Category Archives: Gardening

Surviving winter with plant friends

I don’t know where you are in the world, but my neck of the woods has been hit with the worse winter I can remember: snow, extreme cold, rain, snow, icy rain, more extreme cold, and some more snow. Winter is nowhere near finished, yet I’m already daydreaming about summer, and days when the airContinue reading “Surviving winter with plant friends”

Preserving Garlic

A few days ago, we raided out our vegetable patch that we had in Montreal and came home with a ton of garlic. Now, because we have been so busy during the summer, we actually let our garlic in the soil for too long, meaning that it did not have those protective paper-like layers aroundContinue reading “Preserving Garlic”

Urban Agriculture Summer School

Last week, I had the chance to participate to ‘L’école d’été d’agriculture urbaine‘ that is organized every year by the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), the most rebellious of Montreal’s universities. If you are interested in gardening, changing the world, growing your own mushrooms, or taking care of bees, this week is perfect forContinue reading “Urban Agriculture Summer School”

Floramama and beautiful organic flowers

In my ideal world, my house would be filled with flowers all year long, in every room, multiple bouquets per room, in all colors, all the time and for no particular reason but to enjoy them. Flowers are so wonderful in their variety and simple elegance. I feel that adding flowers to any room suddenlyContinue reading “Floramama and beautiful organic flowers”

Kitchen Gardening: The Best Lettuce

A few months ago I presented our aquaponics system. We have been growing and trying different kinds of seeds to see what worked best, and we have recently been quite successful with lettuce. This was quite exciting because we have a lot of trouble growing lettuce from seeds. They always end up being weaklings andContinue reading “Kitchen Gardening: The Best Lettuce”

Gardening on the mountain

Today was the “Corvée du Mont-Royal” which is an event organized every year were people go to our beloved Mount-Royal, pick up trash, write down notes on erosion and tree health and other fun things. Last year, I was really excited about it and wanted to participate with my students. However, since negotiations between teachersContinue reading “Gardening on the mountain”

Blanc de Gris, or how to have a mushroom farm in the city

Last summer I had the chance to visit the urban farm Blanc de Gris which specializes in growing mushrooms. After being a little bit confused by the very urban setting (the farm is in fact situated in an old warehouse), Dominique, one of the co-founder took us around a tour of the “farm”. One word:Continue reading “Blanc de Gris, or how to have a mushroom farm in the city”

Tour: Lufa Farms

Last Saturday, Montreal was under a really cold spell. It was freezing enough that when you went outside, your nose hair (yes, we are at this point in our relationship) froze up! It was the perfect day to go visit the Lufa Farms, and be reminded that someday, the sun would be back and thatContinue reading “Tour: Lufa Farms”

Presenting Aquaponix! (our home aquaponics system)

During the summer, I attended Montréal’s Urban Agriculture School held at UQAM. During a week, I had the chance to participate in workshops, visit urban farms and meet fun and inspiring people. On the last day of the week, we were presented with four different “house farms”. The teams had to come up with aContinue reading “Presenting Aquaponix! (our home aquaponics system)”