Mail Order Eggplants + 5 Gallon Self Watering Buckets

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.

July 4th Gardening…

My Masdevallia Orchids in the hanging wooden pots I made are doing quite well. I replaced the string from the two of the pots where hanging on with much stronger galvanized wire.

The flowers of the Masd. Huayna Picchu and Masd. Ruby Slippers ‘Baby’ continue to bloom…

I see a new Masd. Huayna Picchu flower spike forming. It’s interesting how many tiny spots there are on the flower and the flower spike.

I took dead leaves off Masd. Red Panda, but I noticed that it has new growth.

Told my Mom that as one of my Orchid flower matures, the bottom petals cross over. She replied, “just like what I do in my exercises.

I divided the Dragon Fruit Cactus and potted it up into a larger terra cotta pot. Hopefully, it’ll continue to grow larger.

I noticed that the Euphorbia platyclada has tiny little dark yellow blooms, which are not noticable until you really look at it closely.

On the opposite end, the Rebutia krainziana is putting up very noticeable yellow blooms. This is the second round of blooms for this cactus this year.

I noticed that the two Japanese Long Purple Eggplants both have fruits. One has three and the other just one… but they both continue to have flowers, even though they are still just about a foot tall. I hope they grow taller.

I planted two more Coleus pots today. In one pot that I found the Plectranthus argentatus ‘Longwood Silver’ in, I planted a big dark maroon leafed Coleus with no name.

In another pot, I planted:
Coleus ‘Sedona’
Coleus ‘Electric Lime’
Coleus ‘Mariposa’

For some reason, some of the leaves on the Tomato ‘Rutger’s Select’ are burning from the sun, but the other Tomatoes next to it are fine. I hope that they’ll be okay and just keep growing.

I harvested some seeds from a plant I purchased from Annie’s Annuals, but I can’t remember what it is called… something Tips… I’ll have to look it up…

Saturday Gardening…

The Asparagus Pea is growing nicely and is about twice the size I bought it. I see at least four tiny pods. I wonder if Asparagus Pea (Tetragonolobus purpurea) is an annual or perennial here.

First Asparagus Pea Pod...

I made a couple combination pots. I potted a Rudbeckia hirta ‘Prairie Sun’ into a existing pot with Dahlia ‘Jack-o-Lantern’ and Sedum ‘Angelina’. (photo below left)

Rudbeckia hirta ‘Prairie Sun’ Combination Pot

In another pot, I planted Salpiglosis ‘Kew Blue’, a volunteer Persicaria ‘Painter’s Palette’ that a found and an unlabeled plant from Annies Annuals. (photo above right)

I also potted up my Sugar Cane plant from a one gallon pot to a five gallon one. I was debating wheather to put the Sugar Cane in the front yard or behind the storage to get more sun. My Mom thought it would be better behind the storage, so that’s where I placed it.

Repotted Sugar Cane

I see one Tricolor Bush Bean sprouting up in the hanging pot I made a few days ago. Hopefully the rest will come up soon.

Refreshed a pot with 3 year old Tweedia caerula by adding compost. Also planted seedlings grown from seeds from this plant into this pot.

I’m glad to see that the Scarlet Chinese and Easter Eggplants from last year survived and have new growth.

Eggplant Plantings…

Planted a Black Beauty and 2 Japanese Long Purple Eggplants in Veggie Bed #2.

Sprouts…

12:40am Statice Rainbow Mix is sprouting… #

12:50am I can see leaves emerging from the three Hippeastrums bulbs that overwintered outside. #

12:55am Forgot to post about some new sproutings:
Sunday 3/14 Black from Tula and Rutger-Select Tomatoes;
Monday 3/15 Beefsteak Tomato #

1:00am New sproutings:
Tues 3/18 African Orange Eggplant;
Wed 3/17 Red Bell Pepper and Easter Eggplant #

1:02am I was checking the seedlings outside and noticed that the Whirligig Zinnia sprouts was gone. I think I may need to plant more of those… #

3:23pm (Reposted from @megzzz) The Oldest Trees on the Planet bit.ly/cmszlJ #

A Whole Bunch of Gardening Going On…

12:45pm I’ll be planting alot soon and almost out of blank plant labels, so I’m erasing (they were written with pencil) used ones to be reused… #

4:06pm Tulips and my Mom’s Azaleas are blooming the the back yard… #

4:19pm Borage, Osteospermum and Snapdragon are blooming… #

4:28pm Comice Pear graft, Asian Pear near sink and Persimmons are starting to open its buds… European Plum near veggie bed is starting to bloom… #

4:31pm Envy, Fruit Smoothie and (Seeds from 2005) Zinnias are sprouting… #<

5:39pm Sowing 3 types of Tomatoes: Black from Tula, Beefsteak and Rutger-Select… #

5:43pm Sowing various Peppers: Emerald Giant, Golden Marconi, Red Bell, Carmagnila Rossa (G3), Sweet Mini Red, Sweet Mini Orange and Thai Dragon… #

5:49pm Sowed other Nighshades: Easter Eggplant, African Orange Eggplant, Congo Trinidad Pepper, Datura Golden Queen and Datura Purple Queen#

5:54pm Almost forgot to sow the Scarlet Chinese Eggplant (G2) seeds… #

6:36pm My Mom is top dressing her hanging tuberous Begonia with compost… They are starting to sprout… #

6:46pm Sowed some flowers in cell-packs outside: Tithonia Torch, Moonflower, Cleome Rose Queen and Cleome Four Queen#

6:46pm Sowed even more flowers in cell-packs outside: Orange Butterfly Flower, Blue Flax, Statice Rainbow Mix and Coreopsis Plains Bicolor#

6:47pm Sowed Strawflower Dwarf Mixed Colors in milk carton container… #

6:50pm Sowed 4 veggies into cell-packs outside: Misome, Miike Purple Giant Mustard, Marvel of Four Seasons Lettuce and Broccoli Raab#

6:51pm Kiwis, Figs and Pomegranates are starting to leaf out… #

6:54pm It’s been a busy day in the garden and it’s now dark… I would stay out longer to sow more seeds, but the mosquitos are annoying me!… #

10:35pm I noticed that the Sugar Cane now has a second sprout. The first one is about 3 inches now… #

Potato/Tomato Idea…

I’m debating if I should experiment and plant a Potato plant this year… Not only do I want to grow a Potato plant, but I want to graft a Tomato plant onto it, kinda like this one from Spring River Nurseries. The only reason I’m hesitant is because I read that the yields for both would be inferior to planting both the Potato and Tomato separately.

I’m not really concerned with the Potato yield, since any Potato harvested would kinda be a bonus… and maybe I can use a Cherry-type Tomato, since those just grow too wild (big) in our garden.

I’ll give it some more thought… and do a little more research…

[Update] After posting this, I had another thought. I don’t know if this can be done, so I’ll research it more later… I wonder if an Eggplant can be grafted onto a Tomato rootstock. The Eggplants I’ve grown never seem to get big and don’t bareany decent fruits, so I wonder if this would be a good experiment to see if a grafted Eggplant would grow more vigorously on a Tomato rootstock.

Eggplant and Zucchini Clay Pot…

My friends Howard and Bill gave me a clay pot for Christmas and I used it this evening for my first clay pot dish.

Eggplant and Zucchini Clay Pot

I actually cooked the eggplant and zucchini in a wok, then finished it in the heated clay pot. Ingredients include eggplant, zucchinni, oil, onions, ginger, garlic (lots of it), oyster sauce, fish sauce, soy suace, sesame oil and an egg.

Clay Pot Instructions

The clay pot came with these instructions in Japanese… which I can’t read… so if you can read this, can you translate it for me? :) Thanks in advance…

☉ I got some tips from Violet Oon in this YouTube video: Cantonese Chicken in a Clay Pot