Garden update 2-18-13

I was able to do some garden work this past weekend. Not as much as I would have liked to get done, but still a fair amount.

The blueberry bushes have been fertilized, got nice new mulch put down on top of the soil, and are all ready to burst into bloom. One has even started to put out some flowers already. I've got four varieties (having a few different varieties near each other helps with overall production). All are of the "Rabbiteye" type of blueberry, which works well in our hot and humid climate. The varieties I was able to find locally when I bought the plants were Climax, Tifblue, Premier, and Powderblue.  The Tifblue is already blooming, the Premier bush looks kind of scraggly but is covered in tiny buds. The other two are somewhere in the middle. Another point of having different varieties is that they bloom and bear fruit at different periods during the season, so it's good to have an early variety, a mid season variety and a later variety so that you have a longer harvest season. My four bushes are still young, but will produce a bit of fruit this year. I don't know how much they'll produce when they reach maturity, it'll be interesting to see though.

I also planted five Better Bush tomatoes in large pots to put in the front of the house where we get full sun, along with some small yellow marigolds as companion plants for both the health of the tomatoes, and to provide a pop of cheerful color against the green plant and terra cotta pot. Better Bush is a hybrid that does well in my climate and is suited for containers. It makes tomatoes that are bigger than a cherry or salad tomato, but not a giant slicer. Pretty much an all purpose little tomato. If they do well for me, I'll be using them mostly to make homemade marinara sauce. They were an impulse buy at the garden center Sunday morning because they were such big and healthy thriving plants.

Then I got the two heirloom "black" tomatoes in large containers too. The variety is "Black Russian" and they are supposed to be compact plants that produce well. Heirloom tomatoes have been really hit or miss for me. But these were from a reliable supplier, and planted in fresh new rich soil in the prime sunny spot of my yard. So they have the best odds of doing well.

I also got my two jalapeno plants into their pots. I always seem to have more jalapenos than I need, they are very productive little plants here. So this year I chose two varieties, Purple pod jalapenos (which are green inside and are as hot as a standard jalapeno) and "Tam" jalapeno which is a hybrid that has all the jalapeno flavor with only mild heat.

The seedlings are doing okay, the Lipstick peppers are doing the best, the Ghost peppers doing the worst. The Little Finger eggplant somewhere inbetween. I think at least some will make it to transplant stage. But I really need a lamp/heat mat setup to sprout seeds in the winter for spring planting. Next year...

My next project in the garden will be to transplant all of the bell peppers into their containers (and the one funny little "Red Peter" pepper. After that, I will prepare all the March planting (cucumber seeds, bush bean seeds, herbs, eggplant, zucchini, and at the end of the month the melons. And in the meanwhile I will be adding flowers here and there as I go for color in the garden and to attract bees and butterflies.

Garden Update: Seeds Sprouting and transplants to pot this weekend.

 

I'm seeing the first seedlings from my little plastic seed starter greenhouse. It's really a kids' toy but seems to be getting the job done just fine.

I decided to try three different kinds of seeds in it. Bhut Jolokia or "Ghost" pepper (insanely hot crinkly red pepper), Lipstick pepper (very sweet little cone shaped red pepper), and Little Fingers eggplant ( clusters of small finger-shaped dark purple eggplant). I hadn't seen anything break the surface of the dirt and then all of the sudden they'd just shot up like crazy. I'll be having to find them some good sunshine now so that they can start to grow strong and healthy in preparation for transplanting. Fortunately we've got the sunny weather, and it shouldn't be too cold at all for them in the daytime. It'd have been nice to start them on a warming mat, and then put them under a grow lamp but I just didn't have it in the garden budget this year. Next year though, I will be more prepared for seed sprouting and probably even try and grow my tomatoes from seed instead of getting transplants. But a grow lamp is pretty much a must because they have to be started indoors so early in my growing zone.

As far as new transplants, I've got 8 baby broccoli plants going now, as well as 3 Husky Cherry Red tomato plants (and one more to transplant this weekend). I also picked up a bunch of starter pepper and a couple more tomato plants at a local nursery that is really in tune with our growing zone and climate. 2 each of a green, orange, and red bell pepper, a purple jalapeno,  and a "Red Peter" pepper (which makes rather naughty looking peppers),  And then two "Black Russian" heirloom tomato plants, the only heirlooms I'm going to take my chances with this year. I may go back to the big box garden center and get a few Better Bush hybrid tomato plants, but haven't decided whether or not I want to deal with them or not. Same with full sized eggplant. It just depends on where I have space once what I have already is where it needs to go.

And I also got a trailing rosemary plant to put in the big pot I usually grow rosemary in. It's a tall pot, so I figured the trailing variety would be pretty there.

When the time comes in the fairly near future, I'll be planting Japanese Long cucumbers, Dragon's Egg cucumbers, and possibly some Lemon and Marketmore cucumbers. Also Dragon Tongue beans, Roma II beans, and Trionfo di Violette beans (which will be grown up a trellis as they are vine beans instead of bush beans). I'll probably also find room in the garden to try and use up all my old bush bean seeds before they get too old to do anything. I've also got some mini cantaloupe style melon seeds which can be trellised, and will probably find a place to trellis some more of the Rich Sweetness 132 melons. And some round zucchini and the rest of my herbs.

No new trees this year. No budget for them, and I need to put effort into the ones I have. The only tree I'd consider getting would be a lychee I could put in a big pot, but that's probably not happening this year. But who knows... If I find one at a decent price, I'll think about it.  My mature Meyer lemon tree produced like crazy this year, and needs some serious pruning and TLC. As do the immature orange and satsuma trees. The immature Meyer lemon seems to be doing just fine so I will leave it as-is and just give it some fertilizing once the growing season starts.

The blueberries are coming along nicely, time to fertilize them as well. The plants have nearly doubled in size since I bought them last year. All but one are thriving and I should get a fairly decent amount of fruit this time. Even the one that isn't thriving still looks better than when I bought it. They will get fertilized too so that they're ready to do their budding.

The rosebushes are coming out. The area we have them in at the front of the house just isn't a good rose area, and would need extensive soil amending and building up into a raised bed to do right by them. Only one plant is healthy and it is really healthy. I will probably leave it be, so I can still have some roses to enjoy. We just didn't know much about growing roses, and put in really cheap plants from a discount store that weren't all that great to begin with. When I'm ready to try roses again, I'll do it right. So, once most of the roses come out of that area, semi-decorative veggie pots that need full sun are going in their place.
Fortunately it's going to be a very nice weekend, this weekend. We've got a lot of yard work to do. The oak tree decided to finally finish dropping leaves, and the yard and most of my containers are a mess. I've also got a second round of compost going,

2013 garden planning. Already? Yes, already!

The only produce left to be picked in my garden are the few containers of beets I managed to plant back in fall, a handful of jalapeno peppers on a couple plants that are still plugging along, and some kohlrabis that may or may not mature into bulbs over the winter. Also about thirty more Meyer lemons and a few Marrs oranges. The only herbs left are oregano (is growing like mad still), chives, my bay tree, lemon balm, and some mint. Oh, and the blueberry bushes are doing well and taking a break from all the growing they did since I planted them.

And since my location here south of Houston has a year-round growing climate, I have some things to plant this month, whenever it stops raining enough for dirt to dry out enough to work with. I've got baby broccoli plants to transplant, and lots of seeds can get planted now too: Carrot, kale, chard, turnips, kohlrabi, beets, bunching onions, and parsley.

Then starting in the later half of February, the spring crops start to get planted. I've got a lot of work ahead of me before I'm ready though. We're replacing the big storage bins we'd been using to grow cucumbers, eggplant, and bush beans with rectangular raised beds. Which won't be very hard to actually build, it just needs to get done. I priced replacing the containers every few years versus building simple beds out of cedar planks, and the wood frames will cost less and last longer. Really the only reason I used the big storage bins for planting was that I found them on sale for next to nothing at a discount store because they were missing their lids.

I'm going to re-plant some tried and true favorites again this year: Dragon's Tongue beans, Roma II beans, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, cherry tomatoes, Rich Sweetness 132 melons, Marketmore cucumbers, and Asian Long cucumbers. More Fairy Tale eggplants if I can find them again at a nursery, and the same basic kitchen herbs. Rosemary, thyme, basil, cilantro, and maybe sage this time too.

I also ordered some new varieties of seeds to try from Baker Creek heirloom seeds . A sweet little red pepper called "Lipstick" as an heirloom alternative to the Yummy pepper variety. I'll probably pick up a couple Yummy plants just to hedge my bets though. And a different round zucchini since I just never had much luck with Rond de Nice. Also "Little Fingers" eggplant. An heirloom that seems mostly comparable to Fairy Tale. It makes shorter stocky bushes like Fairy Tale, and produces fruit in clusters like Fairy Tale. But instead of being teardrop shaped streaked fruit, they are thin finger-shaped dark purple fruit. I also got a pack of seeds of a different miniature melon, Minnesota Midget. It's a lot like Rich Sweetness in that it makes shorter vines, small fruit, and can be trellised. But it's a cantaloupe style melon.  I also ordered a pack of Dragon's Egg cucumber seeds, which makes small white oval fruit. I'm going to put a trellis against the front wall of the house and will probably grow them there because they seem like they will be fairly decorative. Lastly, on request of my Dear Friend, I ordered a pack of Ghost Pepper (Bhut Jolokia) seeds. One of *the* hottest peppers on the planet. They're apparently tricky as hell to grow, but we've got a hot enough climate to give them a fighting chance. I'm still not sure I want to try one, well maybe a tiny sliver. But I know some chiliheads who will appreciate some if they make anything.

I also received a pack of fancy purple vine bean seeds as a secret santa Christmas gift from a kind and generous garden fairy and have a decorative metal trellis to plant them against to bring some color to my patio. The vines are supposed to be purple, the leaves have purple veins, the flowers violet, and the beans purple and long-producing. They're an Italian variety so they'll be iffy in the kind of heat we get here. I'll be planting them early as possible to beat the heat and hope for the best.

And shocking but true... I'm taking a bit of a break from tomatoes this year. Aside from the bush cherry plants that did so well last year, I am only planting a few full-size plants this time. And possibly no heirlooms. If I have a craving that won't stop for a dark heirloom tomato, I can just shell out at Whole Foods or Central Market and be done with it. LOL!

I still haven't decided whether to put the orange tree in the ground or leave it in its' container. It can stay there until I make up my mind. It's mature enough for a good crop this coming year, I just need to do some pruning on it at the beginning of next month to keep it growing strong. I pulled all the fruit off of the satsuma and second lemon tree as they were having problems, after pruning them too, I will see how much regrowth they get this spring, and see whether or not I can leave some fruit to ripen on them as well. The Marrs oranges are pretty, fragrant, and sweet. But don't have much of an orangey flavor to them. Just sweetness. But the rind is very sweet above the pith, so if for nothing else, I'll grow them to make candied orange peel and marmalade.

That's pretty much it, I'm sure I forgot something or another. But this blog turned into a ramble, and I need to log offline.

Garden update for early November 2012

My Fall garden is doing so-so, although I did have a bounty of produce to pick this morning. The ten greenish yellow things are Meyer lemons. There are so many that have gotten so large that they are weighing the branches of the tree down to the ground, so I had to go ahead and pick a bunch of them before they're fully ripe. But the good thing about Meyer lemons is that they are perfectly useable at this stage so they won't go to waste at all. I had a bunch of different bush beans as well. There are two lonely little burgundy beans, but many more tiny ones and flowers on the plants. A decent little handful of thin green beans, and also of broad Italian green beans. And at least a pound of dragon tongue beans (the kind of yellowish green ones with purple speckles). Also, I had a bunch of smaller peppers. A few chocolate bells, one very red bell, a green bell, a couple orange bells, and one that didn't make it all the way to orange. Also a bunch of jalapenos both red and green. Underneath all of that stuff in the bowl are miniature "fairy tale" eggplants and a few long dark "Ichiban" eggplants. A few piddly little radishes too, a purple one, and a couple white ones.

The weather has been absolutely screwy here. It's November already and we're still seeing highs around 90 degrees some days. That's stunted the growth of a lot of my Fall stuff. And some of the rest of it succumbed to pests. But there are things that are still doing quite well. My long Japanese cucumbers are producing cukes, and there is a big one that should be ready to pick by the beginning of next week. The beans are all doing well and my few beets that managed to make it through the heat are starting to grow. We had a few short cold fronts come through, but that was enough to let a handful of tomatoes set, so I will get something for my efforts. My zucchini plants haven't been destroyed by squash vine borers yet, and are making male flowers, so I keep an eye out for females to fertilize. Maybe I'll get something from them this year?

I still have more radishes to plant, lettuce, spinach, kale, carrots, turnips, kohlrabi, chard, and green onions. I may be leaving something else out, can't remember. I do know that next week will be time to get a lot of seeds going in hopes of actual cool weather to come. I may try more beets, who knows, they might do something for me.

My Fall 2012 garden is officially underway!

This past weekend, I finally got my tomato plants and new pepper plants planted.

I only bought four tomato plants this time, two of which I don't expect much from. But two I have very high hopes for. I got two little transplants, a Roma plant and a Homestead plant which may or may not mature by the time the weather cools enough to set fruit. I also got two large grafted tomato plants. Black Krim heirloom grafted onto a hardier and more disease-resistant root stock. Supposedly you can get a much better result from heirlooms in our climate by growing them this way. The plants certainly are hardy and full and growing faster than expected. Whether they produce fruit, we'll have to wait a while to see. They better! They are significantly more expensive than the basic grown from seed transplant plants. But, I had a birthday gift card from the particular nursery that stocks them, so I figured it wasn't a big gamble to try a couple out this season. I wanted to get them transplanted over 2 weeks ago but was sick with an ugly virus and between recovering from that and the heat, just couldn't handle being outside much.

The peppers I got were two more jalapeno plants that are supposed to make bigger peppers, they're called "Mucho Nacho". 2 of my bell peppers and my other basic jalapeno plant, along with the 3 Yummy peppers all are surviving the heat, and still producing, but much more slowly and much smaller fruit in the heat. If they make it to cooler weather, they will give me more decent sized peppers until it gets cold enough to kill them off.

This morning I prepared the two large tub-sized containers that I plant cucumbers and bush beans in, so I can plant the cucumber seeds tonight or in the morning. I was amazed at the sheer number of earthworms living in those containers. They have loads of drain holes in the bottom, so they are more like raised beds, so the worms can come and go into the earth and containers. The soil is healthy and happy and I only had to add a little bit of organic matter to replenish it. Let's hope it gives me some good cucumbers this season to make up for the major fail of spring.

By the end of this coming weekend I'll have planted the cucumber seeds, some of the kohlrabi seeds, zucchini seeds, the first of the bush bean seeds, and some more Sweet 100 melon seeds. Also, some starter peat pellet pots of herb seeds and a couple of thyme plants I picked up at the nursery.

As far as what's still growing and producing? I have a couple dozen Meyer Lemons on the tree getting ready to start ripening, and a couple of small Ichiban long eggplant plants that are producing here and there, and six remaining Fairy Tale eggplant plants that are producing slowly in the heat. Also the Yummy peppers are giving me a bunch of little peppers, and I saw a baby bell pepper on one of the plants yesterday. Many of the herbs died, but both the sweet basil and Thai basil are thriving. Mint is near dead, but will come back, as will lemon balm. I thought the oregano was a goner, but am seeing new growth and lots of green in the pot. One of the other things I need to do this weekend is snip dead leaves. Oh yeah, the blueberry bushes are getting along just fine in the heat and have doubled in size from when I planted them last Spring. LOTS of love for my blueberry bushes! I am looking forward to eventually having mature plants that give a decent harvest.

As we start to see cooler weather here, I will plant beets, turnips, romanesco, broccoli, lettuce, kale, chard, radishes, spinach, and carrots.

Garden blog: Seeds I hope to plant.

Here are the seeds I am going to try over the next several months. The warm weather ones that I can get a second crop out of before it gets cool, the cooler weather ones that can't handle the summer heat, and the cold tolerant ones that we can pretty much plant in the dead of winter here.

From left to right, top row:

- Roma 2 bush beans. These grew really well in my Spring garden, and bush beans of all kinds do extremely well here in the fall. It's really nice to have fresh from the garden green beans at Thanksgiving! I can never plant too many bush beans...
- Red stem Swiss Chard. Chard does so-so here, but it can go in pots, so it's worth planting in random containers that I don't have other plans for.
- Japanese long cucumbers, will try these again for cooler weather. They grew very well, but without many bees, I just didn't want to be out hand pollinating in the heat. The cucumbers we did get from thenm were fantastic though.
- Round carrots, never grew these, but they are small enough for window boxes and look awfully cute. And the seeds were free, so can't beat that for a try-out variety.
- A more heat tolerant variety of spinach, I'll get this one going earlier than usual. My spinach did okay last year, I just wish I had more of it.
- Kohlrabi, I love this vegetable, both the bulb and leaves. Will try planting earlier this year to get bigger bulbs, and plant more of them too!

From left to right, bottom row:

- Rich Sweetness 100 melons. I will experiment with these fast maturing little melons, I have plenty of seeds saved from the Spring crop, so even if they don't make fruit, it's worth the risk.
- French breakfast radish, this one did so-so for me, I'll wait for cooler weather this year. Husband loves it because it is very spicy, me...not so much.
- Italian parsley, it'll stay warm enough to grow this one for a couple months now in pots, even if the plants never get that big, they're very useful in the kitchen.
- Dragon tongue bush beans, going to give this one a try too, they got rave reviews for flavor and productivity, and the pods are pale green and purple streaked. Easy to find among the leaves.
- Russian red kale, I'll try this variety out in large containers when it gets cool. Kale is a first for me this year. I buy it all the time, but have never grown it.
- Pink radishes, are supposed to be more sweet than spicy. Planting these for me, not husband. Radishes do awfully well here, and mature FAST so we can continually plant them in all but the hottest months.

From left to right, top row:

- "Easter Egg" radish color mix. Most of these are spicy, I'll finish out this seed pack for my husband, he will literally sit and eat these raw like fruit.
- Colorful beet mix. These grew well for me last year, I'll try and finish out the seeds in an early planting this year, even if I only get tops, beet greens are good.
- I grew the turnips last year just for the tops to eat as greens. I might let them go for actual bulbs this year, we'll see.
- Purple stem spinach. It tasted great, but I planted it too late last year. Will try this variety again because the leaves are perfectly sized for salad.
- Good old basic red beets. I love beets, both the roots and the greens. This variety grows very well and very fast here. And they do really well in long window box containers.
- Bush pickle cucumbers. I'm giving these a try-out since they don't need trellising, if I get enough to make one jar of pickles, I'll be a happy camper.

From left ro right, middle row:

- Baby round squash. These plants make really pretty lacy leaves, so they are decorative as well as productive. I researched how to manage vine borers, so I'm going to give them one more try this year.
- Golden stem chard. Again, they do well in random containers, so I'll give them a go this year. Last year I didn't have much luck, will plant earlier this time.
- Red and green romaine lettuce mix. I'm trying these from seed to have ready for cooler weather, if they flop, backup plan is to buy baby lettuce plants come time to transplant.
- Mesclun mixed baby lettuce mix. I like to grow this in shallow containers, and pick it very young for tender salad greens.
- Romanesco broccoli. Husband impulse bought this based on the photo on the package. We really don't have the right climate for it, but I figure we'll plant some and see what happens. If nothing else, broccoli stems and greens are edible. Will plant baby traditional broccoli plants when the time is right for them.
- Cosmic Purple Carrots, I planted these one year. They didn't get all that big, but they were colorful and tasty. I'll leave them in the ground a lot longer this time to see if I get mature roots.

From left to right, bottom row:

- Dill. Just plain old dill weed. I only want it for the fronds to use fresh, so I don't mind that it most likely won't have time to mature before it gets too cold for it.
- Cilantro, it bolts very fast in our climate, even this slow bolting variety can't tolerate the heat. Again, it just needs to grow enough to give me fresh green tops for cooking.
- Basil, this variety grows pretty fast, and packs a lot of punch flavor wise. And the plants are so compact they can go in flower pots wherever there is a sunny spot.
- Lemon cucumbers, I'm trying these again. Like the Japanese long, by the time they bloomed, it was too hot to be outside hand pollinating. The vines are more compact, I have a couple decorative trellises to grow these up.
- A good old standard bush style green bean. These make slim and tender pods, and make a fair amount. They grow fast and in small spaces. I'll fit them in somewhere.
- Burgundy bush beans. Again, I'll make room for them. They grow fast and are very heavy producers. The purple pods turn green when cooked, but they're still fun to grow.

Can't sleep, might as well blog about garden stuff.

I've got an hour to kill before I have to be at the gym to use the pool, and the gym is less than ten minutes from my house. So, time to get in a quick blog before I gather my stuff up.

It's time to prepare for the Fall garden. Right now the only things producing are eggplant and melons. I've also got a bunch of peppers still ripening as well as green lemons and oranges. It's time in the Houston area to get Fall tomato transplants into the ground. I never started any from seed, so I'll be going to buy some baby plants later this morning from a nursery. The goal is to get the plants going and keep them alive while it's so hot, and then by the time the temperatures drop to where they're able to start setting fruit well, they'll be mature and ready to produce. The problem is, very few plant nurseries actually have the tomato plants in stock when we need them here. Mid-February for Spring/Summer and late July - early August for Fall/Winter. Local independent nurseries are the only ones that consistently have what we need when we need it. The one I am going to today is one of the best in the area. There are others, but I have an unused birthday coupon from them, so that was the deciding point.

My Meyer lemon tree gave me a bumper crop this year, and the branches were so loaded down that they were bending towards the ground. I really didn't see how I could put them in slings, so I did some research. I found that green Meyers are completely useful so I picked about a dozen of the biggest ones off the ends of the branches to take some of the burden off of the tree. I had a couple wedges in some tea yesterday and yes, they are good. They taste almost like a lime but kind of like a grapefruit, definitely sour citrus but not really bitter at all. The zest smells great too.  I was hesitant to pick them, but now that I know they won't go to waste, I'm happy.

I also found an invasive little native vine growing up through the branches too. It's something called a "Guadeloupe Cucumber". Apparently the fruit are edible in the pale green unripe stage, but when they darken they become toxic and can give you a whole world of stomach woes. I'm going to finish ripping out the vines this weekend, and probably taste a couple of the fruit just to see what they're like and if they have any ill effects on my system. If not, I'll save the rest and use them up since they are the color of green grapes. I like the idea of food just sprouting from the ground without any effort.

I just placed an online seed order, and with the seeds I already have, will now be completely set come cooler weather. I ordered some spinach that has a better heat tolerance, some Dragon's Tongue beans, a radish variety that is supposed to be more sweet than spicy, some kale, white/green kohlrabi, and a variety of Italian parsley that is supposed to grow well most anywhere. I've still got Italian style broad beans, plain old green and burgundy beans, carrots, lettuce, chard, beets, turnips, zucchini, cucumbers, spicy radishes, melons, and a few varieties of herbs. When the time comes, I'll buy baby broccoli plants and try my hand at them again. I might pick up a few more pepper plants today too, depending on what the nursery has on hand. Big bell peppers don't do so great here, but hot peppers, little sweet peppers,  and poblanos certainly do!

My Spring annual flowers are all dead from the heat or bolting and leggy. I'll probably replace a few of them for color, but mostly cool weather I try and concentrate on growing all the leafy veggies that would just fry in the heat. Later on in Fall, I'll probably get some more chrysanthemums and such. I have a few I've been babying along in containers and they keep coming back for me. I need to try and revive them again so they'll be ready to bloom when it cools off. All if my ivy is thriving. Ivy will thrive after the Zombie Apocolypse. I don't think I could kill ivy if I tried, unless it involved a flamethrower. If I have a spot I need to decorate a bit and it's in a difficult area light-wise, I just plant some fancy leaf ivy. My pretty little Fuschia hanging basket fried in the heat, even though I kept moving it and babying it and trying to nurse it along. It just couldn't take it anymore. The impatiens are on tall stalks now. Scraggly and leggy. They're in long windowbox type containers. I'll pull them and plant beets, radishes, and turnips there when it cools off. All three do well in that kind of a container.  The begonias are all tall and scraggly too. Time to pull them up and start preparing the containers for something new.

The last time I ordered seeds, I got a freebie packet of little round carrots that I think will grow just fine in a shallow container as well. The carrots are about the size of a quarter gumball, and I'm looking foward to planting them and seeing what comes of them through the Fall and Winter.

That's all the time I have to ramble about my garden. Time to go swim.