April 18, 2012 Gardening…

I divided more of the Portuguese Kale (from a crowded cell pack) and potted about seven of them into 3″ pots. There are still a bunch in the cell pack. They sure planted a lot of seeds.

Portuguese Kale Potted Up

I didn’t know where to plant the three Asparagus crowns I bought a month or two ago… so I temporarily placed them into a small pot with soil. They started sprouting and are getting tall, so I potted each one into a separate 5 gallon pot with lots of manure, compost, fertilizer and Azomite. I left about two inches at the top of the pot and will fill it in with more compost later.

Asparagus Roots

My Mom says that her Tuberose has never bloomed, so I am going to repot them and give them a good supply for organic fertilizer, compost and Azomite. Hopefully they will bloom for the first time this year!

Tuberose To Be Repotted

There were a bunch of Bloody Dock seedling volunteers in the Tuberose pot. I’ll divide them up and plant them in individual containers. I think I will donate some to the Vallejo Garden Club.

Tuberose Repotted

I didn’t think the Red Potatoes were going to sprout, but today I saw that they are starting.

Red Potato Finally Sprouting

Finally, I harvested more Red Giant Mustard and Swiss Chard. We seem to have a neverending supply of them (pretty good for a 6 cell pack).

Harvested Red Giant Mustard and Swiss Chard

Potato and Cauliflower Curry Soup…

Curry Soup

This evening I made hearty Potato and Cauliflower Curry Soup. I didn’t really follow a recipe. I just kept adding whatever I felt like to the pot.

Ingredients include: chicken stock, water, onions, garlic, olive oil, ginger, carrots, celery, potato, cauliflower, barley, garam masala, fennel seeds, bay leaves, parsley, cumin, salt, pepper and of course curry powder.

It was really good and hit the spot :)

Beans, Potatoes, Tomatoes and Peppers planted…

The Tricolor Pole Beans are getting bigger and starting to climb. I planted them into 4 squares in the east side of SFG Veggie Bed #1. (4 plants per square foot)

I planted several vegetables in Veggie Bed #2:

– 2 Purple Potato – 1 square each
– 2 Tomato ‘Rutger’s Select’ – 1 square each
– 2 Tomato ‘Beefsteak’ – 1 square each
– 4 Pepper (Mini Sweet Orange) – 4 plants in one square
– 1 Pepper ‘Golden Marconi’ – 1 square

[photo to come]

Here’s a tip from @PAllenSmith: Protect corn from critters by placing a paper bag over each ear. Secure bag w/ rubber band. Remove bag once the corn is ripe.

Lotsa Gardening Going On…

My Coleus hunt continues… I went to Mid City Nursery and picked up three more Coleus:
Coleus ‘Henna’
Coleus ‘Dipt in Wine’
Coleus ‘Glennis’

Me and my Mom are clearing Veggie Bed #2. I’m pulling up the old Kale Dwarf Blue Curled and my Mom is gathering up the river rock mulch. I’ll add some compost and potting soil to raise back the soil, then figure out what to plant next. Most likely Tomatoes and Pepper and maybe a Potato.

I planted 4 more Coleus pots today…

Coleus Pot #7:
Coleus ‘Swallowtail’
Coleus ‘Rustic Orange’
Coleus ‘Dipt in Wine’

Coleus Pot #8:
Coleus ‘Chocolate Mint’
Coleus ‘Sunset Strip’
Coleus ‘Snazzy’

Coleus Pot #9:
Coleus ‘Molten Lava’
Coleus ‘Henna’
Coleus ‘Lava Rose’

Coleus Pot #10:
Coleus ‘Florida Sun Jade’
Coleus ‘Indian Summer’
Coleus ‘Glennis’

Sweet Peas in the backyard are pretty much spent so I’m collecting the seedpods and chopping them down…

Working in the garden with a Citronella candle to ward of the mosquitos

My Oriental Limelight Artemisia is growing way to big and overshadowing the Orange Fuz Geranium growing the the same pot, so I cut some of its canes down to make some room for the Geranium to get more light. I also removed a bunch of dead leaves from the bottom part of the Artemisia. I think they’ll be ok for now, but I’ll probably separate them come fall.

I was cutting some of the old Red Texas Star Hibiscus stem off and noticed a couple tiny blue balls in the Mondo Grass growing in the same pot. I think it’s the Mondo Grass seedpod… It really cool, but it’s too dark to take a photo of it right now. I’ll do that tomorrow…

There are currently 4 Red Texas Star Hibiscus growing. These have never bloomed, so I’m wondering if I should pot it up to a bigger pot…

I accidentally knocked over the Euphorbia genoudiana pot, so I potted it up into it’s new permanent home…

Potato/Tomato Idea…

I’m debating if I should experiment and plant a Potato plant this year… Not only do I want to grow a Potato plant, but I want to graft a Tomato plant onto it, kinda like this one from Spring River Nurseries. The only reason I’m hesitant is because I read that the yields for both would be inferior to planting both the Potato and Tomato separately.

I’m not really concerned with the Potato yield, since any Potato harvested would kinda be a bonus… and maybe I can use a Cherry-type Tomato, since those just grow too wild (big) in our garden.

I’ll give it some more thought… and do a little more research…

[Update] After posting this, I had another thought. I don’t know if this can be done, so I’ll research it more later… I wonder if an Eggplant can be grafted onto a Tomato rootstock. The Eggplants I’ve grown never seem to get big and don’t bareany decent fruits, so I wonder if this would be a good experiment to see if a grafted Eggplant would grow more vigorously on a Tomato rootstock.