Catie George

For what it's worth, the pictures Nina shared look like spearmint to me.

In my experience, peppermint tends to have rounder, darker green leaves, a more prostrate growth habit, brown stems, and be much less vigorous than spearmint.  I had both planted together, and the spearmint smothered the peppermint.

Spearmint seems quite drought amd full sun tolerant, too.

I do not own a house hippo, and i remain quite disappointed about it!

I would much prefer a house hippo to the mice i grew up with instead.

(As for the cow song... you'd have to provide lyrics but i suspect so!)

Yes, you probably cooked your seeds... think of how hot a compost bin needs to get to sterilize weed seeds. If it was hot to the touch, probably too hot for seeds.  I've fried several seedlings over the years, leaving them outside in full sun with a clear cover on them in an attempt to avoid drying them out.

If it's too late to start over from seeds is completely up to where you live, and when first and last frost is, and what the days to maturity listed on the package is... For me, it would be too late for tomatos and peppers, but plenty of things grow very well direct seeded.

Personally, at least for tomatos, i would go to a garden centre and look for a few cheap six packs of tomatos, or alternatively one large plant, then plant cuttings from it (tomatos root very easily from cuttings).

You may do better next time, trying direct seeding in the ground, or choosing to seed into pots with more soil volume to avoid quick spikes in temp, or even starting your seeds in any part shade (ideally afternoon shade) you can find! Real sunlight is much brighter than most indoor grow lights, so part shade can work very well. A European style seedling bed might work well for you, with a window you can prop open during the day and close at night.

If you are doing the wet paper towel method, you don't usually need light until the seeds germinate. I find on top of my fridge works well, then transplanting the sprouted seeds into trays. It's not ideal, but i've been known to leave trays outside in full sun with standing water at the bottom of them, maybe 1/2", which evaporates over the course of the day and keeps things from drying out.

When do insects come out of hibernation where you live?

Many insects overwinter in dead stalks of grasses, etc as eggs, larvae, nymphs, etc.

Is it possible to delay burning the material until after that period even if you stack it and remove it?  

Is there any reason not to compost it in place? I manage the ditch in front of my house by cutting it down in the spring, and allowing things to grow back up among the cut stalks. It's fast. I cut them down about a week ago, and already the new growth is over the top of the cut stuff. But i'm not particularly worried about fire risk, mostly just avoiding woody growth that the township would feel the need to spray.  I'm always shocked at how quickly things i leave on the ground rot away into the soil if left as a thin layer rather than a pile.  Could you do a test section on a few square feet to see what happens this spring before commiting to a larger area?

I have honestly never staked a tree.

I barerooted and moved 10 larger fruit trees this spring, into a very high wind area. I think 80 km/h is the most they've experienced so far (not yet leafed) but no movement. I did firm the roots in well into the soil and significantly head back the branches as i work to establish their inital structure, which may help with wind resistance.  I also never stakes them in their previous location.

I read once that staking trees makes for weaker trunks as it prevents them flexing and growing stronger. Not sure if it is TRUE, but as i am both lazy and cheap, i took that advice and ran with it!

This is probably too late for your question, but i was in Dollarama the other day, and saw I think a 6 pack of wooden plywood boards, roughly 30x30 cm, for painting for $4.50. Possibly a light sand after opening the package would make them smooth enough for practice?

I haven't seen anyone list sour cherries, but when we lived in zone 3 in the prairies, ours were reliable producers and my favourite summer fruit. We had the old tree type - probably Montmorency, or perhaps Evans.

My saskatoons were wild, and I picked buckets and buckets of them, and we had a large patch of red raspberries, plus Red Lake currants and of course, plenty of rhubarb.  We had crab apples, and two eating apples - one very green and tart, and one delicious one i suspect was Goodland, but on a standard rootstock and in shade so it produced very few apples, and i only got the (treasured!) windfall, a few apples per year. And crabs, of course.  And strawberries were reliable, and delicious too.

My dad is still in zone 3, but Ontario - he hasnt had any success at all with the modern U Sask sweet sour cherry bushes or, sadly, saskatoons, which i planted 2-3 times before giving up.  He has managed to grow grapes - i think i planted Valiant, and he gets an occasional large bumper harvest from them. I suspect if he pruned them, more would ripen! Balsor's hardy blackberry died (possibly due to where he planted it!). Haskaps have grown well for me in Zone 4 Ontario, and i suspect would also do well in Zone 3. Things tend to die as much from baking in drought and shallow soil over bedrock, as winter kill, though.

I think living in Zone 3 really teaches you to treasure fruit, even tart fruit. I still enjoy chewing raw rhubarb, currants straight from the bush, and prefer sour cherries to sweet cherries.

Still, i am enjoying my move to zone 6!

Edit : oh! And i really enjoyed our wild Canada plum on good years. Some years the fruit was really tart and dry, but on good years, it was fantastic and a punch of flavour.

The ground has barely thawed yet this year, and already, i've made mistakes in the garden.

But, well, i'm not a social media star, so mistakes are a normal part of my life!

For the sake of keeping us all humble (and because laughter as the best medicine)) please share what mistakes you've made, or unexpected failures you've experienced while gardening this year.

I'll start.

1. I had mice in my basement,  who developed a love of microgreens (my baby seedlings)
2. I left the covers on the trays long past germination to protect them from mice... and more than half of my baby plants rotted, succumbed to fungus, or were eaten by mice. Including a lot of my very expensive perennial seeds.
3. I left my heat mat on long after germination for my asparagus seedlings, and fried even more baby plants.

And...
5. I barerooted and transplanted 4 apple trees... and realized i need to move them all 1-2 ft over, to actually be able to mow around them !!! Ugh! More digging!

What's gone wrong for you so far this year?

I've heard of success with silicone patches, even for old scars.

What a great idea. I have a wood insert, rather than a freestanding stove, and one of my main gripes has been that i can't cook on it.

Maybe a few firebricks would work as a temporary stand for those of us who don't weld...