Planting and growing your own 2023

[gaja]

My daughter and I looked through our seed collection today and chose which of the peppers, chillis, tomatoes, aubergines, artichokes, leeks, onions, and physalis we are going to plant this year. I just have to clear some space in the plant room - it is currently full of eggs and newly hatched chickens.

I've also collected milk cartons to sow carrots. Unsure whether I want to risk sowing them already. The weather is a bit unpredictable, my garlic and tuplips have sprouted, and I've also seen the aquilegia har started to green. We still have at least a month left where it can get down to -10 C, so I'm doubtful about the survival rate.

I must have done something wrong. Three of my selected artichokes are laying flat in their bigger pot. The other three still look good. They are standing in the living room at 18-21˚C, in front of a south facing window.
I regrett transplanting them so young.

It could be transplant shock, so they could recover if you give them a little time.

[Frugal Lizard]

I have started sweet potato slips! From my homegrown sweet potatoes!

Seed starting area is all set up. There is an enormity behind that statement because it means that a lot of decluttering happened. 

Germination testing is proceeding. I collected three different types of parsley and it has 70% germination.  Shelling pea seed is less than %5 germination. Red russian kale is indeed red russian kale.  over 90% germination. Two other types of seed germinated like arugula ie in less than 30 hours but their leaves are looking like Chinese cabbage or tatsoi or bok choi.

[Linea_Norway]

My daughter and I looked through our seed collection today and chose which of the peppers, chillis, tomatoes, aubergines, artichokes, leeks, onions, and physalis we are going to plant this year. I just have to clear some space in the plant room - it is currently full of eggs and newly hatched chickens.

I've also collected milk cartons to sow carrots. Unsure whether I want to risk sowing them already. The weather is a bit unpredictable, my garlic and tuplips have sprouted, and I've also seen the aquilegia har started to green. We still have at least a month left where it can get down to -10 C, so I'm doubtful about the survival rate.

<...>

Last year my autumn-sown garlics started sprouting at the end of autumn, followed by a winter. They still turned out well. This was at my home address in Østlandet.
I winter-sowed my carrots in milk cartons and put them outside in a plastic crate. They started to sprout very late. And they didn't manage to turn into normal size carrots at the end of the summer, at out cabin in the Femund area (Norwegian H8). This year I will sow carrots in milk cartons again, but start them indoors, like most other veggies. It might be smart to use early carrots.

I also autumn-sowed a lot of seeds at the cabin (beens, carrots, cichory amarant), which might sprout in midt June. But I think that it too late for such a short season.

[LifeHappens]

So, any tips on enriching soil for raised beds? I have a two year old raised bed that produced beautifully for the first spring and fall plantings, but did bupkus this fall. I'm in Florida, so lots of rain and our native soil is pretty much sand. I soil tested the bed and found almost no nutrients left despite adding (homemade) compost and some 10-10-10 to it twice a year.

Does anyone know how to keep nutrients up other than the obvious of purchasing soil every year?

I have started sweet potato slips! From my homegrown sweet potatoes!

This is awesome! My goal is to get to this point in the next year or two.

[YttriumNitrate]

After cold stratifying for 100ish days, I recently moved my pawpaw seeds over to 5-gallon buckets in my furnace room to begin germination. Optimal germination temperatures are about 75F/23C, and since I didn't want to spend the buy a bunch of heating pads, I created a shelf out of scrap lumber to lift the buckets up to the warmer part of the furnace room.

With a bit of luck, in about 2-3 months tiny little trees should start emerging.

[Frugal Lizard]

So, any tips on enriching soil for raised beds? I have a two year old raised bed that produced beautifully for the first spring and fall plantings, but did bupkus this fall. I'm in Florida, so lots of rain and our native soil is pretty much sand. I soil tested the bed and found almost no nutrients left despite adding (homemade) compost and some 10-10-10 to it twice a year.

Does anyone know how to keep nutrients up other than the obvious of purchasing soil every year?

I have started sweet potato slips! From my homegrown sweet potatoes!

This is awesome! My goal is to get to this point in the next year or two.

Organic matter organic matter organic matter.

I keep hearing about the benefits of fungi coming in different conversations. I was listening to the NDAL conference last week.  One speaker talked about how they inoculated an area for native plant restoration by planting inoculated plant plugs. Apparently the fungi isn't effective if placed on the soil surface.  The most effective way to 'seed' beneficial mycorrhizae was to place a soil from a mature site  in the seed trays in the middle third of the seed tray plug, with planting mix above and below.  Seed plugs planted out carry the mycorrhizae into the rest of the soil - even plants a metre away have improved growth.

The myco. are ineffective when placed on the soil surface. Rototilling the whole profile is not effective - the researcher thought that it took the new seedlings too long to colonize with the myco. The seed plug tray offered enough care while the seedling started that the myco. didn't die before the plant roots mingled with it.

All very very interesting to this plant nerd.

[YttriumNitrate]

I soil tested the bed and found almost no nutrients left despite adding (homemade) compost and some 10-10-10 to it twice a year. Does anyone know how to keep nutrients up other than the obvious of purchasing soil every year?

My county has compost sites where you can pick up as much free compost as you want. I would imagine other counties or towns have something similar.

[LifeHappens]

Organic matter organic matter organic matter.

Can you explain this to me like I don't know what I'm doing? Because I don't know what I'm doing ;)

[LifeHappens]

I soil tested the bed and found almost no nutrients left despite adding (homemade) compost and some 10-10-10 to it twice a year. Does anyone know how to keep nutrients up other than the obvious of purchasing soil every year?

My county has compost sites where you can pick up as much free compost as you want. I would imagine other counties or towns have something similar.

This is a good point and I think we do have something like that available.

[Linea_Norway]

Today I sowed more small-leaved Thyme and green and purple aspargus.
Those were all on the list for sowing in Feb, but there was so much sun light that I started a few days earlier.

[Frugal Lizard]

Organic matter organic matter organic matter.

Can you explain this to me like I don't know what I'm doing? Because I don't know what I'm doing ;)

For sure. Organic matter is the sponge component of the soil. It is any type of plant material that has finished breaking down. Wood chips take longer to break down. Grass clippings are pretty quick.

Before you plant anything, add 2-3 inches of compost or manure to the soil surface. Work it into the upper 4-6inches of your soil.  Do this step only once.

Before you plant, add 1 inch more compost over the entire bed. Do this every time you change over the bed.

After your plants come up, spread a very thin layer of mulch over all the bare soil but don't smother your baby plants. You can use dried leaves, manure, compost, straw, grass clippings. The mulch will become a layer of organic matter as it breaks down over the course of the growing season and resting season. Soil bugs etc pull it down into the soil horizons as organic matter. It also helps retain soil moisture. This step is every time you plant something new. 

Don't pull out your plants at the end of the season.  Cut them off and leave the roots in place to break down into organic matter in the soil. Chop up the material on the surface that you are not eating and spread it out as future topdressing. When you weed, lay the weeds down before they set seed, roots not touching soil, as a green manure mulch to become organic matter on the soil surface.

Ideally you never have bare soil. You plant it or mulch it. And keep feeding the soil organisms that in turn feed your plant roots.

[Linea_Norway]

Sweet peppers:
Today I took my sweet peppers (pointed bell peppers) downstairs in the warm livingroom. I tried to remove the large amount of leca balls that were in the middle of each pot. I had them in small pots last year with leca underneath, and repotted them into a larger pot without taking the leca out. Just put everything on top of reused soil mixed with vermaculite and nutrition. I hope they recover from a hand grabbing between their roots.
I am also in doubt whether I should rather start over again from seed and use good soil for a new plant.

Chilies:
I am still growing Jalapeno from seed.

I got on of the brazilian starfish plants from upstairs, replaced as much soil as possible with soil + vermaculite, and put it in the living room. With a good dose of water with nutrition. The other 4 brazilian starfish are staying upstairs in a cold room for a while as a reserve, in case this one doesn't recover. I am intending to keep only one.

From Cayenne peppers I still have one remaining, a transplant from one of the preious two. I repotted it into a much bigger pot with soil + vermaculite. And I tied the long branch that pointed sideways up, to become the new main branch. I cut off the small branches at the bottom of the stem to prevent them from hanging their leaves in the soil. This Cayenne is flowering and already has 2 biggish (as big as they will get) green peppers.

I gave all the plants a fly catcher. These sticky fly catchers work extremely well catching flies, because there is a thick layer of very sticky glue on them. But to tearvoff the paper covering on both sides, you get a lot of this glue on your fingers. But let's hope we now don't get a house full of small flies.

It is the bright sunshine on a snowy landscape that brings much light into our house. And that inspired me to sow the February stuff and put the pepoers back downstairs.

[LifeHappens]

Organic matter organic matter organic matter.

Can you explain this to me like I don't know what I'm doing? Because I don't know what I'm doing ;)

For sure. Organic matter is the sponge component of the soil. It is any type of plant material that has finished breaking down. Wood chips take longer to break down. Grass clippings are pretty quick.

Before you plant anything, add 2-3 inches of compost or manure to the soil surface. Work it into the upper 4-6inches of your soil.  Do this step only once.

Before you plant, add 1 inch more compost over the entire bed. Do this every time you change over the bed.

After your plants come up, spread a very thin layer of mulch over all the bare soil but don't smother your baby plants. You can use dried leaves, manure, compost, straw, grass clippings. The mulch will become a layer of organic matter as it breaks down over the course of the growing season and resting season. Soil bugs etc pull it down into the soil horizons as organic matter. It also helps retain soil moisture. This step is every time you plant something new. 

Don't pull out your plants at the end of the season.  Cut them off and leave the roots in place to break down into organic matter in the soil. Chop up the material on the surface that you are not eating and spread it out as future topdressing. When you weed, lay the weeds down before they set seed, roots not touching soil, as a green manure mulch to become organic matter on the soil surface.

Ideally you never have bare soil. You plant it or mulch it. And keep feeding the soil organisms that in turn feed your plant roots.

This is soooo helpful. Thank you.

I have been doing literally everything wrong, so now I know what to fix.

[sixwings]

my garlic has started to sprout!

[gaja]

I got the last load of tulips "planted" today: A neighbor had some leftover horse manure, and came over with a tractor load and dumped it on my bulbs. If they survive the unorthodox planting time and method, I think the nutrients should make for som happy plants :D

[Linea_Norway]

I sowed new sweet bell peppers to replace the pots with old ones.

[Rosy]

Organic matter organic matter organic matter.

Can you explain this to me like I don't know what I'm doing? Because I don't know what I'm doing ;)

For sure. Organic matter is the sponge component of the soil. It is any type of plant material that has finished breaking down. Wood chips take longer to break down. Grass clippings are pretty quick.

Before you plant anything, add 2-3 inches of compost or manure to the soil surface. Work it into the upper 4-6inches of your soil.  Do this step only once.

Before you plant, add 1 inch more compost over the entire bed. Do this every time you change over the bed.

After your plants come up, spread a very thin layer of mulch over all the bare soil but don't smother your baby plants. You can use dried leaves, manure, compost, straw, grass clippings. The mulch will become a layer of organic matter as it breaks down over the course of the growing season and resting season. Soil bugs etc pull it down into the soil horizons as organic matter. It also helps retain soil moisture. This step is every time you plant something new. 

Don't pull out your plants at the end of the season.  Cut them off and leave the roots in place to break down into organic matter in the soil. Chop up the material on the surface that you are not eating and spread it out as future topdressing. When you weed, lay the weeds down before they set seed, roots not touching soil, as a green manure mulch to become organic matter on the soil surface.

Ideally you never have bare soil. You plant it or mulch it. And keep feeding the soil organisms that in turn feed your plant roots.

This is soooo helpful. Thank you.

I have been doing literally everything wrong, so now I know what to fix.

@Frugal Lizard Great explanation:) and I am just as fascinated as you about the fungi experiment you mentioned in your other post. Showing that the seedlings, since they do not yet have a strong enough root system to absorb and benefit - do not benefit at all.
I will definitely discuss this with my new garden helper (he is totally into that type of gardening) I've bought some of his plants last year and they are strong and healthy.

@LifeHappens What works for me, zone 9 and 10 in Tampa Bay - FOR VEGGIE GARDENING:
I buy moisture control soil (expensive but worth it) and occasionally the Jungle mix at my favorite garden center. I use very large pots, thick plastic ones that I bought twenty years ago and still look good - I line the bottom with two to four inches of leaves depending on the size to keep the moisture in.
The pots are tall and wide enough to garden comfortably and I can still move the pots if I want to - sometimes near the end of season, I will move them to a shadier spot.

In our climate, it is crucial to always keep the soil covered, whether it is a garden bed or a pot with tomatoes - keep that moisture in. Chop and drop - is a permaculture thing, but unless it is a weed I chop and drop almost everything. I use chopped-up banana leaves and big old elephant ear leaves and palm leaves - mother earth does not like to be naked. In the back of the garden I don't even chop it up, I just lay the banana leaves and palm leaves down to break down naturally.

COMPOST
Of course, by now I've graduated to doing my own kitchen compost and I have plenty of tree leaves to use for mulch on top of all my pots, big or small.
If you keep layering leaves in between the compost there is no smell either.
I also have three huge old compromised planter pots that are near falling apart that I use for my compost.

One compost pot is new and placed next to my planting bench, the other two are kept in the back of the garden.
Once my first pot is full, I pour it into an empty one - layered with five-inch leaves then keep adding and alternating leaves to compost in five-inch layers. Top with leaves, moisten well and let it sit for about two to three months before using.

Voila - very easy and only requires my attention when I set up a new pot (kept moist and covered with a saucer). No rotating a drum and no building anything and I can move it all any time I want.
Whenever I want I just drag the pot where I want to use it or fill up a bucket or two to add to a big window box planter.
I've even used the compost before it was really ready - no digging, spread it on top of a weeded bed and placed palm leaves on top. Worked fine and there was minimal odor for a week or so - worked fine.

100% organic leaves - I no longer buy mulch (partially because I noticed I brought in bugs and diseases into my garden that way and it seemed to leach from the earth instead of protecting it, some even got hot and dried out the earth) I only use the extra pine needles and leaves from two of my neighbors who also garden organically and do not spray.

In our area big pots no less than 14in min or raised garden beds or smart permaculture are your only solution to succeeding with veggies.

HOW I SAVE MONEY AND END UP WITH GOOD SOIL - this year I need only two bags of moisture soil instead of eight or more like when I first started out.
Yes, that moisture soil is ridiculously expensive but every year I need less. Because:
I add my own compost and line the bottom with a layer of leaves that will slowly decay and feed the plant roots. Once the planting season is over I weed the pot and add more leaves on top and set it in a shady area and let it be for several months.
Then
by the time I want to plant again I have worms and the soil is naturally moist, I take out the topsoil about 25% to 30% percent depending on how it looks then I add a mix of compost and moisture soil on top.
The tomatoes are the only crop I will give some extra organic fertilizer or compost during the season.
Everything else - may or may not get a handful of Osmocote or specific fertilizer like for citrus or whatever.

Summer heat is the enemy and as plants mature they often need shade to survive the last two weeks before harvest, like cabbage. Celery can survive all year long if it gets partial shade. So now I have trees and bushes that leaf out in Mar/Apr and give shade to the veggies.
The only other thing I have to do is make sure the pots have saucers and stay moist/mulched or make sure I remove the saucer if too much water is an issue.

Herbs are a different story altogether. Some are super easy and others not so much. Many of my herbs are perennial and while I keep trying I still don't have many perennial veggies. 

Hope that helps:).

The only easy things that require minimal care are the papayas, bananas and passionfruit and lots of native, tropical plants and of course palms...
Sweet potatoes are easy too except I keep missing the right time to plant - and so it goes...

Half of my spring planting is done, and the other half will commence mid to end of Feb, the rest is spring garden clean up and maintenance, hopefully ending with a garden party in late April. I will try to get in at least an hour or two here and there but I have an upcoming trip and other priorities that I can't ignore - sigh.
Now that the weather is nice I'd rather be gardening...:).



   

[Frugal Lizard]

The seedling plugs that began with 'starter' soil in the planting soil at the root zone were successful at transferring benefits to seeds planted up to a metre away. Gardeners just used collected soil from sites already colonized by similar healthy species.

So frigging amazing.

[LifeHappens]

Thank you for all those tips, Rosie. Have you had any issues with oak leaves in your compost/mulch? I have read the tannins in oak can be bad for plant growth, but I don't know if 1 oak tree is enough to cause problems.

[Linea_Norway]

Thank you for all those tips, Rosie. Have you had any issues with oak leaves in your compost/mulch? I have read the tannins in oak can be bad for plant growth, but I don't know if 1 oak tree is enough to cause problems.

https://www.gardensalive.com/product/ybyg-of-oak-leaves-and-the-timing-of-mulch

[LifeHappens]

Thank you for all those tips, Rosie. Have you had any issues with oak leaves in your compost/mulch? I have read the tannins in oak can be bad for plant growth, but I don't know if 1 oak tree is enough to cause problems.

https://www.gardensalive.com/product/ybyg-of-oak-leaves-and-the-timing-of-mulch

Thank you. This is helpful. It looks like I will have to figure out how to shred leaves if I want to use them as mulch. We have no lawn, so therefore we do not own a lawnmower, but I can probably borrow one from a neighbor as needed.

[LifeHappens]

For the first time last night I made a dish with the pigeon peas I planted last May. In my climate they are about the easiest possible thing to grow. I planted from seeds in marginal soil and they grew to over 12 feet tall in 6 months! Fun stuff.

[Captain Pierogi]

So much great information here.  Thanks for all the contributions to this thread!  This year, I'm not trying any new crops - except strawberries in a few pots.  But I've expanded to another raised bed and am looking to extend my growing season with succession and inter-planting.  Browsing the web, I am so confused by all the conflicting information - what you can companion plant, what should be planted after what, how does crop rotation play into all of this.  I know this is part art and part science, but why can't I figure this out?!?!?  Anyone have a favorite resource for figuring this stuff out?

[Linea_Norway]

So much great information here.  Thanks for all the contributions to this thread!  This year, I'm not trying any new crops - except strawberries in a few pots.  But I've expanded to another raised bed and am looking to extend my growing season with succession and inter-planting.  Browsing the web, I am so confused by all the conflicting information - what you can companion plant, what should be planted after what, how does crop rotation play into all of this.  I know this is part art and part science, but why can't I figure this out?!?!?  Anyone have a favorite resource for figuring this stuff out?

I get the facebook messages from the Seed Guy. He publishes lots of stuff. And has also published companion planting lists. You take a look on the website. I made a spreadsheet list for it, but not in English. You can plant thyme with your strawberries if there is room for it. Is supposed to give better taste. And garlic goes also well with strawberry, but requires more water.

Strawberries are at their best on year three. After that it is best to start with new plants, in a different pot/bed (rotation). You can make new plants from your own plants.

[bearcat1]

PTF, y'all are an amazing resource!
I am mostly in the dreaming and planning stage this year. I just bought my own place, a condo where I have about a 5'x10' enclosed patio (with extremely poor quality dirt, it barely grows weeds) in the back, and I don't think I can do too much yet this year but want to get into composting to try to improve my soil. I'm taking a compost class in a couple weeks here and you're inspiring me to see if there's any local pickup sites. (Major metro area, so I kinda doubt it?) Growing up I loved our big backyard garden, and I know I can't duplicate that here but I want to try a little bit!
I'm in zone 8 so I know it's more spring and fall gardening here. I'm going to get a few pots of herbs going soon on my south facing patio. That's about all I know for now!

[Frugal Lizard]

For colder zones The Vegetable Academy has a free mini course.  https://www.vegetableacademy.com/
I got a lot of good info out of the earlier version of the course.
He gardens in Saskatoon, Canada (our zone 3 USDA zones are a little different)

[Linea_Norway]

Today I sowed small strawberries, both red and yellow ones. Birds are supposed to not eat the yellow berries.
And I sowed lam's salad, if that google translate is correct.
And I sowed chives, Siberian type, as they will be planted at our cabin.

[LifeHappens]

Birds are supposed to not eat the yellow berries.

I would love to hear if this turns out to be true.

[YttriumNitrate]

After cold stratifying for 100ish days, I recently moved my pawpaw seeds over to 5-gallon buckets in my furnace room to begin germination.

So we're only a month into 2023 and once again it looks like I've already started my annual tradition of biting off way more than I can chew when it comes to growing stuff. I finally got all my tree seeds planted in buckets and it worked out to over 1,000 pawpaw seeds planted and 400 persimmons. Unless the germination turns out to be quite low, I'm going to be digging a lot of holes in 2023.

[Linea_Norway]

After cold stratifying for 100ish days, I recently moved my pawpaw seeds over to 5-gallon buckets in my furnace room to begin germination.

So we're only a month into 2023 and once again it looks like I've already started my annual tradition of biting off way more than I can chew when it comes to growing stuff. I finally got all my tree seeds planted in buckets and it worked out to over 1,000 pawpaw seeds planted and 400 persimmons. Unless the germination turns out to be quite low, I'm going to be digging a lot of holes in 2023.

You could do a selection of your plants and only transplant the most successful.

Yesterday I mentioned to DH that I really don't have much space to grow stuff. He agreed, but said that my sowing actions don't reflect that lack of space. That is true.

This year, I wanted to grow 2 Jalapeno chilies. I sowed 3 to do a later selection, but only one germinated. Later I added 2 more seeds and still kept the tray warm. But nothing happens apart from that 1 plant. So maybe I should only grow the 1 that germinated and later take a cutting from that.

Last year I had 6 chili plants, plus one baby from a cutting. The 2-year-old Cayennes produced more or less enough chilies for what we eat in a year. The 4 Brazilian starfish were at the end of the season heavyly reduced in flower buds by me, in the hope that the remaining chilies would ripen faster. But we concluded that maybe I don't need that many chili plants. I intend to get rid of the last baby Cayenne if the Jalapeno works out. And have only 1 Braz. Starfish. The additional 3 starfishes are still upstairs in reserve, in case that the one downstairs doesn't revive well after winter.

[Anette]

So I have a question about my raised beds. We started them two years ago with a lot of branches and leaves as the lower third. Last year we had to refill about  10-15 cm of topsoil as everything had sunk that much. This year is the same ( haven't done anything yet). The problem is that I have some plants in there ( mostly strawberries and garlic) . Last year I tried to carefully lift those plants and work in the new soil underneath but I am afraid to disturb the roots and existing soil this much. How is this really supposed to be done? I shall be glad to receive any of your gardening wisdom.
In general I am going with the Charles Dowding methods but he of course doesn't use raised beds.

[RetiredAt63]

So I have a question about my raised beds. We started them two years ago with a lot of branches and leaves as the lower third. Last year we had to refill about  10-15 cm of topsoil as everything had sunk that much. This year is the same ( haven't done anything yet). The problem is that I have some plants in there ( mostly strawberries and garlic) . Last year I tried to carefully lift those plants and work in the new soil underneath but I am afraid to disturb the roots and existing soil this much. How is this really supposed to be done? I shall be glad to receive any of your gardening wisdom.
In general I am going with the Charles Dowding methods but he of course doesn't use raised beds.

You could lift the strawberries in early spring to add more soil.  For the garlic, why not just leave it?  Garlic is harvested mid-summer and you can add more soil then.

[the_hobbitish]

Zone 7a here.  Today I started all the cool weather seeds; radish, peas, lettuce, kale, chard, spinach. I'm also growing Iceland poppies for the first time. I really hope they do well since they're a favorite flower, but so expensive at the garden center.

I went with windstrip trays. So far I like how sturdy they feel.

Everything is sitting on the kitchen counter while I get the automatic window opener in the greenhouse figured out. Hopefully i can move it all out there in heat mats in the next day or two.

[Linea_Norway]

I couldn't resist and bought a whole bunch of new seeds for a small local producer, who also has good prices. It is so much fun to try new things. And maybe I can just have fewer numbers of each vegetable.

I sowed some more bell peppers that are supposed to get chocolate colour.

The pot with lamb's lettuce (Valerianella locusta) that I sowed a week ago, was lost for a while. But I found it upstairs on my desk.

Today I will be repotting my artichokes. The ones I sowed first, are now growing fast. I am planning to plant them out in June at our cabin, but I am now affraid that they will become enormously big before I can move them outside. At home I can put plants outside in the second half of May.

The strawberries and aspargus haven't sprouted yet. The chives haven't either.

I have a question about leeks. I sowed them in a grape box, close together. They are now getting longish. My gardening book says I can cut them to stimulate growing more roots. And it says to repot them when the stem gets thicker. But can I leave them together in this small box? If they develop more roots, they will also get more entangled. So far, they are just really thin plants.
Or should I rather repot them into separate pots now?

[Captain Pierogi]

It will be 60-degrees (again) in the Northeast U.S., and while on one hand, I'm okay with this, on the other, I'm not because some of my garlic is already sprouting!  My leaf mulch blew off a small section of my raised bed, and that area is definitely sprouting.  I just re-covered it and am hoping for the best.

In the meantime, I think I nailed down my planting plan, as I start indoor seeding in just a couple of weeks.  I'm making my own potting soil this year for all of my patio pots, which should save me about 50% the cost of the pre-made stuff.  I'll probably do an experiment just to see if there's a noticeable difference between the two.  With the warm weather, I pulled the compost out of my rotating bin and set it aside so I could start a new batch for mid-season bed replenishing.  I've never been able to time things right to get one.  That would be another nice cost savings.

Thanks to those who have shared your knowledge in this thread.

[Linea_Norway]

@Captain Pierogi
My garlics last year sprouted quite soon after I planted them in autumn. They still turned into normal garlics. So I wouldn't worry too much about yours.

My garlics from this year are standing in pots with holes underneath, but they are still full of ice. This winter has been hopeless with an extremely warm autumn, then freezing, rain, snow, warm, rain, freezing, rain, snow, freezing. All the pots are fullmof an ice clump. This killed most of DH's grapes last year. This year he therefore placed his grapes in a large pot in a shed. Most of my cold tolerant plants are just outside, covered by leaves. That contains lots of garlic, mint, apple mint that I receiver from somone else in autumn, some eternal kale that I received from someone else, thyme and maybe some more that I can't recall.

My green asgarges have sprouted (75%) and are growing fast. The violet asparges have not yet sprouted at all.

My alpine strawberries have sprouted.

The artichokes are still growing and I will soon repot the ones that were sowed last.

I repotted ones of my kaffir limes to a bigger pot. But I noticed it hadn't filled up it's old pot at all. It had one long root going all the way down, but not much side roots. So I wait with the other plant.

The chocolate peppers are not sprouting at all. I have them on a heat tray, but in a high pot.

The new sweet peppers have sprouted well and those will replace the plants from last year that are now (still) occupying the living room.

Yesterday I sowed a whole bunch of different carrots in milk cartons and put them in a plastic crate in a cold, but readonably light bedroom. I am very much in doubt what would be wise. One type is called "summer carrot", which is supposed to grow fast. The other types are probably winter carrots, one is for sure. They need a long time to grow and that is why I started them (a bit earlier than planned, because of the nice weather). Last year, I put carrots in milk cartons and put them outside, in the winter. They sprouted very late, too late for planting at the cabin in that short summer season. So this year I try something new.

I am this year reusing last year's potting soil, and combining it with vermaculite. And plants that need it get sand as well. But I have more plants ready for ending than I have place to store that soil. I have 6 plants in big pots waiting to be recycled. And 3 large buckets with recycled soil in the washing room. I will need at this soil as soon as my seedlings grow bigger.

[LifeHappens]

I found my city's free mulch yesterday and shoveled enough to put a layer over all my vegetable areas. It's not the best quality (found some plastic in it), but it is supposed to be composted enough to kill weeds.

[Frugal Lizard]

I am starting peppers this weekend. I am going to do them in tiny soil blocks.  I have way too many types!

Sweet potato slips are really doing well. The ones that were so quick to root, I potted up. Then they went crazy so I decided to snip them back and root the snips - we shall see if that works.  I only need 10 slips if the yield is similar year to year. I have only rooted the yellow fleshed ones. I hope I can trade some yellow for some orange fleshed ones.  The purple ones are not sending out eyes so I grabbed one and put it under the grow lights in water.

This year I MUST not plant so many potatoes. I must confess that maybe 1/5 of last years harvest were volunteers. I gave away a whole bushel already. I still have a couple of bushels in cold storage and they wanna grow.

We eat as many as DH and I eat. DS keeps shopping in our cold cellar but DD doesn't cook very much. Hopefully both of the kids will eat more of the produce I grow instead of buying it.  Last year I probably had 6 rows including the volunteers. This year I will only plant two rows.  And mostly yukon gold type.

I am doing a lot of sprouting these days and it is really helping scratch my planting itch.

[RetiredAt63]

I am starting peppers this weekend. I am going to do them in tiny soil blocks.  I have way too many types!

Sweet potato slips are really doing well. The ones that were so quick to root, I potted up. Then they went crazy so I decided to snip them back and root the snips - we shall see if that works.  I only need 10 slips if the yield is similar year to year. I have only rooted the yellow fleshed ones. I hope I can trade some yellow for some orange fleshed ones.  The purple ones are not sending out eyes so I grabbed one and put it under the grow lights in water.

This year I MUST not plant so many potatoes. I must confess that maybe 1/5 of last years harvest were volunteers. I gave away a whole bushel already. I still have a couple of bushels in cold storage and they wanna grow.

We eat as many as DH and I eat. DS keeps shopping in our cold cellar but DD doesn't cook very much. Hopefully both of the kids will eat more of the produce I grow instead of buying it.  Last year I probably had 6 rows including the volunteers. This year I will only plant two rows.  And mostly yukon gold type.

I am doing a lot of sprouting these days and it is really helping scratch my planting itch.

For the sweet potatoes, you can cook (wilt really) the leaves like spinach.  A bit of soy sauce or similar and you have a vegetable for dinner.

I don't know yet if I will have a garden plot this year, so I am massively restraining myself from starting things.  It's like addiction withdrawal.

[bearcat1]

Thank you for all those tips, Rosie. Have you had any issues with oak leaves in your compost/mulch? I have read the tannins in oak can be bad for plant growth, but I don't know if 1 oak tree is enough to cause problems.

https://www.gardensalive.com/product/ybyg-of-oak-leaves-and-the-timing-of-mulch

Thank you. This is helpful. It looks like I will have to figure out how to shred leaves if I want to use them as mulch. We have no lawn, so therefore we do not own a lawnmower, but I can probably borrow one from a neighbor as needed.

I am in the same boat, I don't have a lawnmower and nobody in my condo complex does either. So I'm a bit stuck on how else to shred leaves. Any ideas? I got a few bags from houses down the road, mostly oak leaves this late in the winter, and I'm layering them over my very bad soil for now, trying to start a base for compost and hope to attract worms eventually.

[Linea_Norway]

Thank you for all those tips, Rosie. Have you had any issues with oak leaves in your compost/mulch? I have read the tannins in oak can be bad for plant growth, but I don't know if 1 oak tree is enough to cause problems.

https://www.gardensalive.com/product/ybyg-of-oak-leaves-and-the-timing-of-mulch

Thank you. This is helpful. It looks like I will have to figure out how to shred leaves if I want to use them as mulch. We have no lawn, so therefore we do not own a lawnmower, but I can probably borrow one from a neighbor as needed.

I am in the same boat, I don't have a lawnmower and nobody in my condo complex does either. So I'm a bit stuck on how else to shred leaves. Any ideas? I got a few bags from houses down the road, mostly oak leaves this late in the winter, and I'm layering them over my very bad soil for now, trying to start a base for compost and hope to attract worms eventually.

@bearcat1 Maybe composting them for a year or so could break them down sufficiently?
Otherwise I was thinking of a machine that you can put branches through and get sawdust out. But I guess you and your neighbours don't have that either.

[Linea_Norway]

Somewhere not so far from my home, there is a practice place for horse and carriage racing. It is an open place. On the terrain in the middle there is an enormous pile of horse manure, damping warmth when it is freezing.

I am thinking that (mature) horse manure could be good fertilizer for my plants. But if it is from racing horses, will the manure contain lots of drugs (medical or race cheating)? Anyway, I don't think I can use it while I have my plants indoors in the living room. Even the fluid seaweed plant feed already gives an odour when I don't pollute it enough. But I might visit the place and get some manure when I am going to put my squashes and pumpkin outside.

A propos medicine in fertilizer. You can dillute human urine with water in 1:10 or 1:20. There have been several discussions about this on a Norwegian radio podcast where you can ask experts/scientists questions. They told us that many medicine molecules don't break down in the body and come out in the same way. The biologist answered that plants don't have the same receptors for medicine as people have, so there is probably low risk. The medical doctor answered that you shouldn't use urine with antibiotics in it, just in case there get traces of it into the vegetables. In my case, I don't use any medicine anymore, and I plan on using this fertilizer again when my plants stand outside.

[bluebelle]

Birds are supposed to not eat the yellow berries.

I would love to hear if this turns out to be true.

me too....I sowed them 7 days ago, they say they take 2-8 weeks to germinate, I'm still checking them twice a day.   Maybe gardening will teach me patience.   I'm also hoping that chipmunks and squirrels don't like the yellow ones.

[bluebelle]

Somewhere not so far from my home, there is a practice place for horse and carriage racing. It is an open place. On the terrain in the middle there is an enormous pile of horse manure, damping warmth when it is freezing.

I am thinking that (mature) horse manure could be good fertilizer for my plants. But if it is from racing horses, will the manure contain lots of drugs (medical or race cheating)? Anyway, I don't think I can use it while I have my plants indoors in the living room. Even the fluid seaweed plant feed already gives an odour when I don't pollute it enough. But I might visit the place and get some manure when I am going to put my squashes and pumpkin outside.

A propos medicine in fertilizer. You can dillute human urine with water in 1:10 or 1:20. There have been several discussions about this on a Norwegian radio podcast where you can ask experts/scientists questions. They told us that many medicine molecules don't break down in the body and come out in the same way. The biologist answered that plants don't have the same receptors for medicine as people have, so there is probably low risk. The medical doctor answered that you shouldn't use urine with antibiotics in it, just in case there get traces of it into the vegetables. In my case, I don't use any medicine anymore, and I plan on using this fertilizer again when my plants stand outside.

I've read that human urine will also deter many animals from the garden.   I'm hoping that is true.

[Frugal Lizard]

I have an old metal baking sheet filled with tiny soil blocks. There are twenty rows. 16 rows contain some peppers. 1 row is rosemary and 2 rows are celery.

Not all the blocks in the row have seed in them.  First, my technique making soil blocks is rusty so some blocks are rejects.

Some of the seed is really really old and I decided to use it all up, but there was only 4-8 seeds left. I sowed them in the rows with a high number of reject blocks.

Some of the varieties are very hot, and I only need a plant. I planted 4-6 seeds, depending on the age of the seed and how many were in the packets. If I get 100% germination, I can trade or donate.

Other varieties, such as California Wonder, I planted all 12 blocks in the row. I need to grow 16 sweet peppers for the community garden and 12 for my use / preservation.  I like to make salsas and such with homegrown.

I also got the reflective bubble wrap cut to size and hung up on the growing shelf. I am running the lights at night when the electricity is the cheapest. The tray is on a warming pad, and the temperature sensor is wrapped in a blob of soil along side the soil blocks

The sweet potatoes I trimmed back have really branched out. I am probably have some to trade, as the sweet potatoes that are in the water are sprouting more slips.

[bluebelle]

I'm so excited!   So far, I have 6 very tiny asparagus spears poking up (out of 20), and it's only day 8.   Strawberries are being a little more stubborn, There are maybe 5 out of the 30-40 seeds, but again, only at day 9 for them....this is early germination, so I'm optimistic about the others eventually showing up to the party.

[YttriumNitrate]

I've read that human urine will also deter many animals from the garden.   I'm hoping that is true.

In my experience dealing with deer, there are a bunch of things that will scare them away, but they are extremely adaptable. In about 2 weeks the deer will have acclimated to whatever was scaring them and then proceed like it wasn't even there.

[Linea_Norway]

My green aspargus have sprouted some time ago, but the violet aspargus hadn't. Therefore I put the tray with violet ones on a warming rack. And one day later, 1 out of 12 has spouted. I put the tray with green aspargus upstairs in a cold room, as I read that they rather not stand so warm. And ai needed more space in the living room.

From what I read about aspargus, I can just leaves them in pots the whole first year. And they should overwinter a bit warmish the first winter.

[Frugal Lizard]

@Linea_Norway I would think your potted asparagus will do fine if you heal the pots into the ground so they have the insulation from freeze thaw. After a good hard frost to push them into dormancy, adding a thick layer of mulch to reduce the depth of frost penetration would likely be enough to carry them through the winter.

The only issue I would worry about is fertility in the potting soil. Asparagus is a very heavy feeder and potting soils often are so free draining that nutrients need to be added very frequently.

[Linea_Norway]

@Linea_Norway I would think your potted asparagus will do fine if you heal the pots into the ground so they have the insulation from freeze thaw. After a good hard frost to push them into dormancy, adding a thick layer of mulch to reduce the depth of frost penetration would likely be enough to carry them through the winter.

The only issue I would worry about is fertility in the potting soil. Asparagus is a very heavy feeder and potting soils often are so free draining that nutrients need to be added very frequently.

@Frugal Lizard
The place where I want to keep them is at our cabin, one of the coldest places in the south of Norway. It can get -30˚C there in winter. Not sure whether a good layer of mulch will keep them alive in that. Although it is not that cold all the time, just occasionally. Aspargus is supposed yo be really hardy though, but not sure if that counts for young plants.