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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.
If you are getting ready to exercise your green thumb this season, we’ve got some tips to help grow your own food. Here’s a newsletter edition dedicated to better understanding sustainable and intentional living.
Now, let’s catch you up on other news.
Noteworthy reporting this week:
- Report on Business Magazine: The head of WWF-Canada says you can’t build a country by destroying nature
- Finance: Food security expert urges Canada to invest in agriculture, not just military capabilities
- Policy: Advocacy groups file constitutional challenge of Ontario’s Special Economic Zones Act
- Medicine: Canadian researcher Gerry Wright is searching for the next generation of life-saving antibiotics
- In Photos: The Artemis II mission succeeded in reminding a fractious world why going to the moon matters to humanity
A deeper dive
Edible gardening doesn’t require a large backyard or expensive equipment.Lyndsey Eden/Supplied
Growing food at home
For this week’s deeper dive, a closer look at creating an edible garden that doesn’t require a large backyard or expensive equipment.
Even as a novice gardener, you can still grow your own food. Whether you have acreage, a patio or a sunny windowsill, it’s possible to grow something fresh and nourishing.
Globe lifestyle feature writer Gayle MacDonald spoke with Tasha Medve, author of the book The Purposeful Gardener: Double Your Harvest and Create a Food Oasis with Raised Beds, Vertical Growing & Companion Planting. Here are some of her tips for gardening this season.
Start with a plan
Keep things manageable. Winter is a good time to decide what to grow, sketch a layout and think realistically about how much time you can spend in the garden. Apps such as Sun Seeker track sunlight patterns throughout the day to help determine where the garden should go.
Starting seeds indoors
Starting seeds is one of the most rewarding pastimes, but Medve warns many first-timers try to grow too much too quickly. Seed starting supplies are pretty basic, but light is essential. Grow lights can be helpful in homes that lack strong natural light.
Lyndsey Eden/Supplied
Healthy soil matters
One of Medve’s favourites is Sea Soil, a compost made from fish waste and forest fines – organic material left over from the logging industry. She also looks for products labelled OMRI-listed, which meet standards used in organic gardening.
Raised beds help
Raised beds reduce weeds, clearly define planting areas and are way easier on your back. Because the soil warms more quickly in spring, and stays warmer than in-ground beds, they can also extend the growing season.
Choose easy crops
Medve says good starter vegetables are leafy greens, beans, radishes and onions. Vegetables generally fall into two categories: cool-season (thrive in moderate temperatures and tolerate light frost) and warm-season crops (require steady heat and cannot survive frost).
If you have acreage, a patio or a sunny windowsill, you can grow something fresh and nourishing.Lyndsey Eden/Supplied
Make use of vertical space
Growing plants upward also improves air circulation, which can reduce disease and make harvesting easier – especially in smaller spaces, making it especially useful for patios and balconies.
Keep the water flowing
Whenever possible, water your plants early in the morning or later in the evening. Watering during the hottest part of the day can lead to rapid evaporation before moisture reaches the plant’s roots.
Grow what you love
Home gardens also allow gardeners to experiment with varieties rarely found in grocery stores. Carrots, tomatoes and eggplants come in a surprising range of colours and flavours.
What else you missed
- B.C. First Nation asks UN body to include cultural losses in compensation formula for oil spills
- Earth is getting ever brighter at night, satellite data show
- Mummified reptile offers glimpse at how breathing began
- We rekindled our passion for hiking among the volcanic peaks of Portugal’s Azores
Opinion and analysis
Has Canada learned nothing from the Grassy Narrows mercury poisoning tragedy?
In the name of all those who have died from mercury poisoning at Grassy Narrows and White Dog, environmental protection laws must be strengthened, not swept aside in the name of an economic boost. Instead, Ontario and Ottawa have passed bills that allow for quicker building of major infrastructure projects and mining projects in defiance of environmental regulations.
— Tanya Talaga, columnist
B.C. misfires with rigid rules for EV sales
B.C.’s legislators still have time to reconsider, and pick a different path that will reduce emissions and not undermine Canadian automakers at the same time.
— The Editorial Board
Business and investing
Investors still back green guidebook as Middle East war upends energy markets, taxonomy council chair says
War in the Middle East is not swaying institutional investors from pushing for a Canadian guidebook certifying green investments, according to the newly appointed chair of the council charged with putting the document into use.
Marlene Puffer, a veteran pension-fund executive, has been appointed to lead investment and sustainability experts in developing a green and transitionary investing guidebook. The goal of the document is to attract at least $115-billion in capital needed annually for Canada to meet its net-zero targets by 2050.
- Where wheat prices are likely to head from here
- Port expansion near Montreal gets $1.16-billion loan in Ottawa’s first fast-tracked project
Photo of the week
Swiss artist To Athena, accompanied by a small group of musicians, performs inside a cave carved into the Morteratsch glacier in Pontresina, Switzerland, on March 25 to draw attention to climate change.GREENPEACE/Reuters
Guides and Explainers
- We’ve rounded up our reporters’ content to help you learn about what a carbon tax is, what happened at COP30 and just generally how Canada will change because of climate change.
- We have ideas to make your travelling more sustainable, your lifestyle at home more ecofriendly and to talk to your kids about climate change.
- In a series of essays from writers exploring the role The Globe and Mail has played in Canada’s history, A Nation’s Paper also highlights the journey of the newspaper’s green evolution.
Catch up on Globe Climate
- The wisdom of flowers
- What we learn from whales
- How far do deer go in a year?
- Ottawa insists it’s holding the environmental line