The Urban Garden: Downtown Toronto 2008

To all those who know and love me I'm at it again! This year I'm trying to utilize my space to it's maximum capacity by trying out Companion Gardening.

What's Companion Gardening you ask?... Well it's a technique where you plant close groupings of veggies, herbs & flowers together. There are two main benefits to this.

1. We get more veggies & herbs into one space by planting companions.

2. Companions are beneficial to each other by attracting the good and warding off the evil. Making it unnecessary to use any sort of pesticides.

I bought a book to help me on my journey called Great Garden Companions by author Sally Jean Cunningham. It's been quite helpful! I've also been doing random internet searches when I come across something I can't find in the book.

Before Pictures of the Garden

My Garden is split up in two sections by a Japanese Maple, a tree stump and some tulips that were in the garden when I moved in.



Ok this is an after picture but I didn't have a before picture with Japanese Maple & Tulips.

I dug the soil and turned it.
Sprinkled about an inch of 3 & 1 mix to replenish nutrients to the soil
Raked it in & started planting





Group 5: Eggplants, Cosmo's & Banana Peppers

May 25, 2008


June 1, 2008



June 9th, 2008


June 17th


Group 4: Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Parsley & Zinnia's

Group 4
Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Parsley & Zinnia's

Diagram
To be added


May 25, 2008


June 1, 2008


June 9th, 2008


June 17th

Group 3: Yellow & Red Bell Peppers, Cosmo's & Marigolds

Group 3
Yellow & Red Bell peppers, Cosmo's & Marigolds

Diagram
To be added


May 25, 2008



June 1, 2008


June 9th, 2008



June 17th


Group 2: Tomatoes & Basil

Group 2
Tomatoes, Borage & Basil

Diagram
To be added

May 25, 2008


Borage will be added to this group when I get my hands on some

June 1, 2008

I added Borage to this grouping in between the Basil.

June 9th, 2008


June 17th

Group 1: Corn, Pole Bean's, Zuchinni, Pumpkin, Buttercup Squash and Marigolds

Group 1
Corn, Pole Beans, Zuchinni, Buttercup Squash, Pumpkin

OK I went a little nuts when planning out the first grouping but I had no idea what I was doing. For now I'm gonna see where it goes but I might end up re arranging it a bit and making it smaller.

The Three Sisters - This is a Native American grouping of Corn, Pole Beans & Squash. Which work well with Marigolds and Nasturtiums (which I haven't been able to find yet)

Diagram (not to scale)


May 25, 2008

I have no idea if this is going to work.
I used string and Bamboo poles to guide me in planting the seeds in strait rows.
After I planted everything I read that corn needs 3 rows to pollinate properly and I only have 2.
The spacing is also smaller than recommended but hey I did what I had to do to get it in the ground. It's all about experimenting and who knows it might turn out!
It wouldn't be the first time I've amazed myself doing something I have no idea how to do.

June 1, 2008

I added Nasturtiums to this bed. Finally I found some.


This is one of the first sprouts to come up from the seeds I've planted.
It's either Corn or Pole Beans.
I'm hoping for the first of the two cause well the corn should reach 4 inches before the beans start to grow so they have a starting point to latch onto.

June 9th, 2008

All the seeds have sprouted and are growing taller every day.

Close up of sprouted plants

June 17th


Close up - The pumpkins are starting to flower and the plants are getting bigger and bigger everyday