Gardening in Eastern Passage

As you already know, the east coast of Canada is blanketed in snow for over10 months of the year.  The brief summer is heralded when the sun rises above the horizon for up to four hours a day.

Nova Scotians are a resourceful people and  have come up with a brilliant solution to gardening in a cold, dark climate. 

Car gardening !

It is important that the old soil be removed and a new,

carefully prepared soil mixture

be loaded into the car during the week-long spring season.

Cars are natural greenhouses and with the replacement of the normal interior light with a high-power, grow light, the adaptation is easily done.

An early spring Pansy peeks out of the car garden.

When the nights grow cold, an automatic heater kicks in and the car warms itself up for five minutes every two hours.

Due to the moist, warm, well-lit environment,  a crop of healthy, fresh vegetables can usually be harvested  a mere two to three weeks after planting, allowing for the production of several successive crops during the all-too-brief growing season.

There is nothing as refreshing as eating a drizzling, fresh, tomato just picked from the back seat while waiting at a stop light. 

Occassionally during traffice jams it is not uncommon to see different drivers rolling down their windows and trading fresh vegetables back and forth.

Be right back.  I have to run out and water my back seat and do a bit of weeding.