Growing/sharing/learning to garden: 2022

[Queen K]

Once again we wake on January 1 in a New Year eager for the snow to melt and see what we can do with all our gardening plans.

Will we wait long or will Winter end by March 1? We've had some surprisingly early years and some Spring frost disasters.

Bit of a guessing game. I guess we won't be able to get out there until March 19/22.

But this is the place to share seeds, share sale information, share cuttings, plants and just plain old be encouraged to even plant one to 100 new plants. Maybe turn your whole backyard into one huge garlic farm. Did you know blueberries grow well in the Okanagan? Did you see the price of blueberries? Imagine after the flood event now. Yup, the Okanagan is the place to grow!

[Lady tehMa]

I'm going to be rethinking my yard.

With a pup now, I am discovering lots of things that require attention. Especially since he is a digger :/

Oak tree - acorns are bad for dogs, they contain tannins that can kill them. So far I've fenced it off and am hoping that works. There is grass under it, so it needs mowing but there are only acorns for a short period so I'm hoping that we don't need to cut it down, that we can just fence it for a few months at a time.

Plum tree - plum pits contain amygdalin which breaks down into hydrogen cyanide. Hydrogen cyanide is very poisonous and can kill a person (so dogs? NOPE).
https://thewholeportion.com/are-plum-pits-poisonous/
That I had fenced off. Considering whether to keep or cut. It tends to interfere with the corner of the house so I'm considering cutting it down.

Bulbs - poisonous so they'll have to go. Somewhere =_= Grape hyacinths are supposed to be okay, though.

Grapes though - Poisonous. So, the purple grape may get dug up. I fenced off the green grape (Himrod) because it produces so beautifully and It isn't super hard to contain. I think I can keep doing that.

I want to fix my back garden bed along the rear fence. There is a strip of land with some plants that gets pretty much full shade. I need to put some kind of edging down and put down landscape fabric and mulch.

Green tomatoes are supposed to be very toxic to dogs. I may forgo even planting tomatoes in pots this year.

[Babba_not_Gump]

This could be a transitional year for us.

We are seriously giving some thought to downsizing, from a large house and yard to a condo.
The change in yard work and gardening will be a shocker but one stipulation for the new home will be a large balcony. That will make or break any deals.

Blueberries. Hmm, one plant? We have twenty of them now.
Herbs? Yup, they're mandatory and should be easy.
Squash? One of our favorites and could be a challenge. We still have a couple of blue Hubbard in the garage. Damn, we'll miss them.
Garlic? Another tough one. And still plenty of them in the garage.
And all those veggies!

We've made good use over the years of our +1000 sq ft of garden as well as our dozen or so fruit trees so plenty of memories to look back on.
I think we'll be visiting the Farmers Markets often.

But hey, and recommendations on balcony gardening will be welcome.

[Catsumi]

For those interested in obtaining lightweight row covers to protect seeds, young plants against insects, sunburn and frost damage, now would be a good time to hit up thrift stores for sheer nylon curtains.

Remay covers cost a fortune and do no better than sheers at a fraction of the price.

[zookeeper]

This could be a transitional year for us.

We are seriously giving some thought to downsizing, from a large house and yard to a condo.
The change in yard work and gardening will be a shocker but one stipulation for the new home will be a large balcony. That will make or break any deals.

Blueberries. Hmm, one plant? We have twenty of them now.
Herbs? Yup, they're mandatory and should be easy.
Squash? One of our favorites and could be a challenge. We still have a couple of blue Hubbard in the garage. Damn, we'll miss them.
Garlic? Another tough one. And still plenty of them in the garage.
And all those veggies!

We've made good use over the years of our +1000 sq ft of garden as well as our dozen or so fruit trees so plenty of memories to look back on.
I think we'll be visiting the Farmers Markets often.

But hey, and recommendations on balcony gardening will be welcome.

We're going to do the opposite, we've transitioned downwards many times for specific reasons. Education, long work hours, constraints on time thinking the less there is to do the more time we would free up just simply added more stress and less pleasure.

We are going to start the hunt for a suited home, I have no issues living in the kids' basement, countless parents I know are doing this for many reasons. It will have a fenced yard, a garden, one gourmet kitchen and a rec room.

If the last 2 years have taught us anything one is family is important. Decent incomes and the cost of living x2 makes no sense. Vegetables, aside from being a fortune, rotten by the next day. Take out that makes you wish you had just boiled a couple eggs. $20 for a cake that tastes like dye or nothing? Customer service, a joke, whether it is shopping or repairs.

Back to the basics, gardening, cooking, baking, canning, freezing, home improvement through skill and time. Time with family, activities that cost little or nothing. Building back the life I was raised in, the kid was raised in, and providing the meaningful lessons to the grandchildren.

Container gardening is an art not easily mastered, trial and error, much of it based on containers, soil and placement, not a lot of options depending on the direction of said balcony.

[Catsumi]

_^^^^^^

I applaud both of you. Back to basics and spit in the eye of “wants/needs” a failing society pushes on us.

[Lady tehMa]

Has anyone started seeds, yet?

I have a buddy who likes to grow the really hot peppers, Caroline Reapers, Trinidad Scorpian, that sort of thing. He's got a number started.

I think I will buy a few packets of sunflowers this year, that's about it for plants. I plan to dig up some others and give them to my sis-in-law. My tayberries, my goji, maybe my currant. And possibly my purple grape.

My tayberries are causing my son to refuse to mow the lawn because they are so spiny and get out of control quickly. The goji doesn't taste as good as I had hoped. The current is in a difficult spot and I don't ever harvest because of it. The purple grape . . . grapes are bad for dogs. I have figured out a way to wall off the Himrod (besides, it is way too big to move). I would have to build an arbour for it, and wall off yet more yard.

And I will have to move all the garlic I had encouraged to seed, into the front yard. Because garlic is bad for dogs. :/

[Babba_not_Gump]

Has anyone started seeds, yet?

I may have a few of you beat.

In anticipation of possibly down sizing this year, we were given this little stater kit for herbs.
Mint, Genovese basil, Thai basil, parsley, thyme and dill.
Started on January 2.

If we do move, balcony gardening will be a challenge.

[Lady tehMa]

bb49 - that's a cool setup

[Babba_not_Gump]

And 19 days later our little herb garden is growing like mad.

We'vs clipped a number of shoots and leaves off. Can't keep up to the dill so we set some aside for drying the other day.
The next morning most of it was scattered around the house. Seems our cat had taken a liking to it and left some in various rooms. Dill, who would have guessed.

We've used a lot of the basil and the thyme. Parsley is almost ready.

[Queen K]

That's awesome. Herbs around here get so out of hand I pull them out by the handful.

I discovered forgotten garlic. Put the root end in water, was delighted with the roots but may have overplayed my hand, we thought to leave the cloves in a tiny bit of water for one more day. That may have ended everything. But I have hope and am planting cloves as soon as the dirt reaches room temperatures. No idea where I got that idea, to make sure the mix of homemade compost and bagged soil should be warm, but there it is.

I've got cloves separated and obviously out of the water.

Soon to plant.

Garlic in my outdoor raised beds does very well indeed and right now lots is up.

[Queen K]

How do Snowdrops spread? I have made no conscious effort to move a clump of snowdrops, of which fourty eight are blooming now. But I aslo have some where there should be none. Zero. So what gives? I've got a new clump out front, outside the chainlink fence and a clump up by the back door, against the house. No idea how this happened.

Over all I've got over 55 Snowdrops blooming right now.

[Old Sailor]

They develop seeds from the flowers and spread naturally.

[Lady tehMa]

How do Snowdrops spread? I have made no conscious effort to move a clump of snowdrops, of which fourty eight are blooming now. But I aslo have some where there should be none. Zero. So what gives? I've got a new clump out front, outside the chainlink fence and a clump up by the back door, against the house. No idea how this happened.

Over all I've got over 55 Snowdrops blooming right now.

You are the Snowdrop Whisperer

A nearby complex's snow was removed to my garden bed :/ It will be a while before that bed has snowdrops showing. Last I checked it was still around 7 ft at the highest point. The downside of gardening on the boulevard . . .

[Queen K]

It's getting close to time thinking about what is going into the gardens for food security, er, growing stuff.

I had success with growing tomatoes in one area that needs a break from tomatoes, so I've decided to plant them along the side of the sunny hot side of the garage and back fence. Garlic is coming up, we removed abit of the cover to give it more light and air by now. Store bought garlic started to sprout so we planted five cloves indoors. All if it took and will be replanted in the gardens soon.

The front area where the tomatoes have been need to be put into potatoes. Yes, I've decided to trench dig and replant using plenty of compost. They do not do well in my raised beds. Years of digging out nothing under big leaves have taught me to go back to the ground. Peas go in soon. Last year I staggered pea planting with great effect.

I am removing some flowers in favour of berry plants. Never thought I'd say that but here we are. I am experimenting with planting lettuce in a few new places too. See how more shade does to keep it from bolting.

I am removing certain raspberry canes from the front. They struggle there too much. Other raspberry canes overtake in one area, can't win. But we got heat domed out of raspberries last year and am wondering if the same will occur. What are the chances?

Not fooling around with exotic stuff this year. Tried and true is the motto.

How is everyone else doing?