Greenhouse Haven

Seed Starting Guide

March 9, 2025

Overview
This year I will attempt to better record and outline the steps I take when I garden. Here is my process for starting seeds indoors in late winter. This is the process I followed when I started peppers, leeks, and kale in late January. Now that it is approaching spring, I wanted to share it with those who may be new to seed starting.

Materials: necessary: seeds, containers, soil, labels, bottom trays optional: grow lights, heat mat, tray covers

Seeds: I typically purchase from Botanical Interest, Hudson Valley Seed Co, Fruition Seeds, and a couple of Etsy shops. It’s great to have a local seed company if you can find one near you, that way you know the plants will grow in your climate. I’ve also been saving some of my own seeds (mostly flowers) over the seasons, so I will be starting some of them as well.

Home saved yellow and orange sulphur cosmos seeds

Make sure to read all the details on the seed packet before planting, such as when to sow and the proper depth to plant the seeds. There are certain seeds that need special attention, such as cold stratification (typically fall sown in my region), soaking overnight, surface sown if they need light, or scarification (scraped or cut to aid the seed in breaking the hard seed coat).   I’ve grown canna lilies from home saved seeds and the seed coat was so hard they needed to be cut open with a saw before planting. When dropped on the ground they bounced. Please be aware that some plants are harder to grow from seeds than others.

Sample seed packet with planting instructions

Direct sow versus transplant: There are many seeds that can be directly sown into the garden, which don’t require any extra treatment. I personally sow almost all of my seeds indoors, since this allows me better control over the environment, and allows for a jump start on the season. The main seeds I do direct sow are root crops such as carrots, radish, and a few quick growing leafy greens like arugula and spinach. Warm loving, long season crops like peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant need to be started indoors in my climate because they would not be able to reach full size if direct sown in May.

Containers: I use a combination of methods for starting seeds. The most readily available in stores tend to be 6 cell plug trays or peat/compost pots. I use 6 cell seed trays for multisowing things like flowers or herbs. Large seeds like squash or beans get started in 4 cell (3 or 4 inch tall) seed trays.

I purchased my trays from Epic Gardening, they are plastic, but really durable and will last a lifetime. They have drainage slits down the sides and large holes in the bottom to make it easy to pop seedlings out for planting. You can also easily monitor the root growth.

Healthy pepper roots, growing out of the side slits. These are ready to be transplanted to larger pots.

For tiny seeds or things I want a lot of I will typically sow them densely in either a 3 inch pot or rows in a short square pot then prick them out once they have sprouted. This is what I did with my peppers. I sowed 3 or 4 seed types per container, then divided them once the first set of leaves had pushed free of the seed coat. For peppers I do this so that I can fit more seeds together on the heat mat and under the humidity dome for maximum use of space. I also did this for my kale and onion seeds, which did not require heat.

Three types of peppers sown in one shallow tray; they were pricked out to individual cells about a week after sprouting.

Note: I’ve seen folks who recommend egg carton, peat pots, or jiffy pods for seed starting. I have used all three methods and found them unsuccessful. Egg cartons are too shallow and dry out too easily, peat pots are ok, and I have used them in the past for squash seeds. They tend to stay wet and I have had some mold and fall apart on me. The jiffy pods say that the little mesh wraps are biodegradable but not over the course of a single season. I’ve had pepper seedlings really stunted by not being able to grow through the mesh edges. Newspaper pots or toilet paper tubes work better since they are easier to break down out in the soil. Personally, I have not tried soil blocking or other plastic free methods, I don’t mind having sturdy plastic seed trays.

Holes poked, ready for seeds

Soil: I tend to make my own blend of seed starting mix, rather than buying it from the store. Store bought mixes are fine, as long as they have perlite for drainage and small particles. Chunky regular potting mix is not ideal, small seeds can get lost and not have good soil contact for moisture. My preferred mix is made from coconut coir, worm castings, perlite, and old potting mix from the previous year. I have a lot of old soil in pots and a good way to reuse it is to mix it with fresh compost. If the seeds are going to be in the cells for a long time, I will often add a bit of 3-3-3 granular fertilizer as well. If seeds need to be surface sown I will often sprinkle a fine layer of vermiculite over top, this still allows light through but helps with retaining moisture on the top of the seeds. I will also use a spray bottle for watering such seeds so as to not blast them from the tray.

Recent batch of potting mix, all blended together and ready to go

Labels: Make sure you have or make some sort of labels so you remember what you’ve sown. I typically use plastic labels, but I have some bamboo ones too. A sharpie or other weatherproof marker is ideal for seeds going outdoors otherwise the ink or pencil will probably wash off during the course of the season. I’ve learned this the hard way.

Grow lights: Grow lights are only necessary if you are starting seeds indoors in late winter when sunlight is at a weak point. There is a vast range of lights out there, both in terms of light strength, cost, and mounting methods. I personally use cheap, clip-on lights from Amazon. For folks starting seeds in April or May lights are not needed, especially if you have a south facing window.

Many tiny flower seeds need light to germinate, so I sprinkled them on the surface of the soil and covered them over with vermiculite (right half of the tray).

Bottom trays: These are solid trays which will hold your seed cells or small pots of seedlings. These are necessary to catch any extra water that drains through the potting mix. Many gardeners recommend “bottom watering” which means pouring water into the bottom of the tray so that it can be whisked up by the potting mix. It encourages the roots to search for water and avoids any potential of disturbing the top of the soil or dislodging small seedlings with too strong a gush of water.

I use two styles of 10×20 bottom trays, one tall with ridges and the other short and smooth. They both work quite well, though the shorter ones are made of sturdier plastic. I purchased the shorter ones from Epic Gardening. I also own lots of the round ones that go under individual pots for my houseplants, both terra cotta and plastic. On occasion, I have also used old plastic tubs and food containers.

2 types of bottom trays, you can see the height difference between them, and the ridged one on the right versus the flat style on the left

Heat mat: I really only use the heat mat for peppers, tomatoes, and ginger. Most other seeds will sprout fine with regular room temperatures. Again, I got the cheap ones from Amazon. They plug in to the wall and run constantly. I don’t bother with timers or temperature control for seeds, but I did with the fig cuttings.

Tomato seeds on the heat mat

Tray covers/humidity domes: These mini greenhouses with covers are ideal for starting heat loving crops. They help to keep in the moisture and humidity and speed up germination. Just be aware that they need to come off once the seeds have sprouted. Healthy seeds need good airflow, and too much humidity can lead to mold/algae issues on your soil.

Growing Zone: It is very important to know your first and last frost dates before sowing seeds. Growing zones are less important, since your microclimate might vary greatly from the generic zone. If you do not know your frost dates this can easily be found by checking the farmers’ almanac. You can do an online search, and once you enter your zip code it will provide your first and last frost, which is your average growing season. Warm loving crops cannot go outside before the spring frost date, and will be killed off by the first fall frost. My frost free days are typically from mid May-early October. Seed packets will state when they should be sown, often stated as weeks before or after your spring frost date. Please pay attention to these details.

Steps:
1. Gather all supplies
2. Decide how many seeds you want to start from each packet. I find it’s best to have a few spare plants than to not have enough to fill your space. Seed packets will state their planting distances for ideal growth, this is based on straight row planting. I like to stagger rows and cram things closer than recommended.
3. Moisten your potting mix and fill your containers, press down slightly to make sure everything is snug.
4. Use your finger or a pencil/chopstick to make a small hole in the potting mix, you typically want this to be twice the depth of the seed size. Most seed packets will tell you how deep to sow the seeds. Most seeds will sprout fine if planted up to 1 inch deep.
5. Carefully place a few seeds in the hole. For really tiny seeds I like to carefully tap on the edge of the seed packet and let them drop out. Sprinkle more potting mix over top to cover the seeds. Fill out your label while you still have the seed packet out and put it in the pot.
6. Place the pots or cells in a tray near a south facing window or under the grow lights. Check every couple of days to make sure the soil is damp but not soaking wet. Many seeds will germinate within 7-14 days, some take longer.
7. If you planted a lot of seeds per cell you will probably need to thin them after sprouting. Some crops do just fine when multi-sown and do not need to be thinned. Good candidates include onions, beets, some herbs and flowers. If however you intentionally multi-sowed in a small pot in order to prick out the seedlings, the best time to do that is about a week after the seed sprouted. This way you can separate them without difficulty. Carefully tease them from the pot, I like to use a chopstick for this, then poke a hole in your 6 cell and carefully guide the roots down. Do not hold the seedlings by the stem, they are very delicate. Snapping them will kill the seedling. Hold them by the leaves, they are sturdier and a plant can survive if one leaf is damaged.
Trays of happy seedlings growing in early March.

One of the most important steps is proper watering, small 6 cells dry out much faster than 3 or 4 inch tall pots. Small seedlings can get waterlogged and die from “damping off,” so it is better to error on the drier side. If the top of the soil is dark chocolate in color they are probably fine, once it gets to milk chocolate you will want to check. I normally lift up the trays and check the bottom of the cells once the top looks dry.

Seedling size also makes a difference. Once seedlings roots fill up the cell they will need more frequent watering, and often benefit from being transplanted into a larger pot if it is still too early to put them outside. This is one of the main reasons why I have both 6 cell trays and the taller 4-inch seed cells. Once seedlings outgrow the 4-inch cells, I generally transplant to a 6-inch pot. Sometimes there is a bit of a waiting game to see how big the plants will get before the weather cooperates and lets you move them outside.

When the weather is warm enough for plants to go outside, they need to be hardened off to ensure they are not shocked by the change to their environment. Hardening off involves leaving trays outside in a sheltered spot for increasing amounts of daylight over the course of a week or 10 days. Start with one hour and work your way up to a full day before transplanting them. This will allow the seedlings to gradually adjust to full sun, outdoor conditions. Then you can transplant them and watch them grow all season long.

Dreaming of summer and a jam-packed greenhouse!
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2024 Fig Propagation 2

March 3, 2025

Figs

Fun project over the winter months

The most advanced Chicago cutting as of the end of January

This winter I decided it was time to refresh my container fig trees. They are all in 3-5 gallon pots which I know is not ideal, most of them had roots growing out the drainage holes as they sought for more space and nutrients. Figs are heavy feeders, and put on explosive new growth each year so I knew they were rootbound and lacking in nutrients. In the fall I planted one of the medium sized Chicago hardy figs in the yard to see if it would survive the winter temperatures. Rather than transplanting all the rest into larger pots, which would have made them even harder to move, I decided on a different tactic. I did some research and decided to prune the roots of the trees while they were dormant. This involves removing them from their pots, cutting off approximately ¼ to ⅓ of the roots, and adding fresh compost to the bottom of each pot for new growth.

About half of the cuttings from my own trees

We had an unusually warm day at the end of December so I slowly worked my way through over half of the fig trees. Since it was warm I was able to take them out onto the back patio, instead of spreading a tarp in the basement in order to contain the mess. The 50 degree weather was perfect. I had a bag of lobster compost and some old soil to mix in as fill, as well as chicken manure granulated fertilizer. I hauled the trees outside 3 at a time and managed to get through 12 of them before my back and knees told me to stop. All of the old soil and tangled roots went on the compost pile.

Tiny roots were forming as early as two weeks after cutting

As I pruned the roots, I also pruned the top growth, so the trees wouldn’t be as stressed with losing some root mass. This was recommended by the blogs and videos I viewed. I know that figs need annual pruning anyway to keep the trees short enough to easily harvest. Figs only produce fruit on the current year’s growth, and I didn’t want to need a step stool or ladder to reach. A few of my trees had trunks that were over 6 feet tall, so I wanted to bring them back down to a smaller size anyways.

This led to another 30 cuttings which I have now started to propagate. I have cuttings from both my varieties, Chicago hardy and Green Ischia. I started the rooting process this time around by putting them all in plastic bags with the sticks wrapped in a damp paper towel to keep them hydrated and humid. I have been checking them weekly to water when needed, but it will probably take a couple of months before roots start to appear.

As of January 10, 8 of these cuttings were already starting to root in the paper towel. I hydrated a coco-coir brick and mixed it with pine bark shavings for a sterile initial growing medium. These cuttings are now in plastic cups, in a tub which is sitting on a heat mat. The lid is cracked, so that there is some airflow, but also high humidity.

Green Ischia fig cutting, with new growth

The first handful of cuttings have started to leaf out and have good root development, so they have been moved down to my shelving units that have grow lights. Looking forward to watching them grow over the next couple of months.

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Recent House Plant Additions

February 22, 2025

houseplant, Overview

Since I started working at a local farm almost a year ago, I have vastly increased my houseplant collection. Prior to that I really had a minimal selection of houseplants: ivy, spider plant, aloe, jade, a few succulents, a free pothos from a coworker, and a couple of snake plants. I have learned a lot about houseplants: identification, care, and how to help customers deal with pests.

I was able to take home a few free cuttings (inch plant, variegated spider, pothos) and succulent leaves over the course of the season. I even got several free plants, either from coworkers, or store plants that needed extra attention. One such freebie was a ZZ plant, that was partially dying. I dug it up, chopped off the roots that were rotting, and repotted it. Not sure if it will survive, but I think I improved its chances. It appears to be in a holding pattern for now, so I’m taking that as a good sign. I have also made several purchases and can now say that I own the following: ficus, pepperomia, goldfish plant, anthurium, hoya, and albuca humilis.

Overcrowded aloe that had fallen out the pot at the store, I was able to take it home for free. All these plants had been in one pot.

I’m not an expert at houseplants, but I am learning through experience. I enjoy having more greenery inside the house. It especially helps to brighten things up in winter. Right before Christmas I purchased my first ever orchids, split leaf monstera, and white princess philodendron.

Split Leaf Monstera, which needed to be repotted right away. It has since grown a new leaf.

White Princess Philodendron unfurling its first leaf

Then in early February after the farm got its first big houseplant delivery of the year, I purchased a couple of small plants. After careful deliberation I purchased my first ever Rhaphidophera decursiva, an air plant, and lucky bamboo.

My new Rhaphidophera decursiva has already put out a new leaf.

My new air plant is bright red.

Lucky bamboo, repotted to a green bonsai style pot. It has 5 shoots coming off of 3 stems so I’m hoping it will fill out nicely soon.

My houseplants have taken over three shelves of the 6-shelf rack in the family room, which I normally use for seed starting. Think I am going to be tighter on space this year, since I also have all the fig cuttings. Might need to shuffle trays around and reorganize, to fit in as much as possible near the south facing windows.

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Seed Starting 2025

February 16, 2025

Overview

On this snowy day in February, I think it would be a good time to look forward to spring and post about seed starting for the 2025 garden. It is winter outside, but I am growing tiny plants inside. In the first week of January, I sowed: leeks, red and white onions, shallots, celery, peppers, and dazzling blue kale. Alliums are slow growers, so the longer head start I can give them the better. I managed to grow a few onions last year, but they were very small bulbs at harvest time. I want to improve this year. I have learned from experience that celery takes a very long time to germinate, often taking 4 weeks before the tiny sprouts make an appearance. Then the tiny seedlings take forever to start to size up.

Seedlings after about one month of growth: leeks, sage, kale, peppers, cabbage, and calendula.

Last year I failed at my first attempts at sowing peppers, so I’m giving myself plenty of time for follow up sowings. I’m starting kale earlier than I have in the past because it is a year-round producer, and cold hardy. I am hoping for better slug resistance if I can plant out stronger, larger plants with thicker stems. I use grow lights on all my seedlings and the shelves are in south facing windows. I have heat mats which I use for pepper and tomato seeds to help improve germination. Once it gets close to spring the greenhouse will also give me a season extension and some cold hardy plants can be moved out there before the last frost date.

In the first week of February, I started my second round of pepper seeds. I have about a dozen seedlings from my first round of seeds. I started 4 different varieties of peppers, but want to have backups in case anything happens to them. This second round includes different varieties than from the first sowing. I tend to grow small and medium sized peppers, as I have found they provide more harvests per plant than with bell peppers. No one in my family likes really spicy food, so I don’t have to worry about any of the hot peppers. The varieties Violet Sparkle and Circus are both new to me, they are small brightly colored snacking peppers.

Second round of pepper seeds

I checked on my dahlia tubers in the garage last month and they were still dormant. I will keep checking and if they haven’t sprouted by April, I will bring them inside and pot them up to wake them up. I also ordered a couple of new varieties from Hudson Valley Seed Company, so I am looking forward to growing a couple new colors.

I’ve also started two trays of ginger pieces to pre-sprout them before planting. Much like potatoes ginger has eyes, certain spots that will regrow. However, it can take a very long time to get started and is a nutrient hungry, tropical plant, and it also requires a long growing season (10 months!). These two shallow trays are filled with half lobster compost and half coco-coir with some worm castings and balanced light fertilizer added.

They will now go on heat mats for the next couple of months. As the pieces sprout and put out their first green growth I will carefully lift them from the trays and plant into deeper pots, with lots of compost. Doing them in trays allows me to fit 30 pieces into a small area and ensures that I’m not wasting valuable growing space on pieces that might fail to germinate. After a couple of months, I will check any remaining pieces and then compost the ones that don’t show any signs of growth.

When the warmer weather arrives, I will probably plant a few of the ginger the greenhouse under the shelves since they don’t take up a lot of vertical space. The rest will go in planters, which I typically put outside the greenhouse, but right up against the wall so they get some extra heat. I haven’t managed a bumper crop yet, but I also don’t have the ideal climate for ginger. I have grown a decent amount of small ginger pieces which are perfect for tea and baking purposes.

Tiny bell pepper seedlings

I will probably start tomato seeds in early-mid March, since they grow relatively quickly. After that I will start dye flowers such as marigold, indigo, madder, and cosmos. I typically direct sow sunflowers, and hopefully the chamomile self-seeded and will come up all over the place like it did last year. Most root veggies will be direct sown after our last frost. Squash and cucumbers get started inside at the beginning of May because they grow very quickly but are not frost tolerant. I like to get a head start by sowing in plug trays, which also means better protection for the vulnerable seedlings.

This year I am going to try to have extra seedlings ready to go in case of loses along the way. I also want to practice at succession sowing this season, by having plants ready at different points of the season for continual harvests, and keeping the soil used and covered. All the garlic I planted in the fall is currently under a nice layer of snow. I look forward to it poking through and starting to grow green shoots in spring.

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2024 Fig Propagation 1

February 10, 2025

Figs

In October of 2024 I was graciously allowed to take a bunch of free fig cuttings from a local gardener’s trees. The only downside was that he did not remember what kind they were; but he knew that he owned two different varieties. He had 4 large trees and told me I could take as many cuttings as I wanted. His only request was for a couple of the cuttings come springtime, if I am successful.

I went over one afternoon and cut down about 20 branches with his help. We stripped the leaves, and I put them in my trunk. Once I got home, I put them in 2 tall cups of water to keep them hydrated while I processed them.

I trimmed the long branches down into smaller pieces, each roughly 6-8 inches long and containing 2 or more growth nodes. Each branch provided several useable cuttings. I ended up with 60 sticks to attempt to propagate. I have had very good success this time around.

Full tray of cuttings stuck in soil.

I’m curious if freshness and vigor were factors in the success, since these came off of trees that were still awake and producing figs. All my previous attempts were from dormant trees over winter. Once each cutting was trimmed to a useable size, I put them in cups of coco coir mixed with pine bark fines. This combination will have good water retention and also drainage. These were sterile medium, no active microbial growth or fertilizer added. I wanted the sticks to focus on only root growth.

Since I had so many free cuttings I decided to do an experiment. I put half of the cuttings in a tote with a lid to make a mini-greenhouse. The other half were left open to the air, but all the cuttings went on heat mats. About 20% more of the cuttings from the tote greenhouse rooted than those left in the open air, so perhaps the added humidity helped. Over half of the total cuttings rooted, 25 have roots and leafy growth and about 10 more have solid root development but no new green growth yet.

I use clear plastic cups specifically so that I can see the roots developing. Sometimes fig cuttings start leafy growth before roots. If they wake up in this manner they often don’t survive, because they have no way to access water and nutrients. Sticks that do this end up pulling nutrients from the stem itself and then die when the leafy growth becomes unsustainable. I initially kept the totes in an upstairs hallway with very low light in an attempt to force the cuttings to focus on root growth.

Healthy cuttings, after being transplanted to slightly larger pots with actual nutrients. Old potting soil mixed with vermiculite, worm castings, and an all-purpose 3-3-3 veg fertilizer. The fun now is to balance keeping them alive while limiting growth. I don’t want to re-pot them too many times since it is winter, and I have limited indoor space. I currently have two trays full of happy, growing baby trees.

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Goals and Plans for 2025

February 6, 2025

Overview
Looking ahead to the new gardening season, here are some of my hopes and ideas.
1. Adding another raised bed to the garden, mostly likely to be used to protect my dahlias from the voles. I plan to put hardware cloth down on the bottom before filling the bed.
2. I am currently propagating figs via cuttings and will be looking to sell them come spring. I have over 20 that successfully rooted so far, and have a second round in the works now. There may be three varieties available.
3. I received a few free elderberry and black currant cuttings from a coworker in the fall. I planted them outside, and am hoping that they survived our strange winter. It has been mostly mild weather, but we had a streak of 4 days of non-stop wind and a few quite cold days. Not much snow overall.
4. I planted a bunch of strawberry runners from last year’s plants. This should allow me to increase my total number of plants (by up to 30%) and provide more berries for this season. I am currently battling spider mites on the plants.
5. I purchased a Meyer’s lemon tree in the fall and it has spent the winter in the basement. Looking forward to potting it up and moving it to the greenhouse for the summer.
6. My dahlia tubers are out in the garage in small boxes of coco coir. I will bring them inside in a couple months to re-pot them and wake them up from winter dormancy. Starting them indoors will give them a head start for the season.
7. I plan to start pepper seeds earlier this year than last year. My plants were very slow to produce and I only got a few ripe peppers before frost. The plants were covered in tiny peppers and flowers in October.
8. I plan to spread my small batch of homemade compost over the beds in late April/early May.
9. I managed to grow a few small onions and leeks last year but want to improve my allium game. I do very well with garlic, but not any other types.
10. I received a new dehydrator for Christmas with temperature and timing controls. I plan to put it to good use this season to preserve my harvests, especially herbs and dye flowers.
Strawberry plant in the vertical tower from last season.
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Garden Musings for 2025

February 3, 2025

Overview
Questions suggested by Huw Richards a UK gardener, (whom I support on Substack) during his end-of-the-year livestream chat

Early daffodils from last spring, with garlic shoots off to the right
1. What is one emotion you want to feel in the garden this year?
  - Curiosity/Enjoyment
2. Define the primary yields you want to see from your garden.
  - Self-sufficient in salads
  - Dye flowers
3. What is your greatest limiting factor?
  - Poor native soil, lack of compost
4. What is one thing you wish you had grown last year?
  - Spinach
5. What is something new you want to grow this year?
  - Corn
6. What is something you do every year in your garden that you would rather not do? A habit that is not helpful?
  - Using plastic weed mesh along the neighbor’s fence line. It never works well enough to stop weeds, and just gets matted as the weeds grow through it.
7. What are your 10 absolute must grow annuals for next year?
  - tomatoes
  - peppers
  - sunflowers
  - cosmos
  - calendula
  - squash
  - basil
  - leafy greens
  - beans
  - cucumbers
8. What is one gardening book that you could read between now and March?
  - The Five Minute Gardener by Nicole Burke
  - Epic Homesteading by Kevin Espiritu
  - The Permaculture Garden by Huw Richards
    
    I read a lot, can’t pick just one!
9. What is one gardening skill you would like to master in 2025?
  - Mulching the beds with grass clippings/straw for moisture retention and to help with weeds
10. What is a pledge that you can make to share with your community?
  - blog about my experience
  - share extra produce with family and friends
A nice variety of cherry tomatoes from the greenhouse last year
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Accidental Fig Orchard

February 1, 2025

Figs

I didn’t set out to have a fig orchard when I first started gardening, and don’t even know if I had ever had a fresh fig before growing my own. Now, 4 years later I’m obsessed with them, and I own 7 different varieties.

I received my first two small fig trees in 2021, they were free gifts from friends who had more than they could fit into their orchard. This became my introduction to the world of fruit trees and discovering that I love fig trees. I transplanted those two trees into larger pots, and I still have them today, in half whisky style planters.

I purchased my first fig cuttings in 2022 after doing some research both via youtube and gardening blogs. Figs appeared to be easy to propagate via cuttings (sticks). That spring I purchased 30 cuttings of two varieties (Green Ischia and Chicago hardy) from an online seller. When they arrived I had 40 total cuttings and I got lucky with how well the rooting process went. I ended up with over 50% success rate, and all of a sudden I had a lot of fig trees. Once they had established roots I potted them into a variety of mismatched pots so they could keep growing. My first fig harvest came in November of that year, after I had moved the young trees into the basement for the winter. The first figs to ripen were Green Ischia, which taste like strawberries, very sweet and light.

First ripe fruit: green Ischia on the left, Chicago on the right

Thus began my obsession with fig trees. The leaves are gorgeous and can get to be quite massive. I’ve also recently learned that they make nice prints when hammered onto fabric, so I definitely want to try that out later this year. When the trees awaken from dormancy or new cuttings start to grow, the first tiny leaves are so amazing to watch unfurl. Figs put on a lot of growth in one year and can get quite large if planted in the ground.

The original Chicago trees were very productive in their second year.

In 2023 the one-year-old trees came into their own and I harvested 103 figs off of my 20 container figs. Several of the trees did not produce that season, either from lack of nutrients or just taking too long in the year to reach maturity. I made a couple of batches of fig jam. I used half of it on homemade English muffin bread toast and turned the other half into homemade fig newton bars. I ate many of them fresh, since they mostly ripened just a few at one time. I also shared some with friends.

Cooking both types of figs down to make jam.

2024 was a tougher year for figs for two reasons. Firstly, my two attempts at propagation from cuttings completely failed. I had meant to take some of my own cuttings but the trees started waking up in the basement in February, far earlier than I expected. I had missed my window for taking cuttings since all the tips were leafing out. So I moved them down towards the back door and the grow lights. I did purchase some cuttings online, 2 different varieties from the ones I owned, and only 1 of 15 successfully rooted.

The second reason happened when we moved them outside. The trees had put on significant growth by early spring, so my dad and I moved the trees out of the basement on a warm day in early May. However, we did not harden them off and they suffered when we had an unusually hot sunny stretch. The new leaves were all sunburned and started to drop, then to add insult to injury we had a freak brief hail storm and the remaining leaves got punctured and pounded. About 90% of the new growth died and the trees were down to just bare stems and branches. All of the trees survived, and put on more leafy growth, but I lost out on an entire growing season. I only got 2 ripe figs, one of each variety.

Damaged fig leaf, showing both sunburn and hail damage

I have learned from my mistakes and will be implementing some changes to better protect the trees from the sun and to provide more nutrients to the roots, by setting up a fertilizing schedule. Since they are in pots they have very limited soil, but are heavy feeders because they put on large amounts of growth over each season. I will be more intentional about providing them with the nutrients they need in order to hope for better fruit production.

My largest single day harvests from 2023.

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2024 Garden in Review

January 29, 2025

Overview
2024 was a challenging year for gardeners worldwide, and since I had some time off at the end of the year I decided to reflect on the successes and failures. Here in NY the toughest environmental challenges were pests and lack of rainfall. Last winter was very mild, with barely any snow, and I think that led to an increase in pest pressure. I had to water a lot more than in previous years, and my sandy soil was a detriment to moisture retention. Some plants thrived and were very productive but many struggled.

My only ripe snacking sized pepper of the season

Pests

Problems:
1. I saw slugs and snails everywhere, and I tried several different deterrent methods which were only partially successful.
2. Voles ate a couple of my dahlia tubers and tunneled under and killed my butterfly bush. They also burrowed under and killed about a dozen heads of garlic.
3. We caught and released many chipmunks, but they ate some of my tomatoes.
4. Rabbits and slugs ate two rounds of climbing bean sprouts, so that delayed harvests.
5. Caterpillars on brassica plants and apple trees cause significant damage.
Lessons learned:
1. Beer traps for slugs are more trouble than they are worth in my opinion. Wool wrapped around plant stems worked better for me. I also used plant covers/domes to protect young plants from the critters. Whenever I saw snails and slugs I killed them.
2. Dahlias will produce when grown in pots. This was my first year growing them so I wasn’t sure. I dug them out of the ground as an emergency measure (one of which was almost blooming) to save the remainder from being eaten. I got a few very pretty flowers once I moved the pots to the greenhouse.
3. I started using mesh bags to cover the clusters of tomatoes while they were still green. This helped protect from chipmunks and slugs.
4. I purchased a mole sonic spike in the hopes that it will protect my garlic crop from the voles, especially over winter.
5. We chased a bunch of baby rabbits out of the garden, since they were small enough to fit through the chain link fence. One remained inside, and moved in beneath our deck, where we couldn’t reach it. It became a nuisance once it was too big to get itself out of the garden.
6. I need to be more active in preventing pest infestations. Next season I plan to check the apple trees and brassicas more often for pests. One apple tree had severe caterpillar damage before we noticed it and sprayed it. Hopefully the tree survives, but it will be set back because 80% of its leaves were eaten. I lost a few brassica plants entirely to cabbage white caterpillars when I was away camping for a week.
A blueberry harvest from the potted plants

Productivity

Problems
1. My squash plants barely produced anything before dying off. The only winter squash I harvested grew itself from the compost pile.
2. I sunburned my container figs and cost myself an entire growing season.
3. I did not weed the herb bed and it was completely overrun by grass and chocolate mint.
4. I only had a couple of very small indigo plants, which did not provide very many leaves for dye. I did manage a couple of hammered leaf towels from the handful of leaves that I got from each plant.
One of only 2 figs I harvested last year

Lessons learned:
1. The compost pile grew a ton of tomato plants, which I allowed to grow. Free produce from an out of the way corner.
2. Next season I will harden off the fig trees and provide shade cloth once they are ready to be moved outdoors in order to combat the chance of sunburning the leaves.
3. I want to start more seeds than I have space for so that I can fill gaps or have succession crops ready to go after I harvest. I have homesaved indigo seeds from 2 years ago that I will be using to see if it grows better than freshly purchased seeds.
4. I need to stay on top of weeds, in the late fall I started to fix up the herb bed and planted a few more perennials to fill in some of the gaps. Coreopsis, sage, lavender, chives, delphinium, and thyme were all added.
Greenhouse jungle, in the height of summer

Garden Successes
1. Tomatoes and pole beans were prolific last year. I grew multiple varieties and once they got going they did really well. I made tons of pasta sauce and blanched and froze a lot of beans.
2. Herbs: I was successful with herbs such as oregano, thyme, basil, chamomile, lavender, sage, and lemon balm. The lemon verbena and rosemary were less productive, but I still got a few harvests.
3. I added a very large gardening bed in May which allowed for a lot more growing space. I threw a lot of plants in it but didn’t necessarily put them with the best spacing in mind.
4. The sunflowers were gorgeous and a couple of them were huge. Very satisfying to look out and see them towering over the garden.
5. The blueberry plants are finally in the ground, so I’m looking forward to better growth and productivity going forward.
6. Straw mulch on one raised bed helped preserve some of the moisture in our sandy soil, and also in the potted figs. Helped to keep down weeds as well.
7. Grew strawberries for the first time in a vertical tower planter. They were a fun success.
8. Carrots finally worked out for me. I grew both orange and yellow and got some nice big ones.
9. Grew a ton of marigolds, harvested and dried several different colors for future dye projects. Moderately successful with growing and harvesting cosmos flowers.
10. Even with the voles, my garlic patch was a success, and the new batch went in the ground in mid-October.
11. Self-sown chamomile allowed me to get a huge harvest, enough to make a couple of different tea blends. I’ve learned that sometimes it’s a good idea to leave “free” plants to get in some bonus harvests.
12. Grew my first ever watermelon, and 2 tiny cantaloupe melons.
13. Saved a nice variety of seeds from the garden, mostly beans and flowers. About half of the garlic I planted was from homegrown heads.
14. Purchased 3 pear trees and planted them in the garden.
15. I made my second ever batch of slow compost, and have a very large pile going for next year. I do a combination of bokashi fermentation for the kitchen scraps and a throw everything else in a pile and forget it for a year method. Garden waste, grass clippings, small branches, and fall leaves mostly, with a tote of chicken manure from my sister’s chickens.
16. Dahlia flowers are gorgeous. This was the first year I’ve ever had cut flowers on the kitchen table as a decoration. Sunflower, zinnia, and nasturtiums were also included.
17. We dug up and divided the canna lilies to overwinter in the basement, and ended up with 19 pots, some with multiple bulbs.
18. I grew enough calendula to collect and infuse in oil for herbal salves and balms.
19. I planted one Chicago Fig in the ground to see if it survives the winter.
20. I grew a total of 139 pounds of produce last year. 50 pounds of that was tomatoes!
Looking forward to more of these types of harvests!
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Introduction

January 27, 2025

Overview

As I enter my 6th season of gardening, I thought it might be fun to track the growing season through more than just random Instagram photos. I have been a hobby gardener since the pandemic lockdown of 2020. I live in upstate New York and my native soil is straight up sand from a former glacial river valley. This provides benefits and challenges: it drains well but dries out quickly and it does not contain enough nutrients for annual plants. I have an 8×20 foot greenhouse and use a combination of in-ground, raised bed, and container gardening spread across my backyard. I also make extensive use of my basement for overwintering frost tender plants like fig and citrus trees, and canna lilies. I have grow lights, heat mats, and shelving units for seed starting indoors.

Over the years I have converted more and more of the backyard from grass into garden beds. We had a few trees removed from the backline of the property last spring and this has increased the sun exposure for the garden. I have a container fig tree orchard; they live on the back patio during the summer months. Two years ago, I planted 3 apple trees, and this past year I added 3 pear trees. I enjoy propagating figs and houseplants by cuttings, so those projects will be shared as well. I grow many herbs for homemade teas and herbal infused oils, and I also grow flowers for use as natural dye and printing on fabric.

We may be in the depths of winter right now, but I am looking forward to this year’s growing season and am already taking steps to start off the season. I can’t wait to fill up the greenhouse with seedlings in the spring, and each year I look forward to seeing the magnolia tree in full bloom.

I see my garden as a place to grow food as well as flowers. I like to use it as a way to slow down and enjoy being outside; as a space to walk, observe the plants, and see what pollinators might be around. I want my garden to be both productive and relaxing.

I will be utilizing this space to showcase garden successes and failures, plant propagation, natural dye projects, dehydrating/processing harvests, and home made herbal remedies.

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