I am a little sad that the growing season is over but then I remembered. Many seeds need cold stratification to germinate. I purchased all my flower seeds last season and many should be planted now for a spring growth, like milkweed and poppies. Around the corner, indoor starts under lights will begin. I've got new varieties of peppers and tomatoes incoming. I'm already planning for next season. I learn something new every year.
I've actually upped my game a bit this year and bought an indoor thermal tent with ventilation. I'm in the process of resizing it to fit my counterspace in my laundry room. It'll do a way better job of containing water/misting than the quick one-off I made a few years ago, and has a proper high flow ventilation fan to provide lots of airflow. Once I get it resized, I'll hook up my existing lights, water, and automated watering systems. As it sits right now, I have a bunch of big pots with fresh herbs growing. I'm making home made artisan bread/rolls for xmas this year, all with herbs that are growing in the laundry room. Between that and the dehydrator, the quality of herbs in my cooking this winter is off the charts. Totally worth it.
@bewildered repped me "you're growing weed". Ha. Nope. Wish I liked the stuff, but call me crazy, I prefer a nice, fragile heirloom tomato any day. Anyway, this is the weed grow setup I ended up buying. Totally for growing weed. No doubt. But will work wonders for herbs and seedlings as well. The prices are just so fucking cheap that it's hard not to. I just have to remove about 18" from the height of the tent so that it will fit on top of my existing countertop, and that will be easy. (I also bought a big roll of mylar to help with some of the fabrication).
And, if any of you Idiots feel compelled to grow any of these plants, please message me, and I will gladly mail you seeds*, if I do have extra. *If you are in the US. I am not sure about shipping charges to Canada, Europe, or Australia.
Ha. Just starting to plan the garden this weekend myself... expect to send off the seed order by Monday.
This is about the time the seed and other garden catalogs start arriving for me. Nothing more fun than watching the snow fall and planning for the next season.
Got an email from Stokes saying that they've moved to PDFs this year... so I printed the 100 page PDF out, because yeah, I like going over the paper catalogue.
I have a ton of saved seed, but I already laid in some cool new pepper seeds for this year's garden. I didn't really engage with the garden very heavily last year, I was crazy busy with another new business. The result is a real verve to go big on the garden this year. Starting the seeds on Superbowl weekend, that always is about right in my zone.
Nice collection @Popped Cherries ! I've got my new pepper and tomatoes seeds already as well. I also bought seeds at the end of last season, lots of herbs and flowers or more common veggies. And, I saved my heirloom tomatoes, yellow pear, beefsteak, and San marzano. I'll have to show what I have as well. I'm also willing to share. Especially for the veggies, it can be hard to actually use all the seeds in a pack in a few years.
Anyone heard of this Johnson Su Bioreactor idea? https://thenaturalfarmer.org/article/making-fungal-compost/ I just watched a documentary on mushrooms as well. They are on the brain. Mushrooms are a huge part of keeping a healthy environment ticking.
Gardening is a GO! I've got seeds starting already and will be going in waves due to space. Kale. Oregano, thyme, sage, parsley, basil. All the peppers. Purple coneflowers and hollycock. I can't find my damned butterfly weed seeds. I think I'll be sowing snow peas, radish, and beets by next week outdoors. Nights get down around or just below freezing and daytime is freaking gorgeous, around 65 or so. I'm working on a swirl filter for duckaponics. Oh yeah, I started some baby bok too, in net pots and want to try to grow them in duck water. Gotta get the solids out and then filter a bit more before the grow bed. I figure bok choy is safe because I will cook it to eat. I am not confident raw things are safe to eat out of this scenario.
I found a bunch of chrysalis around the garden. Hoped for the best, expecting the worst and they are.... White cabbage moths. They ate up my brussel sprouts last season. Time to scrape and trash I guess.
Gardening is a GO! here too, @bewildered English Peas and Snow Peas are in the ground and up. Calendula starts are in the ground. Cabbage and Cauliflower starts were put in, but a freeze may have gotten them. I probably put them in when they were too small. I think about half will bounce back. My peppers, Cubanelles and Shishito, are terrific. Still hardening them off with the tomatoes, but, I am so impressed by their growth.
Put Kennebec Potatoes in the ground this evening. Very excited about them, as I've never done potatoes. Drove out to the "country" to the rural "Feed and Seed" shop to buy them. Never been before. Just a small house with a warehouse attached on the side of a county road. Got three pounds of seed potatoes for a song in a brown paper bag. No label, no instructions, no packaging. Beautiful.