Because I grow tomatoes and butterflies

Summer arrived late this year, but is no less tasty!

And I also grow potatoes, onion, peppers, all sorts of greens and herbs and a bunch of other stuff. Sometimes I actually just let them grow, like the wild raspberries and strawberries we find everywhere in our backyard.

Sometimes I grow plants out of curiosity, like the bee blend flower in one of my planters; out of desire to preserve natural landscaping, like the microclover on our lawn; and sometimes to join my husband in his journey of beer-crafting, like when we planted hops.

Monarch-to-be chomping away our milkweed

This year we got lucky and registered 8 monarch caterpillars in our very tentative, modest milkweed patch. And 2 black swallowtails in one of our many parsley plants. Not too shabby!

It is not without its challenges, though. And it is really an act of devotion to establish a garden as a tiny ecosystem and have it grow to be bountiful and healthy.

We are a suburban family and all this is done in our suburban back and front yards, an hour north from Montreal. Yes, this means Quebec, Canada. This means zone 5A. This means cold most of the time, short and rainy spring and fall and a rather long and hot and humid summer. Challenging conditions you would say. Indeed!

We have to start a lot indoors, we have to be on top of the pests on the garden. Pests can be earwigs, aphids and flea beetles, but also hares and skunks and squirrels.


Then why, one would ask, why do we do this? Other than because it is a lot of fun? 😄

In fact, there is just a little bit more than that. There is the contact with nature, which is something I think we can restore from our manicured pesticide-ridden lawns. Seeing bees, hoverflies, butterflies and ladybugs come back every year is a happy event. One that spells healthy green spaces. But it has also something to do with the lost art of cultivating the earth, rediscovering what food looks like before they reach our table. The tasty tomatoes, the buttery spinach leaves, the creamy carrots. Discovering other nutritious foods such as kohlrabi and sorrel. Eating according to the seasons, buying less from the supermarket and helping to reduce  a tiny bit the footprint on this planet. Helping neighbours to also rediscover those elements and find beauty in natural spaces. Celebrate and share the harvest with them. And luckily raise awareness on the next generation, the one we will leave the planet to.

Living a bit more up north than most places I follow on Youtube and other blogs, it felt that I could also share what I learn. There is a lot more than just comparing agricultural zones. Latitude but also longitude matters. The local ecosystem, the typical weather, the common pests, the beneficial insects and even the tools we can find locally can vary widely. And as the climate changes drastically, many of the recipes and known tricks for gardening passed through generations might have to be changed and rediscovered.We all need to learn again and share again, like our ancestors did. All I hope is to leave a piece of it from my end as a contribution. And have lots and lots of fun in the process!