February 24, 2013

Not much to report on the garden front, but I did chat with a neighbor who specializes in agricultural irrigation (and who helped me when I needed to install a new pump and holding tank for my well), so I have a game plan now.  He suggested a fairly straightforward plumbing system from the water supply at my tack room to the area I want to use for my garden, but I think I am going to just go with a long hose for now, until I know if this area is going to work.  Maybe next spring, if I have success, I'll invest the time and money into digging a trench for plumbing out there.   I really wanted to integrate my old 1500 gallon holding tank to rig up a rain-catchment system, but I was shot down on that one.  (I may still try it with a smaller container, though.) 

Now, I just need to find someone to help me build that perimeter fence!!

It is annoyingly spring-like today (as you can tell from the picture).  Makes my fingers itch....

February 21, 2013

Yet another contestant makes an appearance in the blood orange race.  :)  This is also a seed that was nicked.  So far, the only pot that remains unproductive is the one with pre-chilled seeds.  However, even though the rest of the pots all have baby blood oranges in them, in each, only one seed (out of three) germinated.  I think their reputation of being poor starters is well-earned!

Meanwhile, the front runner continues to grow nicely.

February 19, 2013

My little strawberry plants seem to be very happy in their new container.  There are fresh blossoms all over, and I am hoping to get some fresh runners this year, to eventually plant outside.

And I transplanted (for a second time) that little parsley plant that was sharing a pot with the extremely tardy onion seed that decided to grow only after I used its pot to transplant the parsley the first time!

It seems to be doing well in its new home.  :)

February 16, 2013

 

Coming in a very distant second place, and tied for it, are the blood orange seeds that I soaked, then nicked, and the blood orange seeds that I planted straight from the fruit, without soaking.  (I should mention that ALL the seeds I used in this experiment had been left out to dry for a few days before I started planting.)

And as I typically do, I did not give the onion seeds a long enough time to sprout before I gave up on them and transplanted a parsley seedling into what I thought was a container of non-viable onion seeds.  Looks like I'll be doing some more transplanting in the very near future!

February 9, 2013

The first of the blood oranges germinated!!  I found them yesterday, when I checked all the containers, but it looks like they came up a day or two before that.  The winner (and so far only ones to even place) in the experiment were the seeds that were simply soaked for half an hour, then planted in seed-starting mix.  The rest of the seeds have yet to make an appearance.

These two little plants came from one seed.  I have read that it is not uncommon for two or three plants to emerge from one seed.  I will have to research to see if I am supposed to terminate one of the plants.

While checking these little guys, I saw another seed (not visible in this picture) also starting to push its way out of the mix, so I would say the soaked, not-chilled, not-nicked, seeds are definitely the way to go for future plantings!

February 4, 2013

The strawberries are replanted!  They were pretty root-bound, poor things, but I am hoping they will stretch out a bit and send out some runners this spring. 

February 3, 2013

It has been a busy weekend in the garden!

Since it is the beginning of the month, I thought I would do a quick summary of what is going on right now.

This is the third or fourth generation of wild dill that has come up near my fish pond.  The original parent plant was part of a "beneficial insect forage" packet of seeds that I tossed up there.  Not sure if the insects are appreciating the dill, but I do!  :)  I am always thrilled to see the new babies come up, and I was not disappointed this year.

This is interesting to me.  I plant garlic a couple of times a year, and this is the first time it has come up like this.  Each of these green bunches came from a single clove, planted about four months ago.  I am letting them mature, to see what I get.

The feathery clumps behind the garlic are my asparagus.

Here is a detail shot of the asparagus.  This is a three-year old bed, and I think I might just be able to harvest a few stalks this year!

My "wild" blackberry bush is still hanging on.  It looks dead, I know, but it still has a little green to it, and I am confident it will spring back to life in a few months.  I am just as confident that I will not enjoy many (if any) of its berries, as the squirrels and birds plot against me every year and steal every last one.

This is an experiment from last year.  This little thing is a pomegranate shrub.  I kept it in a container for YEARS, and for years, it always produced lots of blossoms, but only meager fruit, small and hard, and with immature seeds.

I decided, last fall, when the tree went dormant, to try planting it out in the ground, where it can spread its roots.  It was very root-bound when I took it out of its pot.  This previous summer, it grew a lot of leaves, but no fruit.  I am hoping it was just stretching a bit in preparation for giving me a bumper crop THIS summer, but we'll see.  It currently has a number of small, closed, buds, so it is alive and waiting for the weather to warm up.

The herb garden (which is really just a rosemary garden, since the rest of the plants are not herbs, but more for decoration) is still going strong.  I have to hack the rosemary back every year, just to keep it from taking over.  I keep thinking I will add a few more herbs to the bed, but I just never get around to it.

I DO love going out there and cutting fresh sprigs of rosemary whenever I need them!

I repotted my one-year old cherry tree on Saturday.  I should plant it, but I haven't decided yet where I want to put it, and it was starting to come out of dormancy, so I put it in a larger pot, hoping that the tree will hang in there for me until I can make a decision about its new permanent home.

Part of my reluctance to plant it is because I really need to get up on the hill and completely revamp the drip system up there.  I keep patching it, and it keeps holding together, but I would like to set up a more organized layout.  Also, many of the trees currently on the lines don't need supplemental watering any more.

I also started a new compost bin this year.  I now have two bins, a small one in the back of the house and this one in the smaller, fenced-in, garden.

Indoors, I planted some carrots this weekend.  This is another experiment, to see if I can grow them year-round inside.

The container is a plastic water jug.  I like using these to start plants, because if you cut them correctly, they act as mini-greenhouse, they can support deep-rooted plants, and they allow you to water from below the plant.

I will take some pics when I "make" the next one, to show you how cool they can be.  Downside:  they only last one year.  They get old and brittle and have to be thrown out.  But I go through a lot of bottled water (my well water is drinkable but full of minerals and tends to destroy anything it sits in, so I use bottled water in the coffee pot, iron, etc.



 

What better container to use to grow mesclun mix, right?  :)  The bunnies happily finished off their box o' salad at just the right time for me to use it as a planter for a batch of lettuce.  This also an experiment, as I've never tried growing lettuce inside before (and don't have much luck with it when I grow it outside).

The seedlings planted in late January were big enough to transplant, so now, instead of two containers of pac choi, I have six.  :)

(Oh, and btw, the parsley sprouted, so the only "dud" appears to be the onion seeds.  I haven't given up on them, though!)

And, instead of one container of basil, I have four! (Yes, you only see three here.  The fourth is still in its original pot.)

My spearmint plant, harvested from a little patch that grows in a boggy area near my birdbath outside, was not doing very well.  I pulled it out of its container (see previous blog) and found out the poor thing was completely waterlogged!  I had mistakenly thought that it was using water at the same rate as my peppermint (which has drainage), and watered it accordingly.  It was so full of water, the water actually poured off the top of the container!

I transplanted it into this container (that has drainage holes), and I am hoping the plant will forgive me and bounce back.  (This picture was taken 24 hours after planting, and the spearmint looks pretty perky, so I am optimistic.)

I also trimmed up the peppermint.  The trimmings are sitting in a jar of water right now, and will be planted after they root.

Remember those sad little miniature roses?  I finally got around to repotting those.  They look very cute in this planter.  I am looking forward to seeing them bloom this summer.

Out on the deck, my "baby" (aka my bay leaf tree) is doing great.  It has been with me for years now and has survived flood and drought and being covered in snow.  I pick a few leaves now and then, to add to my dried bay leaf inventory, but mostly leave it alone.

I love my bay leaf tree.  :)

Also on the deck, my English thyme and Greek oregano (pretty darn multicultural out there) survived the winter and are starting to look a little happier, now that the sun is coming out occasionally.   These little guys are both in Earthboxes on the deck.  Their planter-mates didn't make it, so I will be on the lookout for other perennial herbs to add to the deck this spring.

Last on the list for today - this is a healthy and happy watercress plant, planted from a sprig of watercress peeled off of a bunch of watercress purchased at the grocery store.  I love starting plants from plants I have to purchase.  :)  I have done the same with lemon grass in the past.








I am sure I have forgotten a few plants, and I didn't take pictures of all the dormant fruit trees, because there wasn't much to see.  So I will leave you with this last picture, for now, showing my citrus bank of lemons, oranges, and grapefruit, living side by side in organic harmony.

January 31, 2013

Of the seeds planted, only the parsley and onion have yet to come up.  This weekend's project will be to see if I can transplant some of the extra pac choi into their own containers.

The chives have not made a great showing yet, considering how many seeds I sprinkled in there, but the basil is doing better than expected.  (I always have trouble getting basil to sprout.)




Among my other weekend projects:

Repotting the "on sale because they are barely alive" miniature roses I got from K-Mart.  Happily, after about a week in my "magic window" (my term for my kitchen garden window, since it seems to make anything grow, which is good compensation for my slightly less than green thumb), there are signs of life from all three plants, so it is time to get them into bigger pots!

I am still trying to figure out what to do with these two-year-old strawberry plants.  They were also an almost-dead-so-they-are-cheap purchase, bought at the end of the season last year, and they've done really well in the window.  (I have even been able to harvest a strawberry or two over the winter!)  I am pretty sure they need to go into bigger pots or need to go outside, maybe under a cold frame.  If weather permits this weekend, I'll explore the outdoor option.  Otherwise, I may just have to repot them into a larger indoor container for the time being.  I am hoping these three little plants will be the beginning of a strawberry bed, as all three are the "runner" variety.  I also have a tiny little bed of alpine strawberries at the back of the house.  Those spread by seed, so it has not grown as quickly as I would like, but the berries are so wonderful, I am willing to be patient with it!

The peppermint seriously needs trimming, and I'll probably root the trimmings, pot them up, then Freecycle them.

The spearmint I salvaged from outside isn't doing much, so I need to take a good look at it and consider repotting it as well, if it needs more room.  It bounced back from the dead, but considering that it is a mint, I expected it to have taken over my window by now.  :)

 And now you know what I'll be doing all weekend!  :)