A Little Bit of Winter Gardening…

I got a little bit of gardening done this weekend. I went through the cell packs I planted in the late fall and got rid of the pots which failed to grow seedlings. I found some Mushrooms in some.

Mushroom Mushroom Mushroom...

There were Celtuce that surprisingly survived, so I planted those into a large Daiso pot.

Transplanted Celtuce

I also pulled a lot of weeds near Veggie Beds 1 and 2 and pick off damaged and dead leaves from plants.

Litchi Tomato Flower Buds

As I was weeding I noticed that there was another volunteer Litchi Tomatoes, making the total to three plants now. They are also starting to form flower buds. These are sure strong plants… or maybe they like cooler weather. I’ll have to pot these up into a large container and give Litchi Tomatoes another try.

Calendulas

Around the beds, volunteer Calendulas and Daffodils are blooming.

Daffodils

Spring Starflower

I even caught the first Spring Starflower to bloom, which means there are about 100 more to come.

Fruit Flower Buds

Also starting to bloom are some fruit trees, including the two unknown Asian Plums, the grafted Inca Plum and surprisingly a very very early grafted Anna Apple. I’ll have to start grafting Plums next weekend.

I wish I had more time to garden.

Father’s Day Gardening…

After having a great Father’s Day with a big BBQ lunch for my brother… then a short nap… I work in the garden a bit.

I’m slowly cleaning up the Square Foot Beds and this evening I started collecting seeds from the dried up volunteer Wild Calendula plants so I can cut them down to make room for new plants. There were quite a few seeds and I’m sure several dropped before I got to collect them… but those will form the plants for next year.

Dried Wild Calendula Wild Calendula Seeds

As I was cutting the Wild Calendula, my Mom started cutting down the bolting Beets Folia in a nearby square. These Beets are actually pretty old–they were planted May 2008… and I don’t have the heart to chop them down completely. I’ll just let them grow and pick off the young leave to use for greens… though I’m debating weather to move them or just let them stay at there current location.

I noticed that the volunteer Cerinthes Folia are already dropping seeds…

First Plum Harvest

I picked my first Plum Folia fruit from the tree next to the sink. It’s not completely ripe but still good… sweet with a little tartness. Yumm!

New Orchids + Wild Flowers + Swiss Chard Harvest…

11:52pm I purchased 5 Masdevallias: Masd. Red Panda, Masd. Huayna Picchu, Masd. Ruby Slippers ‘Baby’, Masd. Flying Colors & Masd. Tovarensis… #

New Orchids from POE 2010

11:53pm I also bought Maxillaria tenuifolia (Coconut Orchid), Bletilla striata var alba (White Chinese Ground Orchid) and Epidendrum Green Hornet#

12:10am Short orange flowers are in bloom along the freeway near El Cerrito. I think they are Wild Calendula or something similar. #

12:18am The hills along the freeways are really green with splotches of yellow from the Wild Mustard flowers. My Mom says the hills looks like maps. #

11:29pm Harvested some Swiss Chard (about 8 bigs leaves) from the garden and will try to dehydrate them like the Kale Chips#