Category Archives: Gardening

New Kitazawa Seed Co. Seeds…

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I recently purchased five new seed packets from Kitazawa Seed Co., which is where I got my Bok Choy ‘Joi Choi’ Folia seeds that I have been planting for about 8 years now. They include:

– Bok Choy ‘Golden Yellow’ Folia a bright yellowish-green Bok Choy
– Bok Choy ‘Purple Choi’ Folia a dark purple leaf Bok Choy
– Chard ‘Umaina’ Folia a Japanese Chard that I think is similar to the Swiss Chard ‘Green’ I have been buying
– Usui Folia edible Pea shoots
– Kabocha ‘Sweet Mama’ Folia a Japanese Pumpkin/Winter Squash that has a bush-like growth habit (like Zucchini)

Today, I sowed the three leaf veggies: Bok Choi ‘Golden Yellow’  Folia , Bok Choy ‘Purple Choi’  Folia  and Chard ‘Umaina’  Folia . I hope they turn out as well like my plantings of Joi Choi Bok Choy.

August Planting Calendar…

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Wow! It’s August already… According to the Common Ground Planting Calendar (which I’m trying to follow more closely) it’s time to:

Sow directly:
Vegetables: Beets, carrots, garlic, parsnips, peas, spinach and New Zealand spinach
Flowers: California poppy, nasturtiums, sweet peas, sweet alyssum

In flats:
Vegetables: Brassicas including brussels sprouts, celery, leeks, lettuce, onions
Flowers: calendula, marigolds, pansy, stock

Transplant (from previously sown flats):
Vegetables: Leaf lettuce
Flowers: violas

Green Curtain Idea…

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Hmm, I wonder if I can implement a Green Curtain in front of my room window…

Source: lushe.com.au via Joel on Pinterest

New “What’s growing in my SFG Veggie Beds” Page…

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I just added a new page to this site (tentatively) called “What’s growing in my SFG Veggie Beds“. I wanted a quick way to map out the plants in my Square Foot Garden, without having to keep running Abode Illustrator (like I have in the past) and exporting a jpeg. It’s really basic, basically it’s a spreadsheet using Google Docs that is embedded into the page. It’s on the top level for now, but I may eventually move it as a subpage under Gardening as I add more pages to this site.

Just Thinking Out Loud About Potted Tomatoes…

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A few weeks ago, Hugh, a fellow Flickr friend told me about the website Global Buckets which showed how to make a self watering pot or a global bucket (as they called it) using two 5 gallon buckets, PVC Pipe and a plastic cup. I thought this was a good idea, but I didn’t have anything to plant in it…

…Until I saw a photo by Meighan, another Flickr friend, who was growing Tomatoes in pots. This gave me an idea… How about if I grew some Tomatoes in a self water 5 gallon pot so I could move it around. Maybe even put it in a spot in the front yard that gets more sun than in the back yard.

Tomato Plants
Tomato Plants by Meighan

I think I’ll try this next year, but I’m kinda anxious to make a self watering pot, so maybe I can test it out with two extra Lemon Cucumber plants that was left (no more space in the veggie bed to plant them).

[Update] ooohh, I just thought of something!.. I can plant my Pepino Dulce in one! (I have a new project to do tomorrow) :)

Unusual Summer Rain…

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We had an unusual summer day with rain. It was pouring earlier today, so I placed pots, buckets and plastic bins where ever I can to catch the rain, since our rain barrel was already almost full.

Overflowing Rain Barrel

The plastic bin below are the same bins that I used to wintersow some of my seeds. I’m glad I didn’t drill holes on the bottom. Now if has multiple uses.

Catching Rain in Plastic Bins

Tropf Blumat Self-Watering Plant System…

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I just read about a self-watering system called Tropf Blumat on the Home Harvest Garden Supply website.

I’m curious if anyone has used this system and how well does it work.

If it works well, maybe I can use it to self water parts of my Square Foot Garden that dries out easily during the summer.

Lemon Cucumbers!…

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The Lemon Cucumber Folia seedlings now have their third sets of leaves and are big enough to plant in the Square Foot Garden. I’m planting them in 5 squares with 2 plants per square.

Lemon Cucumber Seedling Ready to Plant

Planted Lemon Cucumber