Seed starting soil is generally low in nutrients to start with as the seed has everything it needs inside it. It’s usually just a medium that retains moisture and is airy, two things the seeds need to get a good start.
Thanks. I will go ahead and get it on sale then. 
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If a bag of garden soil/potting mix/manure goes on sale then I’d be a little bit more hesitant as to how long I’d be keeping it for before using.
But they’re what I’d be using after a seed raising mix. My current combo is a bag of garden soil and a third of a bag of cow manure for our seedlings to go into after they’ve got their first true leaf/leaves.
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The first of our incubator chicks have hatched.
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Aww. That chick looks like it partied too hard last night.
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Spent 12hrs cracking it’s shell and escaping.
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Cute chick!
We spent yesterday starting to prepare our garden for winter. We emptied some of the deck pots by pulling up tomato plants and other spent plant material, then dumping soil from cloth pots into the raised beds.
We emptied the raised beds and added all kinds of soil amendments. I moved some rosemary, chives and a stray strawberry plant to one bed. I want to add more strawberry plants later.
We still have one more raised bed and the rest of the deck garden to deal with, but they are still producing, so we will wait.
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Tomatoes and basil survived the cold snap in our atrium!
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too lazy today, so garlic should go in the ground tomorrow maybe? I’ll use some of the ones that did ok in my garden plus a heritage breed I’ve already forgotten the name of that I bought at the Polish festival last month.
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I planted mine today. Porcelain, polish white, and a purple rojia.
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I’ve put “Fish Lake 3” + “Charlie’s Sicilian” in the front around the astilbe.
I’ve put “Former Yugoslavia” in the back among the ferns.
I will probably put 6-8 more in the front. Perhaps some by the mint, and some by the stairs.
I probably need to thin out the ferns in general. It seems sacrilege.
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These names are outstanding!
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So, like, we pulled up the two big beds of the garden, turned them over and amended with compost and manure, and turned again. Covered them with mulched leaves, putting those beds to sleep for the winter.
BUT…
we left two smaller beds by the house, and the herbs on the deck, and guess what? We are still harvesting from them! In November! My oregano, lemon thyme and parsley all need to be picked again. I have kale and beet greens and chard that need picking. I even have a lone pea plant producing flowers and peas!
I am so going to get serious about three season gardening here.
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I got a bare root peony and had to guess on how to plant it. I’ve got many other peonies, but I’ve never seen one with eyes on the stalks like this, especially right at the very top. How would you plant this? I did a google and am not sure I’m not more confused. I planted it so the main bulk and low eyes are in the dirt, but the stalks and high up eyes are exposed. If I put those in the dirt, it would be way too deep. Seems like those eyes will die, but I guess that’s ok if the low ones live? Sorry for the bad quality picture, it was very cold and I didn’t take my time. I had to shovel snow in order to plant it. 
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The whole lot could go underground and it would be fine.
As soon as the buds breaks through into the open the leaves will start forming and it’ll take off from there.
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It’s seed time, right? Right. Hopefully I’m not the only northern hemisphere gardener who is already placing seed orders and planning out next year’s garden.
Tomorrow I’m planning to start my winter sowing in milk jugs. I mostly use that strategy for my native perennials. Veggies I start inside. Last year I started my peppers and eggplants too late, so I think I will start early February this year.
Speaking of peppers, does anyone have a favorite snacking bell pepper? In the past I’ve grown “Tangerine Dream” but my seed is old and germination was poor last year.
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Thank you for the reminder! I need to consider my plans.
I seem to have trouble with growing peppers, but snacking peppers sound delightful. I think last year I just planted everything too densely and my peppers were too crowded out and shaded by my tomatoes.
Thoughts on plans…
What worked last year:
- Planting in a smaller footprint of my yard.
- Not bothering with zucchini or summer squash. So much space and we just don’t use them, and we are oft recipients of our next door neighbor’s “put zucchinis on porches” days.
- Interplanting nasturtium and marigolds with the veggie garden.
- Having a couple herb plants shaded from the hot sun by the tomatoes.
- Putting sunflowers just absolutely everywhere. They grow well even with sparse and forgetful watering.
- Using rabbit manure as the vast majority of organic matter.
- Having a couple pumpkins was nice.
What didn’t work:
- Overcrowding
- Brandywine tomatoes in particular. They took so long to produce and then split and rot and were generally difficult.
- Fruit trees and bushes with hand-watering. I absolutely cannot buy any of these again without first setting up some kind of watering wherein at most I turn a knob and it waters everything in either the front or back of the yard. I am not one to stand there and wait for multiple minutes while trying to pour five gallons on each of a dozen trees and bushes. And I’m too easily distracted to put a hose next to a tree and actually remember to move it in reasonable time.
- I don’t really need peppers other than bell peppers? But I’ve never succeeded in growing bell peppers. But I will actually use them in cooking and do find home grown substantially better than store bought.
- My early spring garden just didn’t do anything this year. I don’t know if I started too early?
- I give up on carrots and radishes.
Plants and types to grow:
- Just basic sweet and genovese basil.
- A thyme plant and a rosemary plant. I’ll probably just buy these as starts from a garden center.
- Tomatoes: chef’s choice, Juliet, whippersnapper, mountain merit. No more than 12 overall (4/bed) and may want to limit that further. These are the main things I insist on starting myself and start crying around April when my house is overtaken with dozens of tomatoes in gallon pots because I just had to plant extras just in case some died.
- Max 3 pepper plants. Maybe 2 California wonders and one of these delicious sounding tangerine dreams.
- Both creeping and bush type nasturtium.
- Marigolds
- Sunflowers, but don’t buy like 12 varieties this time.
Also need to remember that I’m theoretically having a baby in August, which is when tomato harvesting really ramps up. If I clean up the back yard enough to not be mortified, I can probably get a friend or my next door neighbor to help with harvesting in exchange for them taking however much they want?
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I’ve already got my flower seeds! It’s only my second year with seeds, fingers crossed that they do as well as last year.
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This is so me too!
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