Each fall, I move the container geraniums (pelargoniums) into a dry sunny spot for a month, under the house eaves.  No water.  By drying them out, they go dormant.  Then I move them into the garage, which does not freeze but is cool.  In the Spring, I move them back outside, trim them a little, and start watering again.  I give them some growing plant food (more nitrogen), then when they are recovered, they get some blooming plant food.  These geraniums are about 4 or 5 years old, becoming large and bushy.  Nice plants.  Some of the containers also contain 4=Four O'clocks or Nerines.  I might remove the Four O'clocks this year if they are too rangy.  I have some of those in the flower border as well.

In the other containers, I stuck some nasturtium seeds -partly for flower and partly for salads; orchids, and carnivorous plants.  The cactus was a grocery store nopale that I planted in cactus soil a couple of years ago, and keep in the sunroom during the winter.

Carnivorous Plants. 6.4.18

Venus Flytrap

 Here are selections from my carnivorous plant collection.  It's a modest collection.  I'm a beginner.

The Venus Flytrap is highly magnified.  It's only a couple of inches across. 

They've all been catching flies and yellow jackets.

I've been following Jacob's instructions, in his ebook.  so far, with these plants, that means mainly they re in a shallow container with about an inch of low mineral (rain) water, and are in full sun, on the deck.

Sarracenia purpurea, I think.  It was unlabeled.

A Sarracenia hybrid.

 At this point, these are mostly fairly small plants.  I expect that as time passes, they will grow larger.  As perennials, they should increase in size each year. 

More Sarracenia hybrids.

The large one is Sarracenia oreophilia, I think.

Kitchen Garden Progress Report. 6.4.18

Garlic.  6.4.18

Sweet Corn.  6.4.18

 Most of the kitchen garden is doing well.  The main problems have been herbivores.  I've worked on several solutions, and some of those have helped.

The garlic was browsed even in low wire fencing tunnels.  I thought that was deer, but maybe rabbits.  After spraying with deer deterrent spray, the browsing stopped.  That may have been the size of the plant, and not the spray.  I've given a couple of doses of fish emulsion, and am still watering the garlic plants.  In late winter, I had also spread some Milorganite.  Might have been too much.  The leaf tips have some browning, but otherwise the plants look robust.  I think the crop will be good.  The rotation for the garlic bed:  2 years ago, wild/weed/blackberry; last year, sweet corn, this year, garlic.

The first batches of sweetcorn look good.  I forget the name, the first was an early yellow cold tolerant variety.  The second bath was Trinity.  The third batch was also Trinity, but I don't know if it's growing.  I am using the low fencing tunnels on the sweet corn too, to inhibit browsing, and so far that seems to be working.  The rotation:  2 years ago, squash, last year, potato, this year, sweet corn.

Tomatoes.  6.4.18

The tomatoes are looking good.  these were grown from seeds too.  The location was the duck pen from this winter. Some are blooming and have small green tomatoes.  Many varieties.  I planted them deeply for better dry tolerance.  They had some Epsom Salts earlier to green up the leaves, and some fish emulsion, but now no more fertilizer.  They are fenced in to prevent deer browsing.  The rotation:  Three years ago, Squash.  Two years ago, sweet corn.  Last year, garlic.  This year, tomatoes.

Blue Potato Flower.  6.4.18

Potatoes.  6.4.18

The potatoes are looking better than almost anything else.   They are lush and green.  I used store bought starts, and also sprouted potatoes from the garage.  There are Burbank Russet, Yukon Gold, Blue, and some I don't know from the sprouted ones.   This year I planted in trenches, which I filled in as they grew, because I found that hilling them up seemed to require more watering.  The trenches don't shed water.  The first batch had some frost kill, but otherwise they all tolerated early planting and are growing very nicely.   I did use some Milorganite when planting them, otherwise no fertilizer.  The rotation:  Two years ago, Indian Corn, last year, onions, this year, potatoes.

There are lots of other things.  The rabbits and/or deer have browsed the onions so heavily, I don't think there will be much of a crop.  The low fencing tunnels were not enough to prevent browsing, and the rabbit/deer deterrent spray was minimally helpful.  I still have my doubts about the chili peppers, which so far look stunted.  I've given them some Epsom salts and fish emulsion, we'll see.  The gladiolas, zinnias, and marigolds are looking pretty good now too. 

Young Chestnut Trees Growing Nicely. 6.4.18

Chestnut Precose Migoule Grafted Tree.  6.4.18

 The young chestnut trees are looking good now.  Last winter I planted a grafted tree of Precose Migoule from Burnt Ridge Nursery.  I had asked them for a tall tree, and they had bent over the top instead of cutting it off to fit into the box.  That solution was perfect - I straightened it up, resulting in a 6 foot tall tree.  I splinted it for a few months, but now it's standing straight on its own.  Interestingly, and very rewarding, this tree has a tuft of flower buds on top.

Of the others, the grafted Marivale is about 8 feet tall now, early in it's second season in my yard.  It also has a tuft of flower buds on top.  The little Marigoule, which was only about a foot tall and only grew a few inches, so I moved it to make way for the Preose Migouly, is actually growing nicely, about a foot of lush looking growth so far.  And finally, the seedling from Marissard is growing well too, but no tuft of flower buds.

That last one was my mistake.  I didn't realize, looking in the catalog, that it was a seedling tree instead of a grafted tree, so the possibility of bearing nuts is way out in the future, and it's unknown if it will be a pollinator. Some catalogs offer seed-grown trees from named parents, but those are not the same as the parent and don't bear as young.  But otherwise, the 3 grafted specimens are looking good.  I'm interested in whether the flower buds will bloom - they seem to be taking their time, and so far they all look male.  That's OK, the trees are very young and I didn't expect nuts yet.

Small Marigoule Tree.  6.4.18

I am keeping these trees in tall double-fenced cages, wire fencing for strength and plastic fencing for the finer mesh, to prevent deer from pulling branches through the wider openings in the wire fencing.  So far, these fences are doing their job, and there is no deer damage.  If the trees continue to grow at their present rate, I think the cages can be removed in 2019 or 2020.

Chestnut Marissard Seedling Tree, 6.4.18

Fig Update. Looks like a good year. 6.4.18

Brunswick Fig Tree with Brebas.  5.4.18

The fig trees are doing great this year.  With a mild winter, and early spring, those with breba crops have lots of growing fruits.  The trees that look the most promising this year for big early crop:  Brunswick, Carini, Lattarula, and Desert King.  It's interesting, since Brunswick has not usually done that well.  But it's a big, sweet, delicious fig when it does. There is also a small tree that I started from a bonus cutting a number of years ago, "Sicilian White", with some brebas.

Trees that, earlier, had a lot of brebas that fell off:  Atreano (one remains, which will be the first taste if it matures), Smith, Hardy Chicago.

Most of the new growth on the fig trees, is past the 5-leaf stage.  That's when I tip the new growth to encourage a main crop.  I've been doing that on the daily tree inspections.

Back on Track. Resuming GrowingGreener Blog! Pawpaw Progress Report. 6.2.18

 I think the hiatus is fully over now.  Live is back to what passes for normal.  I've been continuing to garden, but it's been difficult to keep the blog going.  I think that's done now, so here we are again.

For starters, last month I pollinated as many pawpaw flowers as I could.  NC-1 got pollen from Sunflower, and vice versa.  Of the dozens that I pollinated, there are maybe one dozen little pawpaw clusters growing.  I'm stoked - this is the largest they've gotten for me, ever.  Maybe this will be the year!

Some continue to fall off.  I have been watering these pawpaw trees once weekly, with 2 5-gallong buckets of water.  Maybe that will help them hold on to their fruits.

Planting Annual Flowers, Brussels Sprouts, Collards, Tomatoes. 4.23.18

 Today the soil temperature was 65F.  It might be too early for zinnia and marigold seeds, but I planted some anyway.  Also some nasturtium seeds.

Brassicas, on the other hand, are cold tolerant.  I planted the collard green and Brussels sprouts seedlings into the vegetable garden bed.  I think they will thrive now.  If not, it's easy to grow more from seeds.

Yesterday I planted some of the tomato plants into their outside garden bed.  Again, it might be too

early, but these are extras and they are large enough that I'm finding it a challenge to take care of all of them.

I'm not sure if nasturtiums count as kitchen garden or flower garden.  The greens are peppery delicious in salads or mixed greens.  The flowers are also good.

Growing Oriental Poppies from Bare Root Starts. 4.21.18

These are poppy plants, from bare root starts that I bought at a big box store in January.  Two of the three plants survived an grew.  They are not as big and lush as the older oriental poppies in the yard, but I think they will bloom in a year or two.

Let's See if Deer eat Petunias. 4.21.18

I planted a "tree ring barrel" with petunias.  Deer are the main gardening challenge in my area.  I'm trying to find plants that they wont eat.  This year the deer pressure is higher than ever, with 2 families regularly crossing my yard. 

The "barrel" is a stack of concrete or cinder block type crescents that connect together into a ring, used to protect trees.  They stack nicely, and in that way make a barrel-type planter.  I like them because they last far longer than oak barrels, and can be disassembled easily and relocated in pieces, much easier than moving a big barrel.

We'll see what happens.  This may just be another deer salad bar.

Carnivorous Plant Progress Report. 4.21.18

Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia) Starting to Grow.  4.21.18

Various Carnivorous Plants Starting to Grow.  4.21.18

Here's a progress report on the carnivorous plants that I bought in February.  Even though they require a different mindset, compared to most other plants, they seem to be taking off.  Each plant is growing at its own rate.

The main points that I have learned so far, are that these carnivorous plants want wet feet at all times.  So I'm keeping them in trays of about one inch of water.  The water can't be high mineral, so I'm using rainwater.  The need to be outdoors if possible, so they are.  They do not like being fertilized, so I'm not.  My source, and much more complete instructions for the beginner, are found here.  The author is my friend Jacob Farin.

An aside, I wrote a blog post on my learning-about-carnivorous-plants blog, regarding the neurotoxins that some American Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia) produce in tiny amounts.  The toxin is coniine, which is also found in poison hemlock
and which was what Socrates famously drank when sentenced to death in ancient Greece.  It's thought that Saracenia produce the substance to either attract or stun insects in its pitchers, so they die and decompose to provide the plant's nutrition.