Many beekeepers in Newfoundland and Labrador sell honey, wax candles, propolis, balm, and other products. Although not formally certified organic, these products are free of the miticides and antibiotics used in Mainland North America to combat a number of pathogens, pests and diseases. We expect, too, that traces of pesticides are minimal given the lack of widespread industrial agriculture in the province. Find your friendly local beekeeper HERE.

This father and son duo are cultivating local veggies on the rocky North Atlantic coast. Read about it HERE.

All my family is here in St. John’s, so we are actually from town. One time I was in a taxi cab in Seattle and the driver said, “Oh Newfoundland, I know Newfoundland, what part of Newfoundland are you from?” and when I responded that I was from St John’s, the American cab driver said “Oh a real live townie.” So yeah, that’s me, and that’s my son, real live townies! We didn’t have a garden when I was growing up. We didn’t garden with my grandparents or parents. We just went to

The cucurbit family includes plants that are among the most useful food plants domesticated and cultivated by humans. This large family of inter-related species includes cucumbers, squash, citron, melons and hundreds of wild species, that are not cultivated by us for food. The Cucurbitae are also known as the Gourd Family. They are vining plants that produce flat seeds enclosed in a large fleshy body. The family includes 975 species of food and ornamental plants, native to bo

Members of the botanical family known as the Leguminosae were among the very first plants domesticated by humans. Members of this family appear as tended crops as early as 6000 BCE. Beans, peas and other legumes are among the most nutritious plant foods, especially for people who cannot or do not eat meat or fish. They are rich in protein and the amino acids they contain are a perfect complement for those found in grains. They have been identified as the first crops found at

In exchanges that take place on the various local Facebook gardening pages, a common question is “Is this a weed?” and “How do I kill it?” Those questions speak volumes about our lack of understanding of the ecological relationships in our gardens and our ignorance of the value of plants we do not plant ourselves, as food, medicine and restorers of the soil. The plants that spring up wherever soil is disturbed or degraded have a job to do: they restore soil fertility. Tenacio

The practice of Permaculture may be familiar to some, but to many it’s a foreign concept that means very little. I have heard it simply described as a break down of the word itself into quite literally ‘permanent culture’. While this hints at one aspect of Permaculture, it does not do justice to the practice as a whole in the same way Aquaculture does not simply mean farming in water. Frankly, there is just more to it than that. I came across Permaculture around 8 years ago a

Merv Wilkinson, who lived near Merville, British Columbia was an amazing and inspiring man. During the decades he lived there, he continuously hand logged his 77 acres with horses, thinning trees and making the forest healthier but never stripping off the forest cover. This is the opposite of clear cutting and demonstrated a sustainable approach to forest management. We talk of not seeing the forest for the trees; we also seem to not see the trees, if we believe the forest is

Soil Preparation and Planting Plant garlic cloves in October or 4 weeks before the first frost. This time allows the roots to develop before the long winter’s rest. Our NL soil is acidic with a pH level of 4-4.5. Garlic prefers a less acidic soil, more neutral soil of pH 6.5. The addition of pelletized limestone and kelp to the soil will raise the pH. Planting garlic in raised beds or in raised soil rows will make the task of weeding more efficient and enjoyable. These method

As a gardener and in the garden workshops I have been leading over the past eight years, I often hear people ask questions about dirt, meaning the ground in which we grow food. But if you call what is below our feet “ground,” the traditional term here in Newfoundland, or “dirt” as many still do, you are contributing to a dangerous illusion. Why is this an illusion? Well, in our ignorant bland labelling of pieces of the world (reinforced by the basic structure of English and m