Nature will provide you with unlimited supplies of the finest composting material available. Normal leaves. You will have to add other materials to it, but you'll have a good base to start a large composting operation. That should be all you need to amend your soils, for the most part.
The short growing season and extreme northern climate will be your biggest issue, but even that can be dealt with. There are varieties of almost all vegetables that have been bred to handle those northern climates and shorter growing season.
Starting your plants early-on, indoors, will be key to produce good yields in short growing season locations.
Minnesota Midget cantaloupe are excellent little plants, and I grow them here in central Illinois because of their short vines. They fill up smaller portions of your garden that you may have left over after planting. Very short vines (around 4ft) and they produce a good amount of smaller cantaloupe but you do have to plant more of them to get a good yield. (i consider anything less than 200 cantaloupe a year a bad yield)
Keep in mind, you can grow many vegetables through late fall and in to winter as well. Onions, cauliflower, broccoli, etc..
https://northernhomestead.com/annual-vegetable-varieties-for-a-short-growing-season/
ANNUAL VEGETABLE VARIETIES FOR A SHORT GROWING SEASON
Annual vegetable varieties for a short growing season have to be quick maturing. Growing a productive garden takes time. Seeds need to be planted, germinate, established, the plants have to mature and produce fruit. In most parts of the world, there is plenty of time for this. The garden is planted in spring, grows all summer long, and is harvested in the fall.
In short growing season areas you don’t have a spring, maybe not even a fall, so all you got is summer. Only 100 or less frost free days are challenging. It requires a very organized gardener and plant varieties that grow and produce quickly.
According to Environment Canada officially we have 107 frost free days. Here is a link for
Canada and
USA frost free dates to find out what your area has.
Today I want to share some of these annual vegetable varieties that are suited for short growing seasons. We have grown most of them successfully in our garden.
This list is not exhaustive, there are many more plant varieties that are suited for a short growing season. We have tried quite a few and if we were to list them all here it would make a very long list. Also, if some plants did not do well, they did not make it into this list. I will add and remove varieties as we experiment more with them. I want this list to be up-to-date, with plant varieties that are worth growing.
BEANS
- Purple Peacock (60-70 days for snaps) Beautiful and delicious Pole Bean.
- Yellow Bean Roma Gold (55 Days) Reliable early bush bean.
- Dragon Tongue Bean (60 Days) New to try bush bean.
- Pole Beans Scarlet Runner (65 Days) Beautiful as a flower and edible at any stage.
- Black Turtle dry Beans (85 Days) A dry bean that matures in our short season.
- Tiger’s Eye Bean (95 Days) Very yummy dry bean that does mature in our short season.
BEETS
BROCCOLI
CABBAGE
CAULIFLOWER
CARROTS
CUCUMBER
- Straight 8 (60 Days) A classic.
- Patio Snacker (50-60 Days) Great for small space, a favorite.
- Lemon cucumber (65 Days) So yummy pickled.
- Cucumber Holland Greenhouse (64 Days) For indoor growing.
GROUND CHERRY
EGGPLANT
KALE
KOHLRABI
LETTUCE
ONION
- Spanish Candy (85 Days) Great yellow onion, stores well.
- Greek Salad (105 Days) Good red onion.
PEAS
PEPPERS
RADISH
SPINACH
SWISS CHARD
SQUASH
- Spaghetti Tivoli (74 Days) A small plant, very productive, early, tasty.
- Burgess Buttercup (85 Days) Great all around.
- Courgette Cocozelle (45 Days) Looks like zucchini, very productive and delicious.
ZUCCHINI
https://northernhomestead.com/heirloom-tomato-varieties-we-grow-in-a-northern-garden/
GB