Seed Organization + Sowing Nightshades at Night

Posted on March 1, 2007 by joelignacio

Last night… I organized my seed packets and collect seeds from some dried seed pods. Here are the remains of the cracked Porcupine Tomato seedpods.

This afternoon… As I was taking a break from work, I was being teased by some Passion Fruits. I wanted so much to pick one from the vine, but it was about 10 foot off the ground…

Earlier this evening… When I got home from work, I was surprised by a yellow flower from the Elkhorn Plant that I purchased just a few days ago. Here it is wide open, but the flower closes back at night.

Before going to bed… I sowed 4 more members of the Nighshade family:

– Sweet 100 Tomato
– Solanum pyracanthum (Porcupine Tomato)
– Orange Ornamental Pepper from Virginia
– Scarlet Chinese Eggplant

Back to daily postings :)

Posted on July 25, 2005 by joelignacio

I returned some library books and checked out two more:

– Sunset Pruning Handbook
– Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening

Recently we’ve been harvesting a lot of pears, peaches and prunes. Today I harvested more Sweet 100’s and Lemon Cucumbers.

Italian Prunes

I also planted four types of seeds into newspaper pots: Grand Rapids Lettuce, Calabrese Broccoli, Catskill Brussels Sprouts and Jewel Mixed Colors Nasturtium.

The seeds I planted on the 12th are doing well and I thinned them down to a couple few.

I had a few failures though… The Correnta Hybrid Spinach I planted on the 13th, looked well, but when I transplanted them a few days ago, they just died :(… Also, the Ginger rhizomes that I tried to root on the 12th got moldly and shriveled up :(…

Sunday Gardening…

Posted on July 11, 2005 by joelignacio

Sunday, July 10

Early this morning, I harvested my first cucumbers and eggplant. The huge cucumber in the photo is labeled as Yellow Submarine Cucumber. It hasn’t turned yellow as the tag shows, but that thing is 10 inches, but the tag says 8 inches, so I decided to go ahead and harvest it.

Yellow Submarine Cucumber, Lemon Cucumber, Hungarian Sweet Wax Pepper, Millionaire Japanese Eggplant

Fay Elberta Semi Dwarf Peach

The Sweet 100 Tomatoes are really to harvest, but I’ll do that tomorrow.

Our pruning shears are a bit dull, so I sharped them with a sharpening stone, and they work so much better. I don’t think they ever have been sharpened.

I repotted the Avocado that I “discovered” we had (see yesterday’s post). My mom kindly gave the plant to me :)

I took some pictures around the garden…

Tropic White Guava

Alstroemeria seed pods

Sun shining through a Canna Lily leaf and a close up the flower

Wednesday’s Gardening…

Posted on June 30, 2005 by joelignacio

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 :)

A Whole Bunch of Garden Photos…

Posted on June 10, 2005 by joelignacio

Today I was able to take a whole bunch of garden photos, including some fruits, vegetables, flowers and other stuff in my garden. So if you have the bandwidth, check behind the cut.

Vegetables

Cucumbers