Tag Archives: cucumber sikkim

Happy Birthday Nanay!!!… Let’s Garden…

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Today is my Mother’s birthday, so I took the day off to do anything she wants to.

We started the day by going to DMV to getting her ID card renewed. When they gave us forms to fill out, I noticed that out of all the clipboard they had, they gave us one that had yellow flowers drawn on it.

DMV Clipboard

Afterwards, we went to the dollar store (I found out it’s actually a 99¢ store) to see if they had new garden stuff. I bought some bulbs ( photo ) , and terra cotta pot and an Elephant Garlic bulb (from the grocery area). I’m actually going to plant the Elephant Garlic and see if they grow. Not bad for 99¢.

When we got home, we just worked on the garden. The Sunflowers ( photo ) in the front yard are dying, so I chopped them down. I had four piles: stalks, seeds for the bird to eat, seeds for next year and stems and leaves for the compost pile.

Four Piles

My brother then came home with two new plants for my Mom. A variegated Raspberry Ice Bougainvillea and a dual colored Thai Delight Bougainvillea.

Raspberry Ice Bougainvillea   Thai Delight Bougainvillea

I sowed some seed:
– Sweet Peas ‘Streamer Mix’
– Mighty Red Oak Lettuce
– Bloomsdale Savoy Spinach

I planted the Snap Peas seedling from the six pack to veggie bed #1, using the Sunflower stalks that I chopped down earlier as support for these.

I also pulled out the dead Sikkim Cucumbers plants and cut the bottom dead leaves off of the Lemon Cucumber and Tomatoes.

Fruits and Veggies…

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I took this photo a few days ago… I think the birds got to them today.

Grapes

The first Sikkim Cucumber

Young Sikkim Cucumber

Italian Plums washed and ready to share with co-workers

Italian Plums

It’s Hot…

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Yesterday, I spent the day in San Francisco, celebrating my friend Wincy’s Birthday. We went to the West Portal district and had a Mexican lunch… Yumm!… Afterwards, we walked around the shops. I happened to see a hardware store that was selling a Coleus… so, knowing me I had to get it. Hello Coleus ‘Red Ruffles’.

Today, it was really warm, reaching the mid 90s (°F). Once it cooled down a bit, I fertilized with a water soluble fertilizer, spray almost all my plants. That was pretty much the extent of my gardening.

I did notice that the tomatoes are finally fruiting… and I saw my first tomato!!! YEAY!!! It’s a Great White Tomato that is about half an inch wide. The Cucumbers are also starting to flower. Below is the Sikkim Cucumber blossom.

My First Tomatoes

Sikkim Cucumber Blossom

While in the garden, I snacked on some of our yummy Italian Plum, which I think is my favorite fruit in the garden.

Yummy Italian Plum

Message Bean Emerges

Oh yeah, one of the Message Bean has emerged. The other one rotted :(

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)

Seed Purchases

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I had some time to kill at work and did some seed shopping online:

I ordered these Asian herbs and veggie at Evergreen Seeds:

– Large Leaf Korean Perilla – Coleus-like Perilla with a unique flavor between mint and basil
– Tia To Vietnamese Perilla – Green color leaves with purplish red on the back
– Red Stripe Leaf Amaranth – Edible large green leaves with red stripes
– All Red Edible Amaranth – Edible all red leaves
– Mino Early Daikon Radish – A long-time Japanese Daikon Radish favorite
– Smooth Beauty Luffa – Light green skinned edible Luffa
– Maiko Garland Chrysanthemum – Edible Asian Greens
– Thai Lemon Basil – Thai Hoary Basil

I also ordered these hard-to-find and usual plants at Amishland Heirloom Seeds:

– Strawberry Spinach – (Chenopodium capitatum) Spinach and Strawberries in one
– Sikkim Cucumber – (Cucumis sativus var. sikkimensis) Cantaloupe-like Cucumber
– Brandywine OTV Tomato – A sub variety of the famous Brandywine Tomato
– Scarlet Chinese Eggplant – (Solanum integrifolium) Miniature Pumpkins-like fruits
– Great White Tomato – Big white Beefsteaks