Zone 1b Northwestern Ontario - the beautiful Geraldton

My partner and I have recently purchased several acres of land on the outskirts of my hometown with plans of growing food and making a home. Is there anyone on here that's near zone 1b?

I have family in zone 1b. Are you looking for plant suggesttions?

Just introducing myself and hoping to find others to share their experiences in growing food in our zone. Plant suggestions would be great.

Welcome to permies Renée!

There was a thread that was quite active last year where we talked a lot about plants for cold climate: https://permies.com/t/15747/permaculture/Polar-permaculture

My favourites for your climate are probably seaberry (Hippophae rhamnoides), Beaked Hazel (Corylus cornuta), Saskatoon berry (Amelanchier alnifolia), Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica) and Siberian peashrub (Caragana arborescens). Both the seaberry and Siberian peashrub are nitrogen fixers. The Siberian pine will produce pine nuts and is long lived (I read 500 years).

I hope this helps.

Check out the website plant for a future and filter for zone 2 if you want to do a little zone pushing or zone 1 to play it safe
http://www.pfaf.org/user/plantsearch.aspx#USE

Below is the result for only zone 1 a search for zone 2 gave me a 8 page result.


LatinName CommonName Hardiness EdibilityRating MedicinalRating
Abies sibirica Siberian Fir 1 0 1
Allium altaicum 1 3 2
Allium galanthum 1 3 2
Allium nutans Blue Chives 1 3 0
Arctostaphylos alpina Alpine Bearberry 1 2 1
Betula glandulosa Scrub Birch 1 2 1
Betula papyrifera Paper Birch 1 3 2
Betula pubescens White Birch 1 3 3
Geum triflorum Purple Avens 1 2 2
Larix gmelinii Dahurian Larch 1 0 0
Larix sibirica Siberian Larch 1 0 0
Myrica gale Bog Myrtle 1 2 2
Pinus cembra sibirica Siberian Pine 1 4 2
Pinus pumila Dwarf Siberian Pine 1 3 2
Populus tremuloides American Aspen - Poplar 1 1 3
Rhodiola rosea Rose Root 1 2 3
Rubus acaulis Dwarf Raspberry 1 3 1
Rubus arcticus Arctic Bramble 1 4 0
Rubus stellatus Nagoon Berry 1 2 0

I'm in the same zone as you! Actually, I'm in the same house as you, too.

I'm on the Quebec side of cochrane Ontario and Egyptian onions/ mint/ chives/ rhubarb/ gooseberries/ raspberries/ Rosemary are the plants we have so far. All are very easy to grow but heavy mulching and mulching in spring is a must for early years. I'd be open to trading if your interested

Eric

Also no zones are set in stone many plants I have aren't supposed to grow here and do just fine. Anything zone 3 and above is worth a try usually

We have chosen edible perennials zoned 4 and below (why not?!). These are the perennials we have planted so far: raspberries (spreading like crazy in the hugelkultur), strawberries, haskap, Egyptian onions, apple trees, cherry trees, beaked hazel, grapevine, asparagus, chamomile (it survived the winter in our hugelkultur even though it is labelled as an annual, apparently it re-seeds itself), blueberry, garlic, rhubarb, lavender (zone 4 or 5 yet it survived the winter on the hugelkultur), good king henry (did not sprout, will try again, it's like a perennial spinach), mint, chives, and of course LOTS of comfrey everywhere.

I stratified and planted seeds early this spring (most did not do so well) and we will also be planting some of those seeds in the fall to naturally stratify over the winter (burdock, rugosa rose, soapwort, sea buckthorn, lady's mantle, stinging nettle, chinese lantern, etc.). I have planted a lot of annual vegetables also, and I will be leaving a lot in the garden to reseed and see what pops up in the spring on it's own.

Eric Grenier wrote:I'm on the Quebec side of cochrane Ontario and Egyptian onions/ mint/ chives/ rhubarb/ gooseberries/ raspberries/ Rosemary are the plants we have so far. All are very easy to grow but heavy mulching and mulching in spring is a must for early years. I'd be open to trading if your interested

Eric

Also no zones are set in stone many plants I have aren't supposed to grow here and do just fine. Anything zone 3 and above is worth a try usually

I thought rosemary was zone 7 or 8? and it survived the winter in your area?

Yes zone 2a Correct me if I'm wrong here it is. It's about four feet high now

did you mulch it heavily?

Yes Adrien. I bought the Rosemary plan and many havest mint plants on a whim from IGA and ever since I lost 32 fruit trees to mother nature and my neglect I baby all my plants and once established I beleive they will have the strength to hold their own. I collected leaves at the last fall pick up and covered a good portion of my mini hugels and yard around house in Rouyn. Free mulch and leaves are pretty well organic too

Great job Rene to you and yours. I agree zone 4 is ok too but I'd try rocks and the like and try to get stronger trees but I'd recommend babying plants in zone 2 and below. My plants in the hugels seem to be doing well but it's raining a lot this year

Haskap should do well, mine had their 1st berries this year.  one of the things not mentioned depending on how long a time period your looking at is Manitoba Maple, also called Boxelder (Acer negundo) which grows here in Englehart (NE Ontario) just across the PQ border from Rouyn.  Though lighter it can produce syrup as well as the sugar maple.  I am experimenting with a few of the Sugar Maples from the N. Bay area and though very slow to start they have survived 4 winters and one has just taken off growing about 2 feet this year so may be a possibility.  Beaked hazel is mentioned and we have it wild.  When would be the right time to harvest?  I have also heard about but never located a hardy fruit/nut grower in PQ, anyone know who that is and where they are?  Also, will grafting onto hardy stock, eg edible cherry on pin cherry, protect the graft?

Eric Grenier wrote:Yes zone 2a Correct me if I'm wrong here it is. It's about four feet high now

Sorry if you’ve already been corrected but That looks like tarragon.  We can grow it here.

Max Kennedy wrote:Haskap should do well, mine had their 1st berries this year.  one of the things not mentioned depending on how long a time period your looking at is Manitoba Maple, also called Boxelder (Acer negundo) which grows here in Englehart (NE Ontario) just across the PQ border from Rouyn.  Though lighter it can produce syrup as well as the sugar maple.  I am experimenting with a few of the Sugar Maples from the N. Bay area and though very slow to start they have survived 4 winters and one has just taken off growing about 2 feet this year so may be a possibility.  Beaked hazel is mentioned and we have it wild.  When would be the right time to harvest?  I have also heard about but never located a hardy fruit/nut grower in PQ, anyone know who that is and where they are?  Also, will grafting onto hardy stock, eg edible cherry on pin cherry, protect the graft?

Delayed reply, sorry!

We have dozens upon dozens of haskap bushes planted and have harvested some but they’re still young.  Next year should be fruitful.  We have Manitoba maples growing around town and we collected sap from it a few years ago and made syrup.  It tastes more like honey than maple, unbelievable!  The taste just goes to show that everything is connected.  We planted a couple silver maple on our land a few years ago. We have been out picking wild beaked hazel.  In our area, September sometime is harvest time for hazels but usually squirrels get em all. We planted a few shrubs on our land and will be propagating a lot this year.  Sorry, can’t help you about grafting.

I think it would be great if you could post more often about your adventures.

People tend to write off high lattitude zones -- but they forget about the intensive summers with long, long hours of daylight. I know folks in Yukon who grow incredible amounts of food.

More stories please!

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:I think it would be great if you could post more often about your adventures.

People tend to write off high lattitude zones -- but they forget about the intensive summers with long, long hours of daylight. I know folks in Yukon who grow incredible amounts of food.

More stories please!

We will post more come spring.  Mike Sved is my partner and contributes on here more than i do.