Kitchen Garden: Tomatoes

As of today, 9 tomato plants are planted in the new back yard tomato beds. These were beans and garlic last year. Many of the garlic bulbs were missed and came up again. I don't know if they will give decent garlic cloves - but there they are.

The tomato plants were becoming leggy, although a week of indoor/outdoor life had them stickier than they were. It's still too early. With climate change, or random events, is Spring earlier this year?

Most of the The Wall-o-Water units were left over from previous years. I had 3 that were very leaky, so will discard. I bought 3 new ones today. I did not use them last year, but in previous years, they did protet the plants and gave a big boost of growth, early.

Today, temperature inside the Wall-o-Water at ground level was 60F. I forgot to check the soil temperature before planting, but I think it must be above 55F. By legend, if the soil is warm enough to sit on with your bare bottom, then it's OK to plant tomatoes. I don't have a soil thermometer, I just use a room thermometer with a plastic case.

Planted: Lemon Boy (2), Cherokee Purple (2), Better Boy (2), SuperSweet-100, 4th of July, and Northern Exposure. I have a few smaller plants remainig, will likely plant another SuperSweet-100, a Black Pearl, and a Black Truffle.

Kitchen Garden: in the Barrels.

The soil temp in the barrle has remained about 60 degrees for a week. I planted the last "Cayenne", from the January seed plantings. They are kept overnight. The radishes are soon to be done. The Daikon is too big, I've been thinning them and feeding to chickens, the roots stay too skinny to use. It will probably wind up with one or two of those. More peppers, probably, this weekend although the plants are quite small.

Potatoes. The screening wire is there for the cat's pleasure. Well, displeasure - she doesn't like this on her "litter box" so has given up.

The spinach grew nicely! The radish leaves are too big. These are icecycle radishes, still not big enough to eat, but the leaves are very big.

Scallions and mesclun. The carrots remain miniscule. The scallions are Egyptian Walking Onions, and much milder than I remembered. They are great in salads or on new potatoes! I will continue growing them by saving starts each year, they have worked out great! This barrel will likely have peppers and eggplants in another month.

Overall I'm very happy with the barrel planters.

More orchid lithographs

James Bateman was a landowner and horticulturalist, lived 1811-1897. He created the famous gardens at Biddulph with the aid of his friend and painter of seascapes Edward William Cooke. Bateman published the largest orchid book in his time. Most, but not all, lithographs on this page are from Bateman. All of these photos are from wikimedia commons.

Bateman's book is available here, at botanicus.org.

The lithographs are especially beautiful. Many show the entire plant, not just the decapitated flowers. The lithographs were as much about understanding the biology as they were about appreciating the beauty. Most orchids grow on tree branches, although there are nonepiphytic species, so drawings that include tree branches and exposed roots are more revealing and realistic than pictures of blossoms.

Bateman corresponded with Charles Darwin, who was fascinated by orchids (Darwin wrote a monograph on the ways that orchids interact with insects to ensure cross pollination). In January 1862 while researching insect pollination of orchids, Charles Darwin received a package of orchids from the distinguished horticulturist James Bateman, and in a follow up letter with a second package Bateman's son Robert confirmed the names of the specimens, including Angraecum sesquipedale from Madagascar.

The orchid explorers must have had a powerful sense of adventure. Those who grew them back in their own greenhouses, must have been happy to escape into their own world, as well. I think I understand, and would like that as well.

Oncidium chrysothyrsus

Oncidium insleayi or Rossioglossum insleayi


Galeandra Baueri

Dendrobium capillipes (this is from a different reference and is not a American species)

Cattleya schilleriana

A minicattleya

This is a small plant, about 12 inches from bark medium to top of flower. Picked it up at Treader Joes. Despite stating I would not buy more grocery store orchids, I continue to look at them and this is a result. What was different about this was, it's a minicattleya, and I like the flower colors, sort of peachy gold with a brick-red lip.

The leaves aren't the nicest looking, a bit mottled. I'm concluding that is often the case for orchids. The older leaves may well be 1 or 2 years old, possibly older. So they can't always be expected to be perfect.

On getting it home, I turned it out of the pot and cleaned off the roots. Compared to the Cattleya walkeriana, this plant had very healthy looking, plentiful, roots. I cut off a small number of dead-looking roots with a sterile scissors. I potted it back into the original container, but with fresh bark mix. Washed slightly warm water through the medium, then a watering of weak orchid supplement.

More:

I asked on gardenweb if anyone could identify this, orchid forum. They came back with Potinara Achung Yoyo "Little Goldfish". I'm certain that's the correct identification. Here's a google image search. It's identical. With the renaming of many potinaras, this may more correctly be a Rhyncattleanthe Ahchung Yoyo.

Fruit trees: Apple blossoms, tart cherry blooms, pears have set.

Technically, this counts as "Kitchen garden" but I'm keeping the "backyard orchard" in a somewhat separate category. Plus, apple blossoms are ornamental in their own right, even if the trees don't bear fruit. Same for the tree forms, which become increasingly beautiful and gnarled with age, starting fairly early.

Asian pears have set fruit. This is the 3-variety tree planted Spring 2009.

Second variety, different coloration. All 3 have set. Cool! They'll need thinning in a few weeks, I'll keep them to one fruit to a spur.

Golden Delicious. I think this was a semidwarf, not a minidwarf. It is too vigorous. This is the first year with significant blooming. Last year there was one cluster of flowers. This is the best blooming year ever! Cool!

May not look like much, but this was just planted last month. This is Karmijm. We'll see how it looks next year, and the year after. If it blooms, I really should remove any potential fruit, to allow for growth this year. Same for the new Honeycrisp, which as discussed before was little more than a stick with a root. That one will definitely not be allowed to set any fruit this year, if it blooms.

This little tree needs a stake placed before the roots get growing too much, so that I don't damage roots. All minidwarf apple trees need a stake for support.

Jonagold. This is becoming a handsome specimen, with beautiful flowers. Last year was quite fruitful. No every-other-year bearing in this backyard-orchard-culture 'orchard'. About 6 ft tall.

I need to move the stake so that the tree doesn't lean so much. Not a problem now, but she apples weigh it down, I'd like for it to be better balanced.

Liberty. Also increasingly beautiful, year after year. Still only about 5 ft tall.

Northpole. Beautiful specimen! Last summer, fall, winter, I pruned it right, finally! This year I intend to be more diligent about protecting the apples from insects (little socks for the apples), and trim to one apple per spur, and pick them when ripe!

"Surefire" tart cherry (pie cherry). I planted this tree late winter, 2009. It's blooming. How cool is that! Probably not enough this year for a pie, but assuming they set, there'll be enough for a good taste of cherries. Maybe we'll get a pie from in in 2011, at this rate!