Gardening: (2016– )

[chromedome]

38 minutes ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

The first of many seed catalogues showed up in the mail last week so time to start planning.....

Most of the ones I get are on-line however paper ones are nice to doze off on the couch with.

 

 

My office is small and lined with bookshelves, so I can pluck from either side by leaning no more than a foot to the corresponding direction. I don't have a specific spot for my seed catalogues (I need more bookshelves, but first I have to get busy inventing a "wall stretcher"), so I just rest them on top of the books. I was deeply amused one day to realize that my seed catalogues live in the "fantasy" section of my shelves...

[Darienne]

I wish I could say that I carried through and made my winter garden as planned and posted about in this topic.  Alas although I have all the ingredients and all the furniture is moved to accommodate said garden, I lack the essential drive and energy to do the work.  I keep on living in hope...but my mojo just ain't working right now.  

[Margaret Pilgrim]

3 hours ago, Darienne said:

I wish I could say that I carried through and made my winter garden as planned and posted about in this topic.  Alas although I have all the ingredients and all the furniture is moved to accommodate said garden, I lack the essential drive and energy to do the work.  I keep on living in hope...but my mojo just ain't working right now.  

AKA my get up and go got up and went.     Mine did too.   

[KennethT]

 

The turmeric is really taking off now.

[TicTac]

Love elephants and sculptures- that’s a great one, ken.

 

here’s one of my guys, always at the back door watching out (supposed to be good luck etc etc)

[KennethT]

6 hours ago, TicTac said:

Love elephants and sculptures- that’s a great one, ken.

 

here’s one of my guys, always at the back door watching out (supposed to be good luck etc etc)

Is the elephant real jade?

[TicTac]

19 hours ago, KennethT said:

Is the elephant real jade?

It is (and a heavy beast at that, estimating 3-4kg).  As are the Buddhist sculptures behind it.

 

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by TicTac (log)

[chromedome]

I didn't remember to post it at the time, but on Friday I celebrated my birthday (in part) by cutting some fresh baby kale from my garden. Picking stuff in my garden is not something I've gotten to do very often in December, so there was a strong element of "because I can" involved.

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

Window sill green onions. These were transplanted (at about 3 cm. tall from outside) and are thriving, I've 3 more pots of these in other locations. I use the outer leaves and leave the rooted onion intact to keep on keeping on.

At the end of October I brought in one of the remaining Scotia tomato plants. It was about 20 cm. and it has also taken off. Lots of flowers but only 1 fruit developing Thai basil in the background.

 

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

I learned a good trick recently: instead of planting scallions one at a time, plant 4-6 seeds in one spot. When the seeds sprout you will have a clump of scallions, which you can harvest one at a time as needed. I tried this last summer and it works a treat. Some of them now are getting a little hefty but still give me a true scallion when I need it. Admittedly, I'm gardening in central Mexico so my seasons are different than most of yours. For instance, I'm about to start my tomato seeds to plant out in February. In the meantime I have snow peas, lettuce and chard and will start my pole beans in February as well. I grow my garden in large plastic horse troughs and big fiber pots because I don't have a dedicated space for a garden. Most of the yard is ornamental plantings that I inherited from the previous owner, but having grown a vegetable garden since I was a teenager I just had to have something other than bougainvilleas. No flies on bougainvilleas, but I want green beans and tomatoes too.

[chromedome]

31 minutes ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

 No flies on bougainvilleas, but I want green beans and tomatoes too.

...as one does.

[Kerry Beal]

I was in a store yesterday and saw a woman wearing a pair of boots that looked like formfitting Wellies. She said a friend had to send them to her from British Columbia and she had been wearing this pair every day for about 6 years and she didn't really even feel they were on her feet. They were starting to develop some holes where she pushed them down around the ankle and we discussed that they could probably be patched with an inner tube repair rig. She has a farm and these keep her feet dry in the muck. They would be perfect in the garden - just hose down and step on the heel to get out of them!

 

So I took the information from her and looked them up when I got home - now I want a pair - not that I need a pair!

 

Wild Bird Society of Japan boots

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

52 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

So I took the information from her and looked them up when I got home - now I want a pair - not that I need a pair!

 

Wild Bird Society of Japan boots

 

Me, too!  I was just looking into volunteering with a group cleaning up trash from a lagoon near the beach and thinking I'd need some good boots.  These would be perfect.  

And the logo would be very on point as there are tons of birds and birders in the area!

[Kerry Beal]

19 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

Me, too!  I was just looking into volunteering with a group cleaning up trash from a lagoon near the beach and thinking I'd need some good boots.  These would be perfect.  

And the logo would be very on point as there are tons of birds and birders in the area!

Dropped off the second rabbit at the farm today - barn manager will have a pair of these boots in a few days I'm going to bet. I truly am an enabler aren't I?

[chromedome]

I took advantage of the warm weather earlier this week to harvest my remaining carrots while the ground was thawed. I got just under a kilo, or exactly 2 pounds. They're an "Imperator"-type carrot and would typically be much longer than this (scale is hard to judge from this image, but the longest are probably in the 20cm/8in range), but I'd planted them late simply because the garden was such a work-in-progress this spring (weather, making up new beds, etc).

 

My row covers needed some TLC after the wind and high rains, but the greens underneath are still hanging in quite nicely. As long as I have above-freezing temperatures on the day, I'll be able to harvest some kale and chard for my Christmas dinner (and the forecast looks mild for both the 24th and 25th, so that should happen).
 

The greens are growing slowly enough, with the currently-minimal daylight, that I'll probably call time on this experiment after the holidays. I think I'll pile mulch over the kale and chard and see whether/how well they bounce back in early spring. If they show signs of life, I'll cheerfully treat them as an early harvest and enjoy them to the hilt before replanting in something else. They're biennials and will go to seed/become inedible if I leave them longer, but it'll also be a "proof of concept" should I want to get into seed-saving. I may - I like the idea of evolving my own "landrace" strains - but that's TBD.

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

@chromedome Nice looking carrots.

First edible tomato from my indoor adoptee. About midway between a baseball and a golf ball. It did taste good (a little fuzzy on the focus).

 

 

 

[KennethT]

 

My Indonesian kencur plants were feeling a bit constrained so they moved into a condo.....

[TicTac]

@KennethT browning/curling leaf tips due to stress from transplant? 

[Smithy]

12 minutes ago, TicTac said:

@KennethT browning/curling leaf tips due to stress from transplant? 

 

...or stress from being rootbound? I was wondering the same thing.

[KennethT]

@TicTac, @Smithy is the winner!  Definitely root bound.  Turns out that this is a really interesting plant that I'm discovering as I go as I can find literally no information about growing it.  Even in Indonesian, although I did find a nice piece of research by some university there that was doing research on growing it in the field.  From the main rhizome, a bunch of tuber-like things grow straight down from it (they're also really fragrant, btw) and also a bunch of fine roots. They definitely outgrew their 16 oz Solo cup.

[TicTac]

17 hours ago, KennethT said:

@TicTac, @Smithy is the winner!  Definitely root bound.  Turns out that this is a really interesting plant that I'm discovering as I go as I can find literally no information about growing it.  Even in Indonesian, although I did find a nice piece of research by some university there that was doing research on growing it in the field.  From the main rhizome, a bunch of tuber-like things grow straight down from it (they're also really fragrant, btw) and also a bunch of fine roots. They definitely outgrew their 16 oz Solo cup.

Great for transplanting, those solo cups do not hold a root ball long!  I figured it was one of the two.

 

If I did not have so much shit going on IRL now I would be firing up my 400w LED and grow tent and start pumping out some herbs etc. 

[Shelby]

Ronnie's greenhouse tomatoes are really going to town.  Picked our first red one a few days ago.

 

 

 

 

 

Really good

 

[chromedome]

I did indeed get a small harvest of greens from my garden yesterday, along with some sage and thyme for the turkey/stuffing. It's not a large quantity of greens, but it's about half of what went into the meal (the rest came from the freezer). I'm the first to admit that there's a strong element of "just so I could say I'd done it" involved.

 

I was surprised to find that my broccoli plants are still hanging in there. You'll recall I'd given up on them a few weeks ago and reallocated their covers to other beds. Despite enduring spells of weather getting down to near -20 at times (roughly 0 F) some of them are still pushing out new growth and tender little buds like this one:

 

I picked several of those as well, some of which are visible in the bowl if you squint just so. It's good to know: if I succeed in building a more durable greenhouse in 2024, or salvaging a usable remnant from this year's ill-fated hoop house, there's a possibility that broccoli might survive deep into the winter even in a "passive heating only" scenario.

[KennethT]

23 hours ago, TicTac said:

Great for transplanting, those solo cups do not hold a root ball long!  I figured it was one of the two.

 

If I did not have so much shit going on IRL now I would be firing up my 400w LED and grow tent and start pumping out some herbs etc. 

Actually, since they're hydroponic, pot size is less important - ideally you want a smaller pot size so you can fertigate more frequently and less chance of root rot, but I haven't automated these yet so they weren't completely taken care of properly. I have a giant sawtooth plant growing in a solo cup that's doing the best I've ever done with that herb, but it's fertigated like twice a day now! More frequent waterings increase oxygenation in the root zone.

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

2 hours ago, Shelby said:

Ronnie's greenhouse tomatoes are really going to town.  Picked our first red one a few days ago.

Do you have trouble with white fly? I had horrible infestations when I had a greenhouse. I recommend those yellow sticky traps, but they only hold down the bugs rather than totally eliminating them. Which works well enough, I guess.