Tag Archives: sow
Off to Vacation…
I’m off to a vacation with my three friends Howard, Bill and Dave to Southern California to visit our friend Rachel who is having her Bat Mitzvah.
I started waking up early, but before leaving home, I quickly planted some seeds. I figured that they’ll have a four day heads start if I sowed them now than if I sowed them when I return. I planted Coreopsis ‘ Plains (Bicolor)’, Yu Choy ’50 Days’, Broccolu Raab and Misome into Jiffy Peat Pots… my first time using this medium. I placed them into a propagation tray with a plastic lid (mini-greenhouse) and once I see sprouts, I’ll start hardening them off and bring them outside.
We left the Bay area around 11am and the weather was not bad, but after a hour or so it started pouring rain. At times, I think it was hailing, but most of the time it was sprinkling.
After a few hours driving, we stopped at San Luis Obispo at get some gas and some lunch at Burger King. It’s funny, because I saw a Bottlebrush Bush–I think that’s what they are called–at the Burger King parking lot and upon close examination, found what I think are seeds. So, knowing me, I collected some…
We continued driving and the weather got better. We drove on 101 because we heard that Interstate 5 required chains because of snow. The drive is longer, but I must say the views are nice, especially once we got to the Ventura/Channel Island area. We could see the Pacific Ocean and it was beautiful.
Some things I observed on the road was that there were lots of wild Prickly Pear Cactus and Agave along the freeway. There were also many Orange Orchards and I think we past by a place called Monrovia. I don’t know if that’s where the plant grower Monrovia is located, but I did see a lot of greenhouses and plant growers along the highway.
We encountered the evening commute around the LA area, so we were in stop and go traffic and it was bad. I was driving at this point and I hated it. My hands were sweating since it was stressing me out just a bit. We finally reached our destination around 9 or 10pm, checked into our hotel room then grabbed a bite to eat. Afterwards, we headed to bed and I checked my email, updated my Facebook and all that stuff.
Busy Nights…
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
I asked Micheal, (one of my best friends) who started his own garden design business a few years ago, if he wanted some Agrostemma ‘Ocean Pearl’. He did, so I planted three more six-cell packs outside.
Later after dinner, I sowed more seeds from penguingardener (Maraming Salamat!):
– Tomato ‘Bloody Butcher’
– Easter Eggplant Hybrid
I then got zealous (is that the right word?) and even though it was late, decided to transplant the Tomato and some Eggplant seedlings into larger drinking cups.
OMG!!! That took a while… It was really really late, and I was only about half way done, so I decided to do the rest next next day.
Oh yeah… I found a mutant Tomato Seedling.
This Tomato seedling either…
1. had a leaf bending down that went through a side stem, or
2. had another seedling fuse right into the stem, pinning one of its leaves.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
I started hardening off the Tomatoes and Eggplant seedlings I transplanted yesterday by taking it outside when I left for work, then bringing them in when I got home.
Michael emailed me asking if I can also plant some Bells of Ireland, so I passed by Target after work and bought some seeds.
I transplanted the rest of the Tomatoes into more drinking cups. I have so much!!! I think I have about 26 individual plants in drinking cups.
I then sowed some Pepper seeds:
– Tricolor Variegata Pepper
– Carmanola Rossa Pepper
– Topepo Rosso Pepper
The last two are from penguingardener (Maraming Salamat Ulit!):
I also performed surgery on three dying Coleus (Velvet Lime, Amazon and Dark Star Hybrid) that I mentioned yesterday.
I really hope they survive!!!
More Found Plants + More Sowing
I collected a few cutting along my way to work this morning. I got a sprig of Fairy Crassula (Crassula multicava) and an unusual relative of the Ice Plant (Oscularia deltoides). I also found some Aspargus Fern seeds (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Meyersii’).
Once I got home, I planted these as well as the three other succulents that I found last Saturday.
I sowed a few more seeds:
– Red Pear Tomato from penguingardener
– Wonder Light Tomato (Lemon-like Yellow Heirloom Tomato) also from penguingardener (Thank you, Thank you!!)
– Red Texas Star Hibiscus from gypsy_soul
– Pink Flowering Maple (Abutilon) also from gypsy_soul (Thank you, Thank you!!)
A few more seed just started to sprout:
– Orange Ornamental Peppers from Virginia (sown 3/1, 7 days)
– Calendula ‘Pacific Beauty’ (sown 2/20, 16 days)
Sown Lithops Seeds + Peanut Progress
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
This evening I finally planted the 100 Lithops seeds that I got from eBay.
Don’t let the size of these seeds fool you… They are tiny! For comparison, I placed grains of sand which are the larger pieces in the center of the photo.
I drilled holes on the bottom of a plastic storage container (4.5 x 7 inches), then filled it with strained potting soil mixed with crushed perlite and sand.
To make sowing the tiny Lithops seeds easier, I mixed the seeds with sand then sprinkled the mixture on top of the soil. I hope these all grow.
I also transplanted the Peanuts that I just planted 12 days ago into a larger container. They have grown very quickly and I don’t think I’ll have room for them in my room. I’m hardening them off by placing them on my window sill until I bring them outside and plant them in an even larger container.
3 Ornamental Grass Plantings
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.
Back to Sowing…
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.
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)
Outgrown Again…
I’m running out of room on my shelves for the seedling I planted, so I got another 2 tubed fluorescent shop light. Instead of a 2 footer, I got a bigger 3 footer, which will still fit on my shelf, but will stick out of one side by about 3 inches.
I rearranged the shelves, trying to optimize the little space I have. I left the aquarium, but removed the aquarium light and just placed the 2 footer shop light on that shelf. On the other is the 3 footer.
Once everything was done, I plugged in the lights and it was so bright!!! I didn’t realize that the 3 footer gave off so much light than the 2 footer. My vegetable seedlings will love this!
I also planted one lone Coleus ‘Exhibition Magma’ seed. That’s the only one I could find. Hopefully, it’ll grow.