Author Archives: joelignacio

Two Evening of Gardening

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After spending Saturday day and Sunday morning at Hayward, I got home and immediately changed to work in the garden. I was planning on cutting the Fire Blight off our Pear tree, but did not get around to it.

I started my placing paver bricks around our Compost Bin because something has been digging into it. I think the larger hard flat area will also be easier for my Mom to walk on.

I then potted up the mixed Zinnia seedling that were growing in cell packs. I potted up ten 3 inch pots. Next up was potting up two 1 gallon pots of Gerber Daisies that my brother gave my Mom for Mother’s Day. Each of those went into a ceramic pot.

Potted up Gerber Daisy

My next chore was to cut down the bolted Portuguese Kale in the backyard Square Foot Garden so I can amend the soil and plant some veggies for the summer. I’ll save some seeds from the 8+ foot Portuguese Kale plant and compost the rest. I didn’t finish clearing everything out since it was dark now and I was getting hungry.

Monday after work, it was still some daylight left so I rushed to get some gardening done. I finished cutting down and pulling the old Portuguese Kale and amended three squares with Chicken Manure so I can plant out Cucumber start, which I finished off by mulching with with aged straw. I didn’t get to amend the other cleared square, but I’ll do that later.

Planted Burpless Hybrid Cucumbers

Before going in, I potted up some Strawberry Popcorn from cell packs to 3″ pots.

Strawberry Popcorn

I also potted up a few Purple Potatoes that I found in the Square Foot Garden.

Purple Potatoes

Vallejo Garden Club Feb 2016 Meeting

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Today at the February 2016 Vallejo Garden Club meeting, we learned a little bit about Olives. Here’s a few photos from the meeting.

And Grafting Starts

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It was such a nice day to work in the garden. Temperatures were in the mid to high 70s and I could here the bees buzzing around the flowers that were blooming in the backyard.

Inca Plum Blooms

Some of the fruit trees, specifically the Plums trees, were starting to flower and bud, so it was time to start grafting. I took the scions out of the refrigerator and inventory of what I got.

2016 Scions

I collected the Plums, Plucots, Pluots, Apricot, Cherry and Avocado scions… found my grafting knife and grafting tape… got my camera and started grafting.

I did a total of 11 grafts including:
– Asian Plums: Elephant Heart and Black Splendor
– Apricot: Canadian White
– Plumcot: Apex
– Pluot: Prosser and Dapple Dandy (Dinosaur Egg)
– Cherry: Coral
– Avocado: Mexiola

A Little Bit of Winter Gardening…

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I got a little bit of gardening done this weekend. I went through the cell packs I planted in the late fall and got rid of the pots which failed to grow seedlings. I found some Mushrooms in some.

Mushroom Mushroom Mushroom...

There were Celtuce that surprisingly survived, so I planted those into a large Daiso pot.

Transplanted Celtuce

I also pulled a lot of weeds near Veggie Beds 1 and 2 and pick off damaged and dead leaves from plants.

Litchi Tomato Flower Buds

As I was weeding I noticed that there was another volunteer Litchi Tomatoes, making the total to three plants now. They are also starting to form flower buds. These are sure strong plants… or maybe they like cooler weather. I’ll have to pot these up into a large container and give Litchi Tomatoes another try.

Calendulas

Around the beds, volunteer Calendulas and Daffodils are blooming.

Daffodils

Spring Starflower

I even caught the first Spring Starflower to bloom, which means there are about 100 more to come.

Fruit Flower Buds

Also starting to bloom are some fruit trees, including the two unknown Asian Plums, the grafted Inca Plum and surprisingly a very very early grafted Anna Apple. I’ll have to start grafting Plums next weekend.

I wish I had more time to garden.

Local Quilt and Garden Events 2016

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The new year will be here soon, which is when I like to search online for the dates and times of local gardening shows and events.

Floating Gardens

Saturday, January 9, 2016
CRFG Santa Clara Valley Chapter Exchange
Emma Prusch Park, Multicultural Center, 647 S King Rd, San Jose, CA 95116
10am open to Members
11am to 2pm open to the General Public
https://scvcrfg.wordpress.com/activities/

Saturday, January 16, 2016 – 12 to 3pm
CRFG 2016 Golden Gate Chapter Scion Exchange
Ed Roberts Campus, 3075 Adeline Street, Berkeley
(next to the Ashby BART station)
http://www.crfg.org/chapters/golden_gate/scionex.htm

February 18-21
QuiltCon West 2016
Pasadena, CA
http://quiltconwest.com/

February 26-28, 2016
Pacific Orchid Exposition
Fort Mason, San Francisco
http://www.orchidsanfrancisco.org/orchid-events/pacific-orchid-expo-poe/

March 16-20, 2016
San Francisco Flower & Garden Show
San Mateo Event Center, San Mateo, CA
http://sfgardenshow.com/

March 19-20, 2016
East Bay Heritage Quilters – Voices in Cloth 2016
Craneway Pavillion, 1414 Harbour Way, Richmond, CA
http://www.ebhq.org/quilt-shows/vic2016

Saturday, April 9, 2016 – 1pm
CRFG Santa Clara Valley Chapter bi-monthly meeting
Emma Prusch Park in San Jose. Open to all. Topic will be on citrus and avocados, with discussion of year-round production. We will also hold the greenwood scion exchange.
https://scvcrfg.wordpress.com/activities/

Saturday, April 16, 2016 – 9:30am
2016 Annual Dahlia Tuber and Cutting Sale
Golden Gate Park, County Fair Building, 9th and Lincoln, San Francisco
http://sfdahlias.org/

April 30-May 1, 2016
Vallejo Piecemakers 2016 Sew Amazing Quilt Show
http://vallejopiecemakers.org/activities/2016-sew-amazing-quilt-show/

Sunday, May 15, 2016 – 10am to 4pm
Vallejo Garden Tour
http://vallejogardentour.com/

June 11-12, 2016
San Francisco Succulent and Cactus Society
Annual Show and Sale
http://www.sfsucculent.org/annual_show_sale.html

September 6-7, 2016
The 2016 Heirloom Exposition
Sonoma County Fairground, Santa Rosa, CA
http://theheirloomexpo.com/

October 13-16, 2016
Pacific Internation Quilt Festival
Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA
https://www.quiltfest.com/upcoming-shows-and-events/pacific-international-quilt-festival/

This Weekends Gardening

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Started Saturday waking up early to get to a 9am Vallejo Garden Club meeting. It was a nice meeting with a guest speaker who showed some mosaics and other home and garden stuff made with Mexican tiles. I showed my Lithops to the club as my show and tell. Surprisingly, a bunch of members didn’t know much about them.

After the meeting, I headed over to Mid City Nursery to see if they had any Dinosaur Kale starts. I ended up buying:
– Dinosaur Kale
– Red Russian Kale
– French Sorrel
– Astro Arugula
– Mottistone Lettuce
– Oregon Sugar Pod Peas
– Green Leaf Swiss Chard
– Spanish Rojo Garlic

Mid City Nursery Purchases

Before going to the Vallejo Piecemakers open sew, I went to Hancock Fabrics to look for dark grey fabrics. I was planning to sew about 25 more blocks to add to my TIVX quilt, but I only had enough time to cut the fabrics and mark where to cut and sew the blocks. I’ll sew them later when I have time.

Once I got home, I was able to do a little bit of gardening. I checked all the Brassicas and picked of White Cabbage caterpillars and eggs. There wasn’t much caterpillars since I picked them off last week, but there were a lot of eggs. I gotta stay diligent about removing those.

I pulled up some old Swiss Chard, Bush Beans and Carrots plants in 10 gallon pots that were dying off. I replaced them with a pot of Astro Arugula and a pot of Mottistone Lettuce.

I then went around the front garden and pulled up all the Crab Grass that I can. There was a lot!… But it slowly getting under control.

Quilt Retreat

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This weekend I attended a quilt retreat at Walker Creek Ranch, organized by Pati of See How We Sew. I went to the first retreat earlier this year and it was fun, so I expected the same.

Quilt Retreat at Walker Creek Ranch.

I got there on Friday before 4pm and almost everyone was already there. I immediately unpacked my sewing stuff and started working on The Village Mystery Quilt, an old project that was close to done. I finished the quilt top, but after posting it on Instagram and looking at it again, I think I want to add a little more to the top and bottom.

I finished up one of my WIP quilt tops at our quilt retreat. Now that I see this photo, I think I want to add a row of dark mustard on the top and bottom.

Once done, I started working on my second project which I started on the last retreat. I just kept sewing and sewing, but realized that I should count how many blocks I have and how many I needed.

IMG_20150920_170036

At dinnertime, around 6pm, we discovered that there was another quilt group at the ranch. They were a much larger group of around 30 women. A few of them came over and introduced themselves and I voted us to visit them later and we did the same.

Went on a little hike at our quilt Retreat before it got dark.

After dinner, a few of us decided to hike a little before it got dark. On Friday, we hiked up to the water tower and on Saturday, we hiked past the vegetable garden and farm animals.

Run Through the Wood

Sunday morning before breakfast, I decided to would have a run in “nature” to the Toad Pond. I studied the map of the trails and set foot.

IMG_20150920_165002

Through the weekend, we did a lot of socializing, which was expected.

Another Quick Late Night Planting

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I seem to be on a Salad Greens planting kick and I really want to get some Mizuna, so after work I stopped by Orchard Supply Hardware to see if they had any. They didn’t, but I found a jumbo six-pack of Salad Greens that contained Leaf Lettuce, Arugula and Radicchio. After dinner and washing the dishes, I planted it right away into a large Daiso pot, that I generally use for Salad Greens.

Another quick late night planting. I'm on a salad greens kick and stopped by Orchard Supply Hardware after work to see if they had any Mizuna for sale. They didn't have any, but I got a jumbo six-pack of these salad greens which includes Lettuce, Arugula

I also bought a seed packet of Renee’s Garden Mild Mustard Mix, which at least contains Mizuna seeds, along with other Mustards.

Also, we had a bit of rain… well, not hard rain, but a strong sprinkle or drizzle. I’m not sure it’s enough to penetrate inches into the dry soil, but it’ll increase some moisture.