Other than the peas and daikon which I planted in April, I have started direct sowing seeds this weekend!

The following is a list of what we have planted so far and what is yet to go out.

Non-beans in raised beds

• One 8' x 4' bed entirely full of rainbow carrots.
• Some variety of waxy yellow potato we've been replanting year after year.
• Noche zucchini (3 plants)
• Raven zucchini (3 plants)
• Cocozelle zucchini (3 plants)

Beans/Peas in raised beds

• Dwarf Grey sugar snap peas (? plants)
• Alderman (or Tall Telephone) shelling peas (? plants)
• Alaska split peas (? plants)
• Contender bush beans (9 plants)
• Royal Burgundy bush beans (9 plants)
• Tendergreen bush beans ( 18 plants)
• Stringless Green Pod bush beans (18 plants)
• Blue Lake bush beans (6 plants)
• Maxibel Green Beans (6 plants)
• Vermont Cranberry bush bean (10 plants)
• Tongue of Fire bush bean (10 plants)
• Broad Windsor bush bean (4 plants)

Beans in non-raised beds

• Royal Burgundy pole beans (9 plants)
• Purple Peacock pole beans (9 plants)
• Scarlet runner pole beans (9 plants)

Non beans in non-raised beds

• Garlic (can't get more specific than that, it's a mix of whatever was left over)
• Daikon, used as a cover crop/soil amendment.

Started inside, waiting for the heat

• Some variety of sweet potato, started the slips in soil in like, January?
• Jalapeno peppers
• Baby Belle sweet peppers
• Scorpion hot peppers
• Lilac sweet peppers
• Carrot Bomb hot peppers
• A fuck tonne of tomatoes that my husband labeled with silly names instead of their actual varieties but I think some of them are: Belgian Heart, Roma, Heinz, Costoluti Genovese, Better Boy VFN, Cornue des Andes
• Lemon Sunshine cannabis
• Gorilla Grape cannabis (auto)
• Northern Lights cannabis (auto)

Still to come:

• I want to start some pole beans indoors to grow on the front lawn around the frame of a disused "greenhouse" (cheap shelving unit that had a plastic cover - which we never really used).
• 3 Sisters. I don't recall the corn varieties we have, but we will get those started outdoors soon. I should start the melons and winter squash inside, a bit later on that than I wanted. We'll pick some pole beans to go along in there too.
• I have more baking beans that I could plant: pinto, jacobs cattle, chickpeas...and others than I am forgetting.
• I will probably get some greens going, but largely to donate to a local animal rescue. I need to get some starts going for them too.
• Herbs, will start some inside soon. Cilantro and Thai Basil are the top of my list.
• Beets and radishes, I don't really love them but I should give them another go.

I take so many photos over the course of the week and am too lazy to post them 🤡

So here's a big photo dump and maybe if it stops fucking raining I'll get to go do some gardening and take more 🤦‍♀️

We still have frost risk but decided perennials should probably be okay so we spent wantonly at the garden centre. I always make lists for myself so that I can remember what the hell everything is so I thought I would share it here too 💕

Full to partial shade:

• Hellebore (very non native but I love them)
• Lungwort
• Toad Lily (which I mistook for trout Lilly, which is a native 🤦‍♀️)
• Red Toad Lily (which is a Triulium and is native)

Part shade to full sun:

• Northern Sea Oats
• Columbine
• Zagreb Tickleseed (lol)
• Ornamental Rhubarb
• Forget me nots
• Black Lace Elderberry

Full sun

• Iceplant (with deep red flowers)
• Opuntia humifusa (Prickly pear cactus endangered in Ontario???)
• Hollyhock
• Siberian Iris

We're zone 5a (Canada)

Planted them deeper in the cups before bringing them inside again

I planted 10 tubers last spring in this awkward space between the shed and fence. Things were much more sparse last fall when they bloomed and I could still see the ground 😅 Hopefully the switchgrass blocks their forward march.

I decided the risk of deep frost is low enough that these potatoes can go in the ground now. They've been looking for sunlight pretty hard in the basement, I figure the least I can do is set them free.

I'll hill them with dirt until I get to the top of the bed then cover them with straw.

Zone 5a, canada

I have been gardening this block for 5 years, not an enormous time, but I don't use animal products to fertilise I just use compost/mulching/weed tea/and cover crops.

Everything seems fine. Yet every gardening show or whatever will be like "slather that manure and blood and bone on each year, use fish emulsion, fucking sacrifice your firstborn on that shit". Am I an idiot or do you just not need to do any of that?

edit: not looking for the peanut gallery. Interested in opinions from people who don't use animal products and what their experience has been.

Captions in the imgur post comrades

Next step I'll put them in some soil!

💚

I bought some slips in May 2023 and grew them that year. We harvested and enjoyed many of them! Some of the thinner, more annoying ones languished on a shelf. I noticed they were sprouting in the fall when I realized they were still there. I let them keep doing their thing until I had some time.

I plucked them from the potatoes and dipped them in a rooting hormone. I put them in some water and will eagerly await their rooting.

A couple days ago this was a tap root. Plants are awesome.

Some air roots forming on a tap root. This seed is about 2 days old.

I cleaned up my living room succulent shelf and took some photos along the way. I realize I am missing about half the plants in that room and haven't included anything from my office...so more posts to come.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17585279

The study, which was published in 2023, found that daily dietary fiber intake for the gardening group was 1.4 grams higher than the control group. This may not sound like a lot, but dietary fiber, found in plant foods such as legumes, fruits and vegetables, is linked, for instance, to a lower risk of cancer. And the health benefits go beyond the nourishing food that gardens provide.

Katie McGillivray, a horticultural therapist with Ottawa-based Root in Nature, confirms that these are among the benefits of the practice. “Gardening naturally encourages physical activity, from gentle movements like walking, watering and weeding, to more vigorous tasks like digging, raking or hoeing,” she says.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends a weekly goal of 150 minutes of moderate-intense activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intense activity. Only 22.5 percent of adults, in 2022, met guidelines for both muscle-strengthening and aerobic physical activity. McGillivray and the CDC agree that chores involved with gardening burn calories and improve dexterity, muscle mass and bone density.

Is it manual fertilising? They're always covered in bees when I do. Was it the pH? The heatwave?

Were they just throwing a tantrum and wanted some attention?

Who knows, but they're popping off!

Just potting around before the next week of rain.