Butterfly Junction

Cute little Rescue Garden there. What are you planning to grow, or do you know?

sanderson wrote:Cute little Rescue Garden there.  What are you planning to grow, or do you know?

Tomatoes, grapes, ground cherries, berries, and hummingbird/butterfly/bee flowers for sure. I think I'll put the basils out there, too, since they grow so big and the bees love them. I'm toying with putting all of my climbers out there --squash, melons, pumpkins, cukes. They weren't happy climbing down from my tabletops in the "Salad Bar." Maybe if I started them closer to the ground and built up wood chips for them to climb on, they might do better.  Spoiler Alert: this plan could change a dozen times between now and real spring.

ndoor garden under lights is finally starting to produce. Next year, I will definitely start earlier outside. The established plants I brought in did way better than the ones I grew from seed inside. I now have a cucumber about 3" long and a few pea-size tomatoes, started from seed. I have a nice milkweed starting to bloom and another flower that I need to identify. It came from a nursery, but I can't read the label. 




The seeds I started in January have all gotten leggy. I don't know if they'll survive or not. A week from today is the first chance I'll have to plant them outside. Until then it's nothing but rain, just like the past month. My lighting system isn't good enough without a little help from Mother Nature.

I have 10 little cukes and 3 little super snow white cherry tomatoes in the house. Brandywines finally starting to bud in the butterfly/greenhouse, and beautiful weather coming in 5 days. Things are finally starting to look up.

BEAUTIFUL, thanks!  Looks wonderful!

Time to reinvent myself from the garden up. I finally realized that most of the time it's too hot, too cold, too wet, or too dry to garden. Sooo, my first challenge is to make better use of indoor, greenhouse, and covered deck garden space. Next will be to find more plants suitable to that type of gardening.

Today I had Stan (son-in-law) move a bunch of large stepping stones from a flat, high area where they weren't needed, to the front of the "Salad Bar" where recent rains caused so much debris and erosion I couldn't even get the gates open.

Next I went to the greenhouse, where the problem was a heater in the middle of the floor so I couldn't reach the plants. I just turned that puppy sideways. Another problem solved. I'm on roll, so now it's time to peek into some of the other corners of my life and see what else I can fix.

Harvested a huge mess of kale and wanted to try broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower leaves to see if we like them. So, look what I found!  The cauliflower is about the size of a quarter and the broccoli is about the size of a nickel but I AM THRILLED!  I've never grown either one, before. Looks like winter veggies are my strong suit.

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:

Now that I know where they are, I'll be a helicopter gardener for the next month.

Feb 11 I planted cornsalad directly into the Salad Bar, next to the carrots. Today I planted radish seeds where the zukes were last year, in huge containers. When I checked on the icicle radishes, I noticed they were starting to get long stems. I'm starting an experiment on these puppies. Every day I'm going to top dress them with fine soil to keep them from getting leggy. Maybe if I do it a little at a time, they won't know the difference and will eventually produce bulbs. I don't know why I'm so radish impaired, but it's really starting to bug me.

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:

+1

Started 56 daikon radish seeds today in peat pots, using 50-50 potting soil and ashes from our wood-stove. When they sprout, they will go around the outside of the Rescue Garden, directly into the dirt. I will have to amend the soil with lots more ashes and maybe even some lime, because that area is right next to the redwoods, so the soil is really acid.

Something -- probably a cat -- broke my little broccoli plant. I ate the tiny head. It was a little strong, but good. My cauliflower has doubled in size again. Now it's bigger than a golf ball.

M

countrynaturals wrote:Started 56 daikon radish seeds today in peat pots, using 50-50 potting soil and ashes from our wood-stove. When they sprout, they will go around the outside of the Rescue Garden, directly into the dirt. I will have to amend the soil with lots more ashes and maybe even some lime, because that area is right next to the redwoods, so the soil is really acid.

Wow, Suz!  That is a lot of Daikons!  I like them, but only did a square, got about 6 decent ones....

Saw this on OrganicGuide Facebook today.  

Scorpio Rising wrote:Wow, Suz!  That is a lot of Daikons!  I like them, but only did a square, got about 6 decent ones....

My success rate is less than 40%. If I lose 60% in the seed stage and another 60% of what's left when I plant them out, I'll be lucky if I get 6 decent ones, too.

Nice milkweed graphic, Sanderson. Thanks for sharing. I like having it in this thread.

I love these clover "poufs" that show up in the redwood grove every spring. They're over a foot in diameter and just fun to look at.


We also have some huge daffodils that I just had to share. Ooo, I just noticed the clover pouf is in the background of this one.


It's really starting to look like spring, even though it still feels like winter.

YEE-HAH! Purple Sprouting Broccoli! I found this in the Salad Bar this morning. It was freezing last night, but everything survived and seems happy. This guy is about the size of a dime. There are lots of side shoots -- like Brussels sprouts -- about pea size. I'm so excited. I may have found yet another winter crop that can thrive in our goofy winters. 

Happy Camper, here! I was so discouraged after last summer, I probably would have given up if we hadn't invested so much time and money. After a dismal winter, to have an abundance of cool weather crops happily taking over the Salad Bar, has me dancing on the ceiling.

First up is the kale I harvested last week. The more I pick, the bigger and faster it grows back.


Next is Brussels sprouts. I've never grown them before, but we love them. I can't wait until these babies are ready to pick. Right now they're only thumb-size, but the plant is about 2' tall and loaded with sprouts.


Finally, here is the cauliflower, about the size of my fist. I don't know how much bigger it will get, but I'm watching closely. The last daikon radish is in the lower left. We ate one this morning and it was delicious. My seeds haven't sprouted yet for spring. They're so slow, it was probably a mistake to plant them this time of year, but I should at least get pretty flowers and lots of seeds for this fall.

Oops, forgot about the snow peas. These are a real mystery, since I never bought seeds. These were supposed to be sugar snaps.

countrynaturals wrote:Oops, forgot about the snow peas. These are a real mystery, since I never bought seeds. These were supposed to be sugar snaps.

My understanding is that young snap peas can be used as snow peas -- if you give them a little longer the pods should plump as the peas inside get bigger.

YEE-HAH! After almost 2 long years of caring for a pineapple plant, grown from cutting off the top of a store-bought pineapple, we are finally getting a fruit. This is really exciting stuff for us. Didn't think it would ever happen. I would have thrown it out last year, but Hubby never gave up. The plant is huge, the spikes are sharp, and it has to be brought inside for the winter, where it takes up way too much space. Now I have to admit it was well worth it. 

Aloha to your little pineapple. 
Do they set just one per plant?

ralitaco wrote:Aloha to your little pineapple. 
Do they set just one per plant?

I've never gotten this far before, so I can't speak from experience, but this is what I found online:

The plant will only fruit once. Then it dies. But not before it gives off a few suckers. Plant those and you will get bigger and faster fruit, compared to planting the green tops. This is what pineapple growers do.

I can't wait to try it this way.