Our Tropic White Guava has finally started to blossom. Hopefully we’ll get guava fruit soon.
Sometimes I feel like an idiot… I planted a sunflower bed ( pic ) back in June 13. Well… The sunflower seedlings I transplanted were Zinnias!!!!… and now they are starting to bloom. Luckily, there were some bare spots where I planted sunflower seeds… so we should still get some sunflowers.
Sunflower… err… Zinnia/Sunflower bed
The Profusion Zinnias that I planted as a border
I’m excited because the Tendergreen Bush Beans that I sowed on June 16 has it’s first fruits :) Yeay!!!
I also went to Longs Drugs and got a Rubbermaid container to organize all my seed packets that are scattered here and there.
Why do I have so much?… Well, I bought a few, but I also got a whole bunch as a gift for being employee of the quarter; my brother bought a whole bunch when they went on sale for 10 or 5 cents and some are gifts from friends.
I returned some library books and checked out two more:
– Sunset Pruning Handbook
– Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening
Recently we’ve been harvesting a lot of pears, peaches and prunes. Today I harvested more Sweet 100’s and Lemon Cucumbers.
Italian Prunes
I also planted four types of seeds into newspaper pots: Grand Rapids Lettuce, Calabrese Broccoli, Catskill Brussels Sprouts and Jewel Mixed Colors Nasturtium.
The seeds I planted on the 12th are doing well and I thinned them down to a couple few.
I had a few failures though… The Correnta Hybrid Spinach I planted on the 13th, looked well, but when I transplanted them a few days ago, they just died :(… Also, the Ginger rhizomes that I tried to root on the 12th got moldly and shriveled up :(…
It’s been busy around here… We’ve been packing at work last week for our move to another building. Along with all the work that was due, I was just pooped when I got home and didn’t feel like touching the computer, so I didn’t…
…but I did do a lot gardening, a lot of buying and a lot of harvesting :)… mostly to forget about work… I did take notes daily, but in photo form… I’ll append it to this entry later when I have more time to write…
I just discovered that one of our freelancers here at work is really into cactus and succulents, like me. I was trying to explain on of my favorites. it’s kinda toupe or grayish tan with long spines that look like thin fingernails. Then I tried to draw it:
[Edited July 20, 2005] I found it with the help of (Anonymous). It’s a Opuntia Diademanta. Here are some pics of it: ( link 1 ) ( link 2 )
[Edited July 25, 2006] The actual name of this cactus is ‘Tephrocactus articulatus var. papyracanthus’ or Paper Spine Cactus. ( DG PlantFile )
I made even more newspaper pots this evening and planted more leafy vegetables: Salad Bowl Lettuce, Grand Rapids Lettuce and Correnta Hybrid Spinach.
My oldest brother and sister-in-law came by and picked up some extra plants that we had, so they can plant it in their new house. They took some Bamboo, a Fig, some Ferns and a Pomegranate. These are plants that we have lots of. My mom takes division and give them away…
Right now I’m looking at some greenhouse plans. I’m just interested of the cost of building one from scratch versus a pre-build one that you just snap together. hmm?… I’m just curious…
I made more newspaper pots and planted four kind of Asian vegetables: Chin-Chiang Cabbage “Hybird Summer Boy”, Misome Japanese Greens, Upo (Bottle Gourd) and Komatsuna “Hybrid Senposai”.
I know the Upo is probably too late to plant, but I want to see how it grows. I’ll make sure to plant is early next year.
As I was planting (at 9pm), I can smell the scent of our Dama de Noche plant. I think it’s called Night Flowering Jasmine in English. It is very fragrant and reminds me of Hawaiian leis.
Speaking of Asian vegetables, I harvested another eggplant and my mom made this Filipino dish called Pinakbet
Some of the ingredients include: Japanese Eggplant, Ampalaya (Bitter Melon), Sitaw (Yardlong Bean), Tomato, Garlic, Bagoong (Tiny Fermented Shrimp) plus more. It may look like a weird dish, but it’s good :)
I also found some Ginger rhizomes growing, so I placed them on a moist paper towel and placed it in a plastic bag. Hopefully it will grow roots and I will be able to grow it.
One last photo… My Pink Echevaria at work only has one flower left.
I went to the library again and got five books:
– Propagation Basics by Steven Bradley
– Plant Propagation A to Z by Geoff Bryant
– Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape and All Climates by Robert Kourik
– Rodale’s Successful Organic Gardening Vegetables by Patricis Michalak
– Gardening 101 by Martha Stewart
I transplanted my overwintered Coleus Wizard Rose triplets into a bigger pot. Here’s the clippings before and after. (The parent plant and more cuttings are in my July 8th entry right above the hula guy.)
Before (June 3)
After (July 11)
Here’s some pics from the garden:
Tendergreen Bush Bean
Chater’s Double Hollyhock
…and for dinner, we finally had that Yellow Submarine Cucumber, which at 10 inches long and 3 inch diameter, was still young (seeds were still soft)
