March 24, 2013

This is from the other day, when the tree was still standing, but I thought you'd appreciate seeing how BIG that sucker was!!  That is the poor tree-trimming guy dangling from its branches.

I decided to put a row cover over the tomatoes.

This is the paint I chose for the tomato cage.  LOVE the colour, except....

...it doesn't cover the print on the PVC pipe.  I think I'm going to have to start with a flat white, then go over it with a second coat of the gloss yellow.

March 23, 2013

Notice something missing between the above photo and this one?  If you guessed that huge grey pine in the middle of the picture, you guessed right!!

I had a tree service come in yesterday, but I wasn't able to see the finished product until this morning, since I got home after dark.

Normally, I wouldn't take down a healthy tree, but this one had a number of things working against it.  It shaded my garden almost ALL day and dropped huge, pointy, pitchy, pine cones from about sixty feet high.   When you weren't in fear for your life of being hit on the head by one, you were accidentally stepping on them and twisting your ankle.  Finally, it blocked my view of the pasture and upper gate. 

Here are the mortal remains of the grey pine.  They will also go in the garden, between the raised beds, to slowly return their nutrients back into the soil.

(Did you notice that most of my pictures get photo-bombed by dogs?)





And here's the starting line up....

 Red chili pepper

 Lemon cucumber

 Tomato (Cherokee Purple Heirloom)

 Tomato (Rutgers Heirloom)

 Zucchini

 Cantaloupe

 Last year's crop still doing well:  rhubarb and garlic

March 21, 2013

Did I mention that I decide to plant a grapefruit seed?  I have a grapefruit tree, and on a whim, stuck a seed in some soil to see what would happen.

Can you see it, peeking out?  :)

Okay, I admit it.  I should never EVER visit any garden center this time of year.  I stopped off at K-Mart, thinking I would just browse their seeds, and I came home with these.  I'm not even sure what I bought, except I know that I tried to buy heirloom plants.  I know I bought stocks, two tomatoes, onion chives, and something called "grapefruit mint."  (I have a thing for weird mint.)  I'll have to check the other plants tomorrow to give you a full inventory.  :)  I'm pretty sure there is a zucchini in there as well as a red chile.

I also picked up some heirloom (when I could find them) seeds for beets, radishes, kale, broccoli, summer squash and butternut squash.

March 20, 2013

It is the first day of spring!!  Of course I had to post SOMETHING today!

Here it is:

 

Are you impressed?

The pot on the left is my "dead" Christmas poinsettia.  I left it at the office when I had to go to training in Huntsville for two weeks.  No one watered it, and it sat under a vent that blew hot air on it all day.  I came home to a twig.    But I don't give up very easily, and apparently, neither did my poinsettia.  A little love, a little water, and lots of sunshine, and voila!!  It's a Christmas miracle.  :)

(BTW, the long green thing hanging down behind the poinsettia is my watercress.   I bought a bunch at the store and decided to root one of the stalks.)

The other pot of dirt is my first attempt, today, at planting turmeric.  I had a tuber from the grocery store, and I thought, hey, why not.  So we'll see....  I have a habit of buying things from the store and promptly burying them, I guess.

Happy Spring to everyone!!

March 19, 2013

Just in time for the start of spring, I am building my first permanent tomato cage.  This is the basic frame.  I still need to glue and paint it. 

It is basically 30 two-foot pieces of 3/4" PVC and 52 pieces of one-foot pieces of 3/4" PVC held together by connectors and glue.   I will try to diagram it out, for anyone who wants to give it a try, and have the diagram by the time I finish the first frame.

Bought with new materials, this frame ran me a little under $44.  If you could get the PVC as scrap, especially the connectors, you could make it for a lot less.

March 17, 2013

My half-dead, bought-on-sale, miniature roses are making a comeback!  When I bought them, they were barely alive.  It has been an uphill battle, as they were root-bound and dried out.  I repotted them, after which they were immediately attacked by spider mites!!  Much spraying of water and smashing of mite bodies later, I got this lovely flower to thank me for not giving up. 

One problem with re-using soil is that you occasionally get hitchhikers along for the ride.  I have no idea what this little guy is, although, if I had to guess, I'd say it is likely a germinated black oil sunflower seed.  The squirrels like to snitch the seeds out of the chickens' feed and bury them in the garden.  I'm going to let it go for now, since I am hoping to harvest the resident pac choi before the seedling needs much more room.

March 14, 2013

Happy National Pi Day!!

I haven't updated for a while, so I thought I'd let you see how everything is going.

First, the flops....

One of the pac choi bolted, even though I moved it into a larger container, and the others that I moved are fine.  I think it was either:  a) an under-watering error; b) not transplanting it soon enough (roots were pretty tight); or c) a combination thereof.  I tossed the plant into the compost pile, so it can someday benefit others through its sacrifice.

Here are the plants that still appear to be thriving:

Next flop:  the carrots.  I believe the problem is the soil - it is just too heavy.  I did some reading on how to successfully grow carrots in a container, and the recommendation seems to be to grow the carrots in a mix of peat and vermiculite.  Not sure whether I'll do that or just settle for gnarly carrots in garden soil.  Carrots are, to me, a high-impact veggie - lots of work for not a lot of produce (compared to, say, a tomato or cucumber bush).

The mesclun mix is doing well, but I think, realistically, the container is too small to contain more than two or three plants, so not really very practical for growing my salads in the future.

I have a book that talks about setting up "tube" gardens for lettuce, using PVC pipe suspended from rafters, and I am ruminating on how I might accomplish that.

New adoption from a friend's yard.  These are all cuttings from existing plants.  More on these later, if they make it.  :)

And look at my baby blood orange now!!!  This is one of five plants that I now have growing.  I am hoping to plant it out on my south-facing slope this spring, put it on a drip, then patiently wait four to eight years to harvest fruit from it.  ;

The basil plants did well and transplanted with no ill effects, so I have quite a few of these around as well.  :)













And this is not a new plant, but it is my first successful transplanting of a segment of my very old Christmas cactus.  Typically, branches fall off, and I've always tried to root them using fancy hormones or seed-starting mixes.  Then, one day last year, I didn't have time to do that, so I just tossed the dried-out little thing in a jar of water..and...it ROOTED!!  :)  I potted it after it had a decent number of roots, and it is growing!!

March 1, 2013

The nursery pots arrived!!  Yes, I get excited over small things.  :)  I got these from Flora Hydroponics, via Amazon.

These are 1-gallon pots, so I can transplant some of my seedlings into them, while waiting for the weather to warm up.  I might try using these as permanent pots for the pac choi, since I want to use them when they are still small.  But for the rest of my plants, this will be a temporary way station, on their way to the great outdoors.