FH and YC's 2008 Garden

Did end up at Swanson's, with A. She ended up buying five roses; all very pretty: Dreams Come True, Diana, Peace, Black Magic, and Strike it Rich. We (FH) planted them in the mulched area beside her driveway, where they look like they've been all along.

So, our plant haul:

Peppers: Beaver Dam (heirloom, sweet/mildly hot), Healthy (OP, sweet) and King of the North Green Bell

Tomatoes: Black Cherry, Cherokee Purple, Principe Borghese, Glacier

Mint: Kentucky colonel mint, Moroccan spearmint

Yellow crookneck squash

Cippolini onions

Leeks

On the plus side, we didn't wait in the checkout line very long. On the other hand, I also didn't get most of the plants I had wanted to get. There were barely any plants left. I'm sad I didn't get either the shiso or sorrel, or any of the heirloom cherry tomatoes.

Moral of the story: even if the line is super long, go on Saturday for selection.

We might make it up to Sky Nursery later today so I will update with the plant haul later.

It's finally warm enough to go outside to get some gardening done! Also, we had the first P-Patch meeting for the growing season on Saturday. The meeting was short, so we turned the scrubby fava beans into the ground and met a few fellow gardeners.

Then, Fuchsia Day at Fred Meyer. Varieties I got:
Pink marshmallow
Blue satin
Harry Gray?
Swingtime
Lena

Also picked up 6 geraniums for A; we'll see how they do.

Cut blackberries and the overgrown vinca back.

Also pruned the roses at FH's mom's.

I need to get to planting!

• One pot of Italian flat-leaved parsley (that ended up having nothing short of a dozen parsley starts)
  
• two genovese basil starts (I forgot to start those this year)
  
• "Jaune Flamme" tomato (the seeds I got didn't germinate, try again next year)
  
• "Japanese Black Trifele" tomato
  
• Artichoke, "Green Globe", bennybot's experiment
  
• mint julep

Let's see, what's happened... I started tomatoes, started the cucumber seeds I got from Richard, transplanted the lettuce, kale, rocket, broccoli into cellpacks, and weeded dandelions from the yard. I think at this point, I have filled an entire yard waste bin full of dandelions. I should have taken a picture, but was far too tired. I really hope the yard waste gets solarized, but I think it must, as it's also our food waste.

Anyway, on to the fun part, the pictures!

The herbs, at least, think it's spring. Here's the thyme and oregano. I think my oregano could be modelling on a seed packet cover, somewhere. Maybe even a centerfold, but not that I had anything to do with it. The thyme is looking suddenly a little ragged, I think it's about to flower. But both pairs of herbs have doubled since my last pictures. I stuck my foot in one of the pictures to show some scale. I have a very reasonable size 7 foot, too.

Here's the catnip, also huge. Notice how the leaves get bigger and bigger as you get up to the top of the plant.

And the sage, about to flower.

My peas, which I have made to look prettier by dramatic camera angle!

Sad little stunted spinach

Inside, the zucchini are really taking off, and the cucumbers are puttering about. All the other little guys are growing along as well.

And finally! I am on the tomato bandwagon. These are seeds from WinterSown.org. The bottom left in the plastic tub are peppers.

Oh yeah, p.s. Happy Earth Day. I'm a little grumpy about it this year, as it's turned into such a fad. I guess it's good to have awareness, but as a fad, people don't understand the reasoning behind doing whatever... so it's all enthusiam with perhaps, misdirected direction.

9 April 2008

I have new cucumber seeds compliments of Richard (of Sinfonian Garden Adventure fame)! These will be slicing cucumbers, a hybrid called "Green Slam" from Territorial. I met up with him for lunch downtown. I traded him some of my pickling cucumber varieties for his slicer. It was supposed to rain today, but clearly our lunch date was too important and the skies graciously cleared for a lovely sunny day. Seattle-sunny, actually. For any other city, it would've been a Mostly Cloudy day. Time permitting, I'll put these in a coffee filter fold to soak. The other ones are only about a week and a half old, and are working on their stub of a true leaf.

All the sprouts are growing quite nicely. Even the corn mache is slowly poking up and turning a nice deep green. I have about five wild arugula sprouts. They are so tiny! The 4 o'clocks kept growing like I never pulled them from the peat pots. The ball summer squash is going to be huge. I saw the loop emerge two nights ago, and last night, it had already unfurled. The seed leaves are HUGE, almost beaver paddles. Then again, the cucumber seed leaves are also huge, considering how small a seed they used to be in. I need to start the acorn and spaghetti squash, I think. Hopefully, I won't regret the plethora of squash at the end of the summer... still, I'm quite pleased with how easy it is to grow them to purchased seedling size.

I bought some nylon-coated wire last weekend, should be able to get some good trellises out of that. Thanks GardenGirl!

11 April 2008

Sproutling picture time! I could probably stand to put these out in the garden now, but something has been eating my radish greens so I want them to be a bit bigger before planting out. Also this heat wave is so novel that I think it won't last. What's this "summer" thing people talk about, anyway?

The squash has grown incredibly in the last five days (left to right). It's scary. I have four beaver tails formed, and probably two to follow. Guess I'll be potting these up this weekend! The smaller leaves are the cucumbers, the two huge ones and the two behind are zucchini squash. No, I don't know what I'm going to do with four plants worth of monster zucchini, why do you ask? (I suppose two will go in the P-Patch.)

Four o'clocks are doing quite well. I guess they'll go in one of the side beds, eventually.

Leafy veggies are also doing quite well at just under two weeks old. I'll be planting these into separate containers this weekend.

And finally, a few shots of my house and neighborhood at sunset tonight, just to inspire jealousy. Every once in awhile, the rain dries, the clouds lift, and we are firmly reminded of the beautiful place in which we live. ....wait, no, that's a lie! Don't move here! :D :D :D :D

Haven't done any updating in awhile. I like that after I get everything planted and sort of going, all I have to do is wait before cool things happen. Given the long hours at work, a week can really fly by.

Here's the speedy cucumber sprouts. Only one hasn't broken through the soil yet. I think I know to not point the seed down for next time, because it makes it hard for the sprout to shed the seed coat. I moistened the seed coat, though, so hopefully that'll keep it soft enough to shed naturally.

My time-bomb 4 o'clocks seem to be doing quite well. Even the really leggy one (lower left) has slowed down its growth. Sweet marjoram (planted 3/18), small, but chugging along.

The newest sprouts on the block, 3 days old (planted 3/30): a tiny bibb lettuce "Tom Thumb" and some "domestic" (not wild) arugula/rocket. I bought some wild arugula this year from Pinetree, and still have these more common ones from Lilly Miller. They sprouted very quickly the last time I planted them as well.

Finally, the light setup that FH put up for me. Ignore the bulb in the ceiling in the distance: that's part of the basement we inherited. This is actually sort of a ledge into the crawl space under our house, so the "floor" is really a tall counter-height. It's chest-level for me, but I am short. Anyway, we bought a shop light fixture (electronic ballast) and cheap fluorescent tubes, a timer that would take a 3-prong grounded plug, a length of chain and some S hooks. Two screw hooks hold the light up. When I want to raise the lights, I just change where the S-hook from the light hook into the chain. It's a bit lilted now, as the seedlings to the right are slightly shorter than the ones to the left. I would like to add some reflective white sheeting around the plants.

Fred Meyer had their annual planting day, where if you go buy plants, they'll pot them up for you in a pot you provide. The fuchsia were beautiful, beautiful starts. So I got 9 of them, had them planted four to a hanging basket. Varieties: {Pink Marshmallow (x2), Blue Mirage and Bella Rosella }, Lena, {Archie Owen (x2) and Deep Purple (x2)}

Fuchsia variety info:
"Archie Owen" - trailing, double Sepals, Soft Pink; Corolla Soft Pink Bronzy foliage
"Bella Rosella "- trailing, double sepals pink; Corolla Magenta. Largest blooms of all -- tennis ball sized??
"Blue Mirage" - trailing, white-pink flush/pink to blue double fuchsia
"Deep Purple" - trailing, double, white Sepals, Dark Purple Corolla, large blooms
"Lena" - trailing, semi-double, pink sepals, Purple and Magenta Corolla, Will take more sun
"Pink Marshmallow" - trailing, double, white sepals, White tinged Pink Corolla, large bloom, light colored foliage

FH picked up a rose which he had put into his old ficus pot. We had a different miniature rose before, but I can't remember what happened to it. This one is a beauty.

Then I went crazy with the repotting... the old, completely root-massed spiderplantlet in the bathroom (it had grown so rootbound, there were more roots than dirt in the pot) got its roots torn off (mostly) and repotted into actual dirt... loosened up the cyclamen, hoping that the summer sun through the windows will encourage stockier growth and blooms... finally, dissected the african violets! Per a library book, I pulled off all of the old leaves. The one that grew plantlets in water got its own little pot. One plant got repotted deeper, back into the same pot. The weird double plant (it grew itself into a mohawk) that had leaves coming everywhere, was evidently, actually FOUR different crowns. I cut it apart, tried to mash the little stem-nubs into some moist medium, covered it with a ziploc bag, and now I'm hoping they'll take.

Casualties: a couple dozen leaves, which I'm leaving in water in the hopes that they'll all develop roots. And then I will have a million AVs and will have to give some away. Oh woe. :) I'm probably going to move these into a ice cube tray when they start rooting.

Planted a Calla Lily bulb for indoors, will put the other three into a bigger container, and probably find another small pot for the last tuber. Or I could go stick it in the ground.

Removed the 4 o'clocks from the peat pellets and put them into a 9-pack square. I hope I don't kill them... had to break off some roots.

Been a busy last few days. I checked the garden this morning, and about a third of the Oregon Sugar Pods peas have broken through to the surface. They live! Of course, these are the frontline, so to speak. They're the ones that had the most root development before they went into the ground.

Found my arugula seeds at the bottom of the Pinetree box.

I am horrible at these titles for the posts. Ah well. It will probably get me later.

We had a landscaper come in and take first-stock of our yards, all 5,000 square feet of it. It does have a lot of potential, I think. The first thing he offered was an patio that could be semi-private. FH started drooling in the head after that. But he made some pretty tip-of-the-iceberg suggestions that seem obvious now, but well. Landscaping (and 3D aesthetics in general) is not among my talents.

My poor 4 o'clocks were gamely sprouting along in their coffee filter, even putting out some green in the fleshy leaf that came out! Guess those little time-bombs had something substantial inside. I stuffed a whole bunch of them into the last of those dratted peat-pots. Planted a few replacement sweet marjorams, trying chives, yet again, and a whole flock of impatiens. My studio is turning into a plant factory.

I think I mentioned that the orchid is budding... it's still doing that.

Checked this morning for more sprouts in the outside garden. No new ones, though something pooped in the pea bed.

I am completely indecisive about when to plant tomatoes! Though, FH and I chose varieties this morning. We'll be going for 8.. Cherokee Purple, Blondkopfchen, Tiger-Like, Earliana, New Yorker, Jaune Flamme (thanks penguingardener!) and SuperSweet 100s. I only hope to get utterly sick of tomatoes again.

Status update, from my 10 second glance this morning.

Radishes: still growing
Peas: One seed "heaved" from the ground. Haha, no, it's not frost heave, as it's been nowhere near freezing. I think something picked it out of the ground, as it wasn't covered completely. Poor thing. Nothing's sprouted yet; guess it's been kind of cold.
Beets: Finally! A small loop of red this morning.
Four o'clocks: Uh oh, one shed its seed coat already in the coffee filter. Definitely must do something about that one tomorrow!!
Spinach, Kale: still there.

Sending off some acorn squash and paprika seeds to penguingardenertomorrow...gotta make them a custom carrier out of leftover foam board.

Peas on 3/10, just before planting. Soaked in wet coffee filter for four days (soaked 3/6).

Spinach on 3/15, with seed leaves unfurled (planted 3/2).

Radish on 3/15, seed leaves (planted 3/2). Almost all of them are up! Missing a few, though. Maybe I planted those too deep.

Bigger images in the Flickr set.

Pea swelling is going fine. All the Oregon Sugar Pods will probably have the little radical root tips quite developed by tomorrow. The seed peas for that variety are round and smooth, whereas some of the snap peas and shelling peas alternate between fat and smooth, and wrinkled. Gregor Mendel, where are your notes? I think my older seed is definitely less green, but still viable.

All three varieties of sweet peas (Supersnoop, Royal Family, Early Mammoth) are soaked, as are the rest of the 4 o'clock seeds (little bomb torpedo shaped).

We got two new pots from 1/2 Price Pots for "the Spikes" (aka the acer palmatum Japanese maple saplings from Emery's), this time, with drainage holes! FH transplanted the spikes from their sealed bottom pots. Drainage is a good thing. Also discovered that Fred Meyer has cheap pretty pots, even when they're not on sale. Hmm! An orchid pot is about $7, not too bad.

Picked up some African Violet special soil from Fred Meyer; the three plants I have are all a bit sickly looking, so I think it's time for some pampering. A month ago, I cut down one that's been hanging on in just water (big rotten mess of roots) to a single leaf, which has happily taken root in water, and produced several small new leaves. But it's still in water, so it needs a proper home. Hopefully I will get around to prettying up the house plants as well as the outside yard.

Neat new garden tool today -- it has a three-pronged cultivator on one side, back to back with a mini-hoe. Handle is extendable. This takes out those big, flat weeds in the lawn and beds like nothing else! Whack, and pull, and the whole plant and root comes out. This could also be because the soil is at that perfect moistness level right now, too. It's good to have good drainage and a Southern exposure just about everywhere on our corner lot. FH mowed the lawn today (fixed our electric mower, yay!) and our lawn actually looks pretty good! May need to overseed those areas where I pulled the weeds out, though. So, with this new toy, I weeded our herb patch, and pulled out the buggy marjoram. Will have to start another couple of those!

FH also completely turned over and weeded the small flower bed next to the porch. I pulled out the fat dahlia tubers, but missed two, and they got impaled! D'oh. I hope they survive anyway. This could be a great place to plant the sweet peas now, and have the dahlias come up later.

I am super-undecided about our strawberry bed. There's no dirt in it, but the old strawberries are putting out flowers already... what to do, what to do... new strawberries are hopefully not drying out. Need to put in the new hydrangea, too, and remake the flower beds.

No veggies have sprouted yet.

A few days late, but better late than never.

Saturday

Plants purchased: pack of 25 Tristar Strawberries, an Endless Blue hydrangea, two small 4" spike hybrid lavenders ("Fred Boutin" and "Grosso") from Swanson's. The two lavenders are placed into the SW corner of the herb bed, and the bareroot hydrangea and strawberries are temporarily covered with dirt until I clear space for them.

Noticed my bush peonies were trying to grow in the bag, so I planted them out by the basement door in front of the rose bush. Temporarily, as they're too close together. The front flower bed is completely overgrown by weeds again, and I haven't had the time to get it back into shape yet. Then I'll probably move the dahlia and peony around.

Sunday

FH prepped the raised beds for our veggie garden. The dirt got overturned, weeded (old onions pulled out), perlite and peatmoss added (to break up the heavy, clumpy Cedar Grove compost from last year). I pounded in nails to split the 4x6 beds into a grid of 18 (12" x 17") so as to better distribute the things planted. I tried the strict SFG method the first year in the P-Patch, and it worked okay, but I like to give the plants a little more room as I "feel like it" now. I put in beets (Red Ace), radishes (Cherry Belle, Champion), kale (Dwarf Scotch Blue), spinach (Olympia), carrots (Thumbelina), and some old lettuce seed by seed color that will probably never get used up. I'm hoping for a lush square of young lettuce leaves like at the Garden Show. All seeds were from Fred Meyer, 50% Ed Hume.

FH also tore out our old hydrangea, that barely leafed, and barely flowered. It was probably undertended, but... well, all gone now! I like the mophead type better anyway.

Annnnd, that's it. Still no pictures yet, as I can't decide which of our free/paid for image hosts I should use.

Really should soak some peas for planting, but, must sleep.

• Got some more plants from Fred Meyer; 2 $1 bacopa plants (fairly sizeable ones), some more petunias to finish out the row
  

• FH and EH hauled dirt to do up the herb patch, which was then planted. Two heathers, two cilantro, four parsley, two sweet marjoram, two basil, one bush basil, two thyme, two oregano, the remaining green onions, a sage, catnip, and the peppers I grew from seed. It's like Noah's Ark, for plants.
  
• I weeded the strawberry patch/rows, and added the beds of compost/peatmoss around.
  
• Planted the self-watering hanging basket with the SuperCascade Petunia, bacopa, and trailing lobelia
  
• Planted the two green plastic rectangular planters with impatiens and lobelia.
  
• Weeded the rose bed.
  
• Planted the remaining sidewalk strip under the bee tree with more impatiens from Fred Meyer ($1 for four plants)
  
• Moved all blueberries to east side of house. Blueberry Row!

• Green Beans - Masai (P), Kentucky Blue (P)
  
• Cucumber - Lucky Strike (P) ?