Gardening - Vegetables to eat.
Flowers to appreciate.

Come and share my gardening experiences. I’m Ken Brown and I’ve been “Dallying In The Dirt” most of my life and like most back yard farmers I love to share my growing tips and my experiences. Visit this space often, the tips will change and accumulate, showing you what I'm doing now. I'll tell you what I'm doing as I, find some new and remember some old, tricks in my quest to squeeze all of my horticultural fantasies into a confined urban space.


14 May 2024 Spring is in full bloom and my passion for gardening is more than fulfilled. Like many things in life, gardening seems to be a feast or famine activity. The cool season vegetables are mostly planted and the rest of the seedlings and transplants are waiting, a little less than patiently, for our frost free date to arrive. We are really no longer sure of that date as global warming continues to confuse us. Do I plant the Tomatoes this week when the weather report seems to favour a yes decision or do I revert to my old professor's advice and wait until after the new moon, 06 June. That seems like much too late in these times of shifting weather patterns. Those Tomatoes are now tall enough to touch the lid of the cold frame and want water every day. I think I'll gamble and start planting. Of course, I'll hold some back just in case Mother Nature decides to teach me, yet another, lesson. All of this wonderful activity is always great content for my presentations and seminars for garden clubs and other gatherings. follow this link for details about those presentations.

What’s New or Seasonal!

Can you actually save money growing your own vegetables or is it just a great pastime?

One of the best treats in your vegetable garden is a fresh vine ripened Tomato.

Seed Catalogue are a wonderful source of growing information. The seed companies want you to succeed and become life long customers.

Knowing when to start your seeds and when to move them outside is critical knowledge if you are going to be a successful seed starter

How To Get Help! With some reading here and a little luck, maybe you can avoid most of the mistakes that I have made on your behalf and be more successful. When you inevitably make your own mistakes, ask me about them and I’ll try to provide some answers or tips through my free ezine.


Want your information quickly; you can search my entire site or else just enjoy reading on and following all the links.

My horticultural haven is unfinished and imperfect. If it was otherwise then my life’s work would be done and I wouldn’t know what to do. Come along with me as I work toward perfection, we’ll be together for a long time. I currently grow a rather crazy mix of vegetables a variety of perennial flowers and a smattering of annual flowers in the gaps and in a variety of containers. Oh! The vegetables are often found growing in containers as well.

Where’s my garden? All of these things compete for space in a modestly large city lot in a small town east of Toronto ON that hovers between Canadian zone 5&6. I continue to develop new techniques for producing as many vegetables as possible in a rather confined space, a technique that I refer to as Vertical Vegetables. This allows myself and the “Assistant Gardener” (aka. my long suffering spouse,) to eat our own fresh vegetables for about 7-8 months of the year.

Let’s eat! To really enjoy all of these vegetables you need to prepare them in delicious and interesting recipes. I also love to cook and experiment and you will find the things that wind up tasting delicious on my recipes pages.

Trials and tribulations! I like to try new things and report back to my readers what works and what might not be the best value in town. I have recently tested a variety of trowels and last summer applied a variety of mulches to my many beds. Some looked better, some cost more some did neither but may have been effective mulches. Frequent readers can keep up to date on products and plants that I’m trying. I visit other gardens as often as possible and report back to my readers just what they might find interesting there.

Come and spend time with me in my garden. I find it the most delightful, sometimes frustrating, usually therapeutic, pastime and the physical effort exerted produces much better results than any treadmill. I have been trying to convince mother nature to do her landscape my way, for many years and her responses are usually very humbling, occasionally encouraging, frequently amusing but always quite gratifying. We continue to discuss, (argue about,) our separate definitions of a weed. These successes and failures also make up the content of my seminars.

Get Dallying In The Dirt Regular Tips and Smiles from Ken’s Gardening Activities Email . . . . Name Then Don't worry I promise to use your e-mail only to send you Dallying In The Dirt. I'm to busy hoeing the weeds to even think about sending out junk.