2023 Gardening Thread

And they’re up! Or getting there. 5 leeks, 5 basil (I accidentally got two seeds in one cell), and tomatoes and cantaloupe (?) breaking the surface. I sprinkled everything with cinnamon because I thought I saw mould in one of the cells. More precautionary than anything.

My daily photo! 😆



Left to right:
Row 1 = Leeks,
Row 2 = tomatoes (cherry),
Row 3 = tomatoes (plum)
Rows 4 & 5 = two rows of peppers (not up yet),
Row 6 = cantaloupe (1 up) and parsley (not up),
Row 7 = bunching onions (just coming up),
Row 8 = shallots (just coming up), and
Row 9 = basil

Everything but parsley and peppers are up. Looks like the jalapeños are just starting to break surface. 😁

The parsley and peppers are coming up! Basil is already starting to get their real leaves. Tiny, but there!

ETA: checking the backyard. Daylilies are up. Keeping an eye on the hostas and Solomon’s seal. Last year the deer ate the buds. This year I’m going to spray them with deer repellent and see if I can save them.

Thanks so @hikr00 and @Contrary Housewife ! Hubby and I looked at a grow tent today for $80 CAD. we decided against it because of the plastic sides not being separate from the bird netting. Also the plastic would act like a sail in our winds. We would have to have it clamped to the deck…and we’re thinking of replacing the deck this year. Maybe something a bit sturdier and more versatile next year.

We went looking a couple places for the connector cords to go between our Jiffy LED grow lights. No one had them. I also phoned a couple places and got through to one. They didn’t have them. Everyone kept suggesting Amazon. Hubby doesn’t like shopping Amazon. I use it as the source of last resort.

We found them on one Canadian website, but it’s a bit sketchy…no street address or box number. Only a 1-888 number. We did not recognize the name of the outfit. Neither did the sales associate at Walmart we talked to, who agreed it looked a bit sketchy when he looked at it too. So…We decided to just plug all three LED grow lights into a power bar we already have, and turn then on and off as needed. In the process I think I finished off one of the leek seedlings. Oh well.

I transplanted some tomatoes to bigger pots. The roots were coming out the bottom of the starter tray. I also transplanted the one good looking cantaloupe. The other looked deformed, so into the compost it went.

I had three spots in the seed starter tray where nothing came up - cantaloupe and parsley. So I planted one more cantaloupe seed and three parsley seeds in each of two starter tray spots. I need more than one parsley plant to get me through the year for parsley. I am already down to the last of my home dried parsley from last summer.

My plants are doing fine…so far. I need to find my seedling fertilizer. What do you all use?

I did a little maintenance on the seedlings. I cut off the bad leaves, drained all standing water from beneath the pot trays, and transplanted the rest of the starts. Accidentally dumped a bunch of soil on the floor. Hubby, bless his soul, cleaned it up for me.

First deck contractor came today. I think we’ll be going with him. But we have at least one more outfit visiting next week.

This guy was young, but honest. Appears to know his deck stuff. Told Hubby we couldn’t dig down under the deck because it would expose the footings, which would allow frost to get in during the winter months, and the moisture would start wicking up our interior walls once it thawed. That would ruin our foundation as well, because the moisture in the wall would freeze and thaw repeatedly with our weather, cracking the foundation. Soooo….no digging down underneath the deck. Hubby is disappointed. So am I. Means we’re still bent over under the deck trying to access the hose bib to turn the water on and off.

The kid’s guess for a 200 square foot deck was about $8000 CAD for pressure treated wood. It would be about $12,000 for a composite deck. He’s going to do up a formal quote for pressure treated wood.

Hubby talked about a few other projects in the yard. The kid had some good ideas. I explained what was going on with our meadow back yard and the issues we had with the front yard. I asked if he had ever worked with a landscape architect. He had and it was a lady we had heard about before. She’s moved a couple hours up the highway. He’s going to talk to her to see if she’ll come down to talk to us. Ideally we’d like her to draw up a plan for hardscaping and general landscaping.

Anyways, we’ll see.

Building a cage to cover the garden with net to keep out critters. The construction isn’t great, but it will do! Hubby screwed it all together with deck screws, “so we can take it apart and reuse the lumber, if we want”!