Spring Seed Starting

I usually start my spring seeds around the 1st of the year: new year = start yo' seeds, especially the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.  This is my second year using my seed starter set up - a shop light, 2 little Jiffy starter trays, and my textbooks (finally putting that Organic Chemistry book to good use). I also went through ALL my seeds, and boy were there a lot of them, selecting the oldest for use first. 

I'm a weirdo and will usually try to start my seeds in conjunction with a recommended day based on the Farmer's Almanacs.  Bob once told me the general rule of thumb for seed starting, but I don't remember what it is (it's probably something like between the first quarter moon and the full moon is the time to plant above-ground crops, and below ground from the full moon to the 3rd quarter moon and any seeds that need light to sprout should be planted on the full moon).

Seeds started:
Black Krim Tomato (from 2011)
Italian Roma Tomato (from 2011)
Long Red Cayenne Pepper (from 2009)
Red Demon Thai Pepper (from 2011)
Cossack Pineapple Ground Cherry (from 2012)
Custom Blend Basil (from 2010)
Pasilla Bajio Pepper (from 2016)
"Green Leaves" Renee's Black Jalapeno (from 2012)
California Poppy (from 2012 or so)
Elaine's Fennel (from 2010 or so)

As you can tell, I did start ONE seed that is new to me - the Pasilla Bajio Pepper which I found on clearance right before Christmas. 

It's been 10 days, and so far the tomatoes, basil, and Cali poppies have sprouted; the ground cherry, cayenne, red demon, and fennel are just starting to sprout.  The jalapeno and pasilla are doing absolutely nothing.

Starting My Own Seeds

For Christmas, my sister got me a seed delivery service. Basically they send me 5 seed packs every month.  And I have access to a website which provides tips and tricks and what have you.  Supposedly the seeds are sent at the time when you're supposed to plant them, but I question it since they sent some summer direct-sow seeds in the winter and some winter seeds this month, but whatever - they'll keep in the fridge until the right season.

First, I had to go buy myself some little seed starter setups - I could have probably used 4" pots, but I could get more variety by using the little Jiffy Pellets.  Be sure to somehow label your seeds you start so you don't go all forgetting what you planted.

See packets from Grow Journey, Jiffy Pellets, a Sharpie for writing, and Masking Tape for Labelling.

After getting my little seeds planted, I finally went and got myself the stuff to start my plant grow light.  I bought the stuff and came home to plug it all in before realizing that the lamp I bought was meant to be hardwired, not a plug in version.  So after doing some research (and some fast and furious texting to a coworker whose dad is an electrician), I managed to figure out what to do to convert it into a plug-in light.  As I was banging away in the bedroom (trying to break out a round piece for the plug I used - an old computer monitor cord), Shawn came in and was like "oh dear lord you're going to electrocute yourself." So he took over and finished the wiring.

Then came the fun part of trying to figure out the best way to hang the light from my shelf; the answer: Paper Clips - I had the wires, I just needed a way to raise and lower the light.  I actually figured out that using books under the plants was better because it allowed for each plant grouping to be moved closer or further from the light.

Tomato seedlings starting to grow.

After the ceremonial plugging in of the light, Shawn looked at me and (quite dejectedly) said, "well, great, we've just joined the legions of pot growers out there and are now paying money to grow plants when there's this thing called a sun."

After a few weeks, the seedlings were big enough, and it was warm enough that I moved them outside. So, in the end, I only used the light for a few weeks. But of course, I had to move them in during inclement weather.

Tomato seedlings, Spruce Campbell (my spruce tree seedling), and my home made ginger & cranberry infused vodka in lemonade.

After a few more weeks out in the sunshine, I transplanted the seedlings into 4" pots, and then a week or so later (3/26), planted them in the garden.  Naturally, growing 24 plants is WAY more than I have space for in my garden (especially when I also went to the Sunshine Community Garden Sale with Roberta and got 3 tomatoes and 2 peppers), so I took a lot of the seedlings to work - I got rid of 4 of them before even getting to my floor; and while I thought that I would end up with some extras at the end of the day, they all found good homes.

Now to just get some eggplants, peppers and tomatoes this year...

They get me, they really get me.

I love my family.  I mean, they're my family, I have to love them; but also, they get me.  Even though they may not understand all my gardening desires, they'll humor me.

For example - 'why would you want to attract bugs?  but whatever, she's got "bug house" on her list, so a bug house it is.'

Also, Ollas - now Ollas are something that's been on my list for YEARS and I finally made some homemade ones during the summer.  They've been working great, but it'll be even better to have these two so that I can see which type work better (always with the science experiments with this one).  It also would mean that I probably wouldn't ever have to surface water since I'll be able to have 2 ollas in each garden (one homemade and one official).

And that's not where it stops - oh no!  my sister got me the 20-30 something Garden Guide by Dee Nash.  She also got me a seed subscription to Grow Journey, and they've already sent me my first shipment of seeds which was the impetus to FINALLY build my seed growing lamp set up and get some mini greenhouse seed starting things so maybe I'll actually finally be able to grow some tomatoes from seed.

The toughest part about getting seed starter set up going was wiring the light - I bought a fluorescent light which is supposed to be hardwired into the ceiling and used an old computer power cable to convert it into a plug in light (or rather Shawn did it because he was worried I was going to electrocute myself).  Of course I needed to get the plug into the housing and the light was very industrial and had little punchouts on it, but I couldn't get the little thing punched out and ended up bending it which then meant that Shawn had to bend it back into place.  And then I had to figure out how to hang the darn thing from the shelf.  In the end it probably took longer than it needed to - and may have been worth the extra $30 to buy the ACTUAL grow light or a terrarium light that already is a plug-in. Oh well, at least doing it this way was a good way to spend 2 hours on a Saturday.

Fall Clean Up (round 2)

I've already posted one entry about fall clean up (which you can see here).  But, the problem with being soft hearted, is that it means I have to do multiple fall clean ups, and multiple spring clean ups, and multiple prunings, and all sorts of other multiple things.  It's a pain in the ass, but you do what you gotta do when you are incapable of being a ruthless bitch about removing plants.

I can't prune things properly - I'll snip a branch here or there, but I can never remove a third of the plant like I'm supposed to (rosemary), and so I end up having to prune the plant monthly instead of just a few times during the year.  I can't pinch back things properly either - I feel bad for the plant every time I remove some leaves for cooking and so the plants end up being spindly and tall rather than bushy and short (basil I'm especially bad about)

I can't pull out a tomato plant while it's got tomatoes on it.  Thankfully I can manage to remove flowers so it won't start any new tomatoes.  And my husband is just as bad - I seriously was going to yank my tomato plant, but my husband managed to get it a reprieve because he wanted the 2 tomatoes that were on it.  Those two tomatoes were eaten by the raccoon/possum/squirrels, but it ended up with 4 more tomatoes before I started pulling blossoms off so now we've got 4 green tomatoes that should be ripening, but they're not going to make it through the freeze this coming week, so do I pull the green tomatoes, wrap them in newspaper and hope they eventually ripen, or do I just toss the whole plant?

I should have pulled out all the pepper plants during the first round of clean up but didn't because I want to collect seeds...the problem is that we're now expecting our first major frost and the peppers aren't at the optimal time for seed collection.  I really don't want to dig up the tall plants, but I'll go ahead and dig up the small plants, plus prep my Ghost Pepper for the winter by pruning it back and bringing in the pot.

I am getting better about not accepting plants just because they need a home.  It's to some extent the same mentality I had to have while volunteering at the humane society - constantly telling myself I can't have something just to keep me from saving everything.  [Of course, the problem now is that whenever I walk a dog at the humane society, I'm having to really convince myself I can't take the dog home.  At least in college it was easier because our rental house didn't allow animals; now I own my house and I can have whatever animals I want, now the problem is that my cats don't want me to have whatever animals I want.]

On the plus side, Mother Nature always does what I can't, and so, by next weekend I should be able to pull out all the remaining 'summer' crops and will finally be able to plant my [non-existent] fall garden.

So Much!

So much has happened since I last posted a picture of the lady bug eggs.

So let's see...
-The lady bugs hatched and started eating all the aphids.
-I pulled out the bug ridden pea plants the lady bugs were on and painstakingly looked over every bit of those plants picking off the baby ladybugs and placing them on my beans and eggplant.
-I've lost all my dill caterpillars. I had 3 at the beginning of the week, then I went out wednesday and was down to 2, and on Friday morning I checked on the dill and had 1, and by the time I came back from my doctor's appointment, there were none. Caroline suggested that they decided to pupate, and Vertie says that all of her swallowtail caterpillars have always trekked quite a distance before pupating (dill apparently is not a very sturdy plant), so the going theory is that they've either all gone to pupate or the birds got them.
-I pulled 4 bulbing onions (3 white, one purple)
-I pulled a small handful of scallions
-I planted 3 cucumber plants, 5 thai basil plants, and yet another tomato plant (though I don't remember what type the tomato is...it's gotta be green zebra, marvel stripe or brandywine).
-pulled out 4 of the 5 Shilla Garlics because the plants started falling over (and I don't think garlic is supposed to do that).
-planted some of the cast iron plant that Diana gave me
-separated the rest of the cast iron plant that Diana gave me and potted them and took some to work
-pulled out some of the snow cloud artemisia and took it to work as well.
-collected god knows how many seeds from the marigolds
-pulled some plants out of the cactus pot and potted them up in their own little 4" plants...I think they're turk's cap, but the leaves are super soft and since I think turk's cap and rock rose leaves look very similar, they might be rock rose...or the third option is that they're actually a weed of some sort. Because that's always fun--re-potting weeds.
-found some seeds my mom sent me 5 years ago (parsley, basil, black-eyed susans, and cornflower). I rolled them up in some wetted paper towels and put them in a Ziploc bag. Amazingly (and I had this wrong in my tweet), the cornflower and the basil (I think) actually did sprout. So I put some in some of their own 4" pots and have them sitting on the window sill to finish sprouting, then they'll be moved outside to get some more sun.
-Finally, I took 80-billionty pictures of butterflies. I watered everything after planting the cucumbers and basil and the swallowtails LOVED it so they were around for quite a while.

I'll be posting pictures of all this stuff throughout the week as I have time (or, more likely, I'll just auto-post some of the pictures).

Repurposing

I started writing this 2 weeks ago, and meant to take pictures. I never got to that stage, so now I'm going to post this and have the update at the bottom.

As I was taking the P.E. test on Friday April 16, I had been asked VERY STRONGLY by my boss to perhaps, maybe, you know, take the day before the test off of work and do whatever I wanted.

So I did. And I went up and hung out with Bob and Lyn at Draco Gardens for about an hour before having to go to a vet appointment. After the vet, I was looking for something to do, so I decided I'd make some seed starter mix. Now I have no idea if this is any good, but here's what I mixed in:
2 parts compost (one part homemade, one part store-bought)
2 parts sand
2 parts garden soil (Lady Bug variety)
3/4 part vermiculite
and 3 spades of Rabbit Hill's vegetable starter stuff (yellow label)

I mixed everything together and then picked out all the large pieces of wood and rocks and other things that don't belong in seed starter, by hand. That took a while. Of the above mentioned items, we already had the compost, the soil, and the sand was given to me by one of my coworkers. the vermiculite and Rabbit Hill stuff were bought from Gardens before they closed a few months back.

Next, I cut all of my saved toiletpaper rolls in half (so I now have 10 mini rolls). Subsequently, I made 4 cuts in the bottom about 1" long. I then created a "box fold" of these four sections thus creating little tiny cardboard pots.

Fill with seed starter.

Open packs of seeds. Plant accordingly. I planted 5 milkweed (sadly it's the bog variety so I'll probably be giving some away to those with ponds), 2 marigold (using the seeds saved from the marigolds in the garden right now, 2 Torch Tithonia, and 1 Red Savina Habanero.

Water pots thoroughly. Let drain. Place in saved blackberry plastic baskets thus creating a nice closeable green house type thing (maybe...I think there's too many holes, but I'm seeing if it will work).

Now the seeds just need to sprout.

AND Epic Fail. I closed the tops and then put the starts out in the sun. FULL SUN. Yep, I solarized my seeds. Yay. Well, at least I know, "Don't Do That." After about a week in the sun, I figured it probably wasn't the best, so I let all the little pots sit in the garden instead. I'm still watering them, but so far there's nothing growing (not that I would expect it at this point). I'll give it one more week and then replant seeds.

Ut-toh

Last year I went to a Master Gardener's seminar. They handed out coupons for online ordering at Renee's Garden. The deal was buy 4 seed packs, get one free. I bought like 10 packs and then split the seeds with various coworkers and friends.

Renee's Garden has apparently gotten worried about my lack of recent purchases because they sent me an email with 15% off of my total order. Now I will spend the rest of the evening perusing the various seeds available, and then I'll ultimately talk myself out of buying any.

Now, if only I could get Botanical Interests to give me a deal (they've got some Black Krim and Purple Cherokee tomato seeds I'd like to try).

Spring Garden '10: Planted

I planted plants yesterday and seeds today. They are as follows:
Plants:
Habanero (from Red Barn Garden Center, $2.99 -I think)
2 Lemon Balm (from Red Barn Garden Center, $2.99 each)
2 Dill (one from Lowes, one from Red Barn Garden Center, $1.99 and $2.99, respectively)
2 6-packs of Tagetes Marigolds (from Lowes, $1.99 each -I think)
Black Krim Tomato (from Rebar and Roses, Free)
Ananas Noire Tomato (from Rebar and Roses, Free)
Beatrice Eggplant (2 seedlings)
2 Yellow Hot Pepper (from Charlie, Free)
Orange Fogo Thai Pepper(seedling)
Green Zebra Tomato (3 seedlings)
Yellow Admiral Bell Pepper (seedling)
Valencia Orange Bell Pepper (seedling)
Queenette Thai Basil (seedling)

Of these, one of the lemon balms looked a little peeked this evening when I checked on everything, and one of the Green Zebras probably won't make it, and one of the Eggplants was gone when I checked on things this evening. Also, the Black Krim was bent (snapped) an inch or so above the ground, but it wasn't obviously broken off yet so I put a toilet paper roll around it and pressed it into the ground about an inch or so and then filled it up with dirt. I don't know if this will work in any way, shape, or form, but if it does, then I've learned something new.
Edited for Update: As of 3-31-10, the Orange Fogo, one of the Green Zebras, and the Black Krim did not make it.

Seeds:
Nasturium (Alaska Variegated, Botanical Interests, $0.99, Gardens, purchased 2010)
Ornamental Corn (Strawberry Popcorn, Botanical Interests, $1.89, The Great Outdoors, purchased 2010)
Cantaloupe (Hearts of Gold, American Seed, $0.30, Lowe's, purchased 2007)
Lima Beans (Fordhook Bush #242, America's Choice, $unknown, Lowe's, purchased 2007)
Watermelon (Crimson Sweet, Walmart Gardens, $0.97, Walmart, purchased 2007)
Compact Winter Squash (Early Butternut, Renee's Garden, $2.79, Mail Order, purchased 2009)
Compact Winter Squash (Delicata Squash, Renee's Garden, $2.79, Mail Order, purchased 2009)
True Thai Basil (Queenette, Renee's Garden, $2.69, Mail Order, purchased 2009)
Butterfly Flowers (Torch Tithonia, Renee's Garden, $Free (Garden Blogger's Get Together), obtained 2009)

AND I still have two unused tomato cages...which are set up so I can put two more tomato plants in.

I also transplanted the Baby Blue Eyes (from Rachel @ In Bloom), the White Linen Poppies (from Lancashire Rose) and I bought a Tropical Milkweed (aka Butterflyweed, Red Barn, $7.99) and transplanted it yesterday since I read the article that Fits and Starts linked to.

Spring Garden '10 updates

No, I haven't started planting anything yet. I've just been collecting plants, or killing plants, and figured that rather than use Twitter as my journal I should use the blog I set up as a journal.

So...let's see...

The seedlings I started are pretty leggy. This is to be expected because I started them at work where the light is from a window. A window that has a sun filter on it.

I brought all the seedlings home and then some of them started doing worse instead of better. Maybe it was because I had them outside during the day in a location that wasn't very well protected, or I don't know. Some of them started looking worse. So I did the number one thing you're not supposed to do and fertilized them. That killed off some right there. I then decided I'd get supports in the little pots for the plants, so I used some zip ties as stakes and pipe cleaners as the ties. Only then Gray Kitteh! decided that they were fun toys and started pulling out plants. I had to emergency plant the two I found (Beatrice Eggplant and Green Zebra Tomato). It happened to be the first night I was planning on leaving the seedlings out, so I guess it's a good thing since it could have been the first day I had brought them home. As time has gone on, I've had a couple other plants bite the dust and have obtained others.

Plants that died:
Marvel Stripe Tomato
2 Habanero peppers
Brandywine Tomato

Plants that I have obtained:
Black Krim Tomato (from Jen at Rebar and Roses)
Ananas Noire Tomato (from Jen at Rebar and Roses)
2 Yellow Hot Peppers (from my coworker, Charlie...I think they might be Pineapple Aji peppers or something similar)
(maybe I should get a Pineapple Guava plant and go for the pineapple trifecta?)

Plants I have given away:
Vidi Crimson (Red Bell Pepper) to Jen at Rebar and Roses

Seeds planted in the planters of the dead plants:
Thai Basil
Green Zebra
Habanero
French Lavender

Starting a Garden

I got a question/comment the other day on one of my older blog entries:

I am just thinking about starting a garden- mainly for herbs maybe some veggies if I get daring. How much sun do these gardens really need? IT does get pretty hot around here, won't there be some baking of the plant? My neighbor has a garden in her front yard- unfortunately a real eye sore. Can you give me any advice? I thought I would keep a bit of a journal on the sunlight for a couple of days? Thanks for any advice- Jody

1. Congratulations on starting a garden (or at least thinking about it). Herbs are a great way to start--they're not quite as finicky as vegetables, and you usually can get SOMETHING to grow. Plus, they tend to do well even if you forget about them. I would guess that oregano, basil and parsley are some of the better ones to start out with down here. Rosemary as well if you have a full sun location that doesn't get watered too frequently. Basil will let you know when it needs water--It will look all sorts of wilty but then perks right back up after watering. The parsley, basil, and oregano I planted down here were planted in a mostly shade location and all three survived (the two rosemary plants, however, did not). The basil and parsley both reseed pretty freely so if you don't want extra plants, make sure you cut off all flower heads.

2. Gardens need at least 6 hours of sunlight. 8 if you can swing it. Some things will do okay in less (like lettuces--but only in the winter). I think all of the spring/summer veggies are going to need lots of sun, whereas the winter veggies will do better with less.

3. There is some baking of the plants, but none of the veggie plants do spectacular in the middle of summer (Okra might be an exception--but I dont' know, I've never grown it). Most of the gardeners I know will start their spring gardens in early-mid March and use varieties that have short maturation times so there's a harvest before the summer temps are in full swing. Then they take a short break during the hottest part of the year in which the goal isn't for anything to necessarily look good, but just to stay alive and then start up again in late August/early September for a second summer harvest. Some of my coworkers let everything go that isn't actively producing in June/July, and then replant in September. If you really wanted to, you could get shade covers for the garden which would protect from the afternoon sun, though that may be a lesson in futility. Also. WATER THE PLANTS. In March I maybe have to water once a week. By June it's usually 2 times a week and by August it's every day, maybe every other day. Thus the brilliance of the coworkers that just let everything go in July--if the plant makes it through the summer, GREAT, if it doesn't, Meh, planting time is just around the corner. Plus that way you're not spending tons of money on water.

4. Knowing where the sun is at what times in your yard is an AWESOME tool and I highly recommend doing it. If you have the time, you could chart where the sun is once an hour for and entire day. I don't know how much charting for a couple of days would be of any help unless it was like you did the morning hours one day and the afternoon hours the next or something along those lines. I would suggest (especially if you're going to do a winter garden) charting the sun a couple times during the year so you know how the amount of sun changes based on the time of year. If you're going to do this chart now, be mindful of trees that haven't fully leafed out yet.

5. Other random recommendations I have are: a) Do raised beds if you're going to go with something permanent. However, if you don't really know where the sun is in your yard, I'd start with a couple of large flower pots--that way you can move them around if the plants look too crispy or too leggy. b) find out the seasons for all the veggie plants you want to do--carrots and lettuce don't go well in the summer, but tomatoes and eggplants rarely make it through the winter. c) Get a rain barrel. If you live in the City of Austin, there's usually a couple of subsidized rain barrel sales once or twice a year. d) a good place to start is with the Master Gardener Garden Guide for Austin and Vicinity, the MGs, any of the MG seminars, and local blogs--I've got a list on the right and all of them are great people and are very willing to help with ideas and they're a fountain of knowledge.



Anyone else have any advice?

Seeds: Planted

I didn't plant any seeds because of the upcoming freezes this week, but I did, as per the Gardening Bible, start my spring seeds yesterday:

2 Red Sevina Habanero
2 Green Zebra
1 Brandywine
1 Marvel Stripe
1 Orange Fogo Thai Chili
1 Yellow Bell pepper
1 Orange Bell pepper
1 Red Bell pepper
1 Beatrice Eggplant
1 Nadia Eggplant
1 Thai Basil

I was also looking at my companion planting and the reason behind it printout I found back in the day...

It appears I need to plant Marigolds (the smelly kind) to combat most insects and nematodes, Nasturtiums and Dill and Lemon Balm to combat the squash vine borer adults and Mums for nematodes (again).

Has anyone tried the Nasturtiums/Dill/Lemon Balm for squash vine borers?

Looking over the garden

As we're winding down with the spring garden and prepping for the fall garden, I decided to go out and look at the garden again. Of course, having cooler than 90-degree temperatures didn't hurt either.

The heirloom tomatoes have been attacked by spider mites (again) and the Brandywine has some scale on it. They haven't really taken off with the growing for the fall season, but I think it may be time to fertilize all the plants again. The only tomato that looks like it's doing well is the Roma. I'm not sure if it's because it gets the least sun and therefore (it seems to follow) it doesn't get roasted like the other plants.

The eggplant shot up in the last month and now could justify having its own tomato cage, if I had one to put out around it. It does have some leaves that are yellowing, but after picking those off, the plant looks to be extremely healthy with both new leaves coming out and tons of new flowers, and already a baby eggplant or two.

The butternut plant does have a squash vine borer in it, but it would require me to go through digging up the vine in order to find it, so I'm hoping that as long as I go about covering the vine with dirt as it grows that I can get it to root in multiple spots and therefore be able to keep it alive long enough for the one butternut to ripen.

The pepper plants are all looking pretty sad--the only one that doesn't look completely done for is the Thai Chili Pepper (Red Dragon). It has been quite the performer this year with us getting maybe 8 peppers off of it this summer. I have high hopes for the fall, though this is the same plant that when it started cooling off, the peppers just stopped ripening. I had to pull all the peppers off while they were still green since I was afraid the plant was going to be killed by some of the light frosts we got here in the winter. The Cayenne pepper just doesn't seem to get enough water. I'll still put some compost tea or miracle gro on it to see if it gives it a boost (yes, I bought miracle gro right after I moved down here and haven't finished it yet...because I use it that infrequently. I also have rose fertilizer and azalea fertilizer that I need to get rid of too. I had bought those because I was going to do a science experiment with a hydrangea...which died) . The Corno di Torro pepper did have a pepper on it, but the bottom was cat-faced and so some bugs got into it and destroyed it. Considering that the pepper plant is still about the same size it was when we planted it, I'm probably not going to try planting another one--Shawn will just have to suck it up and deal with me growing normal bell peppers--it's not like I make him eat them anyhow.

On the flower front: The passion vine has been denuded again. I found there was a caterpillar on it, and since I feel bad about pulling caterpillars off of the plant, I usually leave them on and then content myself by scraping off all the eggs I find on the plant. Obviously I missed an egg. It just went into chrysalis stage last night so, based on the last time, I should have a new butterfly in about 2-3 weeks.

There's something munching on the coral vine, but otherwise it looks healthy, so I'm not going to worry about it (oh believe me, I'll still look for the culprit, but I'm not going to go about putting all sorts of pesticides on it).

The Turk's Cap plants are all doing swimmingly. As are the Rock Roses and the Artemesia (though I did have to deep water the artemesias).

The Bat-faced Cuphea is looking a little off...but I can't quite figure out if it's lack of sun, lack of water, or a little of both. I'm going to guess lack of sun since the leaves look fine. It also is getting a little leggy so I may need to look into pruning it back.

All of the lantanas are taking a hit this summer. Some of it is because I have them in an area that does not retain water, and some of it is because I don't water them enough. Oh don't get me wrong, they're all still alive, just none of them have bloomed since spring.

I've found that the bulbine does well with ultra deep waterings. Something I found out when I was deep watering the trees. So I'll have to remember that instead of using the sprinkler to water them, I need to just set the hose out by them like twice a month.

The grass looks like hay.

The devil plant (aka Asian Jasmine) has turned a rusted shade. Maybe this summer will have finally killed off big portions of it. Well, I can always hope, can't I?

For growing season 2010:
I started the broccoli seed I had. 2 of the starts have come up, the other two haven't. I'm not worried yet because 1) it's only been 7 days, and 2) the variety is called "All season's blend" which is actually 3 different types with different maturity rates; because of this, not all the types come up at the same time. And I had made sure to separate the seeds by color so I could make sure that I only had one type per start container.

The other seeds I started (Rock Rose and Texas Lantana) have not germinated yet. Also not surprising (see: 1 week).

Pictures, Yay!

I've got a couple of posts' worth of pictures, so bear with me (and the 3 or 4 posts that I'm going to be making in rapid succession).

First, The garden through time:

April 4, 2009. 2.5 weeks after planting everything, and having the front row damaged by a freak hail storm in late March.

May 22, 2009. The pepper in the back is dead, the pepper in the front ain't doin' too hot. The Brandywine is the tallest, with the Krim a close second. The Eggplant looks all squat and funny. I still have strawberry plants in the black planter.

June 6, 2009. Only a two week difference from the picture above, and yet the Brandywine and Krim have grown about 1.5'. The eggplant has also grown some. I also had ripped out the strawberries and replaced them with Delicata and Butternut seeds. I also had put up the bird netting just before this picture as well.

July 18, 2009. It was too depressing to take photos of the plants before I pruned them, so I just didn't. I chopped the Brandywine in half and most of the Krim--the long branches are from the Krim, they have tomatoes on them still so I left them, but when I harvest the tomatoes, I'll cut the branches down. The Krim branches that remain show that the plant was about 2' taller than in the previous photo. The Roma and Viva Italia (on the right) have filled out quite a bit from earlier, and the eggplant practically requires a tomato cage of its own. The delicata and butternut have really taken off on the left side of the picture. Oh, and you can barely make out the eggplant itself--it's the white thing above the yellow leaf on the left plant in the garden.

Bird Netting

Today I put some bird netting (technically it's labeled as Deer Netting...but it's the same as the bird netting only it comes in 7' x 100' rolls instead of 14' x 14') around the garden to attempt to protect the ripening tomatoes from the squirrels/raccoons/random neighbors who are stealing my ripened tomatoes. So, we'll see how this works.

For an update on all the plants:
Viva Italia Tomato: Covered in tomatoes. Not very big (the plant), not many non-fruiting branches (so it looks a little airy). One ripened tomato thus far. One ripened tomato taken by wildlife. No longer flowering

Roma Tomato: Has a few tomatoes. This one was one that was damaged by the hail. One ripened tomato thus far. And it was good. it was diced and put in spaghetti sauce. Still flowering, though barely. One tomato currently ripening. This is why I put out the bird netting--I want my tomatoes, dammit.

Corno di Toro Pepper: piddly. But I did Miracle-Gro all the plants this weekend, so maybe it will get a move on.

BHN tomato: 2 tomatoes total. This one was one that was damaged by the hail. One tomato ripened thus far. One ripened tomato taken by wildlife. Currently flowering prolifically.

Cloud 9 Eggplant: 1 eggplant thus far (about 2" big). This plant has really taken off in recent weeks and is about to flower again.

Rococo Pepper: Dead. D-E-D, dead. I ripped out--roots looked fine, so I assume it was something I did (or some act of God--it did seem to go downhill very quickly when I watered the plants and then it rained 3"). I replaced it with some watermelon seeds. Which just came up so hopefully that will have better luck.

Black Krim Tomato: about 4.5' tall I would guesstimate. Has quite a few tomatoes on it--enough that even if they all are taken by wildlife this year, I will plant one again next year. No ripened tomatoes yet.

Brandywine Tomato: about 6' tall I would guesstimate. Has NO tomatoes on it. Pssh. Still flowering prolifically. Which is only stupid because it won't set fruit with temps this hot. It better do well in the fall, otherwise I'm writing this breed off.

Cayenne Pepper: It's doing alright. Hasn't flowered any since I pulled all the peppers off. but still, 3 peppers are worth it.

Thai Chili Pepper: This is a plant that I had planted last year and at the end of the season I cut the plants down instead of ripping them out--I thought they would die over the winter. Instead, all 3 plants came back--one was killed by the guys doing our roof though, and another just never seemed to do well (plus i never watered it enough). But the third one is doing very well. I think it's about to bloom too (fingers crossed).

Other things I did today: I ripped out the strawberry plants and put them in the composter, and then planted one compact Butternut and one compact Delicata squash seed in thier place. I also finally ripped out the oregano plant in the planter and am currently drying the parts that were green. I spread the remainder of my lettuce leaf basil plants in its place (but I'm guessing the basil seeds are no longer good--they are 3 years old I think.) If nothing is coming up by the middle of June, then I'll probably plant something else in there, but I don't know what...

Austin Garden Bloggers Get Together

I attended the Austin Garden Bloggers Get Together last weekend. (also, does any one find it funny that Blogger.com says that Blogger isn't a word?) I showed up late at Jill's house as I left my house a little late (what do you mean I can't make a land-speed record and make it to downtown in 5 minutes?), and so I'm sure I missed introductions and what have you. After hanging out in Jill's yard for a while, we went on a walking tour of the immediate neighborhood, and it was during this tour that I found out just how large artichoke plants are AND how large pomegranate trees can get. Discovering this kinda actually sucks because I wanted to plant a pomegranate in the front yard but it's a bit big for the place where I wanted to put it.












After our walking tour it was off to Jenny's house to see her gardens...and quite honestly, if she'd let me I'd just take out of town guests there rather than the wildflower center. And she makes it seem so easy to have a gorgeous garden. After the explanation of how everything was done (the rockscaping part), we had snacks (courtesy of everyone) and a little raffle (courtesy of Pam). Jenny's husband, David, won the first raffle and I don't remember who won the second (Vertie maybe?), And as Pam points out in the comments, MSS won one of the raffles (and actually there were three raffles--two for books, one for a magazine). After more food and conversation, Diana recommended that because the weather was starting to turn stormy that maybe the plant swap should commence. So we all trouped around the yard to the driveway. Since I didn't bring anything to swap, I pretty much stood back and only accepted seeds that were offered (I don't know why but when people want to get rid of plants, I view it as a big money commitment from them whereas seeds are more like "I have this, but I don't want it, please take it"...which of course is only funny because all the plants are dug up from yards and the plant swap is really more like saving a plant from a compost heap). Sue and I got involved with talking about work (we both work with government entities...she for the environmental side and me not so much), and when we noticed everyone else heading off to our cars, we opted to as well. That's when Jenny asked if either of us wanted the bulbine plants sitting on the driveway. Since everyone else was leaving, Sue and I split the plants and then headed for our cars. I don't remember any one presenting/talking about the orange bulbine (I do remember someone talking about the yellow bulbine which was snapped up). So, to whichever of you garden bloggers brought the orange bulbine, thanks so much! I already planted it out in the front yard, hopefully it actually does well where I planted it. (also, please tell me if I linked to anyone incorrectly!)

Seeds

When Ross (coworker) and I went to the MG Spring Vegetable Gardening seminar, they gave us a seed pack of the Silver Rib Swiss Chard and a coupon for ordering seeds from Renee's Garden. The coupon was a "buy 4 get 1 free" deal. But of course, with one pretty small garden, what was I going to do with 5 packs of seeds other than plant them over the next 10 years?

That's when the idea struck that I could just go in on ordering the seeds with my garden fanatic coworkers and then subsidize the cost somewhat. I got enough people involved that it ended up making the cost $0.50 per variety wanted, and all I had to do was separate all the seeds into equal amounts and copy the planting instructions for everyone. I also went a bit crazy and ordered 10 seed packs instead of the required 5. But so far I think all involved are happy with the outcome--5 varieties of seeds for $2.50: The only possible problem is that for some seed varieties it means that people only got maybe 5 seeds or so (like the watermelons), while with other seeds everyone got 50 (like the scallions).

So, over the next couple of planting seasons (fall and spring most likely), I'll be starting the following seeds:
Beets
Broccoli
Chard (from the MGs)
Eggplant
Watermelon
Bell Peppers
Habanero Peppers
Scallions
Winter Squash
Garlic Chives
Lavender

Add this to the goal of saving my own seeds from the tomatoes (and possibly peppers...if they ever grow), and I'm going to be very busy this year.

A small amount of rain, and why I didn't know about it

So. This morning, I woke up, looked out the window and said to myself "hey, it looks like Cammie's gate is wet. Sweet! that means it rained!"

I then got up, got dressed and skeedaddled outside to see how much rain we got. That was when I realized that the tarp, (which had previously been sitting in the rock area, and was subsequently blown to our fence during last saturday's wind storm) had blown over to, and was covering my rain gage.

Sigh.

I also spread some wildflower seeds about this afternoon (of course I don't know how many of them will germinate since what I used was the dregs of the seeds we gave out at our wedding...that was 3 years ago).

Fall Gardening

I got the gardening bug today. Okay, not really the 'gardening' bug as much as the 'container planting' bug.

I went to the Red Barn, mostly because it's closest and it's not Home Depot and got 2 bags of Lady Bug Garden Soil, 2 small Turk's Cap plants, a cyclamen, a flat of pansies (I don't know where I'm going to plant that many pansies), 2 snap dragon plants, 3 strawberries, a 6-pack of spinach, carrot seeds and a 6-pack of maroon bluebonnets.

I've already got the strawberries and 2 of the spinach plants in a planter, and I put the snap dragons, a bluebonnet and a pansy in another planter.

I plan on drilling holes in the bottom of one of those plastic cat litter buckets and planting carrots and 2 more spinach in that. (I'll wash it out first, of course)

And I'll probably put the remaining spinach and some of the bluebonnets and pansies in another planter.

The Turk's Cap is meant to go in the "shade garden" otherwise known as "the dirt patch where nothing grows because of lack of sun", as is the cyclamen. I think I'll put the cyclamen in a planter though and put it over in the shade area, mostly because I doubt it's in any way cold hardy. I'll probably also totally baby the Turk's Cap this winter to give it a better chance of making it through.

And yes I know it's totally the wrong season to be planting some of this stuff (the bluebonnets, turk's cap and probably the cyclamen), but when I get in these moods, I just can't help it. And so, I baby the plants through the winter instead of just waiting until the spring to plant them.

Veggie Gardening Link

Vegetables for Travis County:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/travis/lg_e_vegetables.htm

Thanks Bonnie!

July Updates

Things that have died:
The watermelon plant,
The cantaloupe plant in the back yard
the tomato in the back yard
most of the parsley plants

Things that have produced fruit:
Nothing. Okay, that's a lie. The Lemon Boy tomato plant produced 2 tomatoes, but I didn't eat them because we had leaf miners and the got to the fruit too, so everything was thrown away. Plus one of the tomatoes split the day before I picked it anyhow.

Things that are still surviving:
The basil plants in a planter
The oregano plants in the back yard
The new lantana plant (though barely, and the old plants are just fine)
The tomato plants our front (since I had leaf miners all the plants got a pretty drastic pruning)
The pepper plants (one has flowers now, so hopefully there will be peppers)
Texas Mountain Laurel trees (YES!!!!)
my grapefruit trees (YES!!!!)

Next steps:
According to the Natural Gardener Garden shop, it's time to start tomato seeds again. I don't know if I'll go for it, if only because my tomato plants are currently okay...though they're not producing flowers or fruit, but still, I don't know if I want to go through the energy of starting more plants when I don't really have anywhere to put them.

Also, I started another batch of cantaloupe and watermelon seeds last week. Hopefully I can keep them alive this time.

Future:
I may eventually opt to go the route of getting some Earth Boxes instead of planting stuff in the garden. Then I'd just need to find some nice flowers to go in the garden and hopefully then I wouldn't have to spend so much time doing stuff...