Tag Archives: pests

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'

March 6, 2013 Gardening…

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Everyday when I go out in the garden, I check the seeds that I’ve sown to see if anything new have sprouted. As I was walking by, I noticed that the soil in the two trays with the Wildflower and Flower Garden Mix was uneven. I think the birds have been using this as a bird feeder! Argh!… I’ll probably have to sow more seeds and put these trays into a dome or in the patio.

Carrot (Blend of Color Mix) Sown

After harvesting some carrots yesterday, I was excited to sow more seeds. I planted a square 3″ cell pack with Blend of Colors Carrot Mix. I’ll have to search online to see if I can get just purple Carrots.

Homemade Cactus Mix

I was running out of Cactus Mix, so I mixed up some using 4 parts regular potting soil, 1 part play sand and 1 part perlite.

Lithops lesliei Albinica Sown

I used this mix to sow Lithops lesliei ‘Albinica’ seeds into a 3″ pot. I can’t wait for these to grow.

Snow?

I’ve been watching the fruit trees to see what fruit tree is about to open it’s bud so I can start grafting onto it. So far the Asian Plums have bloom and the flowers are starting to fade. It looks like it’s been snowing.

Stark Saturn Peach in Bloom

The Cherry and the Peach trees look like they will open within a week. The Stark Saturn Peach graft has already bloomed ahead of it’s host Elberta Peach.

Thai Basil

After heading back inside when it got too dark to garden, I plucked the leaves off a bunch of Thai Basil I bought at the Asian Grocery… and saved a few cuttings to hopefully root. I’ll make a Basil Eggplant dish with the leaves tomorrow.

Coleus I.C.U.

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We’ve had nice weather the past few days, but it started to rain today. I’ve slowly been hardening some of my plants and taking them outside, but I haven’t started on my Coleus… except of 4 healthy ones. I just don’t want to chance a few days of cold weather killing or weakening them.

Overwintering can be a pain to maintain, but keeping a majority of my babies alive is worth it to me. I’ve gotten a little bit discouraged because a few Coleus have died after all those months taking care of them… and the mealy bugs are driving me crazy!!! I hate trying to control them. At least, I think a majority of the ants are gone.

Earlier this week, three of my Coleus seem to have just wilted. One day they were healthy or semi healthy, then the started drooping… I think something happened inside the stems and water stopped going up (or something like that).

I’ve have to do emergency precautions and snip the tips which I think will survive, and immediately dip them in water to relive them. It worked for one at home; the other two are at work and I will see how responded in the morning. I hate seeing some of my babies in I.C.U. but last year I had one Coleus that looked like this… recover and look like this.

BTW, These are half of my overwintering Coleus which are at work:

Overwintering Coleus at Work 1 Overwintering Coleus at Work 2 Overwintering Coleus at Work 3 Overwintering Coleus at Work 4 Overwintering Kong Hybrid Coleus at Work 1 Overwintering Kong Hybrid Coleus at Work 1

Mealybugs!!!

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A few of my overwintering Coleus are infested with Mealybugs. Since I wasn’t that busy at work today, I took some time to brush off all the Mealybugs I could find. I’ll examine them in a few day to make sure they don’t return.

Before and After:

My #1 Enemy: Mealybugs!!!   Mealybugs (After)

2 More New Succulents + The Birds

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I bought two more succulents from the dollar store. One’s a columnar cactus with four sides. The other is a Echeveria/Aeonium-type with greenish/blue/gray diamond/spoon shaped leaves. (How’s that for a description?). I’ll have to take a photos of my four new succulents I got this week and see if anyone can identify them.

When I got home, my Mom tattled-taled on the birds and told me that she saw them eating my Peas leaves!!!! Damn-it!!!!… I haven’t seen the Peas yet, but I’ll take a look tomorrow… Hopefully, they are okay and can rebound… I think I need to get a net to keep those birds out.

Murderous!

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When I got home from work, it was almost dark, but I wanted to just put the Elephant Garlic into the ground to start growing. Before I started, with flashlight in hand, I checked the Swiss Chard, Lettuce and Boy Choy I repotted yesterday…

AHHHHRRRGGGG! Something ate them!!!

All the Lettuce were completely gone. All the Bok Choy were gone with the exception of a few decapitated ones. Luckily, most of Swiss Chard were fine, but it looked like a few were pecked at or nibbled on. (I guess birds–or whatever ate the seedling–don’t like Swiss Chard that much)

Decapitated Bok Choy

Pecked At/Nibbled On Chard

I’m suspecting that the birds ate them, because I’ve noticed them in various parts of the garden, when I have been gardening. I also found these marks on one of my Snow Pea leaves:

Beak Marks?

I resowed Lettuce and Bok Choy seeds and hope they grow quickly to replace the ones I lost. I placed the plastic cover from my large Jiffy Greenhouse Trays… Luckily it’s the perfect size for these trays.

3 Ornamental Grass Plantings

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Tuesday, June 6, 2006

I planted three of the Ornamental Grasses seeds that I found:
– Purple Fountain Grass (from Costco) ( seed photo )
– Unknown California Rush-like Grass (from shopping center on Mini Dr. & Sonoma Blvd.) ( seed photo )
– Unknown Japanese Rush-like Grass ( from Sears parking lot at the Tanforan Mall in Daly City) ( seed photo )

I also cut down my Coleus ‘Dragon Black’ because it was getting too top heavy and infested with mealy bugs. I’m rerooting the two tops it had in water and will repot once I see roots.

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

I wanted to take the day off but my boss already took the day off, so I went to work and it was so dead. I spent a good part of the day going through some of my unorganized photos, deleting duplicates and blurry ones… I usually take multiple shot per subject to ensure at least one being focused correctly.

Once I got home, I went through the whole garden and took a whole lotta photos since it was still fairly bright outside. I noticed that the flamingo flower and siberian iris have started to bloom.

I then did some maintenance, pulling up weeds and overgrown plants being careful to to get the newly emerged ladybugs.

I hope I can take half a day off tomorrow so I can start preparing my bed for new borders-not a task I’m looking forward to doing, but something I really need to do so I can start planting in them.

Telegraph Hill + Lens + Coleus Pots

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Today (Tuesday), I ate lunch at my desk, but later it was a little slow, so I decided to walk around. I went up Telegraph Hill again, but it was a lot warmer than my previous hike, so I was panting… I took a couple of photos including a massive clump of that mystery weed I’ve been wanting to ID… I also found it’s flowers. I’ll post those later. I also saw a Passiflora that seemed to just be growing wild on the hillside. I don’t think I got a clear shot of it though.

When I got home I got the package of the Telephoto and Wide-angle Lens… I was very pleased with the company because they also upgraded my shipping to two day air for free and included a free Lens Conversion Adaptor, a free Mini Tripod, a free Lens Cleaner (Solution, Tissue and Cloth), a free Brush/Blower and free Packing Popcorn! All this for the price of two lens which was about $30 each. I think the deserve an A+!!!

There was a little bit of light, so I planted a few Coleus pots.
Coleus pot #11: 2 ‘Kong Scarlet’ cutting (from last year) + 2 ‘Kong Hybrid’ seedlings (seeds I harvested last year)
Coleus pot #12: ‘Joey’ (He deserves a pot of his own)

I noticed that a few of the remaining Coleus (that I haven’t potted up) are quite leggy and infected with more mealy bugs!!! I think I will have to decapitate these and reroot them. I took a look at some of the others that were already potted and I think I will have to do the same.