Tomato, Cucumber and Squash Seedlings. 5.9.2021

 About 3/4 of the seedlings are in the ground now.  This is it for planting seeds in containers for the year.

I wanted Pink Banana Squash but none have germinated.  I bit the bullet and ordered a packet on line.  Postage was significant for one packet, but this is the last chance to try to germinate some of this variety for the year.  I found them on the Victory Seeds website, which is a company that I'm coming to like.  They sent the seeds out the next day and I got them two days later.  We'll see if they germinate.

Some of the squash and cucumber seedlings.  Also some Chinese Chives.  These pickle seeds are form ones that I saved last winter, great germination but who knows what the cucumbers will be like, because I didn't isolate the plants or flowers and I don't know if they were hybrids.  Squash seedlings quickly outgrow these little containers.  I planted the Gete Okosomin and one of the Yellow Zucchinis in the garden yesterday.  Others to follow, and giving away a couple of zucchini plants.

I've planted most of the basil but there are still a few to go.  Same with peppers.

A few of the remaining "Extreme Bush" tomatoes.  I'll give away a plant and find a location for the rest.

The Soyu Chinese Cucumber packet was from 2016.  I planted about 6 seeds.  So far, one has germinated.  That's good enough but a few more would be better, so I planted another container.   I'm glad I saved the old seed packets.  This summer I can let one go overripe for seed saving.  [Edit - that photo was yesterday.  This morning I saw that two more seedlings have emerged.]

The rest of the cucumber seedlings.  I planted more than I want, because I didn't know which ones would grow.  Varieties are Alibi hybrid, a Bush type that doesn't designate if hybrid, another Bush type that is F1.  I think I'll plant all of the hybrids together, and try to isolate at least one of the Bush type for saving seeds.  Maybe the ones that I grew form saved seeds this year, and the other Bush type that does not state Hybrid.  These should be ready to plant in the garden in two weeks.

Planting Early Sweet Corn Seeds. 5.9.2021

 It's still early.  I usually start planting sweet corn about May 15th.  Even then the first crop doesn't always do that well.  Two weeks later usually works better.  Since I plant every two weeks until mid July, however, this time has some potential for an early crop.  This year seems warmer, earlier, than most years have been.  Plus, the soil temp is 20C which translates to 68F.  The minimum soil temp for sweetcorn is 65F so in theory, we're good.

This soil thermometer has a Fahrenheit reading but it's inaccessible on the back of the thermometer.  So I have to convert from Celsius.

These are the early types I'm trying this year.  I tried Early Sunglow a number of years ago and didn't like it.  It wasn't productive. However, this is a different location and maybe I'm better at it now.  Trinity is a type I liked a lot in the past, but couldn't find seeds for a while.  Seeds'n'Such seems to have some older varieties that I couldn't find elsewhere, so I bought them while looking at seed websites last winter.

Quince Aromatnaya in Bloom. 5.9.2019

 These look a lot like dogwoods, except five petals instead of four.  Of the grafted types, only Aromatnaya is thriving.  I should take a good look at the others and decide if they should be removed.

Squash and Cucumber Seedlings. 5.5.2011

 About 2/3 of the squashes have germinated.  All of the pots of zucchinis, yellow summer squash, red Kuri squash have one to three seedlings now.  The only ones that don't are Pink Banana squash and one of the Galeux d'Eysines pumpkin.  I sat them out in the sun today, it was 80F.  

I read it can take a few weeks for some squash seeds to germinate.  I have sentimental attachment to Pink Banana, as well as it's a productive and delicious squash.  It won't kill me if there is none this year, but I would like if there were some.  There are still two options - either germinate other seeds from the 2018 packet, or grow the seeds that I saved even though I don't know if the pollen parent was Pink Banana.  It could have been Kabucha, Red Kuri, or Galeux.  So I started a pot of the saved seeds, plus soaked the old 2018 seeds in water and now those are all in a moist paper towel in a plastic wrap covered bowl.  Time will tell.  

The first to germinate were the Illinois Squash, which is a very good squash too.  There are a bunch of Red Kuri seedlings.  That was a favorite this winter, so bravo!  

If these seeds that I saved from Pink Banana are hybrids, that will be interesting.  I's still rather they be the real thing.

On to cucumbers, it's only been a couple of days but the first to germinate is, the saved seeds from last year!  That's interesting.  Again, I don't know if they were from a hybrid or open pollinated variety.  I'll grow them out and see. 

All of this uncertainty.  2020 was just plain awful.  Anyone who got out alive and reasonable well, did OK I guess.

The other cukes still have a chance to germinate too.  There will be choices  and, if 2021 is better, some pickles.

Here are the little "unknown bush pickle" seedlings.  Barely breaking the surface, but clearly alive.

Grafting Results So Far. 5.4.2021

 These are a few of the grafts that I did in March.  I wondered if the unseasonable warmth last week would be an issue.  Maybe for a few.  Most seem OK so far.  They are at that stage where, the scions are obviously alive and getting some nutrition, but growth isn't yet sturdy enough to say, yes they took and are home free.  Close, getting there, but not quite yet.

Chestnut Graft, Primato I think.

Another Chestnut, Bisalta III

 

 

Apples that I grafted to make the top Espalier tiers.

 

 The Otterson looks like it tried to bloom.  I've had that happen with other grafts, then the vegetative growth began.  Otherwise, it could be a dead end.

There are also grafts on some of the larger apple trees, a wild / domestic black cherry, and apples on smaller rootstocks.  All look about the same.

Vegetable Garden. 5.4.21

 The vegetable garden is coming together nicely.  I did a lot of work over the past few months, building the new raised beds, removing the old ones, filling the soil, changing the in-ground beds around.  Now, most of that is done.  There is always something, but now I can relax a little more.

The second raised bed.  Everything is taking off now.

This winter I was excited to find Lemon Boy tomato seeds after years of looking.  The I planted the plant out early with the water cone for protection, and the leaves burned.  It's making a come back, yay.  That's also good news because I wondered if they were planted out too early.  It looks like they are just fine.

Mostly the third raised bed.  It's quite a mix.  The radishes are ready to eat.  That will happen with the lettuce and spinach, too, before the peppers need the space.

These are the hybrid Roma tomatoes.  They will need a sort of trellis before they flop over.

So far Extreme Bush tomato is looking nice in its container.

These thornless red raspberries are descended from some that grew under the fence into my yard from a neighbor, which I moved from the Vancouver place last year.  There were some good raspberries then.  This looks like a much better year.

 

Most of the vegetable garden.  There are more tomatoes than I will grow next year.  This is my tomato test garden year.

Quilt Updates. 5.4.21

 These are the two quilts that I am working on.

First, the disappearing nine patch.  All of the nine patches are sewn and pressed.  I also cut the first 1/3 into quarters.

This is one of the nine patches, cut into quarters.

These can be turned in any direction, or mixed with squares from other nine patches before sewing into the quilting blocks.  This is one way.

Combining four of those, it looks like this.

I'm not crazy about how those come together.  I think a less overpowering and more playful look happens if they are mixed together, so this is an example using those same four patches.

I like that a lot more.  It is still open for other colors to be mixed in.  I need a quiet time when I can arrange them on a larger surface - the floor - and no doggie romping around.  That will have to be in an early morning.  Then I can photograph the result so I know which patches to sew together, how.

Then there is the brick sidewalk quilt.  I arranged a few rows of the "bricks" to see how I like them.

I like how this comes together.  I'll use the photo to sew together the rows.  The bolder pattern may need a little more arranging.  I'm not sure that anyone would recognize this as being made from men's shirts.  Some quilters like to emphasize the repurposed aspect, by including pockets or buttons in their quilts.  For this quilt, I just want to concentrate on the fabrics and patterns.

I may need to make it a row narrower, so that I can make it a couple of rows longer.  I need to re-count the bricks.

Strawberries. 5.1.2021

 This is a nice development.  I've been trying for several years to grow strawberries.  This is a raised bed that I kept despite more or less giving up.  It's covered with fencing because deer regard it as an all you can eat salad bar.  For the first time, they actually have flowers.  Looks like it might be a nice crop.

Tomato Seedling Update. 5.1.2021

 The Romas are mostly planted now.  That included the hybrid, determinate Romas, and the indeterminates.

These are Amish Paste and Tiren, both indeterminate but Amish Paste is open pollinated and Tiren is a hybrid.

These are mostly the slicing tomatoes.  They are the second group that I planted out, so they didn't get cooked in the Wall-o-Waters.

Some of these did get cooked.  However, I think they might be starting to grow anyway.  That would be nice.

These are the hybrid Romas.  They are determinate.  I hope they do well.  The nonhybrid Romas are only two plants, and not yet ready to plant in the garden bed.

Then there are the first of the Dwarf tomatoes.  This was a large plastic container that was originally a water feature filter.  I drilled nine 4-inch holes in the bottom, filled with a mix of home soil and home compost.  Also some left over peat moss.  This container should be large enough for these two dwarf tomatoes.  I read that they can be grown in 5 gallon buckets, and this container holds about 5 of those buckets of soil.  They do seem close together.

Forsythia Cutting Update. 5.2.2021

 I have these forsythia cuttings in my home office window.  There are two pots with smaller cuttings that I scored and treated with Dip-and-grow.  They are in peat moss / perlite mix, seed starting medium.  They are covered with plastic sandwich bags.  At 4 or 5 days, no wilting.  There was slight wilting the first day.

There are also 4 cuttings in water.  They are much bigger.  I also scored them and treated with dip-and-grow.  I doubt that did anything, since the water probably washed it off.  It's possible some is absorbed and not washed off.

If all of these take, that's about all I think I need for a nice hedge.  If they don't, well they are free plants, so not a problem.  Plus there are the ones I have soil layered in the mixed hedge row.

One thing I'm guilty of that frustrates me when I'm reading other gardening blogs, is that the start is nicely presented, but there isn't always follow up.  That's especially true if they don't grow.  If they do grow, the info is easier to present.  I'll try to keep a record of how these do whether they grow or not.  I've read that forsythia can be started in water, and I think I have done it, but my memory isn't perfect.

Pansies. 5.1.2021

A few of the pansies that I planted last month.  These were purchased plants from Tsugawa.  They are in a vegetable raised bed.

 

Planting Cucumber and Swiss Chard Seeds. 5.1.2121

 Today I planted old cucumber seeds.  I forgot to plant the cucumber seeds I saved, last fall, so will go back and do that.  The potential problem with those is, I don't know if they were hybrids, so I don't know what they will be like.  I planted these seeds in 4 inch flower pots. 

I also planted some Swiss chard seeds, directly into the garden soil. Swiss chard is my favorite green, although sometimes they are other colors.

I planted a short row from each packet.  Those from 2014 are pretty old.  We'll see if they grow.

Lilacs Today. 5.1.2021

 The lilacs are in full bloom today, so I took a bunch of photos.  The two with more delicate flowers are Korean lilac.  Also there's a viburnum in there, which is not a lilac.  I imagine that the lilac bush in front of the house was planted by the first owners of this house.  Last summer I pruned out all of the underbrush and left it as a kind of grouped tree.  It's more airy that way and I think nicer.