So, I started more seeds today. It's an ongoing process to grow seedlings, as some plants need more time, some you grow early in the season, some you start later. As such, I usually have seeds going into dirt from January through April - even later if I do a fall planting.

A question I see a lot from people who container garden is what to do with the soil from last year that is in their containers. Do they get rid of it? Reuse it? What? It seems like every year once we get close to growing season that this question comes up.

There are a lot of options. If you have a compost pile, you can dump all of the old soil that doesn't have plants currently growing in it, bulbs that will come back each year, etc. This gives it a chance to be reinvigorated by the nutrients it picks up from your compost heap. But what if you don't have a compost heap?

A friend asked me today how I attach my lights to my shelves where I grow my seedlings.

The shelves themselves aren't solid - they're a grid. So I bought some s-biners and chain. S-biners are similar to a s-hook, except that they have a closure that you can open by pushing, just like a carabiner. This means I don't have to worry about bumping a light or chain and the hook slipping, causing the light to fall.

Well, recently we were told that we had to remove everything that wasn't physically on/attached to the patio - no plants out on the ground. When I pointed out that I had permission to do this and it was in the same place as always, I was told that they had never given permission, had never seen the garden, etc. Now this was the exact person who I had talked to about my garden multiple times and had approved it. They tried saying in past years they'd just seen the greenhouse. A greenhouse that I just bought and installed this year. After a little more poking, it was clear that they had visited the garden this year (since that's the only time I had a greenhouse) and had to have seen all the containers since those were already there.

After a little back and forth, I ripped up a good chunk of the garden and the rest seems to be ok for now. Didn't make me too happy to pull up all my pumpkins, most of my squash, much of my cucumbers, etc. - it was probably $100+ worth of plants. Needless to say, we'll be moving as soon as we can, as I am tired of this kind of thing.

So how can you help protect yourself?

Get it in writing

If they approve you having a garden, greenhouse, planters, etc., get it in writing. And get that again every time you sign your lease. Make sure that it states that this agreement supersedes anything in your lease, community rules, etc.

Have them visit

Set up your garden and then have them visit. Ask them if there are any issues with what you have, where it is at, etc. Then you can fix it before your plants get too established. My landlord couldn't seem to understand why it would be an issue moving a pot that is probably 20 gallons with a 7' tall tomato plant in it.

You might even want to document the visit, such as recording it. Just make sure what the laws are regarding recording other people.

Once they've ok'd it, take photos, print them, and have them sign off.

This should help protect you for at least the duration of your current lease if they try to change things midway like they did to us.

Powdery mildew is a problem for me every year. I live in an apartment that runs their sprinklers several times throughout the night from about 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. Since these run at night when it's cool, it never fails that mildew starts to grow. Not to mention that it never fails that we get rainy days that are cool.

I've tried just about everything over the years. Several people mentioned Neem Oil, so I finally picked some up at the store recently when I found it on sale. I mixed up some and put it in a spray bottle and went to work. I gave everything that had mildew on them a good spraying and everything else that could get mildew got a light spray. And then I waited to see what happened.

A week later and there was maybe 30% the amount of mildew on the leaves as there had been previously. I was so excited, as some of the leaves were just completely white and fuzzy. I've got to do another spraying, as the bottle recommended every week until it's cleared up and every 14 days to help prevent mildew.

Hopefully within a few weeks the plants will all nice and healthy again. Having this mildew on it makes it hard for the plant to photosynthesize, and it can die.

Usually when I have to deal with wilted seedlings,it's outside. Maybe we had too hot of a day and they need extra water. Or I didn't harden them off long enough. But this year I'm having the issue indoors. We've been so hot indoors lately that they are acting like they're having issues from not being hardened off long enough. Problem is they're indoors. It's just too hot inside for them and I don't have ac in that part of the house, so there's not a lot I can do (only in the bedroom).

I'm considering moving the ones most affected (cucumbers and eggplant) into my bathroom in the evenings and giving them some cool off time.

I'm looking forward to the day when I'm in a house that stays cooler or has something like a basement that stays cool. Then the poor plants won't have such a problem when the house is unusually hot. They were doing great until it got hot inside.

I am so tired of aphids. First I had the usual ones on my chives. I bought ladybugs. Then we found them indoors on my seedlings. I tried organic insecticidal soap, but that only works if it touches the bugs and they were good at hiding. So then I moved them outside and bought more ladybugs. Then a few days later I find an infestation on my kale. This time it was a different kind of aphid - these looked like globs of ash. The kale had been fine just a few days earlier. I ended up having to pull up half of it to protect the rest.

   &nbap;

Then more seedlings inside got aphids. Then I found black ones on my beans.

I swear everywhere I turn I'm fighting aphids. And looking around town, it appears to be an issue many people are having. I'm noticing them on roses and such all over town.

I haven't posted much lately because it's just been rainy, rainy, rainy. Lots of rain. Even some hail and thunderstorms. Thankfully the hail was smaller and my plants a good size, as early in the season that could have decimated the garden.

I'm noticing a lot of pale leaves and yellow leaves across plants. This is because when you get this amount of rain it washes much of the nutrients out of your garden, especially if you are container gardening. After you've had a lot of rain it is very important to make sure you feed your plants and make up for the nutrition they lost from all the rain. I'll do my usual weekly treatment, but will also likely do some fish fertilizer and Epsom salts to make up for what they lost.