joeysplanting | Joel Ignacio's ramblings about gardening, life, photography, quilting, food and other geeky stuff…

Boston Marathon Bombings…

Posted on April 18, 2013 by joelignacio

I accidentally saw a few uncensored photos from the Boston Marathon bombings. I say accidentally because someone posted a comment on one of my Instagram photos and when I clicked their username to see their photos, they posted graphic photos of the victims… and the photos were horrific. I could not look at them for a more than a fe seconds. It was much worse than any movie I’ve seen. I literally felt faint when I saw the photos. People had missing limbs and bones sticking out. It was horrific. I pray for all the victims… and for the friends and family of the three people killed.

At first I was angry at the person who posted the photos, but then, I don’t know. The news can not show these images and I understand why… but they are shocking and makes you really think about the severity of what happened. I really hope they find the people who are responsible for these bombings. It’s so hard to believe that anyone would do this and want to cause these death and injuries.

After I heard the news that they have some possible suspects that they seen after seeing surveillance video… it kinda makes me think that I don’t mind having surveillance cameras around in public areas, especially if it will help apprehend murderers and people who perpetrate heinous crimes like this. I know there are people that say our privacy is being taken away… but, I’ll have to think a little more about this… Side note: It reminds me of the laundromat that I go to that has at least 11 cameras inside.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Mail Order Eggplants + 5 Gallon Self Watering Buckets

Posted on April 10, 2013 by joelignacio

I wasn’t going to grow Eggplants this year, because I don’t grow them well… but I heard of some varieties that will grow in containers. I don’t see these locally, so I mail ordered three Mix and Match Eggplants from Burpee.

They arrived yesterday and when I opened the package, the tags from two of the Eggplants were dislodged including some of the soil. Now I’m not sure which of the two varieties is ‘Shooting Star’ and ‘Rosa Blanca’. The Eggplant ‘Fairy Tale Hybrid’ was intact.

I went ahead and built three 5 gallon self watering buckets and planted one Eggplant in each.

I will place them in our front yard which gets full sun. I hope they do well.

Posted in Gardening | Tagged 5GSWB, eggplant | 1 Comment

Frustrated with Junk!

Posted on April 9, 2013 by joelignacio

I have to rant, because I am really frustrated.

Some background: we have so much stuff in our house, because my brother buys so much stuff… and things just get dumped in the living room, in back of the big screen TV, in the garage, in the family room, in the patio, everywhere!!! It’s like a junk yard. His room is so full that he sleeps on the living room sofa!

I want to try to clean our backyard patio because it’s getting harder for my Mom to get around and it’s just a mess. One of the things that takes so much room in our patio is an old lawn mower. I takes about 3-4 by 5-6 feet area and it’s a irregular shape, so things get dumped on it and falls down and it’s just a mess. I want to get rid of the lawn mower, because I don’t use it… and when my brother mows the lawn, which he rarely does, it take like half a day to get the damn thing to get started and it just stinks of gas fumes and exhaust.

I want to get a small reel mower, the kind that you push manually. Our lawn is small so it’s just too much trouble for a gas mower. A reel mower will occupy a much smaller space that we can use for something else… and it can be stored upright. Plus, you can use it right away, because you don’t have to add gas or try to get it started because it wont start up.

So my plan was to get rid of the gas lawn mower and replace it with a smaller reel mower. My cousin even said that they are having a big garbage collection day coming up so he can take the gas mower off our hands.

My Mom was even ok with getting rid of the mower, because she says it doesn’t even work…

But when she confirmed with my brother that it didn’t work… My brother say that he think he can get it to work… meaning HE WANTS TO KEEP IT!!!…

Oh my gosh!… this is so frustrating. It’s so hard to get freakin’ crap out of this house!!! For example… We have a microwave oven that doesn’t work well. We already replaced it with a new one and the “broken” one has been sitting in the patio for several years. One day, I wanted to bring a bunch of dead electronics to the e-waste disposal. My brother wouldn’t let me take the old microwave oven… He told me to leave it here, so being frustrated, I left it there near the front door. If he wants to keep it, he can deal with it… It’s still in the front patio to this day!

So that’s my rant… I’m just frustrated.

Posted in Friends and Family | 1 Comment

Google Reader is Dying :(

Posted on March 15, 2013 by joelignacio

Yesterday, as I logged into Google Reader to read various blog I follow. I got an alert message saying Google Reader is closing down.

Oh no!?!… I’ve come to rely on Google Reader to read various blogs and RSS news feeds, YouTube channels, Flickr photostreams and even friend’s Amazon Wish Lists. I’ve collected many feeds, all categorized into my different interests… (which is a little similar to the categories on my blog).

Luckily, I’ve read a couple articles that will help us Google Reader users move on:
- alternativeTo’s “alternativeTo Google Reader”
- Lifehacker’s “Google Reader Is Shutting Down; Here Are the Best Alternatives”

I’m looking for a reader that is simple like Google Reader, one that has an online website which syncs to an Android app. It also has to work after Google Reader closes down. Here are a couple that I am testing out:
- The Old Reader
- bloglovin’
- NetVibes
- Feedly
- NewsBlur

Posted in Techie | Tagged Google Reader | Leave a comment

Pruning and Dead Grafts…

Posted on March 13, 2013 by joelignacio

I wanted to start grafting some European Pears today, but there were many dead and or broken limbs, so I want through and did some pruning. It started to get dark, so I will continue pruning tomorrow.

I also went through the fruit trees and tried to cut off and remove tags from the dead grafts:
- Peach ‘Sierra Blanca’ (Graft 2008-07)
- E.Pear ‘Winter Nellis’ (Graft 2009-15)
- E.Pear ‘Warren’ (Graft 2010-19)
- E.Plum ‘Coe’s Golden Drop’ (Graft 2011-09)
- Apple ‘Belle de Boskoop’ (Graft 2011-21)
- Nectarine ‘Heavenly White’ (Graft 2012-12)
- Nectarine ‘Stanwick’ (Graft 2012-14)
- Peach ‘Hakuto’ (Graft 2012-15)

Posted in Gardening | Tagged graft, pear, scion | Leave a comment

Tomatoes and Peppers Sown

Posted on March 8, 2013 by joelignacio

I did a bunch of Tomato and Pepper seed sowing this evening.

Here’s a list of Tomato seeds sown:
- Brandywince Red (2010)
- Hippy Zebra (2010)
- Sungold (2013)
- Green Zebra (2011)
- Speckled Red Roma (2010)
- Red Zebra (2010)
- Red Pear Cherry (2007)
- Velvet Red (2013)
- Vintage Wine (2010)
- OSU Blue (2011)
- Large Barred Boar (2011)
- Copia (2010)
- San Marzano (2010)
- Sweet Carneros Pink (2011)
- Lemon Boy (2013)
- Federle (2013)
- Yellow Pear G2 (2011)
- Rutgers Select (2010)
- Tiny Tim (?)
- Red Robin (2010)
- Sungold (2013)

Here’s a list of Pepper seeds sown:
- Chinese Giant (2012)
- Sweet Banana (2010)
- (Orange Bell) (2013)
- Carmagnola Rossa G2 (2008)
- Golden Marconi G2 (2010)
- (from Tomatofest 2012) (2012)
- Gypsy (2012)
- (Sweet Long Red from Trader Joe’s) (2010)
- Garden Leasder Monster Bell (2012)

Posted in Gardening | Tagged pepper, sow, tomato | 1 Comment

Stitch Modern 2013 (continued)…

Posted on March 8, 2013 by joelignacio

The East Bay Modern Quilt Guild’s Stitch Modern 2013 quilt show last month was a great success. We had lectures, speakers, discussion panels, family activity day and even a sew day. I tried to help out at most of the activities and take photos, which you can see on my Flickr photoset called “Stitch Modern 2013 Quilt Show“.

The show is done, but the San Francisco Quilters Guild asked if we would display our quilts as a special section of their quilt show QUILT San Francisco: Evolution of an Art Form, which runs Saturday and Sunday, March 9 and 10, 2013 at the Concourse Exhibition Center (635 8th Street, San Francisco). They graciously allotted a large space for us to put up our quilts, which we set up earlier today. Most of the quilts from our Stitch Modern 2013 travelled to San Francisco with some others joining the show.

More info:

QUILT San Francisco: The Evolution of an Art Form
- QUILT San Francisco: The Evolution of an Art Form
- Terri’s Sneak Peak at The Fox’s Den

Stitch Modern
- My previous Stitch Modern 2013 post
- My “Stitch Modern 2013 Quilt Show” photoset
- Stacey’s Stitch Modern 2013 Wrap Up on the EBMQG blog

The East Bay Modern Quilt Guild
- The East Bay Modern Quilt Guild blog
- The East Bay Modern Quilt Guild on Facebook
- Upcoming EBMQG events on Facebook

Posted in Quilting and Sewing | Tagged East Bay Modern Quilt Guild, EBMQG, quilt, Stitch Modern | Leave a comment

March 6, 2013 Gardening…

Posted on March 6, 2013 by joelignacio

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Posted in Gardening | Tagged Asian Plum, basil, basil thai, bird, cactus mix, carrot, cherry, lithops, peach, peach elberta, peach stark saturn, pests, plum, sow, wildflower | Leave a comment

March 2013 Harvest Day

Posted on March 5, 2013 by joelignacio

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

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.

I want to grow more of the non-orange ones, especially the purple ones.

I made a Pizza (or Tart) using only vegetables that I harvested…

and had so much vegetables left over that I made, so I also made a Veggie Frittata.

Posted in Cooking, Gardening | Tagged carrot, carrot lunar white, carrot solar yellow, green onions, harvest, kale, kale dinosaur, kale red russian, mustard, mustard red giant, onions walla walla, parsley | 1 Comment

Busy Gardening Day…

Posted on March 1, 2013 by joelignacio

It was a busy gardening day. I started by planting a few Green Onions bottoms with the others I planted last week.

I start grafting onto our two Asian Plum trees:
- Bubblegum Plum (which I’m really interested in tasting, so I grafted it in two locations)
- Plum ‘Golden Nectar’
- Pluot ‘Flavor Supreme’

This bird kept watching me as I was grafting scions onto our Plum tree. I thought it would fly away if I moved, but even after I walked around and climbed the ladder, it just stayed there. It eventually flew away.

I wanted to graft some Cherry scions, but I couldn’t find any good sites to graft onto… So I left it, and I’ll check our Cherry tree later.

I had some plant that have been in cell packs since the fall, and they are still alive, so I planted the Swiss Chard into 5 gallon fabric pot and Beets ‘Chioggia’ into a large Daiso pot. I had two leftover Flat Leaf Parsley which I planted into a 3 inch pot for now, until i find a permanent place for them in the garden. Hopefully, these plants will grow big despite being left in their cell packs.

I also did a bunch of seed sowing. I sowed all of the Zesty Salad Mesclun Mix into a medium Daiso pot. I don’t think these grew well in the past and I just wanted to get rid of the seeds.

I planted the rest into cell packs:
- Agrostemma ‘Ocean Pearls’
- Agrostemma ‘Milas’
- Bok Choy ‘Fun Jen’
- Bok Choy ‘Purple Choy’
- Kohlrabi ‘Early White Vienna’
- Bok Choy ‘Summer Boy’

A couple of the Kiwi plants have started to leaf out. I was worried that they died in the winter at their new location, but they seem to have pulled through. They was a couple dead/dried out branches which I trimmed. The rest of the blue bin where they were was empty, so I decided to plant a row of Super Sugar Snap Peas.

Afterwards, I did a major trim of the European Plum tree in back of our storage. There were tons of dead limbs and limbs that sagged down. I tried to clear the bottom so we had walking space and just get rid of too much of the mass. I think it looks better now and hopoefully will grow better. Unfortunately, the Kirke Blue Plum that I grafted to it dried up.

Posted in Gardening | Tagged agrostemma, Asian Plum, beets, bok choy, bok choy fun jen, bok choy purple choi, bok choy summer boy, cherry, graft, grafting, green onions, Kiwi, kohlrabi, mesclun, parsley, pea super sugar snap, plum, plum near sink, plum near storage, pluot, scion, sow, swiss chard | Leave a comment

Unusual Vegetables…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by joelignacio

I saw yougrowgirl’s photo on Instagram of the book “Unusual vegetables: Something new for this year’s garden“. The font on the cover reminded me of old gardening books I had when I was young. I was curious and looked it up on Amazon. The cheapest new copy was $103.52… but they had a used (very good condition) for 1¢… so I went ahead and bought it.

Posted in Gardening | Tagged books, purchase | Leave a comment

Asian Plum & Cherry Graft Progress… and Garlic Planting…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by joelignacio

I was going to start grafting onto our Plum tree, but our neighbor decided to take down part of our shared fence (without telling us) and fix it up…

So I decided not to graft and just take inventory of the Plum and Cherry grafts that survived. Some grafts didn’t make it, but several seems to have survived:

- Plum ‘Golden Nectar’ (Graft 2012-01)
- Plum ‘El Dorado’ (Graft 2013-03)
- Plum ‘Inca’ (Graft 2011-01)
- Plum ‘Sierra’ (Graft 2011-03)
- Plum ‘Elephant Heart’ (Graft 2009-04)
- Plumcot ‘Burbank’ (Graft 2012-02)
- Pluot ‘Flavor Supreme’ (Graft 2010-04)
- Cherry ‘Merton Premier’ (Graft 2010-01)
- Cherry ‘Burbank’ (Graft 2011-08)
- Cherry ‘Lapins’ (Graft 2009-02)

The Garlic we harvested last year (but haven’t used) are starting to sprout.

I split them apart and planted each bulb into a cell pack. Once they grow a little more and root out, I’ll plant them in the garden.

Posted in Gardening | Tagged cherry, garlic, graft, grafting, plum | Leave a comment

Front Yard Gardening…

Posted on February 27, 2013 by joelignacio

I got a bunch done in the front yard garden. I first did a bunch of weeding and cut down dead plants and flower stalks to tidy up the front garden a bit. I noticed that the Rudbeckias and Foxgloves seem to have survived the winter. I’m not too sure about the Echinacea though; it look like they might have died. There are a bunch of Sparaxis growing now, and they look like they will bloom a about a week or so. In the clear areas, I randomly planted a bunch of Green Arrow Snap Pea seeds. I might as well take advantage of the free space.

I potted up a Pearl Blueberry that I bought a few weeks ago at the Grocery Outlet from it’s 4″ pot to a 2 gallon pot. We don’t seen to have much luck with Blueberries, so I will try growing these in the front yard where it will have lots of sun. I’ll let it get a little bit bigger then move it to a larger pot if it gets too big for the 2 gallon pot.

I planted a couple Flower Mixes into two 10″x10″ trays. I haven’t had much luck with Flower Mixes sown in cell packs, so I hope the larger tray will work better.

I took the Fennel that has been regrowing from side shoots from the 3 gallon fabric pots and potted them up into Flexible Garden Tubs. The fabric pot just dried up too easily and the plant kept wilting. Hopefully, this bigger tub will keep the soil moist, so I don’t have to water it so frequently.

I planted a 4″ Ethiopian Kale into an empty Self Watering 5 Gallon Bucket.

I thought my Malunggay (Moringa) was dead, so I started to dig it out so I can reuse the pot. When I dug it out, I saw a tuber!!! OMG! This made me so happy. I covered back up the roots and can’t wait for it to grow back. Just to make sure, I checked my other Malunggay plants and they all had tubers! I didn’t know Malunggay grew tubers!

Posted in Gardening | Leave a comment

How to be a Gardener…

Posted on February 26, 2013 by joelignacio

I discovered a great BBC gardening series on YouTube (uploaded by MrGrizzerBear) that I never heard of before called How to be a Gardener. I haven’t watched all the episodes, but I really like the first one I saw which was Episode 7 “The Productive Garden“. It showed vegetable gardening throughout the year. I created a playlist with the eight episodes so I can find them easily.