​IN OUR GARDENS

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SPRING WORKSHOPS IN APRIL

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Creating the Year Round Garden

workshop at The Mercy Centre on Mt. Scio  

in St. John's in late April.

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Please email us to express your interest, and we will be able to confirm your workshop date and send you the registration form.​  Each session is a full-day, weekend session, including slide show, garden tour, basic techniques for season extension, hands-on seed starting and raised bed construction. A home-cooked lunch is included along with seeds and workshop materials.

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Tentative dates: Saturday, April 18 and Sunday, April 19.

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Workshop fee including lunch, seeds and materials is $169 per person.

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Sign-up is by reservation on a first come, pre-paid basis. For more information visit the Workshops Page then email secondstage@hotmail.com for questions & to pre-register.

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SUN, SEED & SOIL is now in print!

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Sun, Seed & Soil: Tips and Techniques for a Northern Garden by Dan Rubin was published by Boulder in 2024 and is now available at most bookstores and online from the publisher.  It covers the information that Dan has been sharing in his Spring workshops, presented in an easy-to-digest form. This richly-illustrated 336-page deluxe paperback edition includes more than 300 photos, tables and charts to help you navigate the seasons in your own garden, to grow vegetables, fruit and flowers in places that have long, cold winters. Copies are $34.95. To order a copy, check with your local bookstore or visit Boulder Books.

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Food Producers Forum

 

To expand community-based food production, we established a non-profit group in 2019, dedicated to sharing new ideas among gardeners and farmers in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Food Producers Forum website is your online "encyclopedia of gardening and food." In just six years, we have conducted a survey of community food producers, held an online provincial conference and launched a series of local projects to rebuild food security across our province.  If you would like to be part of this work, or to learn more, visit us online at: www.foodproducersforum.com.

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Earth Sheltered Greenhouse

 

Since 2017 we have been developing a wonderful design for an earth sheltered greenhouse banked in the earth for better insulation in cold weather.   With support from two rounds of engineering students at Memorial University, we completed a design for a 320 square foot structure for year-round food production. In a second phase, funded by Memorial's Office of Public Engagement, we convened a group of 21 food producers and activists to fine tune the design and figure out how to fit it into local communities. Then we built a demonstration version at the O'Brien Farm in St. John's.  As part of the Provincial Food Network Project, we next helped communities build an ESG in Mary's Harbour Labrador, King's Point and Port Blandford NL.   We are now working with the towns of Chapel Arm and Glenburnie-Birchy Head-Shoal Brook to build three more of these sustainable year-round food production structures.  To contact us about the earth sheltered greenhouse design, email foodproducersforum@gmail.com.

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Creating the Year Round Garden 

 

In the past 17 years, more than 2500 people have attended our talks and workshops.  We have offered these sessions in Pouch Cove, Salmonier and at the Mercy Centre in St. John's.  The full-day session includes a home cooked lunch and garden tours, along with hands-on seed starting and raised bed construction. If a local group would like to us to present a workshop on extending the growing season, just email info@perfectlyperennial.ca.

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Uncle Dirt radio show and podcast

 

In 2018 Dan hosted a weekly show on CHMR (Memorial University campus radio) focused on gardens, gardening and food security.   The title of that series was Uncle Dirt.  Each show includes an interview with a local gardener, food producer or researcher along with discussion of issues that range from food supply to how to make the most of your garden and grow local food, flowers and herbs. To listen the first ten shows, go to:  https://fittoeatnl.ca/uncle-dirt-with-dan-rubin

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Interview with Dale Jarvis

 

We spoke with the Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Officer for our province, Dale Jarvis, who recorded a podcast about the development of our site and recent discoveries with northern-adapted plants and season extension.

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To hear that interview, click here:

 

http://www.ichblog.ca/2017/04/a-perfectly-perennial-podcast-growing.html

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Northern Orchard Planted

 

 Thanks to funding received from Tree Canada's Edible Tree Program in 2017 we added more than 25 fruit and nut trees and bushes to the garden beds, fields and greenhouses at our garden site.

 

Our plantings now include 11 apple trees, 4 plums, peach trees, a sour cherry tree, pear tree, elderberries, bush cherries, kiwi vines, grape vines, thornless blackberries, red currants, black currants, white currants and gooseberries. 

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With these fruit and nut trees planted we have become a local site for trying out fruit and nut varieties adapted to northern climates, to advise local growers on  the best varieties for our area, to help rebuild food security in our coastal communities.  

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We wish to acknowledge and thank our sponsors (TREE CANADA, TELUS, LOBLAW’S and SILK) for their vision and support. We also thank Murray’s Gardens for assisting and supporting us in this project.   

 

 

Three Years of support from Seeds of Diversity 

 

In 2014, 2015 and 2016 Perfectly Perennial Herbs and Seeds was funded by the Bauta Family Seed Initiative to expand and develop our seed production site.    

 

With our partners in Deborah's Garden (a former local neighbourhood garden cooperative) and help from dozens of visiting wwoofers and volunteers, we found and  propagated new seed varieties for distribution to local growers and gardeners.  

 

We appreciate the support of ACORN, Food First, Common Ground Community Development, Hickey's Timber Mart, Chris Squires, Murray's Gardens, The ReStore (Habitat for Humanity), Gaze Seeds, and our funders USC Canada, Seeds of Diversity and Tree Canada.  Our seed site is made possible by their support.  

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