Summer Plant Kick Off, Part 2

Part two of my warm weather plant kick off contains seedlings. Lots of seedlings (a lot for me at least). I'm hoping to have these plants all moved outdoors and in their permanent homes by the end of April, beginning of May.

Here is my new light set up with mostly bush beans, all vying for the light's rays. The set of beans sitting on the heat mat on the far right are seeds I had to restart because of rotting.

This is actually the third time I'm restarting some seeds because of rotting that occurred while using the paper towel/baggy method (my error, not the method itself). I've learned that setting fully closed bags on the heat mat really speeds up rotting, but an open bag on the heat mat dries out too fast. So next time, no heat mat.

In the orange pots are two more tomato plants. Time to move the light up!

In the middle of the above tray are my Charentais Isabella melons... Here's a close up. I'm planning on putting these in the bed next to the tomatoes (where my alliums are currently taking forever to mature).

Below, the tiny seedlings on the left are more Baby Belle peppers, and on the right are my Bush Slicer cucumbers. I placed two seeds in each pot because I was concerned some had spoiled in the wet paper towel/baggy... Guess I was wrong! The peppers will go into more SWP's, and cucumbers will go into an 18 gallon SWP tote.

The newspaper pots are difficult to move around if they're moist, so extra gentle handling is a must. Other than that, they're holding up well, and I'm happy with them. 

Summer Plant Kick Off, Part 1

I finished hardening off my tomatoes on Tuesday, and since our night temps are in the low 40's, I wanted to get them in the ground for their first night out. I probably waited a little longer than I should've, but here they were before.

Viva Italia and Pearson Determinate tomatoes...

Here they are in their new home...

I placed two Pearson's in the back, a Viva Italia in the front, and two of my three basils on the front left and right. The tomatoes look even smaller inside the huge tomato cages. Those cages were a great free find on craigslist. The add said a "few" cages, and I pictured 3 or 4 small cages. I drove to the guys house in my 4 door sedan and he had like, 10 humongous cages. I had to do some pretty creative stacking, packing, and bending to get them all in my car. I can only imagine what that guy must've been thinking!

I didn't exactly use the trench method like I was planning...  There's not a ton of space in the 4'x2' box for laying such leggy plants on their sides like the trench method instructs. Instead I dug three pretty deep holes and placed the plants about 7 inches below the soil line. I'm hoping this will give similar results as the trench method. That or it'll kill 'em and I'll know better for next year. HA!

Yesterday I finally planted the pride of my warm weather plant kick off...

White Habanero and Baby Belle sweet peppers (Italian Cameo basil on the left). I don't know what in the world I'm going to do with 2 plants worth of habanero's! Last season we regularly grilled and ate our Fresno chili's--nom, but Habanero's are a bit out of my league (I'm growing them more for DH and to say I've grown white habanero's teeheehee).

These are the pride of my garden because they'll be growing in my SWPs. Here they are this morning. Habanero's in the back, Baby Belle's in the front...

I see a lot of people using all sorts of different ratios of peat moss, pearlite, and vermiculite for their SWPs, but I'm sticking with EG's recommendations again, and going with a 6:3:1 ratio. One completed kitty litter bucket SWP holds 3 gallons of mix. Again, EG recommends adding 1/2 cup each of Dolomitic lime and a CRF (Controlled Release Fertilizer) scratched into the top 2 inches of the soil. This seemed like it might be a bit much for 3 gallons of mix, so I'm conducting an experiment. One of each variety received the recommended dose, and the other two plants received half (1/4 cup each).

In part two of my garden kick off, I'll share the next round of plants that will go into the ground/containers. Beans, cucumbers, melons, more sweet peppers, and maybe one more round of tomatoes (I need to find a place for them).

Citrus Tree Purchases. I Couldn't Help Myself!

Last year I discovered the Four Winds Growers Nursery is only 40 minutes west of me. Between then and now, I'd been able to thwart my desire to purchase more dwarf citrus plants. I told myself I had to get my Meyer Lemon tree repotted and healthy before I brought any mates home for her (yea, it's a "her." Men give their cars a gender, why can't I give my tree one? She does bear fruit ya' know. Har. Har). Seeing Thomas' new trees certainly didn't help my self control. After all, he grows his trees indoors! I wanted more too (wining). Hmph. Why shouldn't I have more trees (stomping foot). We have the space out back...

Well, my self control and restraint pretty much dissolved after I repotted my Meyer. I didn't go to the nursery, exactly... I only ordered a plant from them online HAHA! I figured shipping was cheaper than the cost of gas and schlepping myself and toddler into Fremont. Last week my delivery came, and tucked perfectly inside was a one year old Calamondin tree. Although a sour citrus variety, I chose this one because it can bloom year round.

After reading about Thomas' unfortunate indoor aphid attack from bringing a contaminated set of plants inside, I immediately looked over my tree. And a good thing! There were early signs of scale growth on a few leaves. I removed the scale, sprayed with Neem Oil, and placed outside on the opposite end of the yard from everything else. So far no signs of additional scale have appeared.

Each time I stop by OSH for gardening items, I stop by the citrus section (also all Four Winds trees). The selection never really intrigued me. A few grapefruit, Lisbon or Eureka lemons... But the last time I went, there were different plants there. Now, if there's one thing I know about decorating or creating art, it's that you should always have an odd number of items on display. So only having two potted citrus trees is clearly unacceptable. To prevent a garden faux pas, I bought a Clementine Mandarin tree. We eat clementines like they're goin outa style, so I just had to get it!

And now my citrus trio...

My Meyer doesn't look as healthy as it was two weeks after repotting it. I found a good resource for discolored citrus leaves, and nothing that I can see seems to match the color/discoloration of the older leaves (the new leaves look great).

I'm hoping it's because of the cold weather we had last week, and the 40+ degree difference in day/night temps... I'll feed later this week with a weakened citrus fertilizer just in case.

Alright! I'm off to get my peppers in their SWP's, and my tomatoes in the ground.

Harvest Monday

So, did you have a wonderful Easter weekend? Ours was very relaxing, and a lot of fun.We had a break in the rain on Saturday, so I took the boys with me to our farmer's market. There I picked up a bag of mixed organic lettuces, potatoes, and a bunch of asparagus. Later that day, Boy Wonder and I did our traditional day-before-Easter egg dying.

His favorite... Soaked in all the colors, and all scraped up from the egg dipper.

My favorite... "Buncop" started out as a bunny but as I've stated before, I lack artistic ability, so it looks more like a cross between a bunny and cat, so I named him "Buncat," but since my handwriting stinks too, came out more like "Buncop," so I gave him a mask (a cop with a mask? Yes. A bunny-cat cop with a mask LOL).

On Sunday we had a really fun start to our day with the boys hunting for eggs. I couldn't get any pictures of that event... Boy Wonder was too busy running around, the LO was too excited about the jelly beans (he was shaking!), and I was too busy trying to keep him distracted from eating them all by pointing out more eggs. I did get this one of the boys playing well together as proof of a sudden turn in their relationship that's happened a few times this week--thank goodness!

Oh, yes. I guess I should get to the point of the post then, shouldn't I?

My Harvest Monday contribution contains a few garlic and shallot scapes that went into a quiche, and two heads of Sweetie Baby Romaine lettuce from Renee's Garden.

These were mixed into the bag of lettuces I brought home from the farmer's market. This was my first harvest of this lettuce variety, and I'm very happy with it. I look forward to growing more of it again next season.

Each week Daphne hosts Harvest Monday over at Daphne's Dandelions. Check out her page to see what other's have been munchin' and crunchin' on this week.

Indoor Light Dilemma. I Need Ideas!

Before I go into my lighting dilemma, please check out an older post here for pictures of my seed starting setup.

Now that you've seen the setup, and my *tiny* grow light that only efficiently covers a 2 foot by 3 inch section, take a quick look at my new light here. I'm sorry I don't have a picture to post for you... I'm in hella pain from my kickboxing workout last night, and feeling very lazy today.

So, last night I received my new light, and when DH and I tried to hang it, the height adjusters wouldn't hold the weight of the light. I'm hoping you, my super smart and innovative readers (wink wink), can come up with some ideas to help me adjust my setup to hold a heavier light so I won't need to make a new one.

The PVC holds the weight perfectly, but the PVC screw shown below won't clamp down onto the wire tight enough, and the wire keeps slipping.

San Francisco Flower and Garden Show; Part 2

It was nice seeing Boy Wonder excited about going from one display to the next with me, but I think next year I'll leave everyone at home and do the tour by myself. There were so many details I feel I missed, there were a couple seminars I would have liked to attend, but couldn't with the family hanging about, and it wasn't until finding links for my previous post that I discovered this was the first year the show had a Victory Garden on display in a tent outside of the event center. I'm so bummed I missed that!

Here are my favorite close ups of a few of the beautiful flowers that were on display at the weekend's show...

This is my favorite picture from the whole trip.

I wish I had a better picture of these ranunculus--one of my favorite flowers.

As we were leaving the event center, and discussing our initial impressions, DH and I both agreed the show felt more like a display area for hiring landscapers to redo your garden. It wasn't until after we left the garden show that I learned this year's theme was "Gardens for the Future." Even when I initially learned about the theme, I was thinking to myself how so many of the displays failed in getting it across in their gardens. When I finally sat down to look at the pictures I'd taken, everything fell into place. I think I did the beginner's tour of walking up and down each isle to make sure I hit all of the garden displays, and all of the kiosks, but upon reflecting about our trip, I realize I missed out on looking at the details of how each artist's rendition captured the theme. Boy, I can't wait until next year's show!

To prepare for next year's show, I think I should learn how to use DH's SLR camera so I can take pictures that look more like this or these. Shh! Don't tell him I'll be making off with his camera!

Harvest Monday; Finally Substantial

I'm so proud to finally have what feels like a substantial harvest come from my garden. Here are the highlights of our homegrown goodies from last week.

These shallot shoots were technically harvested on the 16th, but I didn't use them until the end of last week, so I'm counting them in my harvest now. These shoots went into a vegetable quiche which you can read more about on my cooking blog.

I was kicking a ball in the yard with the Little One (LO), and on a whim I pulled one of the few remaining oranges off the tree, peeled, and ate a slice. Wouldn't you know it?!?! They were sweet! I mean, they weren't bitter at all, and they weren't all dried up inside like they were this time last year (maybe all the rain helped in that regard). Anyway, I'm proud to say we had mouth-wateringly sweet oranges with several meals last week, and I'm sure we'll be having them throughout this week too. Yay!

On Wednesday, I trimmed my three Cameo Basil plants for the first time. Besides smelling the leaves until I felt intoxicated, LOL, I threw the leaves in a spaghetti sauce. Nom!

I also harvested the rest of my Green Arrow peas throughout last week. Not the best picture I took, but look at those little fingers trying to sneak more peas while I was taking pictures! LOL. The LO couldn't get enough of them, and kept asking for more, like he does with cheese (He's a little cheese freak. His favorites are Feta and blue cheese. Weird for a 2yo, right?).

We had some pretty high winds on Wednesday night/Thursday morning which blew many of my pea plants off their trellis. This worked to my advantage by revealing another batch of peas, about the same size as shown above. Today I removed the pea plants and the remaining mature pods. The grand total for this week's pea harvest was... You ready? 8.2 ounces. HAHA... Well, it's enough for us all to have as a side...

And for my grand finale, my Short & Sweet carrots from the salad table. I pulled these yesterday.

Below, the carrots on the left side were the few mature carrots that grew in front of the peas...

Without the tops, the carrots weighed in at just under 11 ounces. Woohoo!  I'll make these into Honey Glazed Carrots.

I probably won't grow peas again simply because they take up so much space for so little harvest, and I had to throw a lot of immature pods away since they can't be eaten. I have to say though, that I love the resiliency of the peas within the pods. The peas ended their season covered in aphids, and there was evidence of something laying eggs within the pod walls, but the peas themselves made it through unscathed.

I'm happy that I finally grew carrots, and I'll definitely grow them again this fall. Production for the space is great, and they're fast growers when grown under the right conditions. Fresh carrots are so scrumptious, and the LO can eat them because they're slightly softer in texture than regular store bought carrots.

Each week Daphne hosts Harvest Monday over at Daphne's Dandelions. Check out her page to see what other's have been munchin' and crunchin' on this week.

San Francisco Flower and Garden Show; Part 1

Today I took my family on a trip to see our first ever garden show at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show. The theme of this year's show was "Gardens for the Future."

Tatyana, over at My Secret Garden, introduced me to the "garden show" world with her visit to the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. I'd never even heard of a garden show before she posted her beautiful pictures. I was so amazed by the displays she shared with her readers that I bought tickets to this weekend's show in San Francisco.

Boy Wonder and I in front of a satellite dish shaped/sized "Stretch Garden," growing vegetables and strawberries.

I have to apologize in advance for the blurriness of some of these pictures. I'm still learning how to photograph, the lighting was low and I usually take pictures in the sunny backyard, so I'm not used to using my flash. Blurriness aside, I did take a lot of pictures and since I want to share all my favorites with you I'll be splitting today's trip into two posts.

Succulent garden...

A living wall "house" surrounded by water...

A treehouse...

An interesting display of alligator heads in a bird bath, surrounded by succulents...

(I don't get it either)

I was very happy to see one display with chickens.

(My boys are the ones on the right not yelling "bock bock" while harassing the chickens *rolling eyes*).

A very fun and colorful garden...

Neat sculpture...

A "Biospheric System" by Inka

I couldn't leave without bringing something back to my garden. I love butterflies and currently have a fixation with metal sculptures, so this metal piece made from recycled oil barrels is right up my alley.

As I was waiting in line to purchase this piece, the sale lady (Curator?) from It's Cactus let me know that all of the art on display was made by artists in Haiti, and the 100% of the proceeds from the sales would go back to earthquake victims there. Cool.

Check back on Tuesday for a few close up shots of the botanical beauties on display at the show.