Tag Archives: cucumber lemon

A Lot of Gardening Be Done…

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I was pritty much out in the garden from about 1-9pm, with an exception of about an hour nap. I got caught up in a lot of gardening tasks.

I added more amendments to the veggie bed I’ve been working on. I have more than three quarters filled. The other quarter still has Chocolate Mint, some Columbines, and Hyacinth bulbs which I still have to dig up. I may just leave it like this for now. I added two more trellises and transplanted (more) Lemon Cucumbers, Sikkim Cucumbers and Smooth Beauty Luffas.

There’s a short Calamasi tree in the middle of the bed, which isn’t doing well. My Mom says that we have never gotten any Calamansi to grow well in the back, so she was open to pulling it out and planting it in a 5 gallon or bigger pot. I’m still not sure if I will pull it or not.

I planted two Pineapples that were rooting in water into small pots. I now have a total of three Pineapple plants.

I also potted some Thai Basil that was leftover from a Pho lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant. It really sprouted a lot of roots in water.

Thai Basil   Thai Basil Roots

I dead headed a lot of the flowers in front as well as collecting some Columbine seeds. Some of my Coleus are starting to bloom, so I removed the blooms so they can focus on growing more.

I also remembered that I bought two of those Message Bean thingies back in December and set them up following directions. After about an hour, I was so curious to see what kind of seeds they were, so dug them out. They were huge beans that I didn’t recognize. Instead of planting them in the little containers they came in I potted them up in drinking cups with potting soil.

Magic Sproutz Egg Plant and Secret Fortune   Message Beans

I potted up the Kalanchoe tubiflora that grew from leaflets ( photo ) I found into a terra cotta pot.

Potted Kalanchoe Tubiflora

I also transplanted two Pines that I grew from collected seeds into one gallon containers. These are my future Christmas trees. (see my next journal entry for photos)

My brother got a total of three pallets of damaged potting soil, mulch, etc. bags from Home Depot. Each pallet contains about 10 bags for a little over $5. I can’t remember how many pallets he said has gotten so far. He also go a garden gate on clearance from Target.

Amending and Planting in the Newly Prepared Veggie Bed

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Wednesday, July 5, 2006

After the mortared veggie bed has dried, I started breaking up the hard clay soil and added compost, steer manure, soil conditioner, potting soil and fertilizer to about a third of the bed. I didn’t have time to do the whole bed, since I had to dig up some Bearded Iris that hasn’t been divided in I-don’t-know-how-many years.

This is the clay I had to break up

Before Adding Soil

Here’s a third of the bed after amending it. I didn’t finish until about 9pm; that’s why the photo looks dark.

1/3 Filled with Soil

Thursday, July 6, 2006

I staked in a trellis and planted Lemon Cucumber and Swiss Chard in the newly prepared veggie bed. Again, I didn’t finish until about 9pm; that’s why the photo looks dark.

Cucumbers

My back and muscles now are sore!

Weekend Gardening… Stinky-Stinky!…

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Saturday, June 10, 2006

I didn’t do any gardening, but took a few photos in the garden.

The Avocado that we found sprouting in the compost bin last year has survived the winter outside very well. I didn’t realize how much it has grown in 11 months. I’ll have to repot this into a 5 gallon pot soon.

One Year Avocado

My Mom harvested the Shallots she planted a while back, but the bulbs didn’t get too big. They were growing in a mostly shaded area and the soil needed to be amended badly. We are going to replant the smaller bulbs in the newly amended veggie bed under much more sun. Hopefully that’ll make a big difference.

Shallots

She was telling me that she loves these either chopped up with tomatoes and added to fried fish, or pickled with Garlic, Carrots, Green Papaya and Labanos (Diakons/Radish).

Later in the afternoon, we went shopping at Target, the Filipino Grocery Store, Food for Less and the 99¢ store. At the 99¢ store I got a grafted Cactus that was starting to flower and my Mom got a bunch of six Lucky Bamboo both for 99¢.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

I did a bunch of this and that on Sunday.

I sprayed the Roses, Snapdragons and Dahlias with half and half solution of skim milk and water. Hopefully, this will deter black spots and mildew or rust (I forgot which one).

I also sprayed almost everything’s leaves with fish fertilizer. Stinky-stinky!!!! Note: remember to close your windows if you spray your plants with fish fertilizer!

We had more Taro and Ginger sprouting in the kitchen, so I planted those in six-packs.

I emptied the one-galloon pots that had Caladiums from last year, which all died… but I found tons of earthworms which I relocated to veggie bed #1.

Earthworms

The Cucumbers were getting too big for the 12-pack Mini Greenhouse, so I transfered them to 4 inch pots, because I haven’t finished the other veggie beds.

I continued to work on veggie bed #2, but I still have to finish one of the side, which has Breaded Iris and Chocolate Mint growing against it. I think we also have some Hyacinth bulbs there which I have to dig out carefully.

I planted another Coleus pot with ‘Saturn’s Rings’, ‘(Mislabled) Show & Tell’, ‘Burnt Sienna’ and Heuchera ‘Amber Waves’.

Back to Sowing…

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I’ve been feeling ill since Saturday. It was like I had severe allergies and a flu all in one. I was so stuffed up and had such a hard time breathing. It sucked!… I had a 4 day weekend and wasn’t able to garden any of those days.

Although, I don’t quite feel 100% better… I planted a whole bunch of seeds in these cool cell packs I got last week from Big Lots. The 12-pack Mini Greenhouses were 99¢ each and the 9-cell packs were 97¢ for six. As an added bonus, eight 9-cell packs will fit perfectly into my Jiffy (72 pellet) Greenhouse.

Six 9-packs   12-pack Mini Greenhouses

Here’s what I planted:

– Mighty Red Oak Lettuce (3)
– Simpson Elite Lettuce (6)
– Maiko Garland Chrysanthemum (3)
– Smooth Beauty Luffa (6)
– Zinnia (saved from Fall 2005) – I think it’s ‘White Profusion’ (9)
– Thai Lemon Basil (3)
– All Red Edible Amaranth (3)
– Red Stripe Leaf Amaranth (3)
– Borage (3)
– Large Leaf Korean Perilla (3)
– Tia To Vietnamese Perilla (3)
– Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard (12)
– Lemon Cucumber (8)
– Sikkim Cucumber (4)
– Gold Dust Alyssum (4)
– Orange Cosmos (4) (thank you treebreeze :)
– Poached Egg Plant Meadow Foam (Limnanthes douglasii) (4)
– Plains (Bicolor) Coreopsis (4)
– Envy Zinnia (4)
– Candy Cane Mix Zinnia (4)

Back to daily postings :)

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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 :(…

Sunday Gardening…

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Sunday, July 10

Early this morning, I harvested my first cucumbers and eggplant. The huge cucumber in the photo is labeled as Yellow Submarine Cucumber. It hasn’t turned yellow as the tag shows, but that thing is 10 inches, but the tag says 8 inches, so I decided to go ahead and harvest it.

Yellow Submarine Cucumber, Lemon Cucumber, Hungarian Sweet Wax Pepper, Millionaire Japanese Eggplant

Fay Elberta Semi Dwarf Peach

The Sweet 100 Tomatoes are really to harvest, but I’ll do that tomorrow.

Our pruning shears are a bit dull, so I sharped them with a sharpening stone, and they work so much better. I don’t think they ever have been sharpened.

I repotted the Avocado that I “discovered” we had (see yesterday’s post). My mom kindly gave the plant to me :)

I took some pictures around the garden…

Tropic White Guava

Alstroemeria seed pods

Sun shining through a Canna Lily leaf and a close up the flower