Overcast, But Lots of Gardening Done…

It was pretty much overcast the whole day but I got a lot done in the garden.

I moved a lot of pots with dead plants (annuals) from the front garden to the container graveyard in the back. I’ll rejuvenate the soil in these pots with compost, azomite, worm castings and the whole bit, when I find something else to plant in them. I moved three pots of Hyacinths which are now blooming to the front as well as the pot of Daffodil ‘Dick Widen’, Tulip ‘Pastel Mix’ and Tulip ‘Queen of the Night’. I don’t think the Tulips will rebloom this year, but there are 2-3 Daffodils that survived and are budded.

I took the water sprayer again and sprayed off the gray Aphids that remain on the Collards, Kale and Brussels Sprouts. There are much less Aphids than before, but a few remain.

We had a dwarf Calamansi tree in a huge pot that died last year and I finally got around to pulling it out (it was actually my Brother’s tree, so I thought he would take care of it). I asked my Mom if I can plant her Pomegranate that’s in a 5-gallon pot in the back yard to this larger pot. I think it’ll do much better here in a larger pot under full sun. I’ll also add a lots of compost, azomite and worm castings in the pot before potting up the Pomegranate. My Mom was complaining that the Pomegranate hasn’t bore fruit, but it’s siblings that she gave my Aunts already had fruits.

I have two 3-gallon pots of Blue Curled Scotch Kale (3 plants in each pot) that are getting bigger, so I think I’ll divide one pot and plant each plant into their own 3-galloon pot. I then had an idea and though of planting some dwarf Snap Peas ‘Sugar Ann’ that I purchased a few days ago around the Kale. I think Kale, being a leafy green, likes Nitrogen… and Snap Peas produce Nitrogen in it’s roots, so maybe they’ll be happy together… Well, we’ll see…

I then planted a 7-gallon Dirt Pot with the Walla Walla Sweet Onions seedlings that I bought a few days ago. I think I got about 11 seedlings into the pot. I had 6 seedlings leftover, so I potted those up into a large 6 cell pack and will plant it in the Square Foot Garden later.

It was getting dark and starting to sprinkle, but I planted two 1-gallon pots with seeds I found. One with the Daylily seeds I found in Mare Island and the other with the Orange Calendula I found at Prusch Park in San Jose. I hope these grow.

Now it’s raining, so I don’t have to water the plants :) That’s a good thing.

Bunch of Plants Purchased and Potted Up…

It started to rain last night and for some reason I felt the need to buy some leafy winter vegetable starts, so I visited Mid City Nursery this afternoon. I didn’t find any leafy vegetables, but I got a six-pack of Walla Walla Sweet Onions which contained about 17 seedlings. I haven’t grew big Onions, so this will be good experience.

I also looked for different colored Carrots and found Blend of Colors Carrot seeds which contains 4 varieties: Cosmic Purple, Lunar White, Solar Yellow and Atomic Red.

I also wanted to try Parsnips, so I got a packet of seeds, but when I got home, I discovered they were not Parnips, but Parsley… actually Hamburg Root Parsley ‘Piestruska’ which seems similar to Parsnips, so these will do. I’m interested in trying them out.

Hmm… This just popped into my head… I just realized that Parsnips kinda sounds like a combination or Parsley and Turnips. I wonder if that’s how it got the name. Although, I think they are from two different families. I’ll have to look that up.

I then visited our local Lowe’s to get some potting soil. I also purchased:
Wallflower sp. (six-pack)
Calendula ‘Calypso’ (yellow with black centers)
Spinach ‘Bonnie’ (2 four-packs)
Collard ‘Georgia Hybrid’ (four-pack)
Asparagus ‘Jersey Giant’ (3 bare roots)

When I got home I potted up a bunch of seedlings (grown from seeds indoor under grow lights) into newspaper pots. These include:
Mustard ‘Crimson Red’
Pak Choi ‘Purple Choi’
California Poppy ‘Mission Belle’
Japanese Chard ‘Umaina’
Swiss Chard ‘Witerbi Mangold’

The Snap Pea ‘Sugar Ann’ seeds that I soaked are just starting to sprout roots, so I planted those into about 22 newspaper pots.

Kales Sprouting + New Snap and Sweet Peas Seeds…

Sprouting Dinosaur and White Russian Kale

Just a few days after sowing, the Dinosaur Folia and White Russian Folia Kales are sprouting.

Super Sugar Snap Pea vs Early Gigantea Sweet Pea

I also found some Super Sugar Snap Peas seeds Folia as wells as Sweet Pea ‘Early Gigantea Mixed Colors’ seeds Folia as OSH in El Cerrito.

I soaked 16 Snap Peas Folia and 12 Sweet Peas Folia seeds in water and will plant them out either Monday or Tuesday.

Also posted on Folia Folia

In Search of Snap Peas Seeds…

I’ve grown several generations of Snap Peas in our garden every fall/winter/spring… but I can’t seem to find the seeds that I saved from this spring’s harvest… so I was thinking of getting a new variety.

Our plants seem to grow taller and taller every year, with this past year growing well over 6 feet. It was way too tall and over-towered the other plants around it. So I’m looking for a variety that only grows to about 4-5 feet tall.

This evening after work, my friend needed to go to Home Depot, so I went along to see if I can find any kinds of Snap Pea seeds. No luck. All they had were Snow Peas, which I don’t like that much.

I did a search online and found two different varieties that I would like:

Super Sugar Snap
58 days. Grow about 5 feet tall. Improved variety of Sugar Snap (which I have been growing). I found some at Territorial Seed Co.

Super Snappy Pea
65 days. I’ve never seen this variety and its pods are huge; 8-10 peas per pod. Grows 28-32″. A Burpee Exclusive. I placed this on my Folia Wish List Folia. [Update Oct. 26, 2010: I ended up ordering this.]

Super Snappy Pea
Screenshot taken from Burpee’s site.

After writing this, I got an email from Annie’s Annuals with this variety:

Carouby de Mousanne
60 Days. It’s a Snow Pea (which I usually don’t like to grow), but it doesn’t get fibrous (which is why I don’t like to grow it) when the seed starts to swell. Grows 6 feet tall. Here’s the description page on Annie’s Annuals website.

Also posted on Folia Folia

Nets + Zinnias + Taro + Dried Snap Peas…

Earlier I tweeted: Are Gurney’s ( @GurneysDeals ) and Henry Field’s are the same company?… because I am getting identical emails from both of them. I got a responce saying: “yep. Same with springhill and michigan bulb”

When I got home from work, I noticed that my Mom set out the net to catch the Plums Folia that are starting to drop.

It's Falling Plum Time Poor Zinnias

My Zinnias grown from seeds have been in their small cell packs for a while. I haven’t had the time to transfer them into better pots until this evening. I planted them in my Solo drinking cups pots, with each color representing a different variety. By the time I got them all potted, it was already dark outside.

Potted Zinnias

My Mom found some of the Taro in our pantry sprouting. She cut of the growing tips, placed in a bowl with a damped towel and covered with a pastic bag to keep it moist. This evening I took the Taro tips and planted them temporarily in a big cell pack with potting soil, so the root will grow and develop.

Taro Sprouting Taro Planted

Finally, I shelled the old Snap Pea Pod that I put out to dry. I’m not really saving these to plant, so we may use them as food somehow.

Dried Snap Peas Shelled Dried Snap Peas

Planting, Harvesting and Cooking…

12:48pm I’m cutting down the Kohlrabi that has bolted and I saw the first Aphids this year… Dangit!

12:58pm The Bumble Bees are going crazy of our Borage flowers!

7:35pm Planted 8 squares in veggie bed #3: White Russian Kale, Redbor (G2) Kale, Swiss Chard and Green Arrow Snap Peas

8 Squares Planted

7:39pm Harvested some Red Russian Kale, Dwarf Blue Curled Kale and Snap Peas

Harvested Kale

Harvested Snap Pea

I made Kale Soup with the Kale that I harvested today.

I used this recipe as a base: http://champaign-taste.blogspot.com/2007/11/portuguese-kale-soup.html

Kale Soup

11:22pm The Hybrid Thai Lemon Basil is sprouting…

Weekend Gardening

I thought I would be doing a lot of gardening this weekend, but there was actually not much to do. Surprisingly, the weather was warm… even after the rains we got mid-week.

I transfered about 18 Spinach seedlings from 2 six-packs into 3 inch pots.

The Bok Choy and Lettuce that I planted to replace the ones that were eaten are sprouting… and the Swiss Chard that were spared are getting bigger now.

Hopefully, we’ll have a lot of greens for the Fall, Winter and Spring.

The Sweet Peas and Snap Peas are also sprouting, but I won’t plat them in the bed until they get a little bigger, since they seems to be favorites of the birds and slugs.

I potted up a succulent (I think it’s some type of Kalanchoe) that has been growing from a leaf. I’ll have to post photos later, to see if anyone can identify it.

On Sunday, I took my mom to do some grocery shopping at the Filipino store, then we stopped by the 99¢ store and I found 2 more Cactus (actually one is a Euphorbia, so technically, 1 cactus)… I’ll post photos later.

Oh, I also forgot that on Friday afternoon, I took a late lunch and walked up Filbert Steps again to shot a few photos.

Happy Birthday Nanay!!!… Let’s Garden…

Today is my Mother’s birthday, so I took the day off to do anything she wants to.

We started the day by going to DMV to getting her ID card renewed. When they gave us forms to fill out, I noticed that out of all the clipboard they had, they gave us one that had yellow flowers drawn on it.

DMV Clipboard

Afterwards, we went to the dollar store (I found out it’s actually a 99¢ store) to see if they had new garden stuff. I bought some bulbs ( photo ) , and terra cotta pot and an Elephant Garlic bulb (from the grocery area). I’m actually going to plant the Elephant Garlic and see if they grow. Not bad for 99¢.

When we got home, we just worked on the garden. The Sunflowers ( photo ) in the front yard are dying, so I chopped them down. I had four piles: stalks, seeds for the bird to eat, seeds for next year and stems and leaves for the compost pile.

Four Piles

My brother then came home with two new plants for my Mom. A variegated Raspberry Ice Bougainvillea and a dual colored Thai Delight Bougainvillea.

Raspberry Ice Bougainvillea   Thai Delight Bougainvillea

I sowed some seed:
Sweet Peas ‘Streamer Mix’
Mighty Red Oak Lettuce
Bloomsdale Savoy Spinach

I planted the Snap Peas seedling from the six pack to veggie bed #1, using the Sunflower stalks that I chopped down earlier as support for these.

I also pulled out the dead Sikkim Cucumbers plants and cut the bottom dead leaves off of the Lemon Cucumber and Tomatoes.