Nephew bye-bye + a Little Bit of Gardening

My nephew from Japan left yesterday :( and his 4 kids are back with their mom… so my other nephew from Korea, his wife and his 2 kids are left staying here until Friday. It’s been so much fun with the kids. I got to spend some quality time with them, and they feel closer, considering I’ve only seen them about 3 time before. It was fun wrestling with them and giving them piggyback rides (well, the smaller ones). One of my great-nephews also likes to give me massages which was a real treat.

Today, I was going to pull up the old Brussels Sprouts, but I didn’t feel like doing too much work, so that’ll have to wait.

I ended up dead-heading some of the spent Daffodil flower and pulling up weeds in the front yard.

I also left the seedlings of the Swiss Chard, Chin-Chiang Cabbage, Bok Choy, Lettuces and Sugar Snap Peas out in the back patio after harding them off for the past 2 days. I got tired of bringing them in and out, so it’s pretty much sink or swim for them.

More Seedlings…

The Sugar Snap Peas, Roma Tomato, Clemson Spineless Okra and Hybrid Summer Boy Chin-Chiang Cabbage have sprouted in 4 days.

…and last in the Coleus seedling race: Coleus ‘Dark Star’ who took 8 days to sprout.

Coleus Up + More Seeds Down…

I just checked my Jiffy Mini-Greenhouse planted with Coleus and to my surprise, three of them have started to come up, just after four days. They are ‘Kong Green’, ‘Kong Scarlet’ and ‘Tabasco?’.

I also sow more seeds into the Jiffy Greenhouse (72 Pellets):

– Sugar Snap Peas (12 pellets)
– Japanese Long Purple Eggplant (6 pellets)
– Roma Tomato (3 pellets)
– Clemson Spineless Okra (3 pellets)
– Bok Choy (12 pellets)
– Hybrid Summer Boy Chin-Chiang Cabbage (6 pellets)
– Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard (6 pellets)
– Salad Bowl Lettuce (8 pellets)
– Grand Rapids Lettuce (8 pellets)
– Mighty Red Oak Lettuce (8 pellets)

The Scent of…

I made more newspaper pots and planted four kind of Asian vegetables: Chin-Chiang Cabbage “Hybird Summer Boy”, Misome Japanese Greens, Upo (Bottle Gourd) and Komatsuna “Hybrid Senposai”.

I know the Upo is probably too late to plant, but I want to see how it grows. I’ll make sure to plant is early next year.

As I was planting (at 9pm), I can smell the scent of our Dama de Noche plant. I think it’s called Night Flowering Jasmine in English. It is very fragrant and reminds me of Hawaiian leis.

Speaking of Asian vegetables, I harvested another eggplant and my mom made this Filipino dish called Pinakbet

Some of the ingredients include: Japanese Eggplant, Ampalaya (Bitter Melon), Sitaw (Yardlong Bean), Tomato, Garlic, Bagoong (Tiny Fermented Shrimp) plus more. It may look like a weird dish, but it’s good :)

I also found some Ginger rhizomes growing, so I placed them on a moist paper towel and placed it in a plastic bag. Hopefully it will grow roots and I will be able to grow it.

One last photo… My Pink Echevaria at work only has one flower left.

Also posted in Gardening

Wednesday’s Gardening…

I wasn’t planning on doing much gardening, but after work, I can’t help but check up on my plants.

Some of the Coleus cuttings that I took on the 18th (11 days ago) are starting to root. I like to plant the cuttings in potting soil right when the root start forming, before they get a quarter of an inch. They just seem to be stronger this way as opposed to when the roots get too long.

I potted 4 Tilt-a-Whirl. Tomorrow, the Kong Scarlet and Alabama Sunset should be ready to pot.

My second batch of Sparkler Radish, like the first, are just not forming bulbous roots, so I pulled all of them out and placed them in the compost bin. I was able to harvest about 6 roots, which I pickled and had for dinner. In it’s place, I sowed some Hybrid Summer Boy Chin-Chiang Cabbage.

I aerated my trash can compost bin (see my icon) by dumping the contents out, mixing it and placing it back in.

I wheeled the Potting Soil, Steer Manure and Soil Conditioner that we bought on Tuesday to the back.

The first Hollyhock just bloomed, it’s a double white. Gladiolas are in full bloom and so are the Cactus Dahlias.

The first Cucumber and Sweet 100 Tomatoes should be ready to harvest soon.

I also took loads of photos, but I’m too tired to edit them and post. Maybe tomorrow :)