Hey there sunshine,
This year back home has been full of firsts in the garden - first gardenscape plan, first time sewing, first time training for the outdoors, first flowers...yeah, that last one surprised me too. Everyone has been doing so great! So many successes and failures and it's only the beginning!
I remember just a handful of years ago we experienced our first year in this house, back in 2013. I was working two jobs because new grad nurses couldn't get full time work (lol) and somehow I found the energy to dig up a patch of dirt from scratch - ripping up lawn and all. It's on the West side of the house, getting 8 hours of direct afternoon sun and heat. I grew tomatoes and zucchini that year. Everything else pretty much died, and I had wayyy too much zucchini than I knew what to do with. That was the beginning of the at-the-time short lived gardening journey.
Fast forward 4 years later, here I am, trying to grow stuff again. 🤷♀️
The first year in a new place is always hard financially. I was raised a navy brat and I've moved 5 times with my husband, so I feel like I've got the hang of moving (well, kinda). I've experienced that no matter how much you plan, unexpected bills and payments find a way to show up. Always. It takes us a year or so to get things settled down a bit, and since we moved back July 1st of last summer, well, there wasn't that much time to grow anything. All we did was clean the weed-filled garden beds. I also impulsively bought some tomatoes and peppers that were on clearance at Home Depot around that time - they were on clearance for a reason. Those tomatoes weren't ready to harvest until about November and continued to provide tomatoes until about Christmas. I ended up with 3 peppers from the 3 plants, and I had a decent amount of herbs. It was my plant parent practice!
To be honest, it's totally OK for that first year to be a bit floppy. I knew I wasn't going to be able to do much, just clean, really. Which kind of makes for a nice start for the following year! Because let me tell ya, the beds were SO bad. We rented the house for 4 years and we didn't pay for yard maintenance. In fact, it doesn't look like there was much maintenance at all during that time. So we spent the summer of 2019 weeding and cleaning this shit outta this place! To see the before and after, check out my Instagram @the.olive.gardens highlight "GARDEN".
OK so the point I'm driving is... if this is your first year as a gardener, it would be easiest to grow your veggies in a greenhouse but not many of us invest in a greenhouse right out of the gate. The next easiest way to start (and maybe cheaper in the long run) would be with some pre-grown seedlings from garden centers. That way, it'll give you the time necessary to get to know the amount of work it all requires. Watering doesn't seem like much, but when starting from seed you have to really watch the itty bitty seedlings. What I mean is, check the soil, the stems, the leaves. Check if it needs rotating to a sunnier spot or a darker one, legginess, bugs, etc. These questions are what makes gardening difficult at first. There's a lot of checking and overall just getting to know how to care for them. They're babies trying to survive the harsh environment after all, and our job is to grow them big and strong enough to survive on their own out there.
(small white speckles on leaves indicates bugs, small black bugs behind leaves, trimming dead sunburned leaves, sunburned leaves)
After summer of 2019, I decided to take my skills to the next level and ordered some seeds online from Hawthorn Organic Farms. I didn't look into what seeds were easiest to grow than others. I simply made a list of herbs and vegetables that I wanted to grow organically in zone 5b or 6a and that was it. The rest I plan to figure out as I go.
This spring, I've discovered some tricks to speed things up without the help of a greenhouse:
1. Find the warmest places around the house and learn to play tetris.
Yeah, this one is definitely not ideal if you're not around the house constantly. I work from home full-time, so I can manage this. I live in an old home that doesn't have the best layout and not the easiest to start seeds. I have 1 west-facing window, a few east-facing and a bunch of south-facing. Because of this, I'm constantly moving my plants around to wherever the sun is shining through.
2. Place seed starter trays with lids over vents.
You put on the heat anyway - is there a vent you can be without? Or one you leave shut? Open it up and place the seed starters right over it! The humidity begins almost immediately.
3. Use heating pads.
Yes, the one from your first aid kit. Have you seen the prices of specialty designed seed starter heating mats?? Too expensive - the example shown in the link is for one seedling tray. Yikes! I've been using a heating pad that I had in the house and it works perfectly fine. Plus, when you're not growing seedlings your heating pad is still useful! I've never used one specifically designed for seedlings to compare differences though. I'm sure there are differences with the evenness of heat distribution, but it still gets the job done regardless.
4. Place in bathrooms.
What happens in the bathroom? High heat and humidity! I mean, only if you take hot showers! If you also have a window in your bathroom, even better. I've previously set some seed starters in the bathroom on colder days where it could use the extra warmth. My bathroom has a north-facing window, but it still gets a good amount of indirect light by being on a little table right in front of the window.
5. Use objects to elevate to windows.
This is pretty straight forward, right? You want your baby plants to be right up to the window to prevent legginess. I've found anything leather is really great, because anyone who has leather car seats know that it can get HOT. I literally place my seedlings on the leather couch where the sun shines and it's quite toasty! If your seedlings are looking a little leggy, you can read my past post about How to Fix Leggy Seedlings. I've been there!
6. Use shoe racks.
Remember those super shitty Walmart white metal racks that would never hold any shoes on the first shelf? Well, fuck that first shelf. It does nothing. The 3 lower shelves on the other hand make a phenomenal seedling tray rack! I place the heating pad on one shelf and trays or planters right on it. I've also placed the rack directly on top of vents on cold days to get some heat. Works perfect!
7. Other things seen online.
I've seen these totally amazing window and over-the-door basket shelves that can be used for seedlings in and outdoors. These would be ideal for full window patio doors! The second I saw them, I was so in love!!! What an easy way to flip your plants inside and out! I wish I could purchase some but turns out Amazon is out or doesn't deliver this item to Canada. Boo!
Those are my current tips and tricks thus far. Are you starting without a greenhouse, too? What issues are you having? What successes have you found? Please share your methods so everyone gets the best crop this year!
Happy gardening 🌱💚
- Liv
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