garden

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Back to the Drawing Board: Sunflower Seed Do-Over

Sunflower Seedlings: Long Gone

Did you see the sweet little photo I posted earlier this week?  It was my celebratory shot of my emerging sunflowers.  If I hadn’t snapped a picture, I’d have thought I imagined the whole thing.  Squirrels, you are my nemesis.

I lived with my discouragement for a few days then tried again.  I transplanted the seedlings I started indoors and planted the last of the remaining seeds in the pots along the deck. I covered some of the seeds with makeshift domes.  The larger dome worked and the three remaining seedlings are okay…for now.  The other “dome” was too light: I caught the squirrel lifting it up right in front of me.  The nerve! What remains: three little stick shaped shoots (photo “unavailable”…ha!).

Happiness arrived today in the form of an email from Botanical Interests entitled Sow Successful.  What timing.  I learned about soaking seeds for faster germination and I learned about Floating Row Covers or FRC.  I’m going to wrap up this post and head to my local garden center now before it closes.  Stay tuned…

In the meantime, you many want to take a look at Botanical Interests In The Garden blog.

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Seed Keeper Deluxe: Organized Seeds, Happy Gardener

Seed Keeper: Seed Sorting and Storage

My Seed Keeper Deluxe arrived by post yesterday. Is there anything sweeter than receiving a much-anticipated package on your doorstep?

I took a peek at my new kit when it arrived, but had to set everything aside until early this afternoon when I had a break in my schedule. In no time I had my box filled with seeds, alphabetized of course.Reading the face of each divider has been fun, with clever quips and tips including Rain Barrel Rush! There’s Gold In That There Water! and Vegetables – To Seed or Not to Seed on each tabbed divider

I also learned:

“Eleanor Roosevelt, inspired by War Gardens made popular during WWI started The Victory Garden. Remarkably, 20 million people planted gardens which produced up to 40% of all the vegetable produce consumed nationally.”

Wouldn’t it be nice to return to that tradition?

Lindy’s in charge of quality control

Various Features

The foam core insert keeps the dividers standing upright

Seed Keeper:  The basics

Seed Keeper Deluxe:  Pictured above

Burlap Girdle: Short on space?  Try these collapsible pots

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Blooming Thursday: Hydrangeas Pink and Blue

First Hydrangea Bloom of the Season

I love the coordinating schedules of our hydrangeas.  Sweet synchronicity from both sides of the garden.  Our potted hydrangea has a soft, pink bloom, while the three sisters are showing a light dusting of blue.

The blue hydrangeas hang out under a pine tree, so will likely keep their hue.  I’ve read that you can change a pink hydrangea to blue and vice versa, but the white ones will always be white.

Here is what the Gardener’s Supply Company* has to say about changing the color of the bloom.

“Hydrangeas with bloom colors that range from pink through blue and purple usually belong to the hydrangea cultivars known as mopheads and lacecaps. These types of hydrangeas have the interesting ability to change the color of their blooms based on the chemistry of the soil. When grown in alkaline soil, the bloom colors are pinker. When grown in acidic soil, the bloom colors are bluer.

Because it’s the soil chemistry that determines the bloom color, the variety names given to these types of hydrangeas means very little when it comes to bloom color. For instance, Nikko Blue, Pretty in Pink, Forever Pink and Blue Deckle, all have an almost equal chance of blooming pink or blue, depending on the soil they are planted in.

To manipulate the color of a hydrangea’s blooms, you need to manipulate your soil’s pH level and mineral content. This is not something you do just once. In order to maintain growing conditions that result in a specific bloom color, you may need to apply special soil amendments several times during the growing season.”

Too much work for this gardener!  I’m just happy they’re blooming.

Blushing Blue

I’ve got my eye on you!

*One of my favorite catalogs!

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Garden Log: May 9, 2012

Here’s what’s growing in my garden this week:

Flowering Annuals:

Most years I plant Alyssum and Impatiens from cell packs.  It’s nice to have the head start.  Instead I went with seeds, surprised by how tiny they were!  It was late in the day when I planted them broadcast style, so I wasn’t sure what kind of coverage I would have.  They broke ground on Tuesday.

Sunflowers:

I have two varieties growing in three locations this season.  It will be interesting to compare variables.  I planted a single row near our dwarf lemon in the front side yard.  We had great luck last year, which is to say, that four out of ten survived the squirrel rampage.  That works for me.  A few sunflower seedlings sprouted in the kitchen, and will move outdoors when they set true leaves.  The third batch has yet to come up.  I planted them in pots in a row along the front deck. (I’m dreaming of a wall of sunflowers this summer, something I once saw in a catalog.)

Sunflower Start-ups

Pumpkins:

I have one impressive volunteer from last season with leaves the size of dinner plates. I can’t wait to see what the fruit looks like. It could be our prize pumpkin. The transplants are limping along. I dressed the beds with Hydro Organics Bat Guano, which has high levels of phosphorous and nitrogen.

Pumpkin Leaf

Berries:

The raspberry vines look healthy this year. They’ve doubled in size and are stretching towards the trellis. Blooms are giving way to the early formation of fruit. We’re pretty excited about that. The blueberry plant also looks healthy. Fellow blogger, What’s Green With Betsy! says “the first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps.” It’s a leap year! Finally, the strawberries are establishing well. The holdover plant from last year is already producing fruit.

Planting Box (4×4)
Raspberries, Blueberries, Strawberries
Basil and Sage

On Deck:

I tucked in a few annuals to fill out the pots on deck.  We have two miniature roses, replanted from the back yard and a beautiful coleus.  I moved the geranium to the front of the garden, making room for the tall grasses that shot up this week.  I’m going to try to get a better picture when the light is just so.  It’s especially beautiful at the end of the day.

Deck Top Annuals

What’s growing in your garden this week?

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Drying Lavender: My Garage Never Smelled So Good

Lavender-Scented Garage

Lavender grows along the front of our deck, creating a dense wall of flowers.  Now that the plants are established they grow up and over on the deck.  The flowers are graceful in the wind and fragrant beyond belief and  they attract bees to our garden.  Flower perfection.

Last week I decided to experiment with sunflowers in pots along the top edge of the deck, so I unceremoniously pruned back a handful of lavender, and set it in the garage for drying.   I needed the narrow space on the edge of the deck to maximize full sun exposure while maintaining a clear path.

I’ve been dreaming of a wall of sunflowers this summer, so if all goes well, we’ll have a row of yellow and orange sunflowers with lavender blooms draped around the stalks.  I’m giddy just writing about it.

Eventually I gathered the lavender in a loose bunch with some string and hung it in the garage to dry.  Our garage smells like a Crabtree and Evelyn shop!  Seriously, why didn’t I think of this sooner?  I’m ready to dry lavender in every room in the house, though my men-folk may feel otherwise.

Can’t you just smell it?

Ladies fair, I bring to you
lavender with spikes of blue;
sweeter plant was never found
growing on our English ground.

by Caryl Battersby

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Catnip Corner: The Purrfect Spot

How to Grow the Perfect Catnip

I’ve been scouting for the perfect spot to plant our catnip which needs full sun and easy feline access.  I had pretty much resigned myself to planting in a low pot, when I noticed this bare patch of earth near the lawn next to the other mint. Kismet! er…catnip!

We have a pair of seed-embedded cards from a Petco fundraiser we’ve been saving to plant this spring. I’ll plant one now, keeping the second as a back up just in case this first batch fails to deliver. It seems a bit of a shame to cover these clever cards with dirt, but I’ll save a fortune on catnip.

Here’s a bit about catnip also know as cat mint from catworld.com. This powerful herb has many human uses and attributes, beyond a feline-high:

Catnip tends to have a sedative effect on humans. It is most often drunk as a tea.

It is also useful for settling an upset stomach. It has also been used to treat headaches, scarlet fever, coughing, insomnia & smallpox.

Catnip can also be used for cuts, studies show it has a natural healing quality. Crush fresh catnip leaves, damp them & apply to your cut. **

Pregnant women should avoid catnip.

It can also be used as an aromatic herb in cooking & salads.

The Perfect Spot

=^..^=

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Blooming Thursday: Random Gifts and Neighborhood Rifts

For all the time I spend in the garden, complete surprises are rare.  With my nose down close to the dirt, or my camera directed at flowers and trees, it feels as comfortable and familiar as a good marriage.

That said, my husband still surprises me with flowers “just because” and this week my garden did the same.  After an hour of planting and the requisite cleanup, I turned to go inside and spotted something flowering behind our fruit tree.  I climbed over the rock wall and shrubs, rounded the tree, and there it was!  The flowering bulb has roots under the fence line, so perhaps the bulb divided from the neighbor’s side.

It would be nice to think of the flower as a gift, or more appropriately a peace-offering, for in this community of otherwise incredible neighbors, this unhappy soul stands out.  He once trapped my cat and dropped him off at the Humane Society without a word.  He calls the authorities when someone’s dog barks.  He asked us to lie when our shared fence fell down and had to be replaced. We declined.

Perhaps this random gift is not the flower, but the opportunity to let go of the angst I feel when I pass his house.  All these years later the anger and hurt are gone, but the angst lingers on.

Spring Bulbs

Any guesses on the name of this flowering bulb?

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City Picker: Grow Tomatoes on your Porch, Patio or Deck

City Picker

A few years back, a friend raved about an Earth Box, a self-contained planting system for vegetables.  I’m not sure if they were hard to come by at the time, but I never stumbled across one in any of the garden centers I frequent, or I simply didn’t take the time to look.

Our raised beads spread out across the back of our house in past years, but they were too close together making it challenging to get around them without getting your foot caught between them.  When we refurbished our back yard this winter, we widened the path in front of the beds, to make room for our summer pumpkin vines.  We added gravel, since part of that area isn’t easily plant-able due to pipes, irrigation shut off valves, the electric box, etc.  It was a great place for a chair in the cooler months, with the sun reflecting heat off the side of the house.  Hoping to capture that trapped heat for our tomatoes this summer, I went looking for an Earth Box.  What I found instead was a City Picker, virtually identical in every way, but almost double in width.

City Picker’s are perfect for urban gardeners, since they are a fully contained system in a portable box.  The planting box comes with casters, a ventilation tray, a watering tube and plastic mulch.  You can roll it around your patio or deck to maximize sun, while at the same time containing the mess.  No need to worry about watering your downstairs neighbor!

Here is our setup:

1.5 CU FT. Organic Potting Mix

Dolomite Lime and Fertilizer

Fully assembled City Picker

Fill with potting mix to about two inches below the top
Add a thin layer of Dolomite

Organic Fertilizer:
Make a two-inch trough in the center of the box
Add three cups of organic fertilizer

Mound Potting Mix:
Cover fertilizer with mix, about one inch above the box

Plastic Mulch:
Cover with the elasticized plastic mulch
Clip in place with the enclosed binder clips

Cut Holes in Plastic Mulch:
Cut a hole for the irrigation pipe
Cut additional holes and plant seeds/seedlings

Ready to Grow

I’ve provided links for the Earth Box and the City Picker for feature comparisons.  Please let me know if you’ve tried one in the past, or if you plan to set one up this season.

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True Leaves: Seedlings Ready to Go

Pushing Up Seed Casings

I learned the expression “true leaves” on a gardening forum called I Dig My Garden. True leaves are the second pair of leaves on an emerging plant indicating all systems are go for transplanting outdoors.  I like that expression, and find it far more interesting than my heretofore “second set of leaves” terminology.

Our Burpee Growing System delivered in spades.  We have over 72 pumpkin seedlings ready to go.  I prepped the garden beds a few weeks ago anticipating this day.  The stars have aligned, which is to say dry, warm inviting conditions to launch our pumpkin crop.  Here we go!

“The love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies.”
–  Gertrude Jekyll
☼☼☼

April 11th: Planted seeds indoors in a Burpee Seed Starting System.

April 18th: Will you look at these adorable sprouts?  What personality!

April 29th:  True Leaves!  So excited…

Kitchen Counter Pumpkin Crops

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Blooming Thursday: Lemondrops and Sage

Today’s blossoms are lemony yellows and vibrant purples, with just a touch of white.

According to Sensational Color, “Yellow is psychologically the happiest color in the color spectrum.”

The color purple uplifts.  “It calms the mind and the nerves and encourages creativity.”

Yellow and purple are complimentary on the color wheel. They always look beautiful together. No wonder these flowers make me happy.

Mexican Sage, a Hummingbird Favorite

Salvia Leucantha ‘Mexican Sage‘ thrives in our planting zone. Its drought-tolerant, requiring virtually no water once established. It’s also a magnet for beneficial bees and hummingbirds and neighborhood kids.  Those beautiful flowers are as soft as they look. This one occupies a small space in our “sidewalk strip” next to the driveway.

Pittosporum Blossoms

Our well-established Pittosporum is probably as old as the house. We’ve lived here for 16 years and it was fully grown when we moved in. It produces beautiful yellow flowers in the spring, and variegated leaves year round. The squirrels use it as a stepping stool to the neighboring pine.

Orange Blossoms

Not only does our orange tree produce a bounty of fruit but it blooms these sweetly fragrant blossoms every spring. Our tree currently houses a squirrel’s nest! It provides great shade in the summer months, but we stay clear of it at dusk when the rats stop by for a treat.

Campanula: 'Serbian Bellflower'

These Serbian Bellflowers are new to our garden this year. This is the first of the plants to bloom. I’m looking forward to the day when they are all covered with these tiny, star-like flowers.  Aren’t they sweet?

Abutilon: 'Moonchimes' Chinese Lantern

Hummingbirds love these gorgeous yellow flowers. This lovely graces our front side yard near the smaller Magnolia by our deck.

What’s blooming in your garden today?

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