Pepper Transplanting, Bean Germinating and More

Pepper Seedlings (click to enlarge)

I transplanted jalapeno, bell peppers, and squash into individual pots I got from Thompson and Morgan. I planted more cucumber straight 8 seedlings into the ground and gave them a good watering. I also planted some tomato plants I had sitting on our fence. I planted a lady bug hybrid tomato and also a gardener's delight. I received the lady bug tomato seeds from a friend from you grow girl, which is a garden forum I actively visit on a daily basis. There, you can exchange various seeds you have for other seeds you don't have! It's been great fun.

French Filet Bean Sprout(click to enlarge)

Top Crop Bean Sprout(click to enlarge)

Oh, on the bean front. I have 3 sproutages from a French Filet and a Top crop variety. Eek. I was super excited. I also see some romano bean sprouting. But I really wanted the purple peacock beans to sprout. I want to have purple beans for the summer. I'm crossing my fingers for those! Please sprout...please sprout...

Pink nicotiana seedlings (click to enlarge)

My flower seedlings are doing well too. The stocks are growing slowly but surely. My nicotiana seeds are growing like mad. They've been crowded in a salsa container and I plan on planting them out soon. I have them on my west facing windowsill so they can get some real sun and get acclimated to the harsh sun. I'll eventually take them out and slowly get them used to the outside weather. The weather here has been wonderful. It's going to get into the high 70s and maybe 80s soon. I love spring!

Yesterday, I planted some lunaria(aka money plant or honesty plants) seeds into a 9 pack. These are biennels and they'll grow the first year and flower the next. They look like delicate little silver dollars. They would look great in flower arrangements or dried and put in a nice vase. I have tons of these seeds so if it doesn't germinate this time, I can keep trying.

Hydrangea flower bud(click to enlarge)

My hydrangea plant is now forming tiny little flower buds. I thought I had killed it since during the winter, it was woody but I noticed other people's hydrangeas did that too so I shouldn't be alarmed. I kept it outside, watered occasionally and covered it during frosts and all that hard work paid off since it's still alive and budding! Yippee.

Well, that's all for now folks. Happy Gardening. Please don't forget to sign up to get email updates on my blog! click here to subscribe!

Slug/Snail Nightmare and Transplanting

Darn Slugs!

The snails or slugs are back! urgh. I hate them so bad! They've gotten to two of my cucumber seedlings I planted a couple of days ago and also some of my bok choi seedlings. I'm going to have to resort to covering the cucumbers at night to deter the slugs. I'm surprised they haven't gone to my homemade and less toxic slug traps. I read somewhere that slugs/snails are attracted to beer so my DH and I took some bottles and buried them in the soil with beer. The idea is that the slugs will crawl into the bottle, fall in and drink themselves to death! Maybe, I need more beer. The funny thing is, I never catch them in action. I probably have to get up early or stay late to catch these buggers but I promise I'll get you my pretty(-ies) I will! hehe

My other veggies and flowers are doing well. The bok choi has been sprouting these pretty yellow flowers. I've been shaking the flower stalk to encourage pollination.

Celery Seedlings (click to enlarge)

I finally planted the celery I started months ago. I put them in a spot where they get morning/mid-morning sun. I hope we'll at least get 5-6 celery plants from them! Here's hoping.

I also noticed that my endive seeds have sprouted and to spare them from the horrible slugs, I've placed them on top of my fence. That's the only spot the slugs don't get to. I hope they don't find out they're up there or else they're doomed! Eek.

I also went to Target this morning and found some cute gardening acoutrements. I got some metal plant labels and some garden shears. They were only $1.00 a piece so it wasn't too bad. Well, I guess that's all for now. Happy gardening everyone!

For my daily blog readers to get email notification of any new posts. Click here to subscribe!

Starting More Seedlings 03-04-08

Plants from our wedding. These are cyclamens (click on image for larger picture)

On the first of March, I was busily planting seeds. I planted a variety of basils that include lemon basil, Thai basil, sweet basil, and a large leaf variety. I started my cucumbers (straight 8) and squash (black zucchini, spaghetti, early prolific) together in small cups. I set this tray outside so they can germinate under the nice sun. I also started some oriental poppies and Shirley red poppies. Some poppies I planted earlier this week have already sprouted and doing very well. To end the first day of March, I started some nasturtiums (9 pellets) and 4 o clocks (6 pellets)

I started bulbs yesterday night (03-03). I started some tulips, grape hyacinths, narcissus ice-follies, and muscari bulbs.

Cabbage Early Golden Acres Seedling at 40 days (click on image for larger picture)

My seedlings are doing well except for a bout of aphids. I found some aphids on my African violet and they somehow migrated to my little seedlings. I cleaned them with alcohol and soap/water mixture. The soap and alcohol does something to the aphids. Maybe suffocates them. Anyways, it worked so I was happy. I plan on transplanting my tomato seedlings into bigger pots tomorrow or Thursday and set them out under the sun for a little bit or until it rains (which is estimated to be on Sunday into Monday). We hope not but we’ll see.
Today, I planted some watermelon radish, nasturtiums, great lakes lettuce, sunflowers, Pinocchio pepper, 4 o’ clocks, daisy bush and marigold seeds. I am interested in seeing the watermelon radish grow. I hope it does well!

Happy gardening everyone!

Garden Update

A garden update: 05-23-07

Everything in this picture is so green. If I had taken a picture of the backside of the garden, you’d see purple and pink petunias, pinkish white and red geraniums, purple hydrangeas, yellow calendulas and pink impatiens. This part of my garden is mainly for vegetables and herbs. On the right hand corner, I have an abundance of tomatoes ranging from roma, marglobe, supersweets, and large chery red tomatoes. I also have Straight 8 and Marketmore cucumbers, peppers (kung pao peppers, jalapeno, California Wonders, Peruvian peppers), peas, Sequoia strawberries, Black Beauty Eggplant, garlic, pearl onions, green onions, catmint, basil, chamomile, and so much more I can't remember.

I also have a squash (early prolific variety) in a self-watering pot that is so huge. The leaves are the size of both my hands. I already have two fruits on them. Due to a lack of pollinators (bees, insects, etc), I’ve had to hand pollinate the flowers. This is a relatively simple process and only requires two things: your hands. The squash flower does not contain both female and male parts but instead the plant produces two types of flowers: female flower, which looks like a flower attached to a mini squash and a male flower that looks like an ordinary flower. You simply remove the male flower from the plant, peel away the petals which will reveal a yellow-like q-tip and then you proceed to dab the female flowers with the male flower q-tip. That’s all there is to it! Simple! Here’s a picture of my result of hand pollinating.

And with any gardening endeavor, any gardener can tell you that there are bugs to deal with. Right now, I'm battling the dreaded white flies. I've been battling them with some insecticidal soap but I think my petunias are doing a fine job of killing them. The white flies seem to enjoy my petunia plants a lot. The thing with petunias is that they have tiny, sticky hairs on their stems which acts like a sticky traps and the white flies don't have a chance when they land on my petunias because they're essentially stuck and die as a result! I knew my love of petunias would pay off eventually!

My flowers are doing well in this heat too. We've been having 90 degree temps and the shade loving plants don't even mind. My impatiens are still blooming and the other flowers are forming buds. The avocado plant I planted a couple of months ago has doubled in size. Well, that's all folks for now...

Tomato Transplanting and Cucumber Seed Starting

I also transplanted one of my patio tomatoes into one of my self-watering containers and one of my supersweet 100s tomato in a 5-gallon bucket. I also rearranged my white garden shelves to the other side of the patio. Before, the shelves were in direct sunlight during the day and hogging up the sun from my containers so I simply moved them and now I extended my garden by 4 feet! In its place, I put the self-watering pots and tomatoes in its place. Now, the tomatoes will have 6-8 hours of sunlight instead of 3-4 hours when it was next to the fence. I decided to move it today because there’s a chance of rain tomorrow and Tuesday.

It's amazing how over a span of one year, your garden can be transformed from a barren canvas to a live and yieldy garden. Last year was my first true attempt at gardening and I haphazardly placed plants in empty spots due to my lack of gardening knowledge. For example, I wanted honeydew melons so I thought I could grow it in my little 6' x 7' garden. However, I didn't know that melons required a lot of space and by the end of summer, it had not only taken over half of my garden but also half of my concrete patio! This year, I'm more organized and have a new approach to gardening called "Square Foot Gardening" and it's the best. I can grow so much more in such a little amount of space! It's just wonderful! Right now, I'm growing an assortment of onions, lettuce, swiss chard, radishes, and turnips, all in one half of my garden. Compared that to the honeydew melon plants that took up half of my garden and only yielded me with 2 melons! Yes, you got it right, 2 melons!

Here's a picture of last year's garden:

This spring and summer, I'll be growing tomatoes (4-5 different kinds that include patio, supersweet 100s, marglobe, roma, and jelly bean), peppers (bell, peruvian, kung pao, and jalapeno), squash, cucumbers, onions, garlic, peas, cilantro, and so much more!

This year's garden using Square Foot Gardening Techniques

I have peas along the fence (Oregon Giant, Dwarf Grew and another one), strawberries (Sequioa), geraniums are in pots on the shelves (I propagated this from stem cuttings last winter and they've grown like weeds!), there are also some seeds I started here in the salmon-colored flats (mostly flower seeds), and you can see my tomatoes on the table.

I also planted some cucumbers and squash this morning. I planted Straight 8 cucumbers, Marketmore cucumbers, and a bush type cucumber. For squash, I planted early prolific straightneck. Hopefully, we will get a lot of squash and cucumbers this year.