Tag Archives: kale

Gardening on the Last Weekend in August

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Saturday, I cleaned up the square where I previously planted the four Fun Jen Bok Choy that was attacked by some digging critter.

Four Red Winter Kale Planted

In its place, I planted four Red Winter Kale plants and placed wire edging around it to try to deter whatever critter did the digging last time.

Bok Choy 'Fun Jen' Potted Up

I then decided not to plant some of the other Fen Jen Bok Choy in the square foot garden bed and planted four in a large Daiso pot.

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Tricolor' Potted

The Tricolor Hydrangea that I recently purchased looked like it need to be potted up, so I did that, placing it in a 3-4 gallon pot. I also moved it over to a more shaded area.

My Aunt and Cousins came over and I gave them some Red Giant Mustard and a cutting from both my Santa Barbara Red Dragonfruit and the Dragonfruit that I grew many years ago.

Dragonfruit Progress

Now that I see my old Dragonfruit plant getting bigger and bigger, I really need to figure out where to plant them. I initially thought of planting it by a pole in the front yard, but I noticed the Santa Barbara Dragonfruit in that area gets too much sun and is getting bleached out, so I need to fine a more shaded location.

Unknown Succulent

As I was cleaning an area under our Bosc Pear tree, I noticed a multi-stem succulent that was growing there, it started rooting but was still able to pull it up. I thought it would look nice if it were properly planted into a pot and given more light. So I planted it into a 3 gallon pot. I didn’t know what it was, so I posted a query with a photo of it to Flickr and Instagram and some responded that it was a Sedum praealtum.

I noticed that the Bromeliads that I purchased back in June (2016) are doing well.

Neoregelia 'Lucky ???'

The Aechmea recurvata of them actually has two pups now.

Aechmea recurvata

I moved the Echeveria ‘Chroma’ from the front yard where I thought I may get attached by slugs and snails to the back to join all my other succulents.

Echeveria 'Chroma' Blooming

I took six cuttings from a broken Iresine branch and also potted up a little Spearmint cutting.

Iresine and Spearmint Cuttings

It was already dark Sunday evening and I ended my gardening by potting up a Masdevallia barlaeana ‘Harold’ that was still in a 2-inch pot into a hanging Orchid basket.

Masdevallia barlaeana 'Harold'

More Brassica Sowing

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More Brassica Sowing

Sowed a few more Brassica seeds:
– Bok Choy ‘Joi Choi’
– Bok Choy ‘Fun Jen’
– Kale ‘Dinosaur’ (G2/2010)
– Arugula (G2/2012)
– Kale ‘Red Winter’

Garden Transformation

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This morning, I woke up early (for a Saturday). I was looking forward to going to the nursery to see if they had any Cabbage and Lettuce plants.

I first went to Walmart and checked the garden center and found a couple of succulents that I liked. One was a Rock Purslane (Calandrinia spectabilis) that I’ve been looking for for a while now. Who knew that out of all places, Walmart would have it. The second was Pachysedum ‘Ganzhou’ which had a cool color. I’ve been checked the vegetable section and found a 9-pack of Bonnie’s Best Cabbage and Buttercrunch Lettuce.

My name is Joel... and I'm a plant addict.

I then drove to Mid City Nursery to see what they had. I ended up with a few plants including:
– Onions ‘Walla Walla Sweet’
– Cilantro ‘Slo Bolt’
– Flowering Cabbage ‘Red’
– Shasta Daisy ‘Goldfinch’

The owner came up to me and ask if I needed any help. So I asked him why my Kumquat plant has dying branches. He asked if I had it in the ground or in a pot I replied in a pot and he said maybe its not getting enough water. So I’m hoping that his explanation was correct and that my Kumquat doesn’t have a disease.

When I got home, I decided to pull out the Zucchini plants because they were not doing well and it didn’t look like they would produce any more fruits. In its place, I planted Portuguese Kale. I also pulled what pot of Swiss Chard that were also not doing well. I added new compost and planted 6 Buttercrunch Lettuce plants.

I also pulled all my Tomatoes in the Self Watering Rain Gutter Grow System #2.

I think the Tomatoes are done for the year... so I'll be pulling them out and planting Cabbage in its place. The green in the photo is Parsley which are starting to bolt.

I planted the new Cabbage into each pot.

I'm going try to grow Cabbage this year. Wish me luck because I have never had good luck with Cabbage.

In the Square Foot Garden, I planted 2 squares of the Walla Walla Sweet Onions.

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

April 18, 2012 Gardening…

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I divided more of the Portuguese Kale (from a crowded cell pack) and potted about seven of them into 3″ pots. There are still a bunch in the cell pack. They sure planted a lot of seeds.

Portuguese Kale Potted Up

I didn’t know where to plant the three Asparagus crowns I bought a month or two ago… so I temporarily placed them into a small pot with soil. They started sprouting and are getting tall, so I potted each one into a separate 5 gallon pot with lots of manure, compost, fertilizer and Azomite. I left about two inches at the top of the pot and will fill it in with more compost later.

Asparagus Roots

My Mom says that her Tuberose has never bloomed, so I am going to repot them and give them a good supply for organic fertilizer, compost and Azomite. Hopefully they will bloom for the first time this year!

Tuberose To Be Repotted

There were a bunch of Bloody Dock seedling volunteers in the Tuberose pot. I’ll divide them up and plant them in individual containers. I think I will donate some to the Vallejo Garden Club.

Tuberose Repotted

I didn’t think the Red Potatoes were going to sprout, but today I saw that they are starting.

Red Potato Finally Sprouting

Finally, I harvested more Red Giant Mustard and Swiss Chard. We seem to have a neverending supply of them (pretty good for a 6 cell pack).

Harvested Red Giant Mustard and Swiss Chard

4 Squares Planted + Big Greens Harvest…

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I did a bit of gardening today, since the weather’s finally cleared up. It’s been raining for the past few days and parts of the garden are slightly flooded, but most of the garden got a good dose of water, which is good. I placed out a bunch of empty buckets and plastic storage boxes and collected as much water as I can get. Our rain barrel was filled to capacity and my Mom placed an empty trash can under the rain spout in back for the garage, but we found out today that it had a hole at the bottom. :(

Our Red Giant Mustard are still growing, but they probably just have about 2 more harvests left before bolting… so I want to keep the Mustard as well as some Kale and Mizuna coming. I planted 4 squares (4 plants each) in the Square Foot Garden today:
– Mustard ‘Florida Broadleaf’
– Mizuna (Red Leafed)
– Kale ‘Rainbow’
– Mustard ‘Red Crimson’

I then went around the garden and picked a bunch of greens!!!… Mostly from the front yard, but also got some Kale from the back. The greens include: Collards, Curly Leaf Kale, Dwarf Blue Curled Kale, Red Russian Kale, Redbor (G2) Kale, Kailaan, Broccoli Raab, Bright Lights Swiss Chard and Beet greens.

Lots of harvested Greens: Collards, various Kales, Gailaan, Broccoli Raab, Swiss Chard and Beet Greens

Click the photo above to see the annotations on Flickr.

Harvested Broccoli Raab and Bright Lights Swiss Chard

I chopped then up and sautéed them with Onions, Garlic and olive Oil with a touch of Chicken Stock, Salt and Pepper… and they turned out so good!

Sautéed Homegrown Mixed Greens (and Yellows and Reds)

Berkeley Plant Purchases…

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I stopped by two nurseries in Berkeley and found some really cool plants, that I had to purchase.

From Westbrae Nursery:
– Meadow Foam (Limnathes douglasii)
– Rose Campion (Lychnis coronaria)
– Sugar Snap Peas

From Berkeley Horticulutral Nursery:
– Broccoli Raab ‘Zamboni’
– Gai Lan ‘Green Lance’
– Leaf Broccoli ‘Getti di Naoli’
– Portuguese Kale ‘Galega da Folhas Lisas’
– Kale ‘Redbor’
– Tree Collard (Purple Stem)
– Snow Pea ‘Golden Podded Pea’

Another Busy Gardening Day…

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I started the day off harvesting some Swiss Chard ‘Green’ for lunch… My Mom used it in Filipino dish called Nilagang Manok, which literally translated means Boiled Chicken. I really love Swiss Chard, including the stems which remains firm when cooked. They are not stringy like some Bok Choy stems.

After lunch, I when to the garden and did a bunch of seed sowing. A few years ago, I experimented with winter sowing. I used milk jugs as containers, but didn’t have such good luck. I think the base didn’t have enough soil and it dried out too quickly. This winter, I’m going to use 6-8 inch pots as the minimum size. I also used standard 1-gallon containers. I filled the pots lower than if I were to plant a plant in them. This will leave some protection when the seedling emerge. I used plastic covers with elastic sewn in the edges to cover the pots. These were pretty cheap; I think the box came with 12-18 covers for $1. This will keep the soil from drying out and I think the elastic may even help keep the slugs out… which is another problem I had previously. I sowed the following seeds:

– Agrostemma ‘Ocean Pearl’
– Alyssum ‘Gold Dust’
– Zinnia (Fall 2005)
– Mystery Flower (maybe Gazania Daisy?)
– Sunflower Lemon Queen (old seeds that I found hidden away in storage)

I wanted to get rid of some really old seeds like the Sunflower above and I also found two packets of Radishes from 1984!!! I emptied the two packets (Radish ‘Red Deveil B’ and Radish ‘White Icicle’) into a 12 inch pot… I don’t really expect them to grow, but if any are still viable, here’s their change to grow.

I planted a 10 inch pot with lots of Cilantro seeds that I harvested last year. I hope the Cilantro grows densely so we can harvest a lot. I then replenish one of the 3-gallon GeoPots that we harvested the Purple Bok Choy from and planted a bunch of Lettuce ‘Wildfire Mix’ that I bought a few days ago. I still had a bunch of seedling, so I potted to into large cell-packs to plant out later.

I’m not sure where to plant the other new plants I got, so I divided the small-packs of Kale ‘Rainbow’ and Kale ‘Siberian’ into 3 inch pots, so they can grow a bit before I figure out where to plant them. I was surprise how healthy the young seedlings were. I was able to divide the Kale ‘Rainbow’ into 17 individual pots!!!… and I’ll give some away to friends and relatives.

I also started grafting, since our Asian Plum tree near the storage is starting to bloom. I grafted four total today and will do more later:

– Asian Plum ‘Golden Nectar’ (Graft 2012-01)
– Plumcot ‘Burbank’ (Graft 2012-02)
– Asian Plum ‘El Dorado’ (Graft 2012-03)
– Apricot ‘Canadian White’ (Graft 2012-04)

I hope these take.