A Little Bit of Winter Gardening…

I got a little bit of gardening done this weekend. I went through the cell packs I planted in the late fall and got rid of the pots which failed to grow seedlings. I found some Mushrooms in some.

Mushroom Mushroom Mushroom...

There were Celtuce that surprisingly survived, so I planted those into a large Daiso pot.

Transplanted Celtuce

I also pulled a lot of weeds near Veggie Beds 1 and 2 and pick off damaged and dead leaves from plants.

Litchi Tomato Flower Buds

As I was weeding I noticed that there was another volunteer Litchi Tomatoes, making the total to three plants now. They are also starting to form flower buds. These are sure strong plants… or maybe they like cooler weather. I’ll have to pot these up into a large container and give Litchi Tomatoes another try.

Calendulas

Around the beds, volunteer Calendulas and Daffodils are blooming.

Daffodils

Spring Starflower

I even caught the first Spring Starflower to bloom, which means there are about 100 more to come.

Fruit Flower Buds

Also starting to bloom are some fruit trees, including the two unknown Asian Plums, the grafted Inca Plum and surprisingly a very very early grafted Anna Apple. I’ll have to start grafting Plums next weekend.

I wish I had more time to garden.

Busy Gardening Day…

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

Planting Green Onion Bottoms

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’

People Watcher

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.

Planting Swiss Chard, Beets and Mesclun

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.

Sowing Spring Greens/Flowers

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’

Kiwi Leafing Out

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.

Sowing 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.

So Many Fruits…

I just updated the What’s Growing? page and didn’t realize how many fruit trees we have until I listed them all down. Below is the list so far, not even including all the grafts that I have made.

Continue reading

Grafts 2011 Batch 2

Our Bing Cherry looked like it was about to open its buds, so I grafted some Cherry scions as wells as some Plums and Apricots.

– Apricot ‘Skaha’ scion grafted onto Plum (near sink)
– Cherry ‘Black Eagle’ scion grafted onto Bing Cherry
– Cherry ‘Burbank’ scion grafted onto Bing Cherry
– European Plum ‘Coe’s Golden Drop’ grafted onto European Plum (near Vegetable Bed 1)
– European Plum ‘Baray’s Green Gage’ grafted onto European Plum (near Vegetable Bed 1)
– European Plum ‘Old Green Gage’ grafted onto European Plum (near Vegetable Bed 1)

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

Father’s Day Gardening…

After having a great Father’s Day with a big BBQ lunch for my brother… then a short nap… I work in the garden a bit.

I’m slowly cleaning up the Square Foot Beds and this evening I started collecting seeds from the dried up volunteer Wild Calendula plants so I can cut them down to make room for new plants. There were quite a few seeds and I’m sure several dropped before I got to collect them… but those will form the plants for next year.

Dried Wild Calendula Wild Calendula Seeds

As I was cutting the Wild Calendula, my Mom started cutting down the bolting Beets Folia in a nearby square. These Beets are actually pretty old–they were planted May 2008… and I don’t have the heart to chop them down completely. I’ll just let them grow and pick off the young leave to use for greens… though I’m debating weather to move them or just let them stay at there current location.

I noticed that the volunteer Cerinthes Folia are already dropping seeds…

First Plum Harvest

I picked my first Plum Folia fruit from the tree next to the sink. It’s not completely ripe but still good… sweet with a little tartness. Yumm!