Saturday, July 26, 2008

Fig progress notes.

Not bad, considering I was wondering if they were dead, earlier this year. I keep thinking about removing the petite negri due to mosaic, but it has the largest NUMBER of figs. They are small - vancouver and hardy chicago are both ahead of petite negri. Lattarula's figs are BARELY visible. Documenting now to see later if this translates into actual edible figs this fall.

Vancouver

Petite negri

Hardy Chicago

Lattarula

opuntia






Opuntia flowers. I was thinking about removing this cactus. It's difficult to weed around it. Especially when the weeds are thistles - double ouch! Frankly, the fruits are not great and take a lot of effort in slicing and peeling for minimal taste. The flowers only last one day, and most bloom over a period of a few days.

Still, when it does bloom, it's interesting. As the flowers age, the color changes dramatically. Interesting. Maybe I'll keep it.

Featured Blog

This is an interesting read from Iowa: "Plants are the strangest people"

Darker colors

Mixed colors with burgundy, lavender, purple, and colors that I don't know how to name.

Rose of Sharon

Eggplant

Malva - a weed in my garden.

Tradescantia pallida

Sempervivum

Sunday, July 13, 2008

White

Sweet alyssum. Nicely fragrant. Has been re-seeding itself in containers and on the ground.

Chilian jasmine. Nicely fragrant. It hasn't been getting the TLC that it needs, but manages to survive.

A white-flowered sedum. Very hardy, extremely easy to grow, prevents weeds, stays compact, can be spread over a large area wtih no-effort cuttings. In the winter, I just cut off pieecs and stick them into the ground. That's all.

Pascali. One of the all-time winners. It still hasn't settled in here. I'm not giving it a lot of care, either. So far not much fragrance.

I think that this rose is called Jennifer. It's a bit like the variety 'popcorn'. Very hardy. The catalog claimed so fragrant you can smell it at a distance. Not.

Trumpet lily. Not perfectly white, but the only white lily that I have blooming right now. I can't tell if it's fragrant.

Huimingbird fun

The hummers are visiting regularly. Sometimes there are several.
My hand isn't steady enough for a perfect shot.
They are fun to watch. The especially like the crocosmia.

Monday, July 07, 2008

Today's Green Change

Daniel's "before".

Ning's "before" = Daniel's "after".

Ning's "after".


For me, bike is absolutely better, but long hours make it impossible.
Ning has a much longer commute the improved milage will have a big impact.
The bumper sticker was mine already.

tomato log

Tomato heights - randomly selected

Lemon Boy 38" and 42"
Ponderosa Red 22 "
Sweet 100 32" adn 34"
Most of the rest appear to be in the high 20s to low 30s.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Yellow

The yarden does not have a 'theme'. Maybe organic, or diverse, or multifunctional, or love of nature. But no 'landscape' or 'design' theme (sorry HGTV. actually, not sorry). Still, sometimes there is a 'momentary theme'. Currently it could be 'berries'. I noticed that there was a lot of yellow in these pictures, so today it's 'yellow'. That's realizing that there are lots of colors all over the place. Especially green. But today, we'll stick with yellow.

Unknown yellow rose.

Yarrow

Yellow Sahin's Clivia, out of season but blooming nicely.

Petunia.

David Austin rose, Happy Child.


Tomato "Sweet 100"

Sedum with yellow flowers.

Yellow leaf sedum.

Friday, July 04, 2008

Fig Progress Notes

Almost all of the fig branches are at the 5-leaf point where I remove the tips. The earlier branches are responding with embryonic figs. There is hope for the future! This one is Hardy Chicago and seems to be the earliest to start main crop this year.