[2026-05-30] Small update

Quick update on the current situation.
I've been monitoring the situation regarding the rat infestation in my garden.
About three weeks ago I took the time to clean up the garden a bit and tried to remove most of the common hiding spots. This seemed to work and their highway they were using disappeared.

A couple days after the cleanup I have seen way less sightings in daylight. However the problem sadly is not gone yet, so no veggie planting...

For documentation purposes I also bought a wildlife camera and set it up at a spot with good coverage of my terrace and garden. It records about three to six sightings per day, but it seems like it's mostly the same couple two to three different rats based on size and color/fur pattern.

[2026-04-25] Bad news :(

Hi all! I really hoped I didn't have to write this update...
Taking care of my garden is my passion project and I really enjoy being creative with it. Not always do things go to plan but that's just part of it and I'm 100% ok with that. However sometimes there are just outside factors you can't control.
Since last winter season the whole neighborhood is struggling with a rather large rat infestation. It got steadily worse and my garden was most of the time a major highway for them. At first I only saw a couple of them per week, now it's more like 20 a day. That is in broad daylight so we can assume the population being quite big. They also climb up in my raised bed and planters scraping the soil for some food.

I wouldn't say I'm super scared of rats like some people, neither do I hate them or want them any bad.
However this situation can still be a health hazard so I'm treating it with caution. If the situation does not improve I'll won't be able to grow veggies this year :(

The property management of our complex is apparently taking some measures to get the situation under control.
Out of desperation I also installed a couple devices that give off hypersonic noise to supposedly scare them away without harming them. To my suprise it actually kinda worked for around 1-2 weeks but as we know rats get used to stuff like this super fast so they returned.

I still have some tiny hope left I'll be able to grow things this year since the outdoor gardening season is still about three weeks away from the last frost. But realistically I'm already prepared not to be able to cultivate stuff because of risk of contamination.

I'll keep you updated!

[2026-02-24] Small update

Today I'm gonna share a small update with you.
I'm mostly satisfied with all my seedlings so far. The peppers are growing faster than expected, all the brassica are either sprouting or already growing, basil sprouted and my new order of seeds arrived! The only plant I'm not really satisfied with is the spinach. I know that the germination rate of them are quite low so I already used multiple seeds per plant hole but still only one plant germinated.

^Peppers

^Brassica

Potatoes

Besides seeds I also ordered lots of different varieties of potatoes for planting. 5 varieties in total.
I currently let them sprout in a cool and bright place.

Chayote

An experiment I really look forward is cultivating a chayote. It's quite unknown to the western world. It's part of the cucurbit family and originally from south america but people grow it all over the world, especially in south east asia and as well as in parts of africa.

My partner's parents gave me a couple. I saved one and sprouted it in a cup of water similar like you sprout an avocado pit. Except you dip the underside of the whole fruit in water, not only the pit.
A couple of days ago I transplanted it into a pot. It grows like crazy and there's at least one new leaf per day! Not sure how I'll handle it since I need to keep it inside until mid of May when there is no more possibility of frost.

^{Potted chayote}

[2026-02-07] So it begins

The gardening season has started, I've sown the first seeds!
The season slowly starts and with that I started raising seedlings inside to get a head start. In late January I began planting my pepper and chilli seeds as well as some onions.

Capsicum & Nightshades

For my peppers I chose Lady Lou as the variety. I've cultivated them last season and was super happy with the taste. However the growth wasn't the best and the fruits developed only very late in the season. So we'll see how they'll grow this year. Maybe last year was just too rainy...
I still have some ordering backlog where I chose an additional variety called Palila. I plan on filling them with cottage cheese and pickling them.

As for my chilies I planted some spare seeds from the Prairie Fire but they did not sprout yet. These are small Thai chillies and super hot with around 70,000 - 80,000 Scoville. The taste is very sweet and a bit earthy thus perfect for sprinkling in some currys.
I also dried them. This took some hotness out of them while preserving some of the flavor. I still have some I occaisonally use for adding some sweet spicyness to my dishes.

Another capsicum I want to grow are typical italian pepperoncinis. Two of the three planted seeds already sprouted and I'm quite curious how the plants will turn out. Hopefully the yield will be enough for me to pickle them and use e.g. on pizza.

^{Pepper and chillies}

For the first time I'm also trying to grow some aubergines. I've read they need tons of sun for a good yield so let's see if I can find a fitting spot in my super small garden.

^Aubergines

Onions

Another plant family I already started was the onions. In my experience the seedlings take forever to sprout and grow so I'm trying to start earlier this year.
I've sown lots of green onion seeds into one container to transfer them at a later stage into pots or a raised bed.
Normal onions I planted into trays.
The green onions haven't sprouted at all even though I planted them around three weeks ago. Some of the other onions are slowly growing but at a very irregular rate.

^{Irregularly sprouting onions}