Suddenly December is upon us and yet your garlic is still not planted. You panic. “Is it too late to plant it? Have I missed the chance to get a garlic harvest next summer?!”

These aren’t hacks. This is a practical, frugal list of ways to garden. Ontario’s continuous lockdowns to counter Covid have caused supply shortages, price inflations and access inequalities amongst residents of Toronto. Gardening does not need to be only for the affluent and land owners. There are many ways to garden on a budget utilizing things you and your community already have access to.

Time is the most limited resource. You want gardening to be fun, not another task on your already full plate. Taking the path of least resistance or easing into a new activity can help you stay the course and eventually level up your skills. Be kind to yourself and try out some of the easiest to grow vegetables when first jumping into gardening.

Strawberries are a ‘gateway plant’ for getting kids to garden. If you plant them, they will come, and snack, and snack and snack. So having just a basket of strawberry plants is not enough. How can you avoid the ‘dirty dozen’ woes of supermarket strawberries and get your own harvestable crop fast, cheap and easily?

The fear and overwhelm is real! There are so many details that go into gardening. You can spend a lifetime and never learn all there is to know. But you know what you can do? Start! And we’ll show you how!

Trying to fit an additional activity into your schedule is hard, but putting aside an entire day or weekend as a parent feels nearly impossible. Before you spend an entire weekend planting all your carefully tended seedlings into the garden and then need another weekend to recover, consider these three factors.

You’ve likely seen them. The colourful, cheery hack videos showing how you can sprout, regrow or collect seeds from grocery store produce. It seems like an “Aha!” moment for many parents looking to get their kids into gardening while saving some money. Here is why I recommend you avoid this trend.