Garden Transformation

This morning, I woke up early (for a Saturday). I was looking forward to going to the nursery to see if they had any Cabbage and Lettuce plants.

I first went to Walmart and checked the garden center and found a couple of succulents that I liked. One was a Rock Purslane (Calandrinia spectabilis) that I’ve been looking for for a while now. Who knew that out of all places, Walmart would have it. The second was Pachysedum ‘Ganzhou’ which had a cool color. I’ve been checked the vegetable section and found a 9-pack of Bonnie’s Best Cabbage and Buttercrunch Lettuce.

My name is Joel... and I'm a plant addict.

I then drove to Mid City Nursery to see what they had. I ended up with a few plants including:
– Onions ‘Walla Walla Sweet’
– Cilantro ‘Slo Bolt’
– Flowering Cabbage ‘Red’
– Shasta Daisy ‘Goldfinch’

The owner came up to me and ask if I needed any help. So I asked him why my Kumquat plant has dying branches. He asked if I had it in the ground or in a pot I replied in a pot and he said maybe its not getting enough water. So I’m hoping that his explanation was correct and that my Kumquat doesn’t have a disease.

When I got home, I decided to pull out the Zucchini plants because they were not doing well and it didn’t look like they would produce any more fruits. In its place, I planted Portuguese Kale. I also pulled what pot of Swiss Chard that were also not doing well. I added new compost and planted 6 Buttercrunch Lettuce plants.

I also pulled all my Tomatoes in the Self Watering Rain Gutter Grow System #2.

I think the Tomatoes are done for the year... so I'll be pulling them out and planting Cabbage in its place. The green in the photo is Parsley which are starting to bolt.

I planted the new Cabbage into each pot.

I'm going try to grow Cabbage this year. Wish me luck because I have never had good luck with Cabbage.

In the Square Foot Garden, I planted 2 squares of the Walla Walla Sweet Onions.

Lithops Potted Up…

The Lithops that I grew from seeds are getting bigger and I potted them up into a larger pot with some stones mulch. I’m not sure if I like the stones or should change it to white.

Lithops Potted Up

Here is how they looked before repotting:

Lithops

I also repotted some succulent leaves that have grown into baby plants and a Echeveria from the care home that a friend worked at in San Jose.

Succulents Potted Up

Corrugated Plastic Panels Replacements…

At one side on our house, we have a bunch of succulents that are under corrugated plastic panels to protect them from rain.

Succulent Area (Before)

The only problem is that the plastic panels is opaque green and creates a shade over the succulents. My Mom suggested we get clear corrugated plastic panels to allow more light to come in… We didn’t have a vehicle to carry the panels from the store to our house, so we haven’t been able to replace the panels… until this morning when I asked my niece if she could drive us to the local home improvement store. They fit perfectly inside the van and I finally was able to replace the green ones.

Succulent Area (After)

Now the succulents will have more light and hopefully will grow better.

July 4th Gardening…

My Masdevallia Orchids in the hanging wooden pots I made are doing quite well. I replaced the string from the two of the pots where hanging on with much stronger galvanized wire.

The flowers of the Masd. Huayna Picchu and Masd. Ruby Slippers ‘Baby’ continue to bloom…

I see a new Masd. Huayna Picchu flower spike forming. It’s interesting how many tiny spots there are on the flower and the flower spike.

I took dead leaves off Masd. Red Panda, but I noticed that it has new growth.

Told my Mom that as one of my Orchid flower matures, the bottom petals cross over. She replied, “just like what I do in my exercises.

I divided the Dragon Fruit Cactus and potted it up into a larger terra cotta pot. Hopefully, it’ll continue to grow larger.

I noticed that the Euphorbia platyclada has tiny little dark yellow blooms, which are not noticable until you really look at it closely.

On the opposite end, the Rebutia krainziana is putting up very noticeable yellow blooms. This is the second round of blooms for this cactus this year.

I noticed that the two Japanese Long Purple Eggplants both have fruits. One has three and the other just one… but they both continue to have flowers, even though they are still just about a foot tall. I hope they grow taller.

I planted two more Coleus pots today. In one pot that I found the Plectranthus argentatus ‘Longwood Silver’ in, I planted a big dark maroon leafed Coleus with no name.

In another pot, I planted:
Coleus ‘Sedona’
Coleus ‘Electric Lime’
Coleus ‘Mariposa’

For some reason, some of the leaves on the Tomato ‘Rutger’s Select’ are burning from the sun, but the other Tomatoes next to it are fine. I hope that they’ll be okay and just keep growing.

I harvested some seeds from a plant I purchased from Annie’s Annuals, but I can’t remember what it is called… something Tips… I’ll have to look it up…

Lotsa Potting…

Saturday, March 17, 2007

I hardly did any gardening today since I went to San Francisco and Oakland to hang out with friends. We saw Zodiac then had “tea service” at… um, I forgot the restaurant. Later, we did some shopping and had dinner at The Home of Chicken and Waffles in Oakland.

I also happened to see a common weed along the side of the road, but this one had variegated leaves, so I took a cutting. I’ll post a photo of it later, to see if anyone can identify it, since I don’t know its name.

Sunday, March 18, 2008

I took a whole bunch of photos in the garden today. I was going to take more photos, but the sun was kinda harsh. My mom was so cute; she helped my by holding a sheet of cardboard to block the direct light from the plants and flowers I photographed.

Siberian Squill   First Columbine Flower

My Mom also showed me a shrub that she had been growing for a few years. She said that this is the first time it bloomed this profusely. I asked he what it was, but she said she lost the tag. Anyone know what this plant/flower is?

Unknown Flower (2 of 3)   Unknown Flower (3 of 3)

I made some Orchid mix with some bark, perlite and charcoal. Initially, I was just going to pot the all white Cymbidium that I bought for my Mom, but she caught me and asked if I can pot the other Orchids she purchased at the SF Orchid show too… so I ended up potting about 3 Orchids.

Potted Cactus and Succulents

I also made a large batch of Cactus mix out for potting soil, perlite and sand. I potted most of my recent succulent purchases from the 99¢ store and the Sonoma Orchid show. I ended up potting about 18 Cactus and Succulents.

More Found Plants + More Sowing

Found Succulents and Asparagus Fern Seeds
I collected a few cutting along my way to work this morning. I got a sprig of Fairy Crassula (Crassula multicava) and an unusual relative of the Ice Plant (Oscularia deltoides). I also found some Aspargus Fern seeds (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Meyersii’).

Potted Succulents   Potted Succulents

Once I got home, I planted these as well as the three other succulents that I found last Saturday.

I sowed a few more seeds:

Red Pear Tomato from penguingardener
Wonder Light Tomato (Lemon-like Yellow Heirloom Tomato) also from penguingardener (Thank you, Thank you!!)

Red Texas Star Hibiscus from gypsy_soul
Pink Flowering Maple (Abutilon) also from gypsy_soul (Thank you, Thank you!!)

A few more seed just started to sprout:

Orange Ornamental Peppers from Virginia (sown 3/1, 7 days)
Calendula ‘Pacific Beauty’ (sown 2/20, 16 days)

Sonoma Orchid Society Show and Sale…

Although not as big as the Pacific Orchid Exposition in San Francisco, I was happy I went to the Sonoma Orchid Society Show and Sale 2007 in Santa Rosa.

I uploaded 34 photos from the show to my Flickr set called Sonoma County Orchid Society Show and Sale 2007.

Brassavola digbyana   http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeysplanting/411955420/

above: Brassavola digbyana and Epidendrum Rene Marques ‘Flame Thrower’
below: a 40 year old Magnolia Stellata ‘Royal Star’ Bonsai and what I purchased: 12 succulents and a white flowered Cymbidium for my Mom.

Magnolia Stellata 'Royal Star'   Sonoma County Orchid Society Show and Sale 2007 Purchases

Weekend Gardening

I transplanted more Snap Peas and covered these to keep the bird from them.

It was overcast and cooler… Felt very much like a Fall day…

I potted up my recent dollar store Cactus and Succulents buys.

Potted Dollar Store Cactus and Succulents

I felt like doing more, so I decided to divide my Carex plant that I grew from found seeds into 4 pots.

Carex Plant   More Carex Plants

I then realized, maybe I should have waited and divided this in the spring… but I’m sure they’ll be ok… They’re pretty tough plants.