TORONTO – The Victoria Day long weekend marks the start of gardening season for many, and for those on a budget, it’s a chance to plant vegetable seeds or plants that can help with grocery bills for years to come.
Gardening/weather expert Frank Ferragine, a.k.a. Frankie Flowers of “Breakfast Television Toronto,” says his No. 1 recommendation for veggies that will produce a big bounty for a good price is the tomato.
“The best one to do for that is called the Early Girl and I would recommend the Early Girl bush variety, so then it won’t take up a lot of space,” he says.
“Then swiss chard. It’s super cheap, easy to grow from seed or you can buy it as a plant; every time you cut it, it’s going to sprout back again, so you don’t have to do multiple plantings.”
Ferragine provides a wealth of gardening advice in his new book, “Food to Grow: A simple, no-fail guide to growing your own vegetables, fruits and herbs.”
His other budget-friendly veggie recommendations include kale, which can be harvested well into December and sweetens in flavour as it gets colder.
“The side shoots are really easy to harvest and you can do long durations of harvest,” he says.
“Word of warning is, after it gets real cold and if we go through a warm spell, there’s nothing worse than the smell of rotting kale. So if it’s at the front entrance of your home … you just pull it.”
For something quick to harvest, try radishes or spinach.
“Those are an early crop, so you can even group those together,” says Ferragine, who also appears on “CityLine” and “CityNews” and has written for various publications.
“Even if you don’t have a lot of space — and let’s say you have a perennial garden — you could sow some spinach and radishes in a perennial garden and then harvest them before the perennials grow into that space.”
He also recommends herbs, which provide multiple harvests. Parsley in particular is easy to grow and can be used for many dishes like taboules.
“The No. 1 failure is that people put them in too small of a pot,” says Ferragine.
For apartment/condo dwellers, he recommends grouping four or five herbs used most often into at least a 10-inch pot with ample drainage.
“The No. 1 thing is the sun,” he says. “The more sun you have, the better it’s going to be.”
Spinach, lettuces, tomatoes, peppers, bush beans and scarlet runner beans are also great for balconies.
As for cauliflower, which soared in price a few months ago, it’s not difficult to grow but it does take up space and requires summer maintenance.
“In order for the cauliflower to remain white, you have to take the leaves, bunch them together and tie them with an elastic and that’s what keeps them white,” he says.
The one item he doesn’t recommend growing in a city is corn, which restricts light, attracts raccoons and is often locally grown and readily available at an affordable cost anyway.
Ferragine says the key is taking the time to figure out: “What do I eat and what do I eat a lot of?” Then it’s drafting a plan with the hard-fixed costs.
“A lot of people want to save their own money by growing a vegetable garden and you can, but I say it’s kind of like an RRSP where it’s kind of a long-haul,” he says.
“So the first year when you go and you build that garden, there’s going to be some upfront costs…. The second and third year is where you really start saving money.”
