Category Archives: Gardening

Mail Order Eggplants + 5 Gallon Self Watering Buckets

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I wasn’t going to grow Eggplants this year, because I don’t grow them well… but I heard of some varieties that will grow in containers. I don’t see these locally, so I mail ordered three Mix and Match Eggplants from Burpee.

Three Eggplants from Burpee

They arrived yesterday and when I opened the package, the tags from two of the Eggplants were dislodged including some of the soil. Now I’m not sure which of the two varieties is ‘Shooting Star’ and ‘Rosa Blanca’. The Eggplant ‘Fairy Tale Hybrid’ was intact.

Which is Which?

I went ahead and built three 5 gallon self watering buckets and planted one Eggplant in each.

Eggplants in 5 Gallon SW Buckets

I will place them in our front yard which gets full sun. I hope they do well.

Pruning and Dead Grafts…

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I wanted to start grafting some European Pears today, but there were many dead and or broken limbs, so I want through and did some pruning. It started to get dark, so I will continue pruning tomorrow.

I also went through the fruit trees and tried to cut off and remove tags from the dead grafts:
– Peach ‘Sierra Blanca’ (Graft 2008-07)
– E.Pear ‘Winter Nellis’ (Graft 2009-15)
– E.Pear ‘Warren’ (Graft 2010-19)
– E.Plum ‘Coe’s Golden Drop’ (Graft 2011-09)
– Apple ‘Belle de Boskoop’ (Graft 2011-21)
– Nectarine ‘Heavenly White’ (Graft 2012-12)
– Nectarine ‘Stanwick’ (Graft 2012-14)
– Peach ‘Hakuto’ (Graft 2012-15)

Tomatoes and Peppers Sown

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I did a bunch of Tomato and Pepper seed sowing this evening.

Tomato Seeds

Here’s a list of Tomato seeds sown:
– Brandywince Red (2010)
– Hippy Zebra (2010)
– Sungold (2013)
– Green Zebra (2011)
– Speckled Red Roma (2010)
– Red Zebra (2010)
– Red Pear Cherry (2007)
– Velvet Red (2013)
– Vintage Wine (2010)
– OSU Blue (2011)
– Large Barred Boar (2011)
– Copia (2010)
– San Marzano (2010)
– Sweet Carneros Pink (2011)
– Lemon Boy (2013)
– Federle (2013)
– Yellow Pear G2 (2011)
– Rutgers Select (2010)
– Tiny Tim (?)
– Red Robin (2010)
– Sungold (2013)

Here’s a list of Pepper seeds sown:
– Chinese Giant (2012)
– Sweet Banana (2010)
– (Orange Bell) (2013)
– Carmagnola Rossa G2 (2008)
– Golden Marconi G2 (2010)
– (from Tomatofest 2012) (2012)
– Gypsy (2012)
– (Sweet Long Red from Trader Joe’s) (2010)
– Garden Leasder Monster Bell (2012)

March 6, 2013 Gardening…

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Everyday when I go out in the garden, I check the seeds that I’ve sown to see if anything new have sprouted. As I was walking by, I noticed that the soil in the two trays with the Wildflower and Flower Garden Mix was uneven. I think the birds have been using this as a bird feeder! Argh!… I’ll probably have to sow more seeds and put these trays into a dome or in the patio.

Carrot (Blend of Color Mix) Sown

After harvesting some carrots yesterday, I was excited to sow more seeds. I planted a square 3″ cell pack with Blend of Colors Carrot Mix. I’ll have to search online to see if I can get just purple Carrots.

Homemade Cactus Mix

I was running out of Cactus Mix, so I mixed up some using 4 parts regular potting soil, 1 part play sand and 1 part perlite.

Lithops lesliei Albinica Sown

I used this mix to sow Lithops lesliei ‘Albinica’ seeds into a 3″ pot. I can’t wait for these to grow.

Snow?

I’ve been watching the fruit trees to see what fruit tree is about to open it’s bud so I can start grafting onto it. So far the Asian Plums have bloom and the flowers are starting to fade. It looks like it’s been snowing.

Stark Saturn Peach in Bloom

The Cherry and the Peach trees look like they will open within a week. The Stark Saturn Peach graft has already bloomed ahead of it’s host Elberta Peach.

Thai Basil

After heading back inside when it got too dark to garden, I plucked the leaves off a bunch of Thai Basil I bought at the Asian Grocery… and saved a few cuttings to hopefully root. I’ll make a Basil Eggplant dish with the leaves tomorrow.

March 2013 Harvest Day

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Today’s harvest (for March Harvest Day):
– Dinosaur Kale
– Flat Leaf Parsley
– Green Onion
– Red Russian Kale
– Red Giant Mustard
– Blend of Colors Carrots
– Walla Walla Onion

Today's harvest (for March Harvest Day)

It’s been a long time since I harvested Carrots. They took a long time to grow and there wasn’t many, but you don’t find much white and yellow Carrots at the grocery.

Harvested Carrots

I want to grow more of the non-orange ones, especially the purple ones.

Chopped Carrots

I made a Pizza (or Tart) using only vegetables that I harvested…

Pizza/Tart

and had so much vegetables left over that I made, so I also made a Veggie Frittata.

Veggie Frittata

Busy Gardening Day…

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It was a busy gardening day. I started by planting a few Green Onions bottoms with the others I planted last week.

Planting Green Onion Bottoms

I start grafting onto our two Asian Plum trees:
– Bubblegum Plum (which I’m really interested in tasting, so I grafted it in two locations)
– Plum ‘Golden Nectar’
– Pluot ‘Flavor Supreme’

People Watcher

This bird kept watching me as I was grafting scions onto our Plum tree. I thought it would fly away if I moved, but even after I walked around and climbed the ladder, it just stayed there. It eventually flew away.

I wanted to graft some Cherry scions, but I couldn’t find any good sites to graft onto… So I left it, and I’ll check our Cherry tree later.

Planting Swiss Chard, Beets and Mesclun

I had some plant that have been in cell packs since the fall, and they are still alive, so I planted the Swiss Chard into 5 gallon fabric pot and Beets ‘Chioggia’ into a large Daiso pot. I had two leftover Flat Leaf Parsley which I planted into a 3 inch pot for now, until i find a permanent place for them in the garden. Hopefully, these plants will grow big despite being left in their cell packs.

I also did a bunch of seed sowing. I sowed all of the Zesty Salad Mesclun Mix into a medium Daiso pot. I don’t think these grew well in the past and I just wanted to get rid of the seeds.

Sowing Spring Greens/Flowers

I planted the rest into cell packs:
– Agrostemma ‘Ocean Pearls’
– Agrostemma ‘Milas’
– Bok Choy ‘Fun Jen’
– Bok Choy ‘Purple Choy’
– Kohlrabi ‘Early White Vienna’
– Bok Choy ‘Summer Boy’

Kiwi Leafing Out

A couple of the Kiwi plants have started to leaf out. I was worried that they died in the winter at their new location, but they seem to have pulled through. They was a couple dead/dried out branches which I trimmed. The rest of the blue bin where they were was empty, so I decided to plant a row of Super Sugar Snap Peas.

Sowing Sugar Snap Peas

Afterwards, I did a major trim of the European Plum tree in back of our storage. There were tons of dead limbs and limbs that sagged down. I tried to clear the bottom so we had walking space and just get rid of too much of the mass. I think it looks better now and hopoefully will grow better. Unfortunately, the Kirke Blue Plum that I grafted to it dried up.

Unusual Vegetables…

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I saw yougrowgirl’s photo on Instagram of the book “Unusual vegetables: Something new for this year’s garden“. The font on the cover reminded me of old gardening books I had when I was young. I was curious and looked it up on Amazon. The cheapest new copy was $103.52… but they had a used (very good condition) for 1¢… so I went ahead and bought it.

Asian Plum & Cherry Graft Progress… and Garlic Planting…

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I was going to start grafting onto our Plum tree, but our neighbor decided to take down part of our shared fence (without telling us) and fix it up…

Plum 'Inca' Graft Progress

So I decided not to graft and just take inventory of the Plum and Cherry grafts that survived. Some grafts didn’t make it, but several seems to have survived:

– Plum ‘Golden Nectar’ (Graft 2012-01)
– Plum ‘El Dorado’ (Graft 2013-03)
– Plum ‘Inca’ (Graft 2011-01)
– Plum ‘Sierra’ (Graft 2011-03)
– Plum ‘Elephant Heart’ (Graft 2009-04) Folia
– Plumcot ‘Burbank’ (Graft 2012-02) Folia
– Pluot ‘Flavor Supreme’ (Graft 2010-04) Folia
– Cherry ‘Merton Premier’ (Graft 2010-01) Folia
– Cherry ‘Burbank’ (Graft 2011-08)
– Cherry ‘Lapins’ (Graft 2009-02) Folia

Sprouting Garlic

The Garlic Folia we harvested last year (but haven’t used) are starting to sprout.

Sowing Garlic Bulbs

I split them apart and planted each bulb into a cell pack. Once they grow a little more and root out, I’ll plant them in the garden.