium or apartment building? A sprawling ranch house property? Basement rental or a cozy little row home? Or perhaps a mid-town property with average sized yards front and back. Given the opportunity, we can choose where we live. Plants, on the other hand, and particularly those in controlled garden environments, don’t have such options. They’re put in the ground where the gardener wants them to be, and that then is their lot in life....
18 July, 2019 Installations
Tomatoes are relatively easy to grow if you can give them at least five hours of direct sun a day. You will be richly rewarded with an exquisite late summer harvest if you provide a stake to support their growth, feed them well with quality compost and prune them properly. Sound intimidating? It’s not really, once you understand basic tomato plant anatomy....
18 July, 2019 In Your Garden
This summer we're experimenting with brewing compost tea for our plants. In a nutshell, compost tea is a concoction of compost diluted in aerated water. Most home gardeners (and even farmers) don't make enough compost for their gardens/farms. Compost tea is all about stretching the benefits from the compost we have as far as possible by breeding the beneficial microbes in the compost. To do this we need to create the right environment for the microbes to thrive....
16 July, 2019 BUFCO Lab
How early in the season can a vegetable garden be planted? Early!
You might be surprised to learn that there are many vegetables prefer growing in cool weather and actually grow poorly during the summer heat. In honour of our 10th Anniversary I highlight here my top 10 favorite cold hardy veggies that I love to plant in early spring. ...
Amongst many factors, the grade, or slope of your yard is an important consideration in determining the height of your raised garden beds. ...
15 April, 2019 Installations
