Potager Palaver (Tote box mini-greenhouses, the dirty dozen, companion planting, tips and tricks)

Potager style food growing is my absolutely favourite thing. Growing edibles and ornamentals together for a food garden full of colour and beauty.  

Adding herbs and flowers in with your fruits and veggies is not only pretty though, it is also organic pest control aka companion planting'. Attracting beneficial insects to deal with the bad bugs by planting flowers and herbs in the food garden. 

If you are unable to join us at the wee garden shop for the workshop, here are a couple of articles that I have written in the past about growing food with flowers. This one... The 3 Must Have Annual Flowers For Your Organic Vegetable Bed! (thenittygrittypotager.blogspot.com). 

To write this now, I would switch the order of the #2 flower with the #4 flower as I have learned a whole lot more about beneficial insects since I wrote this post in 2014.

... and also this one. This is a great post, if I do say so myself (insert cheeky grin here), about organic pest control. My top 6 ways for a pest free food garden.   

Yikes! Have a look at this list of the Dirty Dozen fruits and veggies from 2021. I did not know that they updated the list each year! This article actually lists the 46 most pesticide sprayed food crops and gives us the clean 15, too. Must say, good thing we are gardeners and growing most of our own foods! Holy, this is scary stuff! I think I need to print this out and put it front and centre on my pin board.   

Want to grow more food but short on space? Grow them in pots and planters instead. Check out how to grow them successfully in containers here... 

Photo from Higgledy Garden. 

Have no greenhouse? The inside of the house getting over-run with seedlings? Not wanting to invest in expensive lighting to avoid stretched out seedlings (I hear ya on this one!)? Check out these clear tote mini greenhouses! 

Want to get started on making your yard a happy, safe eco-system for the pollinators and beneficial insects? Check out this article : ) 4 Easy Steps to Eco-Friendly Landscaping - Attainable Sustainable® (attainable-sustainable.net)

Some super interesting growing information here for us here on the island with droughts every summer. Love the tomato idea. Drought Resistant Crops & Water Wise Techniques for the Veggie Garden (attainable-sustainable.net)

Okay, so these are super duper cute and vey practical. Portable Gardening: Growing Tomatoes, Peppers, and Herbs in Burlap Grow Bags - Garden Therapy

This article... holy moly, so many ideas. Pin it, read bits of it at a time. Each link will take you down a new rabbit hole of information. Fantastic article, I am still working on reading through the all the links as I love reading about gardening and getting new ideas. 45 Ridiculously Simple & Helpful Eco-Beneficial Garden Tips | Empress of Dirt

Are you having a hard time growing peppers? Here are ten growing tips for great peppers. 

Those are the great posts that I found this week. Perfect reading material on this really yucky, cold day. Is snowing here on the island! Big, wet flakes that melt as soon as they hit the ground, but still... cold enough to be snow rather than rain! Brr! 

Wishing you all a really great week. Hoping for sunny, warm weather just around the corner so that we can start direct sowing our greens and flowers. Btw, I sow my zinnias in mid April for blooms from July through October. 

Happy Gardening ~ Tanja