Front Yard Gardening…

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.

Fennel

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.

Ethiopian Kale Planted

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

Malunggay Tuber

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!

How to be a Gardener…

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.

Coleus Cuttings…

It’s that time of the year that I dread, when I have to start taking Coleus cuttings. It’s not that I hate doing it, but it takes a while (I think I have over 80 varieties now) and it means that the Coleus in the pots will start to die as it gets colder :(.

This Week's Weather

The weather forecast says that cold weather is coming, so I have to get this done by tomorrow. I started soaking/expanding two trays of jumbo size Jiffy Peat Pellets.

Jumbo size Jiffy Peat Pellets

Each tray (which are really reused plastic drawers) holds 35 peat pellets nicely.

Coleus Cutting

I took photos of each Coleus before taking cuttings. I took extra cuttings of some of my prized ones that I either grew from seed or is hard to find. I totalled 35 cuttings today and have two more batches that I will do tomorrow.

Coleus Cuttings (Batch 1)

Hibiscus Cutting

I got this Hibiscus cutting from my nephew’s girlfriend (thanks Kriselda).

I soaked it for a bit because it looked so dry and I didn’t think it would grow… but I see what I think are little growth along the stem.

Hibiscus Cutting

There are no instructions on the package and I don’t know what direction to plant it. One end has wax and the other is just bare. I think the wax side it up, but I’m not sure.

Anyone know what I should do?

What kind of grass is this?

My friend has this grass in her front yard… Now that our lawn is turning slightly brown, I’m considering switching it to this type of lawn which I believe is less maintenance. The grass leaves are wide and it remains low growing, almost growing horizontally.

Does anyone know what kind of grass this is?

What kind of grass is this?

Orange Butterfly…

As I was working in our front yard garden, I saw this orange butterfly visiting our Shasta Daisies. I don’t recall ever seeing this type of butterfly.

Anyone know what kind it is?
[Update]
This was identified as a Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae).

Unknown Orange Butterfly

Lithops Progress (May 16, 2012)

Can you spot which individual Lithops has set new leaves since the previous photo taken April 9, 2012?

Lithops (April 9, 2012):Lithops Progress (May 16, 2012)

Lithops (April 9, 2012):Lithops Potted Up

Compost and Worms!!!…

We have two BioStack Compost Bins: bin #1 has unfinished compost and bin #2 has compost which is pretty much done. One thing I like about the BioStack Compost Bins, is that each bin has three levels which you can remove and add to… so you can adjust the height of the bins. Since we currently have more unfinished compost, I took one of the levels from bin #2 and added it to bin #1.

BioStack Composters

They are filled with tons and tons of worms!!!

Compost Worms

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