cold climate gardening

Our 2026 Garden: “potting up” the onions, and setting things up

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Okay, I got some good progress today!

My first goal was to “pot up” the onions in their seed snails. For this, I wanted to use potting soil, rather than more seed starting mix. I have a bag of potting soil from last year with plenty still left in it, but I knew it was really full of sticks. Which meant I needed to sift it, first, because there was no way it could be used in the snail rolls as it was.

I got out a bucket and a colander that I use for harvesting in the summer, and started sifting in batches. The potting soil was bone dry which made it easier to sift, but also meant there was a LOT of dust. Even misting with water didn’t really help much. I did try to use a dust mask, which is difficult all on its own, since I can’t wear masks anymore. It was either breathing dirt without it, or struggling to breathe with it. Definitely a no-win situation. It didn’t actually help much, to be honest, but it was better than nothing.

I was blown away by just how many sticks I sifted out.

That pile on the side? That’s what I sifted out of what you see in the bucket. I poked my finger in to measure, and it was up to my second joint, so about 2 inches deep. Good grief! It was almost more sticks than soil!

The next step was to moisten the sifted potting soil. I used hot water for that, so it wouldn’t be a shock to the plant roots. It took a remarkable amount of water to moisten it, and I was just aiming to get it wet enough to be able to stick to itself.

Then it was time to get the onions ready.

This is how they looked to start with. These rolls all fit into one bin, and the seedlings are looking pretty good.

The length of them did make unrolling the snail a bit of a challenge! They were tangled together, and wanted to twist around each other as I unrolled the snail.

In the first photo above, I unrolled the first seed snail. These were bottom watered, and you can see that the soil is moist all the way through, and the roots are all the way to the bottom. Some of them seemed a bit crowded, so I did adjust a few of them to space them out a bit. In the second picture, you can see where I’ve added the potting soil on top. From there, it got rolled up and taped closed again.

It was a lot bigger, of course. Only two could fit in the bin I was using, but I did have a second, slightly smaller one, available.

Here are the “potted up” onions. In the second picture, you can see that one of the snails is a lot smaller. That’s the bunching onions. It’s a good thing those didn’t need as much soil, because I was scraping the bucket to get every last bit out for that roll. I really didn’t want to have to sift more!

These are now back in the living room. They are the only things I have space for there, this year.

In order to do this, I had to completely clear my work table. That meant taking away the trays, lights, heat mats, and everything under and around them.

With the onions done, I could then arrange the work space to be ready for the next batch of seed starts. I have the top shelf from a plastic shelf that was too tall to fit in the old basement, and it was used last year to hold trays higher up. That’s what I am using it for again now.

My poor little peppers and eggplant.

Hopefully, the new seeds I sowed yesterday will germinate – and won’t get eaten! I had some concerns about not having heat mats under them anymore, but before I set up the shelf, I made sure to create a wall of cardboard around the back and at one end, then moved the heater so that it was blowing under the shelf. That made a big difference, and the warmth is kept under the shelf enough to warm the trays from below. Not that the heater is on all the time, but even when the furnace is on, now that the opening between the basements is uncovered again, there is heat blowing in and the cardboard, etc. holds it around the plants surprisingly well.

Which you can see better in this next picture.

The insulation leaning at one end it just there until it’s needed later; the cardboard forms a “wall” behind it, out of frame. I’ve got the flaps of the cardboard box under the back legs, so I had to put something under the front legs to level the shelf. Then I set up the insulation pieces, which protect the cutting mat from warping, and the heat mats, ready and waiting. With the seedlings so close to the shop light, the plant lights aren’t needed for now, so they’re just clamped to the table in the front. There is no place to clamp the lights to use them on top of the shelf, anyhow. Everything gets plugged into a power bar with USB ports that I have set up above my work table.

As for our next seed starts, I don’t think I’ll be using the seed trays again. They are all smaller seeds, and for the space, I think I will do more seed snails. I wouldn’t me making them as deep was what I used for the onions, though. More like a third of that height. I have lots of that packing foam available.

I need to remember, though: do not use painters tape to attach them together to make a longer strip. One of the onion rolls started to split at the tape while I was rolling it back up again. It doesn’t like moisture. I’ll have to see what alternatives we have.

That won’t be needed for another week or so.

For now, I’m just glad I don’t need to sift more of that potting soil for a while!!

The Re-Farmer

For those who want to winter sow

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For the gardeners out there – especially those who are still buried in snow, like I am – Gardening in Canada just came out with a new video on winter sowing.

The temperature fluctuations are so very typical for our region – and she’s farther north than we are!

We tried the winter sowing in jugs a few years ago, and it was a complete failure. This video covers a few of the reasons why. In our case, that year, they basically just froze, thanks to those fluctuations. That is why I tried the in ground winter sowing – sowing in the fall, before the ground froze, and mulching heavily. As an experiment, it worked quite well last year (not counting the beds destroyed by cats). These beds are now covered in deep snow, so they are well insulated from any temperature fluctuations. In the spring, once things warm up enough, I’ll remove the mulch so the ground can thaw out faster. Mulch will be returned once any seedlings are large enough.

Would I try this type of winter sowing again? Possibly, but unlikely. Perhaps a few years from now, we might have a better set up, and catch the right conditions. Hopefully, our direct sown beds will do well this year, too, because doing it that way is a real game changer.

Currently, I haven’t even tried to get at any of the garden beds, as that would require a fair bit of digging. The rectangular bed in the old kitchen garden has our cover with the strongest wire on it. I have a vinyl cover that fits over it. I used it last year to great greenhouse conditions, and I plan to do that again, once we can get access into that garden again.

Such are my thoughts this morning, as we have gone from 3 or 4C/37-39F yesterday, so a current temperature of -15C/5F, with a wind chill of -24C/-11F as I write this. Our high of the day is supposed to be -11C/12F. We’ll be warming up again over the next few days, then back down again. We’re not expected to see highs about freezing until 10 days from now, but of course, those longer range forecasts are constantly changing. Still, by the second half of March, we should start to more consistently see highs above freezing.

Today, I think I will putter around in the basement with our seedling set up. I need to “pot up” the snail rolls of onions, and make space for my next round of seed starts. I think I might end up doing more snail rolls. I didn’t plan to, but I think those might be easier to protect from the mice or whatever that’s been eating my pepper seedlings. I’ve resown new seeds in the now empty cells. Hopefully, they’ll take but, if not, I still have enough seeds left and they have a short enough growing season that I can try direct sowing in the spring. Hopefully, it won’t come to that. Meanwhile, the next seeds to be started indoors can wait a bit longer, though I can do some, like flowers, earlier if I want. I hope to interplant with more flowers this year, including the memorial aster seeds I collected in the fall.

With so much snow on the ground, yet spring just around the corner (we’re almost half way through March already!!!), a bit of garden therapy will be good for the soul.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: Noooo!!!!!

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Well, crud.

I checked on the seedlings in the basement today, and discovered carnage.

In the first picture, there were three seedlings – two that I’d planted after the first pre-germinated one. All three, gone.

In the second picture, you can see that one of the cells was dug into – and the stem of a seedling. There were actually two cells that had been dug into.

The third is what’s left in the tray. The row on the bottom is the Sweet Chocolate peppers. They were doing the best. All the cells had seedlings, with the “just in case” seeds sown later also emerging. The row of seven cells had at least ten seedlings, with hints of more emerging. Now, it’s down to two.

The California Wonder row, in the middle, didn’t do as well, but I did have four seedlings. Now there is just one.

The top row is the Caspar eggplant. There were three surviving seedlings, which seem to be untouched. Whatever ate the others doesn’t seem to like eggplant, I guess.

With the evidence of digging, it must be a mouse. There are a couple of ultrasonic mouse repellents plugged in, in both basements. They’ve been there longer than we have, so I’m guessing they aren’t working anymore.

*sigh*

The celery, herbs and luffa in the other tray are untouched.

About the only thing I can be glad of is that these are all short season varieties. In theory, I could even direct sow them. Not that I would expect that to work with our growing season, so I do want to try again, but how do I keep this from happening again?

We could set traps, of course. There are several live traps that are currently stored in the sun room. They’re not really accessible right now, though.

My daughter suggested the three of us find a way to get the big aquarium into the basement to use as a greenhouse again. A mouse can’t climb the glass, and it has wire mesh covers. The original problem remains, though: how to get it down the stairs. There is so little room at the bottom turn something of its dimensions. Not that we can access it, anyhow. We’ve got so many of my mother’s things shoved into the living room, safe from the cats, that we can’t access where the aquariums are, never mind carry the big aquarium, and the shelf that supports it, out. I was planning on getting some of my mother’s stuff out and into the storage house (which is already so full of my parents’ things) so that we could use the big aquarium to house the chicks, but that won’t be until the end of May.

So frustrating.

Meanwhile, our day changed completely. My doctor’s appointment was this afternoon. If the truck behaved and the road conditions were good, I would have gone on to do the Walmart shopping, after. My younger daughter’s appointment was on Monday, but she wanted to come with me as there was something she needed to get at Walmart.

Note, I said “was”.

We were expecting snow today, but when it started coming down, it was harder than expected. If we can see the snow and wind around the house like that, we know it’s a lot worse on the roads. It was early enough in the day that I called the clinic to cancel my appointment. We’re expecting a combination of rain and snow over the weekend, so I cancelled my daughter’s appointment on Monday, too. When I explained about road conditions, the receptionist I was talking to concurred. The clinic is about a 45 minute drive away, and it sounds like conditions were worse there, than here. I’ve certainly driven in worse conditions, but we’ve had so many issues in such a short time, I just didn’t want take the chance.

They are booking new appointments at four weeks right now, so I could have rebooked for the end of March. I told her, we’ll call to rebook closer to the end of March instead, to make the appointments in April. March being the sort of month that it is, I didn’t want to book appointments only to have to cancel them again due to weather.

So, we stayed home today. I ended up going back to bed. I got up again before noon, in enough pain that I could barely walk. I can’t say the nap helped that much, because I still feel ridiculously tired.

Ah, well. It is what it is.

I’ve got to figure something out to protect my seed starts.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: West Coast Seeds are in, plus an update

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Oh, goodness. What a morning.

I heard back from the garage when they checked their messages this morning (they don’t check while the shop is closed), and the mechanic agreed that it was likely a burnt fuse. I ended up talking to him on the phone and we made an appointment for tomorrow afternoon so they can look at it.

Then, I headed to the post office to finally pick up our packages. One of them was my West Coast Seeds order that came in almost two weeks ago!

Also, I’m an idiot.

I’m also short. Have I mentioned, I’m a bit on the short side?

Well, I didn’t open the garage door quite far enough. As I backed out of the garage, I hit the door. Broke the light above the box on the back of the cab. Just cracked the plastic, but still… What a doofus!

Our driveway may be mostly clear, but there is still that mix of hard packed tire tracks and softer snow on either side. The hard packed snow was already getting slippery – we have been warming up all night and were just a few degrees below freezing. Still, I got through all right and onto the road.

Where it started again.

That strange shuddering that wasn’t there when the mechanics test drove the truck before I took it home.

I was still on 4 wheel drive, as I needed it to get the truck unstuck, so I stopped and switched to 2 wheel drive. After that, it ran fine.

Then I saw the clock.

The time was wrong, but the clock was visible. I turned on the radio, and all the display information came on, as usual.

The console display is working again so, obviously, it’s not a burnt out fuse!

When I got to the post office, though, I confirmed that the warning dings for keys still in the ignition or headlights left on, that are supposed to start when the door is opened, didn’t.

I got our mail and a few groceries in the store, then headed home. As soon as I was settled, I sent a message to the garage, along with the picture of the broken light, asking what it would cost to get it fixed. Then I asked him to call me so I could tell him what was going on with the truck. I did add that it was NOT a burnt fuse, but maybe the ignition switch?

He called me back right away. I described what was happening, both with the shuddering back while on 4 wheel drive, and with the console display being on again, but not the warning dings that should go off when the door it opened.

He doesn’t think it’s the ignition switch, as he thinks that would cause other issues as well, but he will check it out.

He also asked how much we had left to pay off the truck. He knows we just can’t have this happening all the time, and we’ve already talked about trading the truck in a bit. We’ll see what happens when I get there, tomorrow.

I would really, really like to get our stock up shopping finally done!!

Meanwhile, I got to check out my new seeds and decided to make a short video of it.

You can also see how the seedlings are doing. Not the best. I’ve added “walls” around two sides of the trays to help keep the heat from the heater from blowing right past everything, and moved the thermometer to one end, away from the heater. I’ve actually seen that thermometer at 20C/68F since moving it closer to the trays! When I was doing the video, though, it was more like 17C/63F or so. It really should be closer to 24C/75C for the seedlings, but we just have no way to give them that. Still, I’m seeing more of the extra California Wonder bell pepper seeds I added, just in case, emerging. We’ve only got 3 surviving Caspar eggplants, but at 75 days to maturity, technically I could direct sow those.

There we have it, though. My little West Coast Seeds haul

I’m looking forward to trying these.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: morning seedling mystery

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With our seedlings starting in the basement, I make a point of checking on them at least twice a day. In the evening, I turn on the heater and spend some time down there, getting my steps in if I need to. The celery is doing particularly well, and I’ve been seeing new seedlings coming up, including from the “extra” seeds I added to the pre-germinated ones, just in case. There was one little eggplant seedling that had its seed case stuck on the tips of the seed leaves that I ended up very carefully removing and was surprised to see three seed leaves unfurl instead of two.

In other words, I’m keeping a close eye on things.

Which means I immediately noticed something wrong this morning.

The first picture in the slide show above is the seedling that had 3 seed leaves. You can see part of one of them nearby. The other two, and half the stem, are gone.

I tried to zoom the next picture in, but the stem of that Sweet Chocolate pepper is cut right to the surface. The next picture is also a Sweet Chocolate, while the last one is a California Wonder.

If these were outside, I would be thinking that insects got to them. But these are trays in my basement. One of my daughters suggested it might be mice. We do have at least one mouse in the ceiling of the addition – the skittering drives the cats nuts – but there has been zero evidence of mice in the basement. There was also no disturbance in the soil that a mouse would cause if it was moving around the top of the tray. Plus, these damaged seedlings are sort of all over the place on the tray, and it would be odd for a mouse to get just those ones and not, say, the entire tray.

So what on earth chomped on these seedlings???

Very strange!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: first signs, and more potted seeds

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But first, the cuteness!

Just a little video of the adorableness that kept trying to run into the house while we were unloading the Costco shop. He would be such a great indoor cat! He’s not “perfect”, though. Aside from the one messed up eye – which doesn’t seem to bother him, but does make him at greater risk if he decides to expand his territory in the summer – he likely has some upper respiratory issues. He’s been better since we’ve gotten more lysine to add to their food, but it basically makes him unadoptable.

The rescue can’t even help with him. They’ve had to stop all intakes. They are out of fosters and there are no more spaces for more cats.

*sigh*

I also realized today that I haven’t seen Rolando Moon for quite some time. She does tend to disappear for weeks, sometimes months, at a time, but usually in the summer, not the winter. Considering I got pictures of her when I visited my dad here, back in 2015, I’d estimate she would be around 14-15 years old, if not older. We did try to make her an indoor cat, but she would have none of it.

*sigh*

Anyhow.

I just got back from checking on our seed dungeon in the basement. I found fresh green!

The first picture in the slideshow above is our very first Golden Boy celery seedlings! There’s just the two, but I will now keep the lid open on the container I’m using for them, so they don’t have to deal with too much humidity.

The second picture is of the first pre-germinated luffa breaking ground. I now know at least one has survived being potted after pre-germination!

I didn’t take a picture, but I also potted more Caspar eggplant, and the first couple of California Wonder bell peppers that have pre-germinated.

Thinking ahead to the next batch of seeds I will be starting (herbs, this time), and when, I have placed an Amazon order for a couple more heat mats, plus some full spectrum lamps. Their prices were very reasonable, so I got one floor lamp with a tripod stand and two table top lamps. They have multiple full spectrum LED light strips on gooseneck supports, so they can be adjusted to provide light over several different trays at once, and the trays don’t have to be crammed together. The floor lamp has 5 light strips, while the smaller ones have four. The smaller ones have clips for bases. I would have preferred with a stand, but that didn’t seem to be an option at all for the smaller ones. They also have auto on/off timers.

They haven’t been shipped yet, but according to Amazon, they should arrive by the 18th. That should keep me from starting more seeds too early! 😄

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: eggplant and peppers

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A couple of days ago, on checking the seeds I’ve set to pre-germinate, it looked like some were just starting to show radicals. Nothing ready, but it seemed they soon would be.

So I grabbed one of my deep celled trays and prepared it in advance. These trays have 21 cells, and I’m looking to have 1 row of each of the seeds I have pre-germinating right now. The seed starting mix in the cells are all pre-moistened, ready and waiting.

When I tried pre-germinating seeds last year, I let them sit for probably too long. Their roots started to go into the damp paper towels and had to be very carefully pulled free. From what I’ve been seeing online, they really should be potted as soon as the radicals appear.

So that’s what I’ve already done with the luffa.

Yesterday, that first seed I saw that looked like it was starting to show its radical – a Caspar Eggplant – had started to germinate. Just the one. So I planted it into a prepared cell, then topped it with vermiculite, partly so I could easily tell which cell has a seed planted in it.

Today, I found another eggplant, plus some Sweet Chocolate peppers.

I would prefer to have these on another heat mat, but I only have one. The light fixture above them, however, does put off some heat. With smaller seeds closer to the surface like these, it will actually be enough to affect them.

I did have to raise the light fixture another inch to fit the large celled tray under it, but that should be okay. I’ll keep transferring seeds over as they germinate. With these larger cells, I should be able to avoid potting them up for some time, if at all.

As long as the pre-germinated seeds survive the transfer, I should have 7 plants each by using this tray. If I’d been using the Red Solo cups, I can fit 9 cups in each of the bins I have to hold them, so that’s what I would have been shooting for as a total. Seven should be enough, and I am not expecting 100% germination rates, nor 100% transfer survival rates.

We shall see!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: onion snails doing well

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I got to stay home today, for a change!

I did get messages back from the garage about the truck, but nothing about coming in. I’m not sure the problem is the sensor, after finding some oil on the ground in the garage yesterday. It was a while before I went out to move it today, so that I could check the oil levels, and see if there were any new oil stains under it.

There was. Just a couple of drops.

*sigh*

Oil levels were fine. I’m going to have to take a chance, though, and at least make a trip to the nearest Walmart. We’ve used the last of our canned cat food today, and the dry kibble is starting to get low, too.

It was a nice enough day that, after checking on the truck, I stayed out to clear some of the paths that got filled with drifted snow, after two days of high winds. Happily, the plows have gone by, so the roads will be clear. Things are supposed to keep warming up over the next few days, which is going to be quite a relief.

Of course, that makes me think of gardening!

The peppers and eggplant seeds that are set to pre-germinate aren’t showing any radicals yet, nor to I expect them to, this soon. Next on the list was things like tomatoes and herbs, but after watching the above video, I will just be doing the herbs, first. I sorted seeds I’ll be starting by how many weeks before last frost the packages recommend starting them. In theory, I could start the tomatoes in April.

I just really, really want to start more seeds! 😄

I realized it’s been a while since I updated about the onions. All four snail rolls now have seedlings.

They’re tall enough now that I raised the light a bit today. Should they get big enough to need “potting up”, they can be unrolled, more seed starting mix added, then rolled back up again. I made sure to leave enough excess length of the packing foam to accommodate extra width.

Just a little green growth to sooth the gardening soul, as winter drags on!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: first luffa!

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Before all the running around, getting my mother’s apartment empty before the end of the day, I made sure to turn on the lights and check on the pre-germinating seeds. It hasn’t been very long, so I really wasn’t expecting anything. So I was very surprised to see my first radicals! On luffa seeds, no less!

Two of the four seeds have germinated! This is really amazing. Last year, seeds from this same packet took forever to pre-germinate. They were the last things to do so. This time, they are the first!

So I potted them into a couple of Red Solo cups. I made sure to thoroughly pre-moisten the seed starting mix in the cups, first, but forgot to use hot water for it. The damp soil was pretty chilly, so I set them on the heat mat, with the heater running next to them for a while. I didn’t want to shock the little radicals with water while planting them!

Hopefully, they will survive!

The Re-Farmer