Garlic part 2 planted (Music)

 Part 1 was planted Sep 28th.

Today (Oct 11th) was part 2.

See photo in October/garden folder of my hand-drawn map of today's plantings + Sep 28th's plantings.

No frost in yard yet

So far the cherry tomato plant and a couple of zukes are still going, not hit by frost in the yard yet.

GA: Raccoons got most of the popcorn!!!!

Argh!!  The popcorn had been untouched up until today, when I found most of the cobs vanished and some of the stalks broken.  I presume raccoons.  Sigh.  So, I harvested what remained.  It's definitely still nowhere near being dry, but hopefully it will be okay to dry on the counter.  If it works, then next year I'll try again and would just harvest much sooner rather than thinking they can last until fully dry on the stalk.

Garlic round 1 planted (will plant round 2 in a few weeks)

Here's what I did:

Forked/fluffed the area.

Added pre-soaked alfalfa, and mrp, az, and kelp.

Smoothed everything over.

In the east-most two-square (north-south) are 4 elephant cloves harvested from the one huge elephant bulb that I harvested this year.  

To the west of that is a two-square east-west of the biggest Music cloves bought this year.

To the north of those are a two-square east-west of medium/small Music cloves bought this year.

See photo in September/garden folder of my hand-drawn map of today's plantings.

That's it for today.  In a few weeks I'll plant the rest of the Music.

(Today's planting is earlier than normal because of people saying earlier is better -- and the second round in a few weeks will be for comparison.)

GA: Bush beans didn't put out fall flowers!

Weird -- normally I find the bush beans put out a second round of flowers/beans in late summer / into fall -- that didn't happen this year.  Maybe the lack of rain was an issue especially since I didn't keep watering them after the first harvest (but the plants still survived).

GA: First frost!! Many tenders perished! (no frost in yard)

The first frost happened the night of either Friday Sep 19th or Saturday Sep 20th, as noticed when I went to the garden on Sunday Sep 21st.  Most little buckwheat seedlings kaput, as well as most zukes, peppers, etc.

The yard is fine -- no frost there yet.

GA: Harvested all the rest of the sweet corn regardless of size, because (a) critters have eaten a few cobs and (b) they're getting pasty

Quite a lot of cobs, though most at this point are quite small -- it will take 4 or 5 to make a portion, but that's fine.

GA: A small watermelon was delicous!! So red and tasty!

Starting to harvest the rest of the watermelons, gradually.  Overall 3 were full size (for Blacktail Mountain), the rest are about half size.  The first half-size that I harvested, today, was delicious!!  Really red inside, and sweet and tasty.

Bought garlic from Ritchie's: 0.94 pounds of "Music Hardneck Jumbo"

Decided against trying the elephant variety again -- and went only with one type this year, "Music Hardneck Jumbo" (from the bulk section, at Ritchie's).  0.94 pounds of modest but very nice bulb/clove sizes.  I'd be thrilled if even half of these cloves end up producing similar sized garlic.

The price went up -- last year it was $25/pound, this year $27.99.  So, the total cost was $29.73 including tax.

Won't plant yet obviously, too soon.

GA: The corn is now past its prime -- getting pasty, but still edible and enjoyable (just not the OMG delish that it was a few weeks ago)

 ^^^

GA: Sowed buckwheat in a couple of spots

Sowed buckwheat at (a) the NW former potato bed (which was emptied out a week or so ago), and (b) the SW onion bed (which was also emptied out recently).

We'll see how much it grows before frost comes.

GA: APHIDS ON THE KALE/CHARD! AND BLACK FLIES IN THE BROCCOLI!!!!

Oh no!!!  I haven't looked at the kale in ages, and went I went to harvest some today, I saw that it's full of green aphids!!! There are some on the chard too, but the kale especially.  So, I'll pull and discard all of the kale and chard next time I go.

I didn't see any aphids on the broccoli, so I brought that home.  But at home I found that there were many little black flies within!!  It took many rinses/soaks to get them all out, but otherwise the broccoli is gorgeous, so I used it.

I have no idea how these aphids/flies got in under the netting (which is a sheer sheet thing, not tulle, so no holes to get in).... My best guess is that they may have overwintered in the soil and therefore popped up under the cover.

GA: First sweet corn harvested! Deeeeeeeelicious!

Harvested the first two ears of sweet corn from the NW bed's first round.  The cobs were on the skinnier side, but they were DELICIOUS!!!  So crunchy and sweet!  YUM.  As delicious as they were, I wish I could have shared them with Scooter.

GA: White onions -- some are already going mushy in the ground!!

Yikes!  Some, but not all, of the white onions are already going mushy in the ground!  A few of those were lost completely; the others were partly salvageable as the insides were still good.

GA: Watermelon (x1) harvested FOY

It was nice and big (as far as Blacktails go), so I decided today was the day.  The little tendril at the vine joint was still green, but it lacked vibrancy, so it looked like it would be turning brown soon.

The inside was -- mostly green, some pink tinge, so I was disappointed at first.  But, it was sweet and juicy, very nice!  The seeds were fully edible / inoffensive.

There's another nice big one getting ready too -- that one I'll wait until the tendril turns brown, will see if that makes any difference in pinkness.

And a few others that are growing too.

GA: Harvested a few potatoes -- they're all small so far

Decided to hand-dig under a potato plant in the NW bed that had yellowed/died.  There were a few potatoes, but all small, like combined maybe one larger potato. 

We'll see what the others look like, but for now it's too early to dig up more.

GA: Tons of aphids at top of the youngest sweet corn!!

Noticed it the other day but had a closer look today and sure enough, lady bugs around to eat them.  SO many aphids all clustered up at the base of the tassel things at the top.  

The older sweet corn immediately to their west don't seem to have them, or at least not many.

GA: Fall carrots sown

I put these into the space recently vacated by the second downed zucchini -- i.e. along the west edge, northern part.

All I did is I removed obvious weeds, then hand-trowelled to loosen, then sprinkled kelp, mrp, and az, then mixed it in, then set aside some soil to cover them up, then flattened the area, sprinkled the seeds, sprinkled to cover with the set-aside soil, placed the burlap, then watered over the burlap.

Let's see how it goes!

GA: Cut down the crimson clover; the bees loved the flowers

Decided it was time to cut down the crimson clover, which was in the SE-most part.  Flowers had appeared in the last week or two and were starting to turn white, not sure if it's too late to prevent self-sowing, we shall see.  The plants were about 2 feet tall or so and had started to flop all over and be messy.  Used the yellow shears to chop it down, rather than pulling it out by the roots.  For now the material is just plopped on the bed it came from.  I'm thinking I may use it to mulch the corn once the clover dies/dries a bit.

GA: First onions harvested -- the only "big" (relatively) ones so far?

The first onions I've harvested are from the SW bed's east section, which per my notes should be the New York Early onions that I started from seed (not sets), so that's exciting!  There are some decent sized ones (on the smaller side, but I'm happy with it) -- but the ones left in the bed look much smaller, sadly.  Not sure why I have trouble growing onions, whether from sets or seeds!  (Peppers too!)

The blog says I started the NYE onion seeds January 23rd (round one) and February 2nd (round 2).  Presumably these relatively larger ones that I harvested today are from round one.  So, that's 191 days, yikes!!  Seed stores say 98 days for this variety!!!

Uncovered the two scallopinis (yard)

Not because too big (though they are huge), but because they put out so many male flowers that stay open for multiple days, that I just can't be bothered to check every day to see if any females are there yet.

GA: Bush bean harvest in full swing!

^^^

Nooooo --- the neighbourhood apple tree is GONE!!!

What a sad realization!  The neighbourhood apple tree, which gave THE most delicious, perfect apples I have ever tasted in my whole entire life, is no longer there!  No sign of it.  Come to think of it, I don't remember getting any apples from it last fall, though with Scooter's illness I never realized it at the time.  So, I think the apple tree has been gone for at least a year or so.  Sigh.

GA: FOY bush beans!

 That's about 65 days counting back to the first ones started May 24th, though there have been a few rounds since then, so who knows which these are from.

GA: FOY carrots!!! They look great!

Woo hoo!  So exciting!  Nice and long, they look very good.  That's 68 days to maturity -- in line with the 75 days google says.

GA: Belstar broccoli is delicious -- so SWEET! and doing great!

Wow!  My first year trying Belstar broccoli and so far I sure do love it!  Several plants have given their first head and are now into side shoots.  The flavour is spectacular -- it's delicious raw and is actually so sweet when eaten raw!  Some of the heads have had "brown bead" (per google) -- where some of the little unopened florets are dried out / brown and tend to fall off -- but I just throw it all into the recipes and it's great, no issues.

The piracicabas on the other hand haven't been doing great.  Their flowers are long and spindly/measly.  Thank goodness for Belstar to the rescue!

Next year I'll definitely grow more Belstar and fewer piracicaba.

GA: More beets sowed where pulled wilted zuke

I mixed in a bucket of condo soil, then placed beet seeds here and there (not pre-soaked / not pre-germinated), then covered with condo soil, then put burlap.  [A few days later I realized I forgot to add amendments, so lifted the burlap and sprinkled kelp, mrp, and az, then put the burlap back on.]

[I'm writing this on July 28th as back-fill -- not sure exactly which day I sowed them, but it was less than a week ago.]

GA: Oh no!!! A 2nd zuke lost! (presumably borer, but not pulling it quite yet) --> NOT the borer

Egads!!! The most productive plant has wilted!  This makes a second plant lost!  I'll leave it for a few days to finish ripening what it has.  I didn't check the stem closely because whatever (but will check it out when I pull it to see if it's SVB).

--> Update on August 1st 2025:  Pulled it today after harvesting its last two zucchinis.  There were some squash bugs on it, and found at least one or two borers in leaves/stems, but the main stem seemed clear of borers.  So, I'm guessing it died of some type of disease transmitted by the squash bugs and/or cucumber beetles, rather than SVB.

MAJOR FLOP: garlic :(

Oh man -- $50 of seed garlic.  $50!!!!!  is getting me about $5 worth of garlic.  Womp womp.

So far I've pulled the west half.   All elephants are single-cloves -- they never turned into bulbs.  Almost all regulars are itty bitty.  I mean, usable, but like $0.10 worth of garlic each.

I'm sure the other half will be similar but I'll wait a week or two to pull those.

I have no idea what went wrong.  I've grown garlic in the yard before with good, or at least decent, results.  In past years they scaped nicely, etc.  Oh well!

GA: No longer removing squash bugs / cucumber beetles, will see what happens

Yes, I've decided the plants are big enough and que sera sera.  Let's see what happens!

WTH, garlic -- cloves in the stem!?!

Wow, I've never had this happen -- many of the garlics have a place in the stem where new garlic "cloves"?? are popping out.  I noticed this a few weeks ago.  Today I pulled on of them -- it actually does have a garlic bulb at the bottom -- pretty small though.  I think this was one of the "regular" cloves I planted last fall.

Also, a few days ago I pulled one of the fallen-over plants -- it wasn't a bulb but instead a massive clove.  I think this was an elephant one.  It never bulbed, I guess the original clove just swelled up.  It wasn't the best garlic but it was edible.

GA: All temporary covers now removed (zukes, butternut, watermelon)

 All temporary covers now removed (zukes, butternut, watermelon).  I'd been doing it gradually over the past few weeiks.

I've decided I'm just not going to do the insect check with the butternut at all -- it's on its own.  Watermelon too probably.

(The permanent covers are still over the potatoes, broc/kale/chard, onions, and leeks -- these covers won't come off at all.)

GA: Oh no!!!! A zuke plant looks struck by SVB already!?!?!?

Oh no!!! Can it be the SVB?!!  It feels like only a week or two that I took the cover off.  But overnight the plant is all wilty, not due to lack of water.  The strange thing is I can't find a point of entry on the stem.  Oh well, I'll wait until it's totally kaput, then will have a closer look when I pull it out.

GA/BY: Harvest so far (seems puny)

Here's what's been harvested so far this year:

kale

chard

broccoli (including a nice head of Belstar tonight)

basil (not a lot though)

stevia

peppers -- mostly jalapeno or hungarian sweet, not a ton -- and all pepper plants look kinda pathetic

garlic scapes from the few garlics that produced scapes

No zucchini yet, though looking at last year the first was July 4th, and this year a few are on the way so it's not that far behind.

GA: No squash bugs/eggs last few days --> A few days later, more appeared

After a couple of weeks of near-daily checking and removing squash bug adults and eggs, I didn't find any at all today or a the last time I was there a couple of days ago.  Here's hoping they're done?!

--> Update:  A few days later I found more -- and am still finding them occasionally as I write this update edit on July 14th 2025.

GA: SQUASH BUGS!!!!!! MATING AND LAYING EGGS ON EXPOSED ZUKE AND ADULTS FOUND ON NETTING!

Hooooo boy!  Last year I only saw a couple of squash bugs, only on one plant, only once.

This year looks to be a different story!  Found about 4 or 5 mating couples, on the one un-netted zuke and on the netting of several zukes.  And the un-netted zuke had several eggs on the underside.

Sigh!

GA: More sweet corn started in PTs (for succession), and more beans started in PTs (to fill in gaps)

^^^

Where are the scapes?!?!? Garlic not looking very healthy

Oh no!  Why do only 2 of the garlics planted last fall (bought from Ritchie's, so good stuff) have scapes, and those scapes didn't even look normal?  And the leaves of all the garlic looks -- just not great.  It's all been covered for quite a while.

The missed garlic from last year, that sprouted this year, all have beautiful scapes that I harvested today.

Well, que sera sera!

GA: Yikes! Even compost layer is like concrete over the recently planted bean seeds!! I hope they can push through!

Argh!!  I was hoping to avoid the concrete surface issue by putting compost as the top most layer!  I wonder if the compost layer maybe wasn't thick enough (was running low on it)...  Hopefully the beans will be able to push through eventually!

GA: Another carrot patch sowed today using basic method (no gel, no holes)

Here's what I did for this patch (the northmost patch, close to the roadway):

- No prep to the seeds.

- A few days ago loosed the soil and added the free compost.

- Day of scattered random amounts of kelp, mrp, and az.  (No alfalfa)  Used hand to gently mix them in with the soil.

- Added fresh thin layer of the free compost.

- Scattered carrot seeds randomly over the area.

- Covered with a fresh thin layer of the free compost.

- Placed burlap over the area.

- Watered.

Here's hoping this easy peasy method will work.  The first patch with the vermiculite seems to have decent germination too but could be better.

Unfrosted the freezer for the first time

It was very easy.  Put everything into the fridge freezer, took out the baskets, unplugged it, let it thaw, drained it out the bottom (first unscrew the inner plug, then unscrew the outer plug).  Let it dry totally off, then plugged it back in the next day.  It cooled down quickly.

GA: Sweet corn soaked in bowl for ~ an hour, now into PT. Once germinated, will sow.

Also I'm doing a first half now then a second half a week or two later to spread it out a bit.

GA: Beans (pole and bush) soaking overnight, then into soil next day (NO VERMICULITE / NO WAITING FOR GERMINATION BEFORE SOWING)

^^^

GA: Beets R2 started -- this time in paper towels

^^^

GA: PT-started popcorn seeds have now been transplanted

The R2 popcorn seeds that this time I started in paper towels sprouted great in a couple of days and have now been transplanted to fill in the gaps.  This time I put them on and under the GA compost rather than vermiculite.

GA: Oh no! Half the watermelon kaput already!! Too windy/hot?

Oh no!  About half of the watermelon seedlings transplanted yesterday look dead today!  They're all wilty and dead-looking even though it was late evening.  The other ones look good.  I'm guessing maybe yesterday's insane wind + heat was too much for the less strong ones.

Started 3 more Blacktail watermelon seeds tonight but now the pack is empty so I'll buy more.

GA: Using frost cover with clothespins worked well to give some shade to recent transplants

This actually worked quite well and everything stayed on despite crazy wind today.

For some of the groupings of peppers and tomatoes, I wrapped a piece of frost cover (the opaque stuff) around the groupings, using clothespins to anchor them to the tomato cages or support sticks.  Didn't cover the top, just aimed to give most protection to the south side and west side.

Removed them today since the two days of blazing sun are over.  Then used those frost covers as some of the temporary zuke/squash covers.

GA: FOY Colorado Potato Beetle!!

Well that didn't take long!  While transplanting zukes, suddenly I saw a CPB crawling on the soil.  Not sure if s/he had been under the soil and recently emerged or had flown in from elsewhere.

I'll definitely have to keep an eye on the potatoes since even though they were covered since day 1, always a chance CPBs could pop up from under the soil.

Yard almost all planted! Tomatoes, zukes, cukes, zinnias

This year the yard seems a bit sparse!  Having GA helps a ton.

Here's what's in the yard:

- garlic (planted last fall and looking fantastic)

- stevia (x 7, all in pots) (1 is at GA)

- cucumbers (x4)

- tomatoes (x6 including 1 Jasper whose main growing stem is holding on by a thread due to an oopsie; I used painter's tape today to help support the break)

- zucchini (x6 -- two each of Yellow Fin, Golden Glory, and Scallopini)

- Scarlet runner beans (3 square feet, so ~27)

- A few zinnias and coreopsis

Still to plant:

- Basil

- Potatoes from fridge (to put under roof overhang)

- A few more flowers

Yard carrots a total flop -- won't do another round, will just put something else there

Wow, despite all my effort with the vermiculite under/over and the corn starch gel, and covering with burlap, the yard carrots were a complete and total flop.  Not a single carrot.  So, for the first time in many, many years, I'm just not going to grow carrots in the yard.  GA will be the carrot place this year.

I'll theorize that the corn starch gel was too think and the carrots couldn't break through.  (It was a different batch of gel than the GA carrot sowing.)

GA: Transplanted lots of things. ~80% done. Still a few seedlings and seeds to plant.

All seedlings are now transplanted at GA, except for:

- basil (will wait for a few 12-13 degree nights to pass)

- a few more zinnias / coreopsis / f-m-ns

- cucumbers (waiting for the straw arrival this weekend because the cukes will go in that landing spot)

Here are the seeds left to sow:

- beets round 2 (R1 is looking pretty darn sparse)

- bush beans

- pole beans

- buckwheat

- I think that will be it?

(Sowed round 2 carrots today.  Round 1 carrots actually look decent, but still definitely some gaps in coverage.  But way better than the yard which had zero germination rate!!)

Started scarlet runner beans for yard

First soaked then in water for ~6 hours.

Then placed in damp vermiculite in a margarine container.

Once they sprout, I'll put them out in the yard, using the plastic half-cups from last year to keep the pill beetles from devouring them.

(Will start the GA runner beans later.)

GA: Carrots, beets, and popcorn update

Will preface this by saying there has been tons of rain/showers, and when there hasn't been I've gone to water, so I'm pretty sure no seeds have dried out.

Carrots:  See earlier post for sowing method.  Have been under burlap until today.  Today I fully removed the burlap because I think I see some carrot seedlings.  However, I'm not seeing a lot of carrot seedlings......  So I'll probably have to go back and fill in gaps.  My theory is that the corn starch gel was too thick and they got stuck inside.

Beets:  Quite a few have appeared, so removed the burlap.  Hopeful it will be a good showing.

Corn:  No sign of the popcorn yet.  (Haven't sowed the sweet corn yet.)

GA: Red onions are either very slow to start growing or maybe a bust? Other onions doing well

^^^

GA: Compost! It arrived on Thursday; today I put it on plants

My first time getting the free compost at GA.  So far, I like it!  

Yes, there's gravel in parts of it; yes, I found a first small piece of glass -- but it looks nice and rich.

It took up a solid .... "bed" made by the plow.  I'll measure it next time.

Today I put it at the base of all of the already-planted plants -- after putting some leaves on top for the larger plants.  So leaves, then compost to hold down the leaves.

Potatoes, carrots, beets, and clover are the only things that I didn't give any compost to.  Potatoes because they haven't appeared yet; carrots because %$^&*( I'll probably have to re-seed and anyway would be way too small at this point; beets because they're way too small at this point; clover because I won't bother.

So, today these got compost and leaves:

- The few tomatoes, peppers, and ground cherries that are in already.

These got compost only:

- Onions

- Leeks

- The few zinnias, coreopsis, and f-m-n that are in already.

GA: Tomato "victim" for experiment! (cool nights coming up, and not yet sun-hardened)

Decided to throw caution to the wind and do an experiment by planting one tomato at GA now rather than waiting until the end of cool nights and before finishing the sun-hardening.

So, at the south-most edge, planted a Damsel.  Dug as deep as I could with the spade because the tomatoes are so dang tall.  Then sprinkled the usual (mrp, kelp, az, alfalfa) along with a few leaves.  Watered it, covered it more, added a few more of the amendments, then covered it the rest of the way.  The only babying I did was to tie it to the pole to help with wind support.

Several cool nights are coming up, the coldest being 8 degrees based on the forecast today.  Tomorrow will be full sun -- whereas the only sun hardening it's had so far is basically today with ~1 hour of morning sun!

So -- this will be a fun experiment to see what happens!

I'll probably try planting a pepper plant too for the same experimental purpose.

GA: Popcorn planted

First time trying to grow popcorn!

This variety is called "Robust" (the package says it's a popcorn variety), by OSC, bought from Ritchie's.

Here's the method I used:

Forked the bed.

Used hand to create planting holes every 8" in all directions.

Put sprinkling of this mixture (roughly):  3 parts kelp, 2 parts mrp, 2 parts az, and a scattering of alfalfa pellets.  (No leaves yet -- will add those later on top after they germinate.)

Half-filled holes with vermiculite.

Placed one to two seeds per hole, ~2" deep.  (The north-most three rows have one per hole; then the south-most two rows have mix of one to two seeds per hole.)

Filled up the holes with vermiculite.

Covered with frost cover -- just to block the seeds from birds.

Watered over the frost cover (the water seeped nicely through the cover).  Used the frost cover instead of burlap because I think it would be easy for birds to peck through burlap to get the seeds.

Later on, when I plant the sweet corn, I'll try an experiment so that some will use less or no vermiculite -- because it's a lot of vermiculite otherwise!

GA: Cold crops all planted! Took 2.5 days. Now to wait for warmer weather to start the warmer crops.

Yard carrots a FLOP. Re-sowed today

Ouch, the carrots sowed in the yard on May 4th were a total flop.  Well, not total, as two did sprout, but, yeah.  So after doing the GA carrots, I came home and used the identical technique in the yard.  Fingers crossed.

GA: Planted Carrots (readme for technique used), beets, rest of the red onions

CARROTS!  After the utter flop in my backyard from the May 4th sowing that yielded TWO seedlings, I changed my method.  Here's what I did:

- The usual breaking up of the soil.

- Raked it flatish.

- Used hand to break up little chunks on the surface.

- Used spacing square tool, used its orange "stick" to mark out 16 holes per square foot.

- Used finger to deepen/widen the holes.  (At first used the dowel, but it compressed the soil too much so I stopped and used finger instead.)

- Sprinkled amendments into each hole:  A mix of ~3 parts mrp, ~2 parts kelp, and ~1 part azomite (zero alfalfa).

- Put some vermiculite into each hole to leave a shorter hole and provide an easy-to-grow-through medium.

- Used corn starch gel method to place a few seeds in each hole.  I really liked this -- with a nice small cut in the bag and a nice firm gel it was easy to control the amount.

- Covered up with more vermiculite.

- COVERED WITH BURLAP (one layer) before watering.  Used bricks/rocks to hold down the burlap.

- After covering with burlap, then watered.  Do not water without the burlap because then soil ends up covering over the vermiculite which ruins the whole thing.  (I did it that way for the first bit at the east end of the bed before realizing it works way better with burlap on top before watering.)

That's it.  I used only one layer of burlap because (a) the forecast is very cloudy and rainy so not much sun to dry things up and (b) I didn't have a lot of burlap on hand.

So here's hoping this works!!!!  A one-and-done for carrot sowing is my goal!

BEETS:  This is another challenge for germination in recent years, so I used almost the same carrow-sowing technique noted above.  The exception is I didn't have the beet seeds in the gel (also didn't pre-soak them because they become annoyingly hard to handle when wet).  For some of them I put a dollop of plain gel and then put the seed on or in the gel; for others I didn't.  But for all I used vermiculate under and over.

And today I put in the rest of the red onions to fill out the east part of the leek bed.

GA: Planted potatoes, broccoli, chard, kale

Another busy day:

- Potatoes:  In the west bed (the slightly smaller bed) is the potato variety whose cut ones had less mold.  In the east bed (the slightly larger bed) is (a) the potato variety whose cut ones had a lot of mold, and in the SW corner of this bed are 6 potatoes from last year's harvest that sprouted, to fill in the bed.  Covered both beds right away with the same expensive agri-cover bought last year (which annoyingly has a few small holes already!).

- Broccoli:  In the 5-broc centre "row", the east-most is Belstar; the other 4 are Piracicaba.  Covered the bed right away (after planting the chard and kale in the same session) with one of the 5-set of huge sheets from VV, over hoops.  I can't get it taut and am a bit worried that it may tear badly quickly, but we'll see, and there are 4 others un-used to replace if needed...   I'm going to likely add a few more broccolis here soon, consisting of the wimpier ones.

- Chard:  In the broccoli bed.

- Kale:  In the broccoli bed.

GA: Open! Planted onions, leeks, parsley, celery, forget-me-nots, crimson clover

Day 1 of GA being open!

Sadly the weather this weekend and upcoming week is the pits -- cool and rainy.  But good for the cold-hardies.

So, today, these went in:

- Onions:  First, to the east are the ones from my home-sown seedlings consisting of New York Early, with a few Frontier in there; then the rest to the west are all from sets bought at Ritchies', consisting of (in no particular order) red, large white, normal white, and yellow.  All had some kelp, a few alfalfas, mrp, and az.  Leafs loosely scattered over top.  9 per square foot with a few leftovers tucked in throughout.  Covered right away using the short metal fences and a sheer curtain.

- Leeks:  All are from my home-sown seedlings.  I used the dowel to make nice ~6" deep holes, into which I added alf, kelp, mrp, and az.  Placed the seedlings, then when I watered them in the holes kind of filled up right away.  Leaves loosely scattered over top but then I decided I wanted to give them a few days so brushed most of the leaves to one side.  9 per square foot.  Covered right away using the short metal fences and a sheer curtain.

- Parsley:  ~5 seedlings.

- Celery:  ~6 seedlings.

- Crimson clover:  In the east part of the southmost bed.  Didn't amend the soil at all, just loosely raked it, scattered seeds randomly, raked to gently cover, watered.  More seeds were showing than I wanted, so scattered soil over top for better cover.

Round 2 squash (winter/summer) started, to fill in gaps

Started just a few more summer/winter squash in case the ones that haven't germinated yet, don't.

Oh no! The cut potatoes are moldy! Were upstairs in spare room / hot!

Ack!!!  I hope this doesn't mean they're going to all rot in the ground!

Moved them to the basement today after seeing the moldiness.  Lesson learned -- next year put them in the basement right away.  One type is on the washing machine, the other on the freezer.

DON'T RE-USE SOIL FOR INDOORS STARTS THAT WAS IN OUTDOOR-HARDENING OFF POTS!!! EGGS!!!!

Hoping I dodged a bullet here!  For the seedlings that had been hardening off outside and then flopped, I had been dumping their potting mix into the indoor potting mix mixing bowl to use for upcoming starts.  Then, tonight when I started potting up the sprouted seeds from a few days ago, what I did I see in there but what I'm sure are insect eggs!  They were a few millimeters long and sort of copper-coloured -- like the colour of those orangey long slow insects -- wireworms maybe? -- that I've seen in the yard.  

So, immediately I "dumped" that plan and dumped all that bowl into outside garden (I'm not worried about the eggs outside, just don't want some strange insect running ramping inside where there are no predators).

Cut the potatoes, so will have at least a week to heal

At the earliest the garden MIGHT be open next Saturday, in which case a week from today (Sunday) would be the soonest the potatoes could be planted.  So, this gives them a week to heal up from the cut.

And I forgot to write which varieties these are -- they're two that I bought at Ritchie's.  I have some fridge potatoes too from last year's leftover harvest that have sprouted, we'll see if those get planted too.

Started cukes, summer squash, winter squash, and watermelon

Started these in PT:

- Blacktail Mountain watermelon x 9 seeds

- Eureka cucumber x 10 seeds

- Waltham butternut squash x 9 seeds (these are all old seeds from the foil packet, to used them up before using the newer seeds)

- Scallopini x 4 seeds

- Yellowfin zucchini x 4 seeds (first time trying this variety)

- 8 Ball zucchini x 4 seeds

- Golden Glory zucchini x 4 seeds

- Dark Green zucchini x 4 seeds (first time trying this variety)

Transplanted yard kale, chard, parsley, and green onions

The chard and kale are in the ground and covered.

The green onions are in a pot and covered.  As the seedlings were dense, I dumped them out into water, and it's true what they say, it was fairly easy to separate them out this way though some I left together.

The parsley is in the ground uncovered.

Tomatoes and ground cherries starting hardening off

Today was just 30 minutes in full shade.

Will do the usual very gradual hardening off, which as of this year entails NOT going back upstairs under lights, just coming inside on the kitchen table when not outside.

Mystery: A bunch of outside zinnias gradually died -- piddly roots!

The tray of zinnias that has been going outside during the day and coming inside at night had been looking good (definitely behind the indoor zinnias but that's to be expected).  But then, over the past week or so, they've been dying!  When I pluck them out, they have almost zero roots.  I wonder if it's something with my mix -- maybe too much or too little lime or something like that?  

Looks like a few shorts will survive -- hopefully....

Put a few white onion sets in with garlic to fill gaps

In the gaps in the garlic bed, I put a few of the white onion sets bought from Ritchie's.  ~3 or 4 in total.

Carrots started via corn starch gel method and burlap

Here's what I did:

- Soaked the seeds in water for a few hours.

- Made the gel by adding ~2 Tbsp corn starch to 2 cups cold water; simmering/whisking until it gels.

- Let the gel cool for several hours.

- Put the cool gel into a baggie; stirred in the carrot seeds.

- After loosening the soil, used a finger to draw troughs.

- Squeezed the carrot seed gel into the troughs. -- Pretty sure there are some longish stretches of no seeds in the gel --- consider using less gel with more carrot seeds.

- Pinched the soil over top.

- Mist-watered.

- Covered with double-layer of burlap.

- Watered the burlap.

Garlic doing well! Most popped up! Covered with a sheet today

Keeping the garlic covered with a tulle-like sheet all season.

All peppers now starting hardening -- and one has a real Hungarian Sweet pepper on it! -- and pruning notes

To free up space under the lights, all peppers are now downstairs and in various stages of being hardened.  Will take things gradually for sure, and they won't actually be planted for QUITE a while yet.

One of the Hungarian Sweet plants has a pepper on it!  I let it be.

As for pruning, I've been pruning pretty much all peppers (sweet and hot) by necessity due to limited vertical space under the lights.  Most plants look pretty darn good, and some look downright amazing!  I'm not deliberately removing any flowers unless by virtue of pruning.

Uppotted the tomatoes that were started 3.5 weeks ago (April 6th) -- grew well in hexagon multi-tray

I'll use the hexagon multi-tray again (the one I cut in half).  Although the broccolis were tough to get out of it, the tomatoes came out really nicely.  The timing was good for uppoting them at 3.5 weeks post-start, as the roots were nicely developed and not yet rootbound.

Aha -- found the round 2 Belstar broccolis!

They're tucked into the big multi-tray, as a row in between the zinnias and tomatoes!  Woo hoo!  Will transplant them tomorrow and get them hardening off outside within a day or two after.

12-hour-soaked peas now in vermiculite

So yes, soaked the peas for just 12 hours instead of 24 hours.  They look good and swollen and are starting to split (in a good way).

For the vermiculite container, used a larger indoor container  whose holes on the bottom aren't too big and alternated layers of vermiculite and peas.

GA: Weeding almost finished!

The GA plot I had last year on a temporary basis is unavailable to me this year as its normal gardener is returning.  So, I have a new plot this year.

The bad news -- it's full of weeds* from seemingly having been abandoned last year.  *I don't like the word "weed" but for simplicity will use it.

The great news -- it's mine!!!  And I can keep it again in future if I want to!  Wahoo!!!!!

I desperately wanted to get a head start on removing the weeds, especially before the tiller comes along and plants all those thousands of seeds that have been sitting ever so conveniently on the surface.  So, I got going earlier this week.  Fortunately, the vast majority of the weed coverage was some type of grass whose seed heads were really conveniently lying on top and were easily removed without shattering seeds all over everywhere.  And the roots of those grasses came out super easily by hand.  So, an evening and a half took care of removing all of this.

Then today I started the next step:  Digging out the other types of grass or vegetation.  This consisted of the following, which I finished for about 1/3rd to almost half of the plot -- will do the rest of the plot soon:

- Easily pulled little tufts of green grass with short roots.

- Harder to pull type of grass with long runners underground (mostly just along some of the western edge).

- Woody twigs sticking up throughout that look like tree seeds from last year.

- Miscellaneous other little green things.

As part of this, I found the following:

- A nest of small ants along the south edge.

- Several cutworm-looking / other grubby things -- two near the west/middle edge; others can't remember where.

I also moved over a bunch of the leftover straw from last year's garden and spread it out in the south part of the plot.

Peas (x100 seeds) started (will soak for 12 hours; then into indoor vermiculite until germinated; then directly outside to soil ---- i.e. almost same as last year)

A bit of a late start due to a cold, rainy, cloudy spring so far.  Anyway, today I started soaking the peas (100 of them, just because that sounds like a nice round number, and I plan to buy another t-post to expand the vertical section of the yard).   Then tomorrow I'll put them into indoor vermiculite, multiple layers / treasure hunt -style.  Then once they germinate (NOT once they pop up -- just once they have a root as seen when I'll go digging in the vermiculate), they'll go directly outside into soil.  This is the approach I used last year, which worked well to avoid critters digging up / eating unsprouted seeds. -- Though a difference is this year I'm only soaking for 12 hours rather than 24 hours.

More Belstar broccoli started today

Well I can't seem to find the round 2 Belstar broccolis that I started in April 6th -- so I started more today!  Might be too late, but why not give it a try.

Belstar broccoli doing badly; best 3 are piracicaba; too hot in grow room for Belstar?

Dang, 3 of the Belstar are completely kaput, and most of the rest of the Belstar look bad too.  3 piracicabas are doing great -- TOO great, seeing as there's still a month before GA is open and they're getting too huge.

My theory is the grow room was too hot for the Belstar and then when I started hardening, they got shaded by the bigger broccoli.

Oh well!

First direct sun for hardies (just 15 minutes)

The hardies are now outside in the shade along the fence all day, as long as it's +4 or warmer.  Today they got their first direct sun (aside from whatever sun they may get through the fence).  Kept it short at 15 minutes.

Basil started -- for real this time! (forgot it on April 6th)

Somehow I forgot to actually start the basil on April 6th!  So started it today.  Prospera (same as recent years).   -----> Update on April 17th 2025:  Oh!  I think the April 6th seeds WERE basil after all, not round 2 of broccoli!  So, looks like I'll have these two rounds of basil.

Belstar broccoli round 2 started --> ?!? I can't find them? -- so started another round of Belstar on April 17th

On a whim decided to start a round 2 of broccoli, though only Belstar.  Round 1 broccoli is either huge (only the piracicabas are huge) and I'm not sure how they'll transplant by the time GA is open; the other round 1s are kind of not looking the best.  So, we'll see how round 2 goes.

Started tomatoes (many varieties), ground cherries, and zinnias -- MEANT TO DO BASIL TOO BUT FORGOT UNTIL APRIL 12TH

Zinnia:  The usual mix of short and tall, and the last of the yellow store-bought.

Ground cherries:  The packet bought a few years ago.

Tomatoes:  All the varities I have except for Scotia. So this includes, by memory:  

- Damsel

- Big Tofu Plus

- Mortgage Lifter

- San Marzano (my first time trying these)

- Jasper

- can't remember what else

Cauliflower all kaput

[Wrote this on April 20th bec forgot to document it back when it happened -- not sure when it was, but ~a month ago.]

First, 3 of the cauliflowers went kaput while the fourth remained looking good; then a few weeks later, the fourth cauliflower was kaput too.  

No idea why...

Hardening day 2 -- and now living downstairs full time (hardies only)

Today the hardies went out in full shade for 2.5 hours.

And I decided I'm done with lugging them up/down stairs, under / out from the lights -- so they'll live on the kitchen table when not outside.

Hardening off started today! Shade only, ~+5 to +8

Today I finally started hardening off!  Everything except the peppers and stevia.

So, here's what's getting hardened:

- broccoli

- parsley

- celery

- chard

- kale

- onions

- lettuce

- forget-me-nots

- coreopsis

(I think that's it?)

Today was after work, so it was all shade, and it was cool but above zero, somewhere around +5 to +8.  They were out for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The next couple of days will be too cold, and a couple of days next week look to be too cold, but other than that these babies are going to get used to outside (gradually, of course).

Bad weather -- delayed in starting to harden off -- no room left under lights!!

Argh, the three main shelves are completely full so I desperately want to start hardening things off so that there will be space next week when the next batch of seed-starting is due.

I'm hopeful that the weather will cooperate this week, to get started.  But first, I want to finish placing the chicken wire, to hopefully be sure that the local rabbit(s) can't come in and have a feast!

Last year's potatoes are sprouting (most of them)

I'll use them to grow some of this year's potatoes.

Thawed peppers great in hash browns!

This worked great!  Definitely do again!

Thawed the peppers that had been frozen raw/whole last year -- 2 green peppers, and several banana/hot peppers.  Thawed them by putting them in a bowl of hot water.  They thawed quickly.

Then sliced them open, removed the seeds, and squeezed them to get most of the liquid out.  Then chopped them and put them in to cook with the hash browns.  

Great!

Zero space available in shelves unless use top-most ceiling level ---- must get things hardened before April seed-starting!!!

Topped hot peppers (the bigger ones) and accidentally one hungarian sweet pepper; and pruned biggest stevia

Uppotted the bigger broccoli -- they're too big with 2 months before can plant at GA!!!

Argh, 2 more months of growth at home before they can go out at GA!!!  

Started lettuce: romaine, BSS, and ruby

Direct in big communal "pot".

Started sweet bell peppers, coreopsis, and forget-me-not

The bell peppers are all California Wonder -- some from my old tin foil set, some newer.

The coreopsis are all from the seeds I collected last year from a GA.

Forget-me-not are all from 2021.

Tuberous begonia update: Zero signs of insects (phew!)

(Also zero signs of begonia yet, but that's normal at this stage.)

I'm still keeping it in the kitchen though rather than the plant room, just in case.

Started kale and chard

Kale:  The same as last year -- Vates Blue Curled -- but mostly using seeds collected last year, and a few of the bought seeds separately.

Chard:  Good old Fordhook as always.

Started some peppers, and more celery and stevia

Peppers started:

- Witch Stick (bought last year but I can't remember if it gave the too-hot little ones or the decent long ones or if it gave nothing at all)

- Jalapeno

- Hungarian Yellow Sweet (oops, forgot to not start the sweet peppers until later)

Also started more celery and stevia to fill in the gaps.

Tuberous begonia update: NOT eggs after all I don't think

I unbagged the pot a couple of days ago (keeping it in the kitchen) -- what looked like eggs no longer look like anything.  I'm guessing it was some type of fungus maybe?  But everything looks decent now.  Will leave downstairs in the kitchen though for a while longer, just in case.

Started celery round 2 (bec most of R1 seedlings flopped, only 4 good ones)

Started stevia round 2 and New York onions round ~3 or 4

(To fill in gaps.)

OH NONONONONO!!!!! EGGS ON TOP OF THE TUBEROUSO BEGONIA SOIL!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today I happened to notice what looks like hundreds of small white eggs throughout on top of the soil of the tuberous begonia!!!!! WTF!??!?  This has never happened before.  I can only guess that if these are in fact eggs, some critter came in with the bulb when I brought in inside in the fall, and despite being in a paper bag with no water or anything for several months, somehow the critter survived and laid all these eggs!?!?!?   Maybe if there's only one, the eggs won't be viable?  Wow, what a mystery.

So I immediately took the pot downstairs and double-bagged it to make sure everything stays inside.  Will see if anything emerges from the "eggs"....   I sure hope these aren't critters because if so, obviously I'll have to toss the whole thing, and TB has been around for quite a few years, has been a nice tradition.

Not seeing sign of any eggs etc. on anything else.... fingers crossed.

~~~~~~  See updated posted Feb 12th:  Doesn't look like they were eggs after all... (fingers crossed)

Started stevia

Started round 3 New York Early onions -- directly in mix

(To fill in some gaps in round 2.)

Started cauliflower, and round 2 of leeks and green onions

Cauliflower = Early Snowball.  First time really trying cauliflower.

And more leeks and green onions because the green onions had bad germination rate and not enough leeks.

Started round 2 New York Early onions -- directly in mix

I decided it's way too annoying to sprout so many onioni seeds in paper towel and then try to plunk them into mix when they cling to fingers etc.

So for round 2 of New York Early onions, I put them directly from the seed pouch into my mix, in the ~6x6 tray of cells.  Put only one seed in each cell.

Wakey wakey, tuberous begonia!

^^^

Started broccoli (Belstar & Piracicaba), parsley, and celery

 Started broccoli (Belstar & Piracicaba), parsley, and celery.

Belstar is new to me this year, recommended by Susan M.

Started leeks (Varna)

^^^

Started onion seeds: Frontier, and green

And so it begins!

Started in PT:

•  Frontier onion seeds x 16 (left over from last year -- didn't realize so few seeds were left)
• Green onion seeds x a lot (from 2018 collected seeds)