Potatoes. Container Gardening.

Pontiac Red potatoes. Bought seed potatoes at Fred Meyer garden section. Cut them apart for separate eyes. Let them dry out for 2 days.  This potting soil contained beans last year. Smaller diameter container. These are "White gourmet" potatoes. I obtained the starts 2 or 3 years ago, also Fred Meyer. They grow well in containers. These starts were in the basement, already grew 3 or 4 inches.  I just cut them apart today.They don't look like much. Covered with a few inches of potting soil.  When the leaves are a foot high, I'll add 6 inches of potting soil, and again when another 6 inches higher, until mid summer.  I could have planted in raised beds but no room.  No ground prepared either.  This method is very easy and productive.  The wider green container is a better choice, more room.

Raised Bed. Progress Report.

I pulled the soil thermometer out of the soil.  The air temp outside was 50F. The temp of the soil was 60F inside the row cover tunnel. This row of radishes has germinated. The snow peas seem to be germinating.  At the front are some cuttings I stuck into the soil.  Buddleia, a rose. And German Camomile plants. This is the first raised bed.  I started itlast fall. Garlic and Multiplier onions have perked up nicely. Chinese Chives starting to grow.  Looking nice for Feb.  On the right, the "Illinois" heritage Chinese Chives have put on 2 incesh of growth, thick and lush. The bigger growing, less delicate Changchun Chinese chives are on the left.  Very hard to see. They are starting to grow.  They will catch up and pass the Illinois Chives, growing much larger by mid Spring.  I also planted more seeds of the Changchun Chives. If they germinate I'll have a big stand of them.

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.

Filbert in bloom

Filberts are blooming. The long, pendulous catkins are the male flowers. The tiny female flowers can be seen by their rich red stigma and style. Filbert and Hazelnut are the same thing.  These are trees I moved last fall. Guess I didn't kill them.  They look quite healthy.  With a fall, winter, and early Spring to settle in and grow roots, I imagine they will be fully established this year.  Maybe some nuts.  Probably for the squirrels.

Tree Planting Feb 16, 2013

One more tree. This is a Flowering Cherry.  Marked down to $20 from $59.99, a nursery left-over from last year.  I wasn't going to add more ornamental trees this year.  I gave in to temptation.  The price is what got me.  This is "Amanogawa" which is listed as fragrant pink single to semi-double flowers, growing to 20 ft tall and 4 to 5 feet wide with columnar habit.  It must be 12 ft tall already.  Maybe it will give more pollen and nectar to either the honey bees or the mason bees.   As a left over from last year, I expected it to be root bound which it sort of was.



Not too bad.  A few big roots at the sides.  I cut the ones against the edge.  I did not dig into the root ball.

 I used secateurs to make about 6 slices down the sides, cut off all winding roots, and cut off the bottom roots.  Not perfect but I think good enough

. Planted.  I added some Plant Success, mycorhizzal inoculant, while planting.  This tree has many flower buds.  I think it will be very pretty this Spring.  By planting now, it will have a chance to acclimate and settle in long before Summer.  There is a competing leader with a narrow crotch.  I will cut it off after bloom.  Might as well get as much flower as possible, this Spring.