My Vegetable Garden

Honestly, my husband and I almost never argue. Not about money. Not about chores. But come planting season, almost like clockwork, you’ll find us squabbling in the backyard.

Although, if I’m being honest, his irritation with me starts building well before planting season. “Where are you going to put all of that?” he’ll sigh when surveying at my seedlings. And then, when it’s time to harden off my seedlings, the slow spread of plants all over the house drives him nuts. He might have a point. This is a pic from last year:

My Indoor Growing Setup

Spring of 2020 was the first time I tried starting seeds indoors. I didn’t have any sort of setup, so I was scrambling for natural light. I had a surprising amount of success, especially with cucumbers and sunflowers.

That success started my true obsession, and I got my grow lights the following year. I have four lights in my basement. And I’ve had a lot of success. My biggest issue has been running out of space under the lights. This pic is from last year before I tried winter sowing.

Starting Seeds

This year, with winter sowing, space wasn’t an issue. I started all of my flowers outside and only vegetables in the basement. I was quite late starting everything, but was very pleased with how the seedlings turned out in the end. This year, I kept it simple.

• 3 varieties of tomato
• 3 varieties of pepper
• Burpless cucumbers
• Zucchini
• Half-hearted attempts at parsley, dill, and basil

I also have lettuce under the lights that I’ve been trying to grow in an ongoing experiment that is not going well. That is for another post.

In past years, I’ve used peat starter pods. But over time I’ve discovered that my favourite way to start seeds is in plastic egg containers. When I’m thinking clearly, I’ll poke drainage holes in the bottom. This year, I used potting soil rather than seed starting medium. I add the seeds, close the lid, put the container under the lights  and lift the lid once most of the seeds have started. With tomatoes and cucumbers, the seeds germinate in just a couple of days, but peppers take longer.

Honestly, this system worked so well! My tomatoes were a big surprise. So much healthier than any other year. I am crediting this to the fact that they were started in soil instead of potting medium. I didn’t even need to use fish emulsion. They just grew into beautiful and healthy plants!

I always start three seeds for every one plant that I want. So that meant I was able to give my father in law 18 tomato plants and pass on around 10 pepper plants to friends and neighbours. Much like my winter sown seeds, I did not label any of my vegetable seeds. Am I sensing a theme here? As I said in my introductory post, this blog is an attempt to keep me accountable. So here it is, in writing: MARTHA, NEXT YEAR LABEL YOUR SEEDS!!! Honestly, a big part of the reason I don’t is that I haven’t found a great way to do it. Does anyone have something that works well to suggest?

And since I gave away so many of my seedlings, there’s a good chance that I kept just one variety! I tried to choose plants with leaves that looked different – very scientific.

Planting

For vegetables, I have two boxes on the roof and one box and a raised bed in the backyard, all built by my husband. Here is where the squabbling always starts. He thinks I crowd my plants and I think I don’t care. I’ve never lacked success due to spacing is all I’ll say. Honestly, does this look full enough to you?? All I can see is all that gorgeous empty space!!! (My approach to gardening in a nutshell).

My Rooftop Garden

I put all the cucumbers on the roof to keep them safe from Sam the groundhog. Last year, he ate all my cucumbers in the backyard within hours of my planting them, so I’m not taking any chances. I modeled myself after garden boxes where the cucumbers grew over the sides. Last year, I did ok with cucumbers on the roof growing that way. The watering situation was iffy, so hopefully this year will be even better.

My husband built these for me a couple of years ago. It’s a great setup with full sun. Except for two issues.

• No watering system
• Squirrels – every urban gardener knows my pain

Both of these issues seem to be solved for now. I keep a hose on the roof that I throw down then connect to the water downstairs. It takes a lot of running around but it’s much better than trying to water by carting watering cans from the bathroom. My garden just wasn’t getting enough water.

And the squirrels were jumping to the roof from an awful tree we had in our front yard. This tree was sick from the time we moved in. After three years of asking the town to take care of it, and one ice storm – they cut the tree!! Now the squirrels will have to scale the side of the house to get to my delicious veggies. I’m not saying they won’t, but I think it will help. And of course then my mind goes to the possibilities. Should I grow a flower cutting garden up there next year??

So everything is planted, the tomatoes are staked, and things seem to be progressing well. I’ve got flowers on some tomatoes. Have you ever seen tomato flowers like this? I never have! Are they the heirloom variety I planted? Only time will tell!

The cucumbers and zucchinis are flowering and the peppers are budding.

Now my husband and I have moved on to arguing about whether or not to prune the suckers off my tomatoes. In theory, by removing these little suckers before they turn into new branches, your tomato plant will bear more fruit. Now I’ve never done this in the past. But my father in law, who has an amazingly bountiful garden every year, does. So my husband is always telling me to do it. I’ve never had an issue with my tomatoes not producing, but he wonders if they would have produced more or better fruit if I had done it. Honestly, every year my tomatoes are a huge mess because I don’t prune them. But they’ve always produced prolifically. Last year, one basically took over the garden bed! So we’re going to run an experiment and prune some and not others and see what happens – science!

So what do you all think? Are my vegetable beds hopelessly crowded? Are you team prune the suckers or team leave the suckers?