What’s open & what’s not? Here’s a list of local suppliers for the plants, seeds, soil and compost you need for the 2020 gardening season.
Local nurseries
Burt’s Greenhouses: 539 Maple Rd, Odessa. Greenhouses closed to the public. Will add vegetable plants to their online store for pickup or delivery – End of April / Early May; Currently taking orders for produce for pickup/delivery.
Connon Nurseries: 956A Highway 2, Quinte West. Essential service. Open Monday–Saturday. Customers can also phone/email orders for pickup & delivery
Patchwork Gardens: Developing an online plant ordering website and contact-free, on-farm pick up for May 16-17 weekend.
Potter’s Nurseries: 690 Golden Mile Rd, Kingston. Essential service. Open Monday-Saturday. Only one person allowed to shop in the store at a time. Offer curbside pickup.
Riley’s Garden Centre: 2141 Bath Rd, Kingston. Open. Limiting customers to 5 at a time. Offer curbside pickup.
Sheila’s Greenhouse: 945 Moscow Rd Yarker. Greenhouses closed to the public. Taking pre-orders for vegetable plants & flowers.
Simple Country Pleasures: 5861 County Rd 9, Napanee. Greenhouses closed to the public. Taking orders for pickup & delivery. Phone Monday-Saturday 11am-4pm; working to setup eCommerce on website.
Sun Harvest Greenhouses: 2542 Perth Rd, Glenburnie. Greenhouses closed to the public. Order produce online for curbside pickup & delivery. Availability posted daily at 9am
Local seeds
- KASSI (Kingston Area Seed System Initiative): Their seed commons is a living collection of locally adapted open-pollinated seeds.
- Bear Root Gardens: Locally adapted vegetable seeds, all organically grown on their property in Verona.
- Kitchen Table Seed House: Place emphasis on growing and offering varieties that are well suited to our bio-region and that offer maximum flavour. Wolfe Island.
- Index of Canadian Seed companies: If you’re looking for specialty seeds or just can’t find what you need locally, seeds of diversity maintains this great list of companies from across Canada
Native plants
Lemoine Point Nursery is our only local native plant nursery. Credit Valley Conservation maintains a list of Ontario native plant nurseries, some of whom ship. Prairie Moon Nursery doesn’t ship to Canada, but their cultural guide is a great resource for learning more the needs & behaviours of specific plants.
Seeds for cover crops
- TCO Agromart 11 Pleasant Dr, Selby (north of Napanee). Can call ahead (613) 354-4424 for pickup. Some cover crop seed available by volume
- Trousdale’s Home Hardware Building Centre 4468 George St, Sydenham (you may need to ask them to order in the seeds)
- Willows Agriservices 3560 Wilton Rd, Harrowsmith
- Seed catalogues from online seed houses
Fruit trees & trees
- Whiffletree near Waterloo ships bareroot in spring & fall
- Hardy Fruit Tree Nursery near Montreal ships bareroot in spring & fall
- Silvercreek Nurseries near Wellesley ships bareroot in spring & fall
- Tree Mobile is a non-profit that sells fruit trees to help fund grants to community groups, but their trees need to be picked up in Toronto
- Ferguson Tree Nursery
- Nutcracker Nursery & Tree Farm
- Golden Bough Tree Farm: Order online for delivery. Quite a few native plants. Also have a few fruit & nut trees.
Soil & compost
Tomlinson Environmental Services
Monday-Friday 8am-5pm. Ask for
- AA Compost (screened leaf and yard waste only). You’ll need 1-2″ for neglected soil or 1/2″ for good soil
- AA topsoil for new and raised beds
Pick up: 633 Fortune Crescent
Delivery: Call Mark 613-546-0884 (office) or 343-363-7412 (cell)
Soil testing
A & L Labs: Ask for S1B & S7 base saturation test and soil microbiology with recommendations from the lab (Carey is the expert to talk to). Tell them what type of garden you’re planning (vegetable, food forest, wildscape). You also want to test the soil biology. The form is confusing, but here are some things you may want to test because bacteria/fungi will do the work of building soil structure and cycling nutrients for plant growth (total bacteria, active bacteria, total fungal, active fungal, protozoa).
