Local Gardening information and facts
Local Frost Dates
We are in a colder part of Canada. Lake Superior offers some reprieve however. Typically the last frost date is around June first and the First Frosts of fall begin the first week of September.
Growing Season
Our growing season is around 100 days here in the micro climate. To to our location on earth, we actually gain approximately one week of daylight due to the longer days. This is usually mitigated by cooler temperatures however.
Soils
Our soils are clay to silty and usually need some help. We have abundant black earth to mix with it and with a little work and fertilizer our soils are very good.
Local Gardening information and resources:
Facebook Groups:
Nipigon Red Rock Horticultural Society Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/niprockhort
Nipigon Red Rock Horticultural Society Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/636987016829767
Thunder Bay Gardening & Ag Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/94461079696/
Thunder Bay Horticultural Society https://www.facebook.com/groups/345726014929/
Websites
A website focused on northern gardening based in Nipigon Ontario; wild edible foraging includes online sales and distribution for additional Land of Nipigon Branded guidebooks; Mushroom pickers, Berry Picking and the coming soon Edible/Medicinal Plants.
Seed Sources
Seeds locally are available seasonally at Nipigon River Bait Tackle and Souvenirs, Home Hardware, Canadian Tire, Zechners, Saunders.
The next best thing is a seed producer nearest your climate zone and even more importantly, ones that you or friends trust and use. I have used many seed producers, primarily Vesey’s seeds (https://www.veseys.com/) out of the east coast – mostly because that’s who I grew up using. Veseys are a large seed producer with a very long history.
Other ones I use or have used with no problems in the past include;
Annapolis Seeds – east coast again (https://www.annapolisseeds.com/)
Stokes Seeds (https://www.stokeseeds.com/)
T&T Seeds (https://ttseeds.com/) (close to our growing climate)
West Coast Seeds (https://www.westcoastseeds.com/)
Salt Spring Seeds (https://www.saltspringseeds.com/)
Heritage Harvest Seeds (https://www.heritageharvestseed.com/)
Other choices for seed producers supplied by others;
(I have not used any of these)
William Dam Seeds (https://www.damseeds.com/)
Yonder Hill Farm (https://yonderhillfarm.ca/)
Richters (https://www.richters.com/)
