Gardening
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Backyard garden: 2023 season update
As the seasons (abruptly, here on the southwest coast of BC!) change, it’s a good time to look back on the gardening season that was. As it’s all too easy to forget the nuances of the year, it’s helpful to make notes about what worked, what didn’t, and what could be changed up for next year! All in all I’d have to say it was a pretty good year, see below for highlights! Read along about past years here. Best thing made with garden produce (so far) Have you ever heard of a tomato mill or strainer? I hadn’t until a couple of years ago but then I discovered this…
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My 2023 Balcony Garden Update
I mentioned earlier this year that I hadn’t been planning on having a garden this year, but I’m so glad I changed my mind and went ahead with planting a few things. My garden isn’t very elaborate or productive, but it’s so satisfying to see things grow. You can check out how I started my garden in my 2023 Balcony Garden Post. What I’ve been growing in my balcony garden This year I went simple with my garden and tried to use up the seeds that I had from last year. I didn’t want to make a huge investment of money this year because last year’s garden didn’t produce enough…
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Plastic Free July: Gardening
Today I’m sharing about how to reduce plastic use in our garden – gardening containers, packaging, and garden accessories are all areas where plastics can sneak up on us. In this post, we will explore the concept of plastic free gardening and discover practical tips to create an eco-friendly garden that nurtures both plants and the planet. Starting seeds Traditional seed starting often involves the use of plastic pots or trays, but there are several eco-friendly alternatives. Opt for biodegradable options such as peat pots, coconut coir pots, or even homemade seedling pots made from recycled newspaper, or even eggshells! These alternatives can be directly planted into the ground, reducing…
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How I’m Starting my Balcony Garden this Year
I wasn’t planning on gardening this year because of how poorly my balcony garden grew last year, but since I had a large number of seeds left over, I decided to give it another go. This year, I’m setting my expectations lower and am simply going to hope for the best. Troublemaking Stellar Jays My gardening journey started out with a bit of an obstacle to overcome. Last year I had these super sweet and cute Stellar Jays visiting my balcony, so I was excited to see some jays come back this year. Having birds come and visit my balcony garden has been a huge source of joy this last…
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Gardening While Renting: What I’m Harvesting from my Balcony Garden
This year’s been an exciting one for me as I’ve had a new balcony to enjoy and create a garden space in. It has been a lot of fun to experiment with growing tons of different plants to see what works and what doesn’t. As Krista mentioned in her backyard garden update, the weather this year has been hard to keep up with, so my gardening learning curve has been steep this year! What I’ve been Harvesting from my Balcony Garden Challenging weather and my lack of gardening know-how has led to some interesting growing experiences. I’ve been told by a friend that I’m really good at growing leaves because…
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2022 Backyard Garden Update
Backyard garden background As I had posted in my 2022 backyard garden kick off post – we had realized that our garden wasn’t producing well in the past couple of years and weren’t sure why. To understand what was wrong and get back into good production, we had a consulting session with Seed and Nourish and found out where we had likely been going wrong – and so made some changes! We purchased a load of organic soil and spread a few inches onto each of our garden beds, and made sure we had fertilizer and have been applying it at regular intervals to support growth. I’ve also been watering…
