Gardening & growing things, to eat or for fun! Houseplant lovers also welcome.

[Peaches_and_Mocha]

I actually don't mind the rental's back yard, simple, yet good looking when it's well kept. I'm stoked with the results so far (as is the property manager/owners xD). The new tenants are going to hate it when they have to keep it maintained to the level that I've set now, but that will no longer be my issue when we move to our new house.

The birds absolutely LOVE that birdbath too, it's ours and we will be taking it with us to the new house as well. It's great to see some local fauna enjoying it oh such hot days at the moment.

It's certainly a nice standard to set! I have such different values when it comes to lawn care. I've been living at my parents rental property for a year now and they HATE how I handle the lawn. I'm a naturalist so I like to experiment with pushing the boundaries of whats an acceptable appearance. I mowed the whole lawn except for one circle that I let grow super long so that the bugs and rabbits had somewhere to hide. I also let the native flowers pop up wherever they wanted and mowed around them. They complained SO MUCH.

This is my first time having a lawn all to myself after having to share a puny garden with a rather unfavorable neighbour, so I've really been going all out with experimenting. Now that I've gotten to know what grows and what doesnt, I can focus on the landscaping/gardeing aspects and make it look nice. I'm basically trying to build a sanctuary style yard with lots of native species which creates food for the birds

I kinda get away with my unconventional practices because I do a LOT for my parents. The last people who lived here let the place go to shit. They had toys all over the backyard (even buried in the ground?? There was trash EVERYWHERE even on the porch, everything was filthy, and the yard was completely overgrown with invasive species. We also helped organize and get rid of a lot of old stuff my dad owned which opened up the space a lot.

I'm hoping this year will be a lot better in terms of appearances

[TropeyWife]

Is anyone starting seeds soon for this this year's garden? I'm definitely going to do a few tomatoes and peppers, but I think that might be it for me this year.

[oddish]

I've always loved the idea of growing my own vegetables
Only issue is I have no idea how or where to start ;__;

[TropeyWife]

If it's your first time I recommend buying the plants already started growing from the store. Maybe pick one or two types of plants and learn a little about what they need to grow. Lots of things will grow just fine in pots too!

[oddish]

If it's your first time I recommend buying the plants already started growing from the store. Maybe pick one or two types of plants and learn a little about what they need to grow. Lots of things will grow just fine in pots too!

Thank you ♡
I think potted plants would be best
Our ground out back is very hard and I'm not sure how to go about that 😂🥲

[TropeyWife]

Yeah, if you grown in pots you wont need to worry about the quality of your soil, you will just buy a bag of soil and maybe mix in a little compost if you feel fancy. I hope you try it out!

[hellraid]

Planted the first seeds of the year. Some cherry tomato plants and some Sweetbanana chilis

[Alister]

IT'S THAT TIME

I've got my first round of plants in their pots! So far, it's a few varieties of tomatoes (some transplants of varieties I've had great success with before, some from seed just for the fun of trying some real funky varieties) and cucumbers. I don't have as much full sunlight here as I did at my last home, but the summers are so brutally hot where I am that we've been moved from gardening zone 8b to zone 9a. I'm hoping this means six direct unbroken hours will be enough for the tomatoes. It'll take some trial and error. My rooftop deck gets all day full light but I don't have an easy way to water plants up there so vegetables would be tricky.

@(you need an account to see links) I think you should definitely give growing vegetables a try if you're interested! I would expect no less from a Grass type ;D There's a lot to learn, so I recommend learning bit by bit along the way. Most important questions to get started:

1. How much direct sunlight do you have available to you? Direct = no shade whatsoever, partial = sometimes a mix of dappled sunlight & shadows. This will affect what types of vegetables you can grow.

2. What gardening zone do you live in, if you're in the U.S.? (you need an account to see links) This will affect when to plant different types of vegetables throughout the year.

[oddish]

@(you need an account to see links) -- I'm in Canada so sadly that site doesn't work for me ;__;
Our backyard has direct sunlight during the day, only shade when the sun starts to set ☺️

I'm not sure which veggies are good for that, my kids like cucumber, carrot, peppers and tomato

[Alister]

@(you need an account to see links) -- I'm in Canada so sadly that site doesn't work for me ;__;
Our backyard has direct sunlight during the day, only shade when the sun starts to set ☺️

I'm not sure which veggies are good for that, my kids like cucumber, carrot, peppers and tomato

Looks like you've got a Canadian site for that! (you need an account to see links)

We live pretty dang far from each other (I'm in south Texas lol) so there's going to be some disparity between our annual planting schedules. For Texas:

- Tomatoes want full sun but not blistering heat. When the temperate gets to be consistently above ~90 degrees tomatoes will drop their blossoms and no longer produce or ripen fruit. Same with peppers. In Texas that means we can grow from last freeze until ~early June, and then again in the fall. If your summers don't get consistently over 85-95 degrees out, you're probably able to grow tomatoes and peps all summer long.

- Cucumbers want a lot of light but not as much as tomatoes. I give mine usually ~5 hours of direct sunlight in the morning and make sure they're in some shade for the hot afternoon sun.

- Carrots are winter crops here in Texas. Carrots, radishes, most types of greens are all winter veggies. This is probably where we'll have the largest disparity in our annual calendars; our winters are mild and our summers brutal.

I checked and this looks like a handy sheet if you're in the Ontario region: (you need an account to see links). For tomatoes and peppers you're about one month off from wanting to put some in the ground outside.

When you see the word transplants in gardening, it's referring to the baby plants you buy at nurseries.

rules of thumb:

NEVER buy a transplant that's already got blossoms, or worse, tomatoes already growing. Get the tiniest, healthiest one you can. Look at the bottom of the pot to see if there's roots already growing out of the bottom. If not, or if there's only some small ones, the plant is good to buy. Otherwise, don't do it.

Tomatoes want space. Lots of it. Big pots are super expensive so my cheap hack for this is going to a home supplies store and buying 20 - 30 gallon plastic totes (Rubbermaid and the like) and drilling or stabbing a bunch of drainage holes into the bottom. Peppers can get by with 5 gallon puts but I'd recommend going a bit higher if you can.

For beginners, I'd start with cherry tomatoes and I highly recommend the types named Super Sweet 100, Yellow Pear, and Sungold. Extremely hardy, prolific varieties.