Cèilidh Nam Freumhan

Category: Garden & Seasonal Living

More Garden Mishaps

I had to leave town for a couple of days, and when I got home, I was greeted by an overgrown nightmare. Okay, maybe “nightmare” is too strong, but the green carpet across the whole area made it incredibly difficult to find the things I actually planted.

Over the past three days, I’ve spent eight or nine hours trying to catch up. I’m finally starting to see a modicum of progress, but overall, it’s been pretty discouraging.

I lost a whole row of herbs because they were planted too close to a quince bush that I cannot get rid of no matter how hard I try. I lost several more herbs for unknown reasons, too. One of them grew perfectly fine last year, but not this year.

I also found an insect that immediately triggered the “OMG what the heck is that???” response.

The bunching onions and chives never sprouted, either.

After about 90 minutes of work, I finally started to feel like I could at least see the garden again.

Two hours later, I was still pulling weeds and trying to identify what was actually growing versus what had invited itself into the beds.

At around the five-hour mark, things finally started looking a little more manageable, and I could focus less on panic-weeding and more on checking on the vegetables that were actually doing well.

Okay, now for the better news: my tomato plants are doing well. I have a lot of carrots, lettuce, arugula, and an absurd amount of dill and cilantro.

After all of that work, I finally harvested my very first thing of the season: one single radish. 😀

I know that in a week or two I’ll probably feel much better about all of this, but right now I mostly feel discouraged and overwhelmed. I guess the “silver lining” is that I also just lost my job, so now I get to spend a lot more time out there…

May 28, 2026
Some garden success! And a bit of…reevaluation…

I spent five hours on 5/9/2026 weeding and somehow still feel like I barely made a dent. Still, I was able to confirm growth from several more plants, even if others continue to elude me.

Vegetables I can identify so far: six carrots (not too concerning, since carrots can be reseeded every couple of weeks through July), sixteen potential heads of lettuce, six or seven heads of Swiss chard, four or five heads of arugula, and two corn stalks. I planted two rows of corn earlier than usual because the soil temperature was finally warm enough…or so I thought.

Herbs I can identify: lots of dill, oregano, borage, lovage, lemon balm, and marsh mallow. Oh, and of course the mint I planted in the strawberry pot — the same mint I apparently dig up every single time I weed. -_-

About a week ago, I transferred my Japanese Trifele Black tomatoes into larger pots, and by today they already looked strong enough to plant outside. I planted five of those, along with five Brandywine tomatoes that skipped the intermediate pot stage entirely. I decided not to transplant the Cuore di Bue yet because they still don’t quite have true leaves. Those will probably be ready in another couple of weeks.

Finally, I was also able to transplant the mini bell peppers and the cayenne peppers. Huzzah!

Not everything is going smoothly, though. My zucchini and cucumber starts — which I bought to replace the pickling cucumbers that died — are already struggling with powdery mildew. Since I don’t have a drip irrigation system, these plants need extra attention to keep moisture off the leaves.

One common treatment is mixing 1 tablespoon of baking soda with 1 gallon of water. I applied it with a watering can, although apparently spraying it directly onto the leaves would have worked better.

I also used a vegan disease and bug repellent on the greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini. The Swiss chard already has a few holes in the leaves, and I know from previous years that stink bugs absolutely love my squash plants. Turning over a squash leaf and discovering hundreds of stink bugs underneath is not an experience I care to repeat. No thanks.

One leaf on the right, one on the left with powdery mildew.

Total of 10 tomato plants in.

May 15, 2026
Latest Weekend of Begging the Earth to Provide Me Its Bounty

I am at a point where I can verify that food is actually growing.

There are still a lot of seedlings, though, and many of them look alike, so I have to be careful about what I pull out when weeding.

My cucumber starts died, so I bought four new starts and planted those. The pole beans haven’t germinated yet, so I reseeded in the hopes of getting more than two beans this year.

The two middle cages are the new cucumber starts.

I transferred my tomatillo starts to bigger containers. They were really leggy in the smaller ones and pretty floppy, so I’m not convinced these will thrive either. RIP tomatillos.

Pepper transfers went well. I expect to plant those next week. After that, I’ll transfer my tomato starts to larger containers and start hardening them off outside.

So far, I’ve been able to identify: carrots, lettuce, arugula, Swiss chard, chervil, dill, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cilantro, clary sage, and lemon balm.

Voila! Chervil.

To delineate the beds, I used a hoe to make sections. Then I realized that hoeing is actually the best way to get rid of weeds—if you don’t have to worry about destroying your hard-earned seedlings.

The problem is that I can’t really hoe anything but the beds, because then I won’t know where the beds start and end anymore.

One of the things I’m fighting is a clover cover crop (which I definitely didn’t plant), but I actually like it in between the beds. I think it looks cool. So I decided to just take out the bigger weeds in between the beds and let the clover stay.

Closeup of the clover with big weeds I haven’t taken out yet.

May 10, 2026
My Garden System is Getting More Sophisticated (What’s Working)
The garden overview photo was taken as I began this three-hour tour.

On the left side is a cover crop of clover that I definitely did not plant. That is supposed to be a row of greens, but unfortunately nothing has grown enough for me to distinguish between actual food and the three-leaf version of a leprechaun’s dream.

Why Everything Is Numbered

I have a tendency not to plan things out, which becomes problematic when trying to grow food and medicinal herbs.

So everything is divided into numbered beds. What you don’t see is why they were placed where they were.

The bottom half is all herbs:
- #1 loves water
- #2 likes a moderate amount
- #3 prefers it drier, grows taller, and would otherwise shade the others
The rest is organized by nutrition, water needs, and companion planting.

My Planting Spreadsheet

This spreadsheet tracks:
- frost dates
- indoor starts
- transfer dates
- direct sow timing
I had to start marking completed tasks with little stars because apparently I cannot be trusted to remember what I already did.

Eventually I’ll rewrite it in fountain pen like the rest of the commonplace book, but growing actual food takes priority.

The Commonplace Book

This idea sprouted (yes, I did that intentionally) from a terrible mistake last year: I didn’t know what any of the herbs looked like beyond the seed packet photos.

So I started drawing the herbs and writing what they’re useful for.

I’m doing something similar with vegetables, but without pictures. If I can’t recognize a tomato by now, I clearly have other issues that need immediate attention.

Also, I’m not sure why I decided to write my capital A’s like that. I appear to be passing notes in 7th grade English.

Starts Actually Worked This Year

Last year my starts failed because I made too many mistakes to recover from and ended up buying starts.

This year they germinated.

I’d like that entered into the record.

Improved Trellises

I still haven’t built proper trellises because I refused to ruin my cozy “don’t leave the house” weekend by going to the home improvement store.

Instead:
- I flipped two tomato cages upside down and secured them to fence posts for cucumbers
- I used another tomato cage for pole beans, buried to the first ring
Elegant? No.

Functional? We’ll find out.

Bonus Content

This photo is similar to the previous one, but I believe everyone deserves to see my good boy.
April 25, 2026
A Weekend of Making Things (Bookbinding and Crafts)

Some weekends are for errands. Some are for recovery.

This one feels like a weekend for making things.

I’ll be in the garden, watching baseball, and practicing bookbinding with simple materials.

Nothing glamorous—just the satisfying work of learning by doing.

I ordered cardstock that should arrive tomorrow, and I plan to try Coptic binding for the first time. With luck, I’ll end the weekend with a notebook worthy of gifting to a friend. Realistically, it may take a few attempts—but who’s counting?

I chose black cardstock along with a few shades of gray. Even if the work is simple, it suits my minimalist nature.

There is plenty of gardening to do as well, assuming the weather cooperates. Some starts may be ready for larger containers, which feels like a small victory after I had to replant several when my cat decided to have a snack.

Weeding is inevitable. So far, nothing I direct-sowed has germinated enough to distinguish itself confidently from the weeds.

Baseball is inevitable too.

If I can’t watch, I’ll listen while working outside. If I can watch, I can bind books at the same time. Either way, the game will be part of the weekend rhythm.

And after baseball?

Obviously, one turns to a Doctor Who binge.

April 23, 2026
I Thought This Was a Highland Blog (What I’m Actually Building)

Sometimes we begin with one interest and discover it was really a doorway.

When I first created this site, I imagined it as a place to explore Highland culture, heritage, and plant-based recipes inspired by Scotland. That still matters to me. But over time, curiosity has a way of wandering.

The deeper I looked into roots and tradition, the more I found myself drawn to gardens, language study, handmade books, seasonal rhythms, and the quiet satisfaction of learning for its own sake.

So perhaps this was never only a Highland blog.

Perhaps it was always meant to be a place for roots, research, and everyday beauty.

Since beginning this endeavor, I’ve branched into many interests that may not seem connected at first glance—but I love finding the threads between them.

Right now, I’m exploring gardening, canning, Torah study, language learning, baseball stat apps, planners and journals, designing my own planner, and crafting useful paper goods such as reusable notebook covers and hand-bound notebooks. I also enjoy finding creative ways to use what I already own.

Future projects include learning to knit and experimenting with making fountain pen ink.

As a neurodivergent person, I’m proud of learning how to nurture many interests at once rather than feeling pressured to choose only one.

I hope you’ll keep reading and join me in learning along the way.

April 23, 2026