Companion Planting and Our Porch/ Container Garden (& a little bit of a catch-up...my discovery of Urban Agriculture)

So lately I’ve been getting really interested in gardening, as a part of learning about and beginning to practice more-sustainable living...looking at it and using it as a way to be more self-sufficient, as a way to save money, to connect with plants, earth, and just for the simple pleasure of watching things grow. After finding out about a growing Urban Agriculture/ Urban Gardening culture in Montreal, and attending several related events and workshops, I decided to start my own little porch-garden.

The first I heard of Urban Agriculture in Montreal (I’m living in Montreal now) was when my Mom discovered and told me about the fairly new (and super-awesome) Lufa Farms, an urban-farming operation that has built a greenhouse on the roof of an existing office building in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville quartier of Montreal. They grow all sorts of interesting varieties of organic vegetables and herbs, and if you live in Montreal you can sign up for a weekly basket of amazing and highly-local produce from them, supplemented with produce from other local organic Quebec farmers.

A few months later, I heard about the Concordia City Farm School, which really got me excited. It is a very new program (this is the first full year of its operation). The school is a combination greenhouse and outdoor garden where students learn all about the ins and outs of organic gardening. The course runs from March to October, from seedlings to harvest! I would love to take this course. Through the Concordia Greenhouse newsletter I have found out about a plethora of interesting workshops and gardening goings-on in this city.

For example, several weeks ago I attended a ‘Horticulture 101’ workshop organized through the Alternatives Rooftop Gardens Project, which I found through the Greenhouse newsletter. The workshop took place at the Alternatives HQ on Avenue Parc here in Montreal; it was great for a super-beginner gardener like me: I learned all about the basics of soil and composting, and some things about container gardening, and the inspiration to just do it, no matter what your space is like! I think the most important thing I learned in that workshop was the importance of good, healthy soil. “You feed the soil, not the plants!” our instructor said. If you have healthy, well-balanced soil, you will have healthy plants. And compost is key apparently!

About a week ago, I went to a Companion Planting workshop at the Concordia Loyola Campus Garden. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we sat outside under a large tree near the garden and learned a bit about companion planting, and then we did some planting ourselves! (Or, in my case, watched others doing the planting and took notes.)

Some notes and diagrams from the workshop

I’d like to elaborate on this subject a little, give some examples of what companion planting can mean, because I used some of the ideas and principles in making my own garden.

Companion planting is all about knowing and observing what plants have to offer (to other plants), and in what ways they could use some help or support in your garden—in what ways other plants may be able to benefit them. These factors are dependant too on the climate or area they are being planted in: it’s helpful to observe how much wind, sun, shade a given area has, what the soil is like (too wet? Very sandy?) and then plan accordingly how you can set up your garden so that all of your plants can thrive.

Here are some neat ways companion planting is used:

·         Plants can used to support other plants, quite literally sometimes, as a stake for them to grow up against or to curl around, OR plants can act as a windbreak for small or weaker plants.

·         Certain plants, like the dense, low-to-the-ground Sweet Alyssum, can be used as a living mulch—that is, a plant that covers the soil effectively, eliminating the need for an external mulch to be added. Mulches, and living mulches, protect the soil around other plants, mainly through helping to retain water in the soil, and releasing it slowly to the roots of surrounding plants.

·     The Three Sisters combine both of these ideas...

·         Some plants—like, allegedly, tomato and basil—can be grown in close proximity to improve flavour and growth! (Basil does this for tomatoes apparently.) It’s interesting how veggies and herbs that you normally eat together usually are ‘companions’ in the garden as well.

·         Flowering plants are used in a number of ways. To attract pollinators, OR to disguise the smell of other plants – to confuse potential animal or insect predators of your precious produce! Others, like the marigold, actually repel a number of troublesome pests. Apparently Marigolds are a classic in companion planting...they can be used throughout the garden to benefit many plants.

·         Some plants will bring in the predators of pests that plague another plant.

·         Plants can shade other plants, simply by the nature of their shape, OR if you place a trellis (in a curve usually) over a bed of something you want to be partially shaded, and plant some kind of vine to grow over the trellis, anything from morning glories to cucumbers.

·         Some plants can help prevent disease in other plants: in the workshop we learned that Ash planted throughout a Maple forest will act as a natural antibiotic for the Maple trees.

·         Certain plants are used as “sacrificial plants”....to draw all of the pests away from your ‘more valuable plants’.

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I had hoped to spend very little money on this garden, by finding most of what we needed, but in the end I opted for buying 4 large buckets from the hardware store, and drilling holes in the bottom. I was really happy about finding a big wooden drawer in an alleyway...there were others but the one we took was the only one in good-enough shape to be used as a planting box. We drilled holes in the bottom of this guy too but did not line it...on second thought maybe we should have?? Oh well.

We bought some soil, and the compost we added to each container was free – we were able to get a bunch through Eco-Quartier (an organization in Montreal that—in their own words—“encourages Montrealers to improve the quality of their living spaces and reduce the environmental impact of their way of life”. I had put out a query on craigslist looking for compost, and someone got back to me saying that Eco-Quartier would be giving out free compost and various plants in a bunch of locations, in each quartier in Montreal. So, I went out early one Saturday morning, and with highly broken French managed to get a bag of compost, 3 echinacea plants and a mint plant for free, and also bought 2 tomato plants, a “spacemaster” cucumber plant and chives from my community garden).

With a little research of my own into companion planting for the specific plants I had waiting to be put into beds, I came up with a planting plan!

The "Master Plan"!

In the buckets:

1)      Cucumber, oregano, lettuce

2)      Tomato, chives, parsley, lettuce (lettuce was added later, after this shot)

3)      Tomato, basil, lettuce

4)      Strawberry, thyme, lettuce

In the drawer/ box:

Sage, Rosemary, 3 Echinacea plants, Coriander, Mint, and Arugula.

The rest of the plants not acquired at the Eco-Quartier gathering I bought from Atwater Market, though I’d love to do it all from seed next year, way cheaper...and I think more fulfilling!

 I have to say I was so pleasantly surprised at the taste of the Arugula. I’ve only ever had arugula from the grocery store, and always found it very bitter and not very interesting. I had acquired the Arugula mostly for my boyfriend, who, when asked, said he’d be really into seeing Radishes and Arugula growing in our garden. I wasn’t expecting much, but when I tasted this Arugula, it was so...good! So nutty, so delicious!! I couldn’t believe it. I’m excited to have a porch-arugula salad soon.

It’s so fun having all those plants just outside the door, and to monitor their growth each day.

Urban Agriculture is to me very new and exciting, and has so much potential to help heal our bodies, our cities and our world. It seems like a beacon of hope, a way to a bright future where cities can thrive with greenery and self-sufficiency.

I hope I can inspire some people to start similar projects, as I have been inspired. I’m always excited to see urban gardening going on here, and it seems the more I look for it in this city, the more there is to find and discover.

All our lovely conatiners together!

I call this "Peter in the Garden".

I love our vines!

Our Morning Glories. Sprouted these guys from seed. Found that trellis on the side of the road.

Peter's little tree! This little guy has been growing and growing so much lately. Loving the outdoors, the new big pot, and all the attention and love from us, I suspect!

Do you have an urban food garden, or perhaps looking to put one together?