My Garden Log 2020

This thread documents all the dates/actions taken towards the garden. This first post will be updated as more actions are taken, in order to produce a log. The hope is that this log will be useful in the following growing seasons to perfect timing for starting seedlings, planting spring garden, planting summer crops, planting fall garden, as well as determine the number of each type of veg works best for me. I will be starting seedlings indoors, utilizing a greenhouse, and a caterpillar tunnel in order to extend the growing season as much as possible.

Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada ( Zone 5A )
My Garden Log 2022
- March 6th Germinating 3 types of peppers using plastic bag/paper towel
- March 21st start Tomato seeds indoors


Tentative:
- April 3rd start Lettuce, Basil indoors,
- April 17th Start Cucumbers( plant in garden May 14th ), Plant Carrots & Radishes & Peas outdoors
- April 24th ?
- May 1st, plant tomatoes outside start corn inside.
- May 14th Plant Beans outdoors


- 8x peppers
- 8x tomato
- 4x tiny Tim tomato's
- 8x Lettuce
- 6x Basil
- 8x Cucumbers
= 42x seedlings


My Garden Log 2020

• Feb 17th, Germinating 3 types of peppers using plastic bag/paper towel
• Feb 22th, Potted a few Bell / Sala Peppers seeds with small roots, none of the long&slim peppers have germinated.
• Feb 23rd, a couple of long&slim peppers only now starting to show roots, Note to self start long&slim pepper seeds 2-3 days before other pepper seeds.
• Feb 27th, 2 sala pepper starting to break the soil! more do the same tomorrow. also potted 2 long and slim peppers seeds
• March 2nd, planted a couple of tiny tims in 12oz cups, I need to get more seed start trays before I plant more, peppers arent doing to hot, many have not germinated, only 3 peppers are doing well, 5 more have been picked out of the germination bag and potted, I hope they do ok. note to self, let peppers germinate fully in a plastic bag before potting.
• March 3rd, potted more tomatoes and cucumbers seeds. I should end up with 12x boney best tomatoes, 12x money maker tomatoes, 6x straight 8 cucumbers 6x armenian cucumbers. and 12x peppers. Only the Strong will get potted up!
• March 6th, basil seeds potted ( i think I should have started this a week ago)
• March 7th a few straight 8 cucumbers popped out of the soil (~4days), couple tiny tims popped out as well (~5days).
  Experiment: had 3 cucumbers in the same cell, rather than cut 2 of them, I pulled out 2 of them and poted them in new cells. the root system was surprisingly strong for a freshly germinated seed... let's see if this shock to all 3 seedlings is too much.
• March 8th MM and BB Tomatoes germinated, I did some thinning.
  
• March 9th, Basile germinated, ill need to do the some thinning soon.
• March 11th. peppers get there first feeding (2,2.5,2 NPK)
• Note to self should probably start double the amount of seedlings
• Match 20th Transplanted 14 Moneymaker tomatoes into bigger pots.
• Note to self I noticed that one of the Tiny Tim Tomatoes was doing much better than the others, and then realized that its 12oz cup did NOT have drainage holes, clearly, it was doing better due to water retention, watering more often important.
• My grow shelf holds 45 12oz cups + 8 6oz cups
• March 25th everything is now potted up, had to discard ~15 plants.
• *** NOTE TO FUTURE SELF *** start everything expect Tiny Tim Tomatoes 1-2 weeks Later!
• April 16th Moved tomatoes to the window sill
• April 16th added fertilizer to raised beds
• April 19th started peas in rain gutters in greenhouse ( i would have started these about 2 weeks ago, but I wasn't ready.
• April 24th direct sow lettuce / spinage / carrots and radishes
• ** NOTE ** MoneyMaker tomatoes seem to be all doing better then Bonny Best. MM is just a better variety, probably should only have MM and TT tomatoes next year.
• April 28th direct sow more carrots and radishes
  
• May 1st soaking a few different types of beans
• May 3rd some pea's from rain gutter are sprouting, i planted a few more, as it seems i wont et 100% germination.
• May 13th plant all indoor seedlings outside
  
• ????
• July 1st pepper harvest
• ????
• 
  
• july 12th should i start planing fall garden?

Notes:


kk ng's all-purpose bug spray,
Veg Oil 1 tablespoon
Vinegar 20 ml
Soap 75ml
Baking Soda 20 gm
Water 5 Liters

 

Peppers take 7-10 to germinate typically. Good Luck

 

Good Luck! The weather may not agree with your idea of perfection !

 

yup, there are a couple that have germinated now, a couple more in a couple of days I'm sure.
the seed is a bit old so I think ill get poor germination rate, so I put a lot of seeds on the wet paper towel

 

Perfection is not the goal. There is no guide out there that I can fallow. I mean... yes there are guidelines ( ex. start seeds indoors X weeks before planting ) but these types of guidelines to not take into account that I can move the seedlings into a greenhouse and or plant under a tunnel cover.

It seems timing is a huge part of the game, I think it'll be interesting to look back at the log at the end of the season and see what can be improved. also it's a pain to have to think about when to start what seeds at what time every spring/fall. in fallowing years i can just copy what the log says.

 

Ha ! Cute one Adam ! Even if you go by your log that still doesn`t tell you if the weather is going to be the same ! Just go by your estimated last frost date ! Then start plants about six to eight weeks prior !! Even then plants will not do much till the ground/soil temperature gets warm enough !

 

FYI the weather has been the same for hundreds of years. idk what you guys are talking about.

 

next year I will know to start germinating long and slim peppers a couple of days before the other peppers.
that's right Perfect timing next year.



i like memes...

 

this log is going to be super useful, especially in determining how many of each crop to start. last year I had a lot of tomatoes but only later in the season, I had a small patch of pea that produced early in the season but I should have planted much much more of them, and then I had more basil then I knew what to do with. I F'ed up on a lot of little things last year; its going to be easy to do better this year, but once the obvious mistakes are dealt with, optimizing my garden space throughout spring, summer, and fall, isn't going to so obvious, and will Require looking back at some hard data.

give me 2 full growing seasons, and ill find the best possible formal to get the most out of my veg garden.

 

I grew Bonney best two years ago and they vined like crazy all over the garden. I'm on Vancouver Island off the BC coast and we don't get overly hot summers. Anyway they grew really well, didn't overly produce but sure took up more than their share of garden room. I've grown Money Maker too but they were unremarkable. Grew well, produced well

 

I guess ill favor money maker and tiny tim when it comes to potting the strongest tomato seedlings. my only issue with tomatoes last year was how long it took for them to turn red, maybe it just felt long...
Maybe I should try Early girl...

 

Seedling shelf starting to look green!
got quite a few peppers some cucumbers justed popped out, couple tiny tims in the red cups. waiting on basil, and a tone of tomatoes to germinate.

 

Here's an updated pic

some peppers are further along than others, the Armenian cucumbers are a total fail, very poor germination and the ones at did germinate looked diseased! oh well, anyway, I prefer straight 8. Good germination with the tomatoes, and after some thinning I have 1 tomato per cell. also have 2 types of basil which you can't see in the pic.



I found my plan form last year, and have made some edits, this is what the garden Might look like in Summer:

The arch trellis worked and looked really good, so this time I'm going to make it 8 feet long!
The plan for spring is to sow a tone of radishes where the summer crops will go, and hopefully, be able to pull out alot of decent-sized radishes by the time its time to plan the summer crops. "ttt" is Tinny Tim Tomatoes in pots.

Currently, the backyard is still under a couple of feet of snow ( its melting day by day ), I can't wait for the snow to be gone! ( in 7-14 days ) I have a lot of work todo.

Green House is mostly built, I need to cover it in plastic and build a roof.
The peas are going to be in a raised beds next to the fence, the only problem is the fence Blew down right before the snow came, so ill have to put it back together as soon as the sown melts.
There's a big fern ill have to pull out, where the "mini 3 sisters garden" will be.

I can't wait to GO OUTSIDE, been stuck inside with the windows shut for MONTHS! I blame Canada.

 

another update on the what is now known as the "seedling station", a lot of the seedlings have been potted up.


I was busy at work today, but tomorrow I have to buy more potting mix. and finish posting up all the seedlings.
and then... I have to discard about 8 seedlings because the shelf is officially out of space!