Garden 2025

It's the Victoria Day weekend and therefore time to put in the bulk of the garden. It doesn't feel like it, as the weather is still oddly cool. We had our first barbecue yesterday and it was chilly enough to see my breath. 

We got seeds and seedlings yesterday but we're putting them in the ground today. We already have a lot of sunflowers going. Last year, I tried three batches of them with very poor luck. The first round were planted directly in the soil but squirrels dug them up. The second two were grown in jiffy pots to get them past the seed stage, but something still found them appetizing. 

I built a shelter around them that I weighted down with rocks, but every day I would see a pile set aside and a couple of sunflowers munched on. The usual suspects were squirrels but the way the barrier was dismantled made it look like the work of something with hands. I imagined a raccoon but that doesn't seem like their behaviour.

Eventually I put enough weight on that whatever was doing it got discouraged. But the third round of flowers were slowly eaten by insects. This was all after the previous year, where we had a record number of blossoms.

So in 2025 I've been a little discouraged and Lee-Anne has subsequently taken most of the initiative. She has had a shocking amount of success and I'm not too proud to say it, but I've been slightly miffed that she's done so well when she keeps making what I perceive to be mistakes.

She started with jiffy pots in the stairwell with indirect sunlight, causing them to grow spindly and unable to support their own weight. We put them out long before recommended, and due to the uncharacteristic cold weather, they've had to survive multiple frosts. But they've somehow managed to correct their posture and brave the elements. I think they've grown beyond the point where animals perceive them as food.

 We have, I think, 9 kong sunflowers growing strong, reduced from an attempted 12. Those are the ones that grow taller than people. I've always wanted them but I haven't seen them available. One of my old neighbour's managed to grow them from random birdseed and he gave me a head one year, but I've never managed to grow second-generation flowers.

As far as our other plants go, as usual we have cucumbers, snow peas, and tomatoes. The latter are Early Girls as that's what I've had success with. This year we're trying a bell pepper. I've attempted hot peppers in the past without success, but it seems people consider bell peppers as being at a similar level of difficulty to our three standard crops, so I'm hesitantly optimistic.

We're trying herbs again. We didn't have much luck last year, but Lee-Anne thinks the issue may have been the soil, so we're correcting that and making another attempt. She's got parsely and mint, and I got chamomile because I know a rookie gardener who's having some success with it.

When Googling easy outdoor plants, I saw a suggestion to get marigolds. Apparently they encourage pollinators and discourage pests. So we got some of those, and I think Lee-Anne got two other types that have a similar nature.

It's fun to continue experimenting with different garden formats!

This last bit is off-topic, but the 12th of this month was my mom's 60th birthday. Me and my brother made her cannelloni, since I recently learned that was once her favourite food. My brother got her an outdoor table and chair for their patio, and I got her a bookcase. The last things they needed to unpack were all books, so I thought it was practical.

The reason this birthday is worth pointing out is that it was the night of the Flower Moon. This, coupled with the fact that it's the year of the Wood Snake, which she is, really makes it seem like it should be her year.