Live the Garden Life!

Eric & Ines
Feb 8, 2023
3 min read

Updated: Apr 24, 2025

Live the garden life! We know it is probably a little bit weird to hear this statement at this time of the year. But it is not only going to be the new name for the ‘Year of the Garden 2022’ program for the years to come, organized by the Canadian Garden Council, but it’s also our own motto.

You might want to say ‘But it's midwinter and not really time to garden.' We know, everything outside is covered in a thick blanket of snow and ice and the only vegetable gardeners that have something to do right now seem to be the ones that grow indoors or have a greenhouse and grow cold season crops under cover. And still, not only those gardeners should garden right now. If you are planning to grow your own veggies and herbs in the season to come, you need to get out of hibernation and start planning your garden. New seed catalogues have been published almost every day since the end of last year for a good reason. The pressing task at hand for any gardener right now is: placing your seed order. You never know how long processing times and shipping will take and before you know it, it is mid-February and time to start the first seeds indoors. If you are a novice in this field and you have no idea where to start ordering seeds, there are a lot of wonderful Canadian seed companies out there. There are the big ones like ‘Vesey’s’ and ‘West Coast Seeds’ and our local ones ‘Great’s Family Gardens’ and ‘Gaia Organic Seeds’, both located in Ottawa.

TIPP: For everyone that can't wait to grow greens until spring, start cress today and harvest next week (see picture below). Very easy and fast indoor growing on your windowsill!

Time flies by quickly when you’re busy with life and it’s easy to lose track of time. We’ve seen big vegetable garden dreams put to a halt, because it has been forgotten to order seeds early enough and then the ideal time to start those seeds has been missed.

That’s kind of discouraging and it might put you off gardening for the whole year. Since life is so busy, we all need reminders that keep us on track following our dreams. This is why we created our first kitchen gardening calendar for 2023. We want to help you to grow your vegetable garden successfully this year. From the right time to plan and to get your equipment ready till the ideal time to sow different varieties of seeds – we covered all of these topics based on our unique climatic conditions of Eastern Ontario. No matter if you live in Ottawa, Hawkesbury, Cornwall, Montréal or anywhere in between, you will find advice for the right time to start your peppers, tomatoes and melons indoors as well as when to start sowing carrots directly and transplanting cucumbers outdoors. The ‘Garden to Kitchen’ calendar is a real hands-on guide for beginner and experienced vegetable gardeners in Eastern Ontario.