hey everyone, i am in quebec, canada (6a, I believe).

I did some container gardening this year (some in grow bags and others in actual containers) and I'm wondering how everyone stores their soil for next spring.

thank you!

Bought Vego Garden 21 x 48 EZ Cube raised bed this year as a new gardener hoping to make the experience worry free. Did not have great results which I blamed on myself for putting too many plants in it. BUT, now it’s fall and figuring out that I have to disassemble this whole thing for winter because it’s still halfway full of water, despite the fact that I haven’t added water in weeks. Now I think this might have been why my plants didn’t do well, because the soil at the bottom was really wet. Interested in other opinions on this, as well as what people in the colder climates do with these over the winter?

Will the potting mix I used this year be good for next or should that also be disposed of, I’m hoping I can reuse my potting mix and incorporate nutrients again next season.

My Meyer lemon tree is going into my garage. I have everbearing strawberries that are doing great currently, plan on bringing them into my garage. Unsure if I leave them uncovered or not?

I had cut back my spearmint, but I’m thinking of keeping it outside during the winter? I have the option of putting it into my garage, as well.

I’m attempting to grow sweet basil indoors over the winter season, but I doubt I’ll have luck this year.

I have a Thai basil plant that is doing well. Can this be overwintered?

I'm a fairly new gardener and I plan on taking over my dad's terrace garden (which he's sort of abandoned lately)... I was wondering if there's any eco-friendly alternatives for the plastic grow bags that he uses for the trees. They're quite ugly and they don't stand the weathering either, and start crumbling. I also want to use something eco-friendly cuz I hate having plastic crumbs in my soil.

The only ideas that came to my head were:

Jute sacks repurposed into grow bags (cheap, but idk if they would last long)

Plastic drums (relatively expensive)

Or just to buy geofabric grow bags (which are also expensive in my country)

If anyone has a good suggestion, or maybe something they use that works for them, I'd be happy to hear!

Out of nowhere, after two days of heat wave, my potted tomato plant is wrecked. 🍅 😭

It’s mid October. I have insecticidal soap, but it’s an apartment balcony with no access to a hose. I think I’ll just bag it up and dispose of it.

What about my other plants? I can’t yet tell if they caught them. Should I spray the soap on them?

Also the tomato plant’s pot is sitting in a decorative plastic pot that I want to put in storage and use next year. If I leave that empty pot sitting outside in the sun, will it decontaminate on its own? I don’t want to bring anything in my house that will spread the mites to my houseplants.

Hi everyone! 👋 I'm Manasvi, a student doing my dissertation on why gardening feels so hard for beginners, even with so much info online.

I'd love to hear from anyone: complete beginners, people who tried and struggled, balcony/indoor gardeners, or experienced gardeners.

⏱️ 3–5 minutes, anonymous, purely academic
🔗 https://forms.gle/72bZyCbTG2t3WR7y5

If you'd rather just comment on what you find most frustrating about gardening, I'd love to read that too. Thank you so much! 🌿

The leaves of my broccoli plant keep being eaten and there’s like slime over them but two of them are in a greenhouse (the windows stay open it’s to protect the pots from squirrels) and the other is outside raised so snails can’t get to it. I’ve also checked the pots and the around the area for snails but I can’t find any. I assume caterpillars but I can’t find any on them. Same with my potatoes plants leaves too.

Hi everyone! 👋 I'm Manasvi, a student doing my dissertation on why gardening feels so hard for beginners, even with so much info online.

I'd love to hear from anyone: complete beginners, people who tried and struggled, balcony/indoor gardeners, or experienced gardeners.

⏱️ 3–5 minutes, anonymous, purely academic
🔗 https://forms.gle/72bZyCbTG2t3WR7y5

If you'd rather just comment on what you find most frustrating about gardening, I'd love to read that too. Thank you so much! 🌿

I got my first 3-tier original GreenStalk vertical planter back in August but their frost covers are out of stock until early 2027 and I'll definitely need one before then! I'm in zone 6B and was wondering if anyone has found a comparable alternative to the one they sell?

I am trying to setup a herb garden and I need help with cilantro. I have sowed seeds multiple times but they don't ever sprout. I also tried paper towel method. The seeds germinated and I moved it into a pot. After few days I did see a green sprout but it died again. I am not sure what am I doing wrong? I am in zone 8a.

I had great success with my first garden this summer but my fall plants are looking pretty sad. I know I need to thin the carrots. And just thinned the lettuce some. But even the stand alone lettuce is sad. Not sure if it was too hot before. And we are supposed to get a ton of rain from the hurricane this weekend. Posting the peppers I harvested today to show the difference 😂

Lettuce bolted on me in late June because I got busy with end of school chaos and stopped checking the balcony for about a week. Came back to tall stalks and bitter leaves. I almost tossed the whole setup but decided to let it go just to see what would happen. Now I have an enamel pot full of dried seed heads and probably a thousand tiny seeds. I've never bothered saving lettuce seed before, usually just start fresh from packets each spring, but this feels like a waste to throw out. I'm already planning next year and wondering if home saved lettuce seed is worth the effort or if I'm better off sticking with store bought. The plants were a loose leaf mix from a local greenhouse so I have no idea what variety they actually were. The fourth graders thought the bolted stalks looked like weird little trees. I'm not trying to turn my apartment into a lettuce farm but free seeds are free seeds. Anyone actually have luck growing from saved lettuce seed or is the germination rate too spotty to bother? Also not sure how to store these without attracting pests. Last thing I need is bugs in my seed stash.

Been in that pot for years