Late Season Tomatoes

I finally just cracked open my fall issue of Gardening How-To Magazine and inside was a short article on caring for your tomatoes late in the season. I wish I had read this earlier! Maybe if I remember I can try this next year. It said a month efore the first frost date to pinch off all flowers, new shoots and as well as any small fruits keeping only those that are about a month from maturity. I don't know about everyone else, but I have a hard time doing so! I even kept the small green tomatoes this year when I hacked down my Black Krim tomato plant to give to my neighbor's chickens to feast on. They seemed to really like the foliage on the plant as by the next day it was GONE!

Macadamia, Plumeria & Ginger

On September 13th I planted 10 Macadamia seeds. Today is exactly 4 weeks and 5 days. Two seeds have sprouted, but only one has anything above the soil. They supposedly take up to six weeks to sprout. Good thing I bought two packets if the germination rate is only 20% after almost five weeks!

These past few days I also found my red plumeria cutting had rotted completely :( I was really disappointed as the red is so beautiful! The white one is fine, knock on wood! It hasn't rooted yet tho.

The Ginger I brought back from Hawai'i is growing like a weed, which is to be expected! It will outgrow my lights soon as well as the little pot I have it started in! I can't wait for this beautiful Ginger to bloom as it has really pretty flowers that are different from normal Ginger flowers!

What's in Bloom this October

Found in bloom on 10.14.11

Bloomed 10.10.11, even has a second spike coming!

Nice to have some that don't bloom just in the spring!

Today my Neomarica caerulea 'Regina' came in the mail! Looks pretty healthy! Got four orchids at the Orchid Festival this past weekend, a Bulbo, a tropical terrestrial, a hardy terrestrial and a Darwin's orchid!

Garlic is Planted!

So this post will show up a bit late....I really planted them October 11th! I decided to put the super big cloves of the unknown garlic back in the shade. I figured that would give them a helping hand to grow in the shade. I also put German Red next to it since they are good, but I am still in love with Music! I planted some of Music in the area with more sun so the cloves can get bigger next year and I will rotate in the German Reds, maybe. I might just get rid of the reds and unknowns to grow solely Music as that seems to be my all time favorite for flavor! I so need a larger yard with more sunlight! I'd love to have a huge garlic patch! Now I just need to get more pine mulch as it seems they love that stuff the best!

Last year, in the shade patch, I put in cow manure and pine mulch and they grew bigger, but nothing like the area that got more sun with just pine mulch. Maybe I just have to move my plants in that area to the other? The shade patch gets a ton of compost too! I really think it's just the lack of light. Only thing is my peonies can't go into the shade and I'd hate to move my Cypripediums... I need a new yard!!!

Columbus Day = Garlic Planting Day!

Unfortunately I did not get to planting my garlic today. Maybe tomorrow! I still need to clear out the area for them though. My neighbor's chickens will be having a feast! I've already given them some tomato plant cuttings to feast on and they preferred it over the collard greens I gave them! I don't blame them, honestly! Those Black Krim tomatoes are yummy! Their leaves have to be just as good too :)

Mealybugs

Mealbugs got into into my collection thanks to a plant I bought. It's been around for several years, but it was under control. Something happened and this year they have flourished! Most plants that got to spend their summer outdoors are free of it, but those that stayed indoors, especially those that were potted in soil, had the most problems. In the last week, I've taken those plant outside and sprayed them all down with a seaweed, neem oil and soap mixture. I hope that it will take care of those annoying things without having to use chemicals! I've also left them outside for nature to take care of anything I missed. I will soon have to bring them all back indoors and I'm hoping that I will be mealybug free!

Bhut Jolokia!

Today's harvest of the hottest peppers in the world!

Macadamias & Plumeria

Well, according to the computer, I am a day late, or not in the case of the Macadamias! Today on the 12th, I planted the red and white Plumeria cuttings and tonight, the 13th (2:05am), I planted the Macadamia seeds that I had soaking for 24 hours in water with a rooting solution hoping to give them a head start! I hope they sprout for me!

On another note, I came home to my acorn squash plant not looking quite as perky as when I had left it. I hope the fruits are done growing if it is indeed thinking of kicking the bucket!

Hawai'ian Goodies

Yesterday I brought some goodies home with me from our wedding in Hawai'i. I planted the ginger and bamboo orchids yesterday. Today I am soaking the Macadamia seeds. Hopefully they will sprout and grow! I also hope that I have much better luck with the bamboo orchid this time around. I bought four packs so the odds are good, I hope! I still have two Plumeria to plant. Hopefully they are colors I do not have already! But I won't know until the two I have bloom first.

Stink Bugs

They are congregating around my west windows. I have caught very few with my Rescue traps. Probably because they are no longer interested in mating since the traps are pheramone based, but survival at this point with nighttime temps dropping. I am drowning every single one I can find in soapy water or squashing them! I even took a stick to them around the windows. This is insane! I don't think any of the predatory insects are getting any of them or enough of them to keep them under control!

The Joy of Gardening

Even though I am trying to downsize a bit it's a bit hard to choose what to keep and what to get rid of. My plants are like my children and I love them all. I can't tell you the joy I get from caring for them. There are no words to describe it. It makes me happy to water them and watch them flourish. The rewards are amazing! Beautiful flowers, fruit, and the pride I get when others ooh and ahh over them :) It's too bad I can't make money off of them because I would truly enjoy what I do then!

Looks like what I thought was a cantaloupe is going to be acorn squash!

Look how big the vine is! It's growing up the fence, through between the peonies and the grill, through the peonies and down the alley between the two houses!

Stink Bug Wars

I've declared war on the stink bugs this year. They aren't getting my peppers or tomatoes! Well...at least not as many, I hope! I got tired of fighting them for my ripening fruits. One day a brilliant idea came to mind. I had a bolt of tulle in my attic and I have fruit to protect! Viola! I got busy cutting up the bolt of tulle into 12"x12" squares and pieces of twine. When I ran out of twine I used the plastic ties you can buy in a roll. I enveloped each fruit in a puff of tulle in hopes that those mouth parts on the stink bug aren't quite long enough to penetrate the tulle and still let them ripen on the vine with plenty of air circulation. There are areas where I am not able to protect unfortunately so there are some married fruits.

Tonight though, I found a bunch of them gathered on one of my tulle covered peppers. How convenient! I quickly grabbed the yogurt cup I keep filled with soapy water and ran over to where this congregation was and gave the plant a good TAP! TA DA! They all jumped ship....right into the soapy water! YEAH! Call me sadistic, but I love watching the little suckers drown! Take that for eating my crop!

Normally I am more than happy to share with the wildlife, but these stink bugs don't know how to share. For that, they get death. It's not really that they consume a lot, but when they bite into the fruit they introduce bacteria and what eventually kills the crop is a bacterial infection. Sorry to anyone who thinks I ought to let them live. Don't come over if you can't watch it. :)

What's Blooming

My Stargazer lilies just opened up yesterday and they smell HEAVENLY! I always look forward to these blooms each year. Almost more so than my red Asiatic lilies. I think I may cull the one type out as I am not impressed by the flower shape as well as they are taking up too much space for my garlic since they grow in the same space!


I finally planted my Black Krim tomatoes (they're in bloom already!) and basil after I dug out all the garlic. I can't wait to have tomatoes again!

Three of my Japanese Neofinetias are in bud! Not in spike, but in BUD! YIPEE!!! They smell awesome too! I love growing these things as they are so easy and bloom so readily for me. The other perk is that they stay SMALL!

The Bhut Jolokia has almost met death twice now with lots of broken branches. This last time I tried to salvage the broken stems by tying it back together in hopes that it will heal. So far, only a few leaves lost, but no wilting, keep your fingers crossed! It's been blooming its head off, but no fruit :( The other peppers are setting fruit just fine! I hope no stink bugs are around this year to eat them. I have not seen as many of them this year, knock on wood!

Garlic Harvest

These were not grown in my usual garlic patch. These were the mix-ups that I had from last year. They could be Music or some other no name type. Strong flavor though! This group got a lot more sun and space and the bulbs were MUCH bigger! I wish I had more sun/space to grow garlic as these are more like the size I wanted them to grow to be! The oddest thing happened with these...we put weed block fabric down and the bulbs luckily and oddly formed above the fabric (but under the mulch)! The roots penetrated into it for moisture and nutrients though!

These are German. They didn't do too bad.

These are Music. They are slightly bigger than they were last year thanks to the cow manure and mulch, but no where near as big as the ones that got more sun and space.

In the place of the garlic, I planted my two Black Krim tomatoes as well as some basil. I debated whether to plant the Dahlia or not and decided to try them in pots this year instead. It would make storing easier without having to dig them up!

Gardening Without Samba

This last month has been a rough month. On June 3rd, I had to put my gardening buddy down due to complete renal failure. He was just about two months short of turning six years old. I've tended to the garden more since for emotional therapy, but every time I am out there enjoying the scent of my honeysuckle and seeing things bloom....it's beautiful, don't get me wrong, but it just makes me miss him just a bit more as he loved to hang out in the garden and this will be the first year I am enjoying the sights and smells of it without him. I still find myself stepping carefully in the grass for fear of landmines, but sadly...there are none.

I've harvested some of the garlic already, but the majority of the harvest will come this next week. I hope they are big!

This plant I bought at May Market is blooming these beautiful cup shaped fuschia blooms. I love how they wave in the wind. It looks awesome as the backdrop to my blooming lavender.

I got a $50 GroupOn this past spring to Urban Gardeners and used it on some more perennial wildflowers and a much coveted tree peony, even though I have not a clue where I am going to plant it! I hope it tolerates part shade. :S I also picked up a cinnamon basil, which I bought because it had pretty purple flowers as well as a lemongrass. So much for my "landscaping". I am just planting what I love instead!

I am ready to pull out my creeping juniper. It has not done well in its location. I might just plant another peony in its spot! LOL I need more space. I have outgrown this garden, that's for sure!

Garlic Growth

Above is a shot of the garlic that I have growing in an area that gets a bit more light, albeit lately, it has not gotten much light due to the constant rainstorms we have been having, but it sure has made things GROW! This patch is almost three feet tall! You can see that they are almost as tall as the peonies next to it! It's the first year I have planted in this area. My regular garlic patch is amended with all sorts of good stuff and aren't growing nearly as well as they are here!

May 15th Update

I am missing an Allium this year. The one next to Persian Blue is not in bloom. I wonder if it is a light issue?

The Sambuca 'Black Lace' is getting quite big! I've had to hack it back some each year! It should look pretty nice in bloom this year as long as no crazy rain fall knocks off all the petals!

The native strawberry plant is taking over. I should move some of the plantlets into the area behind the garage. I don't know if it'll grow in full shade, but it seems vigorous enough that it might?

My peony 'Sorbet' is like 4' tall and has TONS of buds! I am excited to see them all in bloom at once!

I don't think my Cyps are going to bloom this year. That weed block really did it in and I'll be lucky if they are alive, let alone bloom!

Most of my pitcher plants have a bud on them except for flava. I'm excited to see my first flowers!

The Absent Minded Gardener

I just realized tonight that I have, once again, forgotten about my new Cyprepedium sitting there in the fridge downstairs waiting to be potted up so it can GROW! Thank god my friend, Tim, tagged me to look at his beautiful Cyp in bloom! Then as I walked by to pot this poor thing up, I saw that white box again....DOH! The nematodes! They need to be put out and down too! This physics is getting to my head! I hope it isn't too late. I'm going to try and do it tomorrow before my appointment!

On a better note, the Cyps I had to rescue are starting to green up so I hope they are going to be ok!

Weed Block Fabric

Last end of summ/fall-ish I succumbed to my fiancé's request for weed block fabric. It was a PITA to install and I hated it. I did not want to put it in, nor did I want to install it! Well...this spring I've been waiting and waiting for my Cypripediums to come up and they never did. Good thing I decided to poke around because I had forgotten about having put that junk down over them! The poor things were looking and looking for sunlight to get up, but found none! They were long and pale underneath that horrid fabric! I immediately yanked that stuff out from under the mulch (once the mulch rotted on top the weed seeds would find a new (better) medium to grow in anyway, so this stuff is just worthless!) and propped up these poor plants so they can green up with some sunlight! I hope I haven't killed them thanks to not listening to my inner voice and that they would still bloom for me this spring!

May Market 2011

Much to everyone's disappointment this year, the mushroom sandwiches were not there this year! :( I was so looking forward to a nice hot cup of mushroom soup with a mushroom sandwich! Thank god the fodant dipped strawberries were there at least! Luckily strawberries weren't all there was to eat. Phipps had a whole stand of made to order food of pizza or tacos! I got the pizza and it was yummy!


I walked around for hours with only one plant in my hand. I know, shocking, right? Well, I fixed that real quick LOL I picked up the following:

Tricyrtis hirtis 'Moonlight' (Toad Lily)

2 Spiranthes cernua var. odorata (Lady's Tresses), I couldn't help it, they were only $4 each!

Viola odorata 'Rosina' (Strawberry Viola)

2 Iris cristata

Fragaria vesca 'Variegata'

Callirhoe digita Winecups

2 Aslepias incarnata 'Cinderella' (Cinderella Milkweed)

Maya Red Habanero

Pea Green (These are SUPER yummy!)

Lemon Verbena


There was a new vendor there this year from Ohio who specializes in all things miniature! I loved it! Above is one of his fairy garden displays!


The Wisteria in this picture has nothing to do with May Market, but they were in bloom in the outdoor gardens and it just smelled SO good I had to take a picture to remember them by! :)


This also has nothing to do with May Market besides the fact that I saw it in bloom in the outdoor gardens at Phipps while I was there and thought these peonies were SO pretty! I can't wait for mine to bloom! I did not see any buds on mine this year. I hope it just means it is too young to bloom and not that it is not getting enough sun! :S

Anyhow, I tried hard not to buy anything, but it didn't work so I hurriedly planted them in the ground or in pots so that my other half won't see LOL This was the first year I volunteered at the Shrub & Perennial booth and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I need to volunteer at a booth that doesn't sell anything I might want though to save myself! I think that might be hard to do as it IS May Market, where one goes to buy PLANTS! LOL

It was supposed to rain this afternoon and I got there all prepared, but we lucked out and had GREAT weather!