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Preparing your Quebec vegetable garden for winter: a step towards the coming season

Autumn has well and truly settled in the inhabited world. The mornings are cool, frost sometimes sparkles on the last leaves, and the garden gently enters its great rest.
If you have a vegetable garden, it's probably the end of the harvest: the last summer vegetables have gone into the warmth and the dried herbs are waiting their turn in the kitchen.

But the gardener's work doesn't stop there. In this transitional season, preparations are already underway for the next: wintering the vegetable garden gives the soil the time and conditions to regenerate.

Living soil: the secret to vigorous growth.

Did you know that the key to healthy vegetables and bountiful harvests lies beneath your feet? Living soil, teeming with life, is essential to nourishing, protecting, and strengthening your crops. With living soil, it’s easy to recreate these natural conditions, giving your plants everything they need to thrive, from germination to harvest.

Finding the perfect gift for a gardening enthusiast or nature lover

The festivities are approaching and it's time to think about gifts that will please your loved ones who are passionate about gardening and nature. Whether you are looking for a gift for a special occasion or for festive moments, you will find here ideas that combine practicality, respect for the environment and love of nature.

Growing Vegetables Indoors: Tips for Gardening in Any Season

When temperatures drop, there's nothing like continuing your gardening indoors to keep a patch of greenery. Growing vegetables indoors is both possible and fun. While you're not looking to get super-yields, these small crops are perfect for adding freshness to your dishes while enjoying the pleasure of gardening!

Guylaine's Homemade Mexican Salsa

When the season is in full swing, Guylaine likes to transform the vegetables from her garden into a homemade salsa full of character. It's a recipe that she personalizes as the harvest progresses, with her favorite ingredients of the moment.

The Bold Challenge of Fall Sowing for an Exquisite Spring Harvest

Dear passionate and daring gardeners, are you ready to revolutionize your approach to gardening and take on an innovative challenge? Imagine harvesting delicious vegetables from the first days of spring, without waiting for the traditional sowing of the summer season.

Welcome to the captivating world of fall sowing, a technique that shakes up habits and promises early and tasty harvests in our cold Quebec climates.

Water, source of life: The Impact of humidity on your crops

In the heart of the GardensÉcoumène, organic gardening comes to life: understanding and managing humidity proves essential for plant health and growth. Water, much more than a simple resource, represents the very essence of our garden.

Controlling its flow and availability is crucial to encourage vibrant flowering and guarantee generous harvests. By adopting respectful practices, we cultivate a harmonious relationship with water, which nourishes our plants while enriching our land and our soul.

Revolutionize your gardening in depth with living soil

Edaphon, much more than just a soil component, is a crucial element for any gardener. This living network, invisible to the naked eye, works silently to nourish and protect your plants.
Discover with us how this universe beneath your feet can radically transform your approach to gardening.

Edaphon: the unsung heroes of germination

Discover the secret world beneath your feet! Often overlooked, edaphon, this vibrant collection of living organisms in the soil, is the pillar of plant health and the success of your seedlings. In this article, we invite you to explore how these tiny beings can greatly influence the growth of your plants, from the comfort of your home.

Guardians of biodiversity: creating a paradise for pollinators

Pollinators, such as bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and many other insects, play a crucial role in the health of our ecosystems. They are essential for the reproduction of the majority of flowering plants and the production of fruits and vegetables.

Online training for urban farmers

The online training of Urban Cultists provides 15 years of knowledge and experience in urban agriculture, brought together in a simple and practical formula to make gardening accessible. Through the five training modules, learn the art of urban vegetable gardening at your own pace!

Also discover the new add-on on growing mushrooms outdoors.

Growing mushrooms (outdoors)

Something new for Urban Cultists!

Learn how to grow mushrooms at home, whether in the garden or in small spaces such as on balconies with the new online training module offered by Les Urbainculteurs in collaboration with their guest specialist La Botte Champignonnière. Simple videos to follow step by step, annotated and supplemented with downloadable PDFs.

Training accessible for life!

The different stages of outdoor sowing

If you're new to gardening, sowing outdoors can seem a little intimidating. In fact, it's an easy and affordable way to start your garden and grow fresh, tasty vegetables yourself. With a little planning and patience, you can successfully plant your outdoor seeds. In this article, we will guide you through the basic steps to help you succeed in your outdoor sowing and have success in your gardening.

Companionship, much more than a means of combating parasites

Appreciated by many gardeners, decried by modern agriculture and by certain cynical chroniclers, companion planting is today the subject of controversy.

Frass: a product with many qualities

Fertilizer, amendment, biostimulant, frass is a truly versatile product. 100% natural and organic, Ecocert approved, frass is ecological, sustainable, eco-responsible and participates in the circular economy. By processing food residues, black soldier fly larvae transform this residual material into a living and efficient product which is returned to the ground in order to provide or maintain life. Combined with biochar, it is a winning formula for stimulating the growth and vigor of plants, and more remarkably, for regenerating soil.

It's spring, it's planting time!

In the relatively short summer conditions that prevail in Quebec, several species of vegetable or flower plants must be sown indoors as early as March or April. These plants will thus be able to produce mature flowers or fruits before the onset of cold weather in autumn.

The story of Étoile, the black soldier fly and her frass

Hello, my name is Étoile. I am a female black soldier fly. Entomologists call me Hermetia illucens, the luminous hermetia. I am originally from the south of the American continent and I have acclimatized well further north, even in the south of Quebec.

Lighting: whether for seedlings, microgreens or indoor gardens

As you can imagine, when you want to sow seeds at home or create an indoor garden, lighting is undoubtedly the most important element to consider for success. With the advent of LED diodes, the number of horticultural lamps on the market has increased enormously and it has become difficult to navigate. Together, let's try to shed some light on the subject (without making a bad pun).

FRASS: a funny word to remember

We see this word more and more often in literature reserved for gardeners. It is associated with fertilization. But what is behind this term?

Getting your seedlings off to a good start with living soil

Under the term sowing hide several realities. There is the operation itself which consists of putting the seeds into the ground. There is also the cultivation of young plants until they are transplanted outside. During these two stages, the needs of the plants evolve.

Plan your garden to avoid unpleasant surprises

What's better than the cold month of January to plan your vegetable garden? We have time to think about it, with the first sowings only starting in a few weeks. By doing this, we avoid disappointing mistakes during the summer.

Seeds adapted to the local climate are much better

The arguments in favor of local purchasing are well established: solidarity with local commerce, reduction of GHG emissions, products better adapted to local realities, etc. However, when it comes to seeds, buying local presents, for gardeners, advantages on the physiological and environmental levels, in terms of adaptation to the climate, and therefore more abundant harvests.

Store your seeds properly

Seeds from Jardins de l'écoumène have a very high germination rate in the year of purchase. Depending on the species, this germination rate decreases more or less quickly over the years: some seeds still germinate reasonably well after five or ten years, but others no longer germinate after only two years.

Fresh microgreens on potting soil

Microgreens are plant seeds that are germinated on potting soil while sprouts are seeds that are germinated in pots without substrate. Microgreens require less maintenance than sprouts which must be rinsed twice a day, sometimes more in some cases.

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