Another Earthquake + Vlog + Repottings…

This morning, I was waken up by another earthquake. It sounded like someone pounded on my bedroom window and shook my loft bed… and since I was up on my loft bed, I thought to myself that I need to get down, just in case. I then saw on the news that it was another 3.7 magnitude earthquake and the epicenter was about at the same location as yesterday’s earthquake; about 6 miles south of us.

I’ve been watching YouTube quite a bit lately and have learned a lot about gardening, sewing, quilting, cooking, DIY projects, etc. There are several YouTubers who I admire and watch regularly… and this got me thinking… Maybe I should make some videos to add to this blog… So later this afternoon, I got out my FlipVideo MinoHD camera which I hardly use, since I don’t really do much video, and gave it a try. I got this camera as a gift for being the employee of the year at my previous job.

My first attempt was just an introduction to my seedlings in newspaper pots sitting in the front yard. I basically, showed my various Bok Choys, Chard, etc. It was though getting into it, but after a while I just kept talking and talking… which was weird, because I felt like I’m talking to myself.

I then shot another video of me transplanting my Daikon seedlings into a Dirt Pot fabric pot. I’m trying an experiment to see if how well Daikons will grow if I sowed them indoors under grow lights until they have sprouted for about 3 day, then hardening them off outside for a day or two. They were a bit leggy, but I buried them deep so the first set of leaves where just above the soil line. I haven’t had any luck growing Diakons in the past and hopefully this method may work, since it’ll be in full sun in the front yard.

I noticed that the volunteer Bells of Ireland plant was all dried up, so I pulled it up and collected its seeds. The bract-like stuff surrounding the seeds were aged and looked like lace… (I can’t think to the word for this process)… Many of the seeds already fell, so we should have some volunteers, but I’ll still plant all the seeds I collected into a 1-gallon pot to winter sow. I’ll transplant them once they sprout and develop a few leaves.

A bunch of plants in pots are in need of a bit of soil replenishing, before they started actively growing. First, I just added compost, azomite and worm castings to a small Daylily ‘Frank Hals’ pot to bring up the soil line.

I then emptied the pot of Orange Bottlebrush Ginger which really needed repotting. The roots were massive and winding around several times. There were two distinct branching of the Ginger corm and I decided to divide it in two. I didn’t really know what to do, so I just pretended it was a Bearded Iris. I cut a majority of the root ends leaving about 4 inches on the corm and broke away the oldest corm segments. I then repotted the two cleaned up corms into a larger 5-gallon pot. I hope this encourages this Ginger to flower. Its only flowered once in the past and I was away, so I didn’t see it.

I found another small pot of a Peruvian Daffodil which I think will benefit with new soil. I dug the bulbs up and there were 5 healthy bulbs all close together. I can’t remember how many I originally started with and I can’t seem to find a record of when I bought these. I spread the bulb apart and repotted them with some added compost, azomite and worm castings.

Sage + Rain Barrel Overflow + Yam Leaves + Sprouts

10:54am Happy “Blame Somebody Else” Day!!!… Go out and blame someone for something!!!… hehe #

6:01pm I showed a coworker how big my Sage plant has grown :: he then told me about a Brown Butter Sage Sauce j.mp/cdclHW #

Sage Overflown Rain Barrel

6:18pm Our rain barrel overflowed during the last two days of rain #

6:19pm Found out Turmeric comes from a plant in the Ginger family :: j.mp/9RAU0n #

11:19pm Got some Yam leaves from the grocery store. We’ll cook the leaves like Spinach, and save the stems to root and plant #

Yam Leaves

11:32pm Just 4 days after sowing the Envy Zinnia, Whirligig Zinnia, Fruit Smoothie Zinnia and Lettuce Leaf Basil are sprouting… #

Renee’s Garden + Chayote + White Ginger…

9:43am My Chayote is now 2.25 inches tall… #

4:25pm Whoa… Renee’s Garden just added me as a friend on Flickr :) #

10:24pm Found some White Ginger (Galanga?) at Ranch 99… I think I’m going to try to grow it… #

Late Night Gardening

Before going to bed last night, I did a little late night gardening.

Ginger
Ginger: Last year, I tried planting Ginger… and they grew… a little, then died. I found some Ginger sprouting in our pantry, so I’m going to try to grow them again this year.

Peanut Seeds
Peanuts: I also remembered that we had a bag of raw Peanuts, that we bought from the Filipino grocery store. We either cook these in the microwave or make Boiled Peanuts. I’m going to see if these peanuts will sprout.

Coleus Tilt-a-Whirl Seedling
Coleus ‘Tilt-a-Whirl’ Seedlings: I re-discovered two poor neglected Tilt-a-Whirl seedlings that I planted about a year ago, but somehow lost. They were never repotted and were still in the little plastic drinking cup that they were planted in. I finally separated them and repotted them into new potting soil. I hope they survive… heck, they survived almost a year in that little drinking cup…

Unknown Weed + New Cuttings

As I was walking to the carpool from work, I saw this weed underneath a street tree and thought is was cool, so I took a few cutting of it to try to root.

Unknown Weed

The stems are reddish brown and slightly hairy. The main stem seems semi-woody, since I could not pinch it off. Anyone know what this is?

SOLVED: This is White Snakeroot ‘Chocolate’ (Eupatorium rugosum) ( DG PlantFile )

Here is a close up of the leaves.

I’m also trying to root these other two cuttings I got:

Three New Cuttings

top: Unknown Weed (from above)
left: Perilla Magilla ‘Vanilla’
right: Euonymus Fortunei Radicans ‘Harlequin’ (Bigleaf Winter Creeper)

Here is a photo of the Taro and Ginger I planted earlier this morning.

And finally, Calli wants to show you a new trick:

Calli's New Trick

Afterwords, she discovers Marty inside the house.

( Portions also posted in Gardening )

Late Night Planting (Again)…

I woke up in the middle of the night… or should I say very early morning… and left like planting.

I planted four more Taro sprouts I found, along with two Ginger sprouts. Hopefully, the Ginger will grow and not die like the previous ones.

I also cut the Forsythia right below where the roots have formed and replanted them, this time giving them more space and only putting two in each pot.

A few of my cuttings have these ugly looking white/beige bugs that kinda looks like tiny little long oval dinner rolls. They have a white web thing surrounding them. I tried to hand pick them, but I don’t think I can get all of them. Some are about 1/8 of an inch, but many are just 1/16 of a inch or smaller.

Tired and Busy, but I Had to Clean the Babies…

I’ve been tired and busy lately and haven’t had time to do any gardening, although I stayed up late last night and did some maintenance on the Coleus cutting in my aquarium. There were a few aphids and some type of white bugs, so I took every cutting and brushed them and submerged them in water. I also took the time to give them fresh water and get rid of dying leaves and cuttings. A few didn’t make it, but others are doing fine.

The Coleus ‘Bronze Pagoda’ was getting big and doing well, so I took it to work to make some room in the aquarium.

The Unknown Coleus from Target is also looking strong, so I’m going to pot it up in soil pretty soon and also bring that one to work.

I also ID’ed one of my Coleus, from a flickr user who posted his photo ( link ) in the Coleus group I created. It is called ‘Oompah’.

At work, the ginger is showing it first set of leaves. I also noticed two more ginger sprouts growing on our ginger at home. I’m going to take these to work and pot it in soil.

Look What I Found Sprouting…

Look what I found sprouting in the kitchen. I’m going to bring this to work and pot it up until the weather gets warm enough outside to plant.

Ginger
Ginger