Flowers. 7.12.2020

Lots of flowers blooming now. It's turning out that a lot of them are from seeds I saved myself, but also seeds I bought, and plants that I've grown over the years.

Oriental lilies.  I don't know the name any more.  They only survive here in containers.  7.12.2020

Echinacea, grown from seeds about 4 years ago.  7.12.2020

Cosmos from 3rd generation volunteers, cilantro from saved seeds.  7.12.2020

A daylily I created by pollinating two varieties that I liked, a few years ago.  7.12.2020

Chives, wild petunia, cilantro, and rose moss.  7.12.2020

A flower basket that Ning put together.  7.12.2020

My first attempt at growing poppies from seeds.  Now I know how.  7.12.2020

Crocosmia, descended from some I planted 20 years ago.  7.12.2020

Kitchen Garden Update. 6.11.2020

There has been a lot of rain, so not easy to get into the garden for hoeing and weeding.  It's warm, so stuff is growing fast.

Outside the deer fence, I've been planting things that the herbivores usually don't bother.  So far so good.  Most are moved from other locations in my garden and yard.  Mostly herbs and some flowers.  So far, chives, garlic chives, oregano, artichoke, cilantro, swiss chard, mesclun, a couple of smaller irises, marigolds, horse radish, poppies.  I recently planted some zinnia seeds and moved some volunteer Four Oclocks and cosmos to this area.

The first crop of sweetcorn.  Small, but I think that every year about this time.

Fence on other side of garden.  Similar idea.

Looking west from the east gate.  We've been eating lots of greens.  Squashes have female but no male flowers.

Also looking west from the east gate.  Those tomatoes were kind of a response to concerns for food shortage.  There will be a lot of potatoes this year.

Snowpeas in bloom.  These are Oregon Spring.  The Taiwan Sugar variety has white flowers.

Bush beans.  That row was mesclun and radishes.  As soon as they were gone, I planted beans.

Jalapenos are a bit small but growing.  I started them too late.

This bed was a mess.  More Chinese chives, and irises, and a lot of weeds.  Now it's those jalapenos and Chinese Pink Celery, little seedlings.  On the north edge, some slicing cucumbers that will get a trellis.

I have the posts in place for slicing tomatoes and cherry tomatoes.  Down the center row, radishes are almost ready.

Cages are in place for sauce tomatoes.  I will try to keep them upright better this year.  Starting to put out flowers.

Yesterdays root crops and salad greens.  Red radishes, Japanese Wasabi radishes, Japanese white turnips, swiss chard, some pea shoots, mesclun, mustard greens, chives and lettuce.

Old raised bed, was strawberries and garlic chives, neither doing well.  I removed those, transplanting them into fresh soil.  Added some lime, and compost.  Now it's compact pickle cucumbers, some dill and cilantro.

More Vegetable Seeds. 6.2.2020

I planted some more vegetable seeds.  Something seems to be eating a lot of my planted bean seeds.  Several rows vanished completely.  Something also eats some of the plants after they germinate.  I'll try again, Landreth and Roma varieties.  I also planted some more dill and cilantro, which seem to be slow germinating, and the third batch of sweetcorn, this time Ambrosia hybrid.

The garden is very lush.  As usual, I was over-enthusiastic and planted too much.  Photos may follow in a day or two.

Walking around. Lindens, Herbs, Plant Starts, Persimmons, Ginkgo, 5.21.16

I planted this Greenspire Linden as my birthday tree in September 2012.  The tree was an end of season sale at Home Depot, with roots encircling the container.  I pruned off the encircling roots, dug in the dry soil, filled twice with water, and did some light pruning to one leader a the top.  I watered twice monthly the first summer, once monthly the second summer, and little or none, last summer.

This Linden has become a nice looking tree.  Much taller and more full.  There are 3 other Greenspire lindens around the yard, started smaller, planted later, but still growing nicely.  They all have many flower buds.  I planted these especially for the honeybees to have an excellent pollen and nectar source.

I also planted a Redmond American Linden, which was smaller, but has grown fast and is covered with flower buds now, as well.

Around the yard, Lavenders are blooming.  Honeybees are foraging the lavenders.  Chamomile is growing nicely, started from seeds this winter.  There are quite a few volunteer nasturtiums growing.  I have some other spots where I might plant some nasturtium seeds.

 The Saijo and Nikita's Gift Persimmons have flower buds, with the Nikita's Gift covered and Saijo with just a few.  The Yates American Persimmon has taken off and growing fast.  Any stems that stick out from the fencing are eaten quickly by the damn deer.

Blue-grey Lavendar.  5.21.16

Chamomile.  5.21.16

 Grape cuttings started late winter have a small amount of growth.   The largest are past the stage where they could be growing just on stored nutrients, so must have roots.

The ginkgo tree that I moved in January this year is looking good.  The leaves are smaller than expected for an established gingko tree, but OK for one in it's first Spring after a big move.

I have a bucket with onw 1/4 inch hole drilled in the bottem.  If there is no rain for a week, I fill the bucket with water, let it drain, move it and repeat, then move to a third location and repeat again.

Volunteer Nasturtium.  5.21.16

Saijo Persimmon Flower Buds.  5.21.16

Yates American Persimmon, in ground about 2 years.  5.21.16

Nikita Gift Persimmon Flower Buds.   5.21.16

Price Grape Cuttings, a few month old.  5.21.16

Ginkgo tree transplanted Jan 2016.  5.21.16

More Seeds Planted for Kitchen Garden. Seedlings. 3.24.16

Today I planted tomato seeds.  This year I want to experiment with grafting tomatoes onto performance enhancing rootstocks.  I tried this about 5 years ago, but was sidetracked. 

Several rootstock varieties are available for tomatoes, also grown from seeds.  The improved rootstock gives much more vigorous growth, much better productivity, and confers disease and nematode resistance.

I have some old seeds of Maxifort rootstock.  I don't know how well they will germinate at 5 years old, but the seeds can be expensive so I will give them a try.

This year I bought "Supernatural Hybrid" which is also a performance enhancing rootstock.

Tomato Seeds planted 3.24.16

All of the tomato seeds are from previous years, so they were no cost at all.

I planted seeds for the following:

Both rootstock varieties.

Roma
Jersey Boy Hybrid
Supersweet 100 hybrid
Sungold Hybrid
Sunny Boy Hybrid
Better Boy Hybrid.

It looks like I'm not so enthusiastic about Heritage varieties this year.  I may get some out and try, depending on how this experiment goes.

They are planted in the usual seed starting medium in 6 packs, on a seed warming mat.

Kitchen Garden and Herb Seedlings.  3.24.16

Kitchen Garden Seedlings.  3.24.16

Meanwhile, the seeds from last week have all germinated -

Dill
Edible Chrysanthemum
Thyme
Japanese eggplant
Catnip
Chamomile
Johnny Jump Up

The catnip seeds were about 8 years old so I planted thickly.  I want to attract cats to my yard to eat voles and rabbits.  Catnip is also a good nectar plant for beneficial insects and bees.

I let the original okra seedlings dry out.  Too much trouble to grow such a vigorous plant indoors, so early.  So now starting again.  When they size up, I can plant them in the sunroom until outdoors is more summery.

The peppers are blooming.  I started them too early.  They look good in the sunroom.  They had spider mites.  I treated with "Dr. Earth" which seems to have done the job.  I am skeptical about such products but I do not want to spray carcinogens around.

Sweet and Chili Pepper plants, started in January  3.24.16

More peppers and other plants.  3.26.15

These peppers probably need larger containers now. There are so many, that will be a project.

Front Borders Work In Progress. 2.18.15

Front Border and Walk.  2.18.15

Front Walk and Border.  2.18.15

So far, here is the front walk and border bed.  I've been working on them for 6 months.   The themes, if there are any -

-Most plants are usable for bee forage.

-Most plants were self-starts or transplants.

-Most plants are deer and rabbit resistant.

-Some edible plants are included, mainly herbs.

-Pavers are about 1/2 reused from various places, and 1/2 new.   So that they don't look uneven, I've been randomly mixing old and new, and the new is a mix of grey, brick red, and brown pavers.  Edging is also about 1/2 reused (grey) and 1/2 new (brick red). 

Under the mulch is a layer of cardboard food packaging, to prevent perennial weeds from coming up through the wood chip mulch.  It's working very well.

The plastic is there to kill the grass.  It's much easier to smooth the soil and prep a base for pavers, when the sod has been killed by this method.  It's slow - takes a few months.  But no hurry.

Front Border.  2.19.15

Front Border.  12.18.15

 By the house foundation, I will have a gravel walkway.  That avoids plants from growing up to the siding, and reduces risk for carpenter ants and termites.   It's been inspected - there are none.  I want to keep it that way.

For bee forage -
Sedums, big bunches of large varieties.
Helelborus - new clumps.
Daffodils, many.
Chinese chives, many clumps.
Lavender.
Rosemary
Sage.
Oregano, multiple clumps
Chives.
Daylilies, multiple clumps.
Blue chip Buddleia.
Alliums - multiple

For kitchen herbs and kitchen garden -
Rhubarb - large established clump and one I rescued.
4 miniature sized apple trees, 3 are columnar.
Oregano, Rosemary, Sage
Chives, Chinese Chives
Multiplier onions

This list is far from complete.  There are more varieties of bulbs including lilies and irises, Hyacinthoides and Leucojum and others.  There are groundcover sedums, violets, a big lilac that came with the place, some roses, and some I have forgotten.

Once the rest of the mulch is down - not much remaining to fill in - the bed should be mostly low  maintenance.  The edging and walkways will cut weed invasion back to a minimum.  The mulch will reduce water need.  The edging will keep grass out.  There is pretty good access via the walkways.  The edging needs tidying, the walks need completion and leveling, and that's about all.

Grow Your Own Ginger. 2.11.14

I've been reading on growing culinary ginger.  Like other zone-inappropriate plants, growing ginger will require at least part of the project indoors, in containers.

Ginger Farm.  Image source:  Commons.wikimedia.org

Botanical Drawing of Ginger.  Zingiber officinale

Based on info from various websites, it's a doable project. Use grocery store ginger root.

Buy a fresh looking root with multiple growth points. 
Cut so that each section contains several growth points.

If cutting the ginger root, allow it to dry so that the cut end does not rot when planted.

Some websites recommend soaking the ginger root overnight, in water.  Some sites recommend keeping the ginger root in a damp paper bag until it sprouts.  Some web sites recommend planting without pretreatment.   Hortmag.com has a good discussion.

As for planting, some sites recommend planting on the soil surface, while others recommend barely burying the rhizome, or burying it about an inch deep.

The ginger rhizome is planted in well drained potting medium.  Container size, looks like 6 inch to 1 foot diameter plastic pot will work, with 1 foot depth.  Keep lightly moist until the growth commences, then water regularly.

I've read that ginger requires much warmer conditions than we have in Pacific NW.  I'll keep that in mind.  Other tropicals can grow if I keep them in a warm place, especially in containers.  This is a good candidate for the sunroom.  Which is not built yet.  I will keep it in container, as I do with the citrus trees.  Ginger requires 230 to 300 days to mature.  Young ginger roots are juicier, compared to old roots.  Older roots have more concentrated flavor.

Ginger rhizome cluster

There was no fresh ginger root at Fred Meyer yesterday.   I found this rhizome at the Battleground roadside store.  Fat firm rhizome with multiple buds.

I cut it into 2 growth pieces and one to eat.  I will let it dry a few days before planting.

 I use a lot of ginger, to settle my stomach.  It does not have the somnolence and dry mouth side effects that often occur with nausea medications.

Herbs.

Today I bought starts of a few herbs. These are hardy enough to plant now. They'll have head starts on any I grow later, from seeds. German chamomile. Grows larger than Roman chamomile. I planted 2 of these in the end of the vegetable bed. Annual. Roman Chamomile. More prostrate habit. I planted these in the iris bed. Perennial. Thyme. In this case, a variety called "Lime Thyme", with a lime fragrance. I planted 2 of these in the iris bed. Ning likes using thyme in roasted root vegetable. Also rosemary, which I already have in a different area and will transplant to the iris bed. Lemon balm. I bought these to plant under the beehive. I read that lemon balm is attractive to honey bees, and lemon grass oil is used to attract bees to a hive. I could have dug up plants from home for the Battleground place, and still might. These are already nicely packaged in containers, so will be easy to plant.

Kitchen Garden Plan

This is the plan for the kitchen garden for next year.  I used a high-tech method called "writing on an old mailing envelope using a pen".  Bio-powered system.

The three beds on the eastern side are planted as noted. When the alliums are done, in July, I can prep those beds for crop rotation, adding in compost and start fall-planted radishes, cabbages, turnips, mesclun. Another option is late-planted bush beans. I'll build the two late-winter beds next. That will give the coli/compost/supplement mix a chance to settle and "cure" before planting. Probably late feb. Those are fast growing. When they are done, the warm-requiring solanums (eggplant, chilis, tomatoes) and Okra can go in. The taller ones will go to the back. I can build the other beds through the winter and prep them in early Spring, March and April, before they need to be planted in May or June. By then I'll be tired of building raised beds and, especially, hauling soil to them. The soil hauling is heavy work.

One great thing about planning on paper is, I can continue changing it as I think of better choices.

The raised beds now. The soil pile and compost pile are in approx locations for two of the beds. I hope people don't think someone is buried there.

It's great to have company, even if they are sleeping.