Garden Update – Seedlings

It is hard for me to believe that I have only 29 posts so far this year! Last year in the same time period I had 118, in March alone I blogged 45 times! I think it was way too much… J.

Anyway, last Fall we have decided that we will cut down drastically on flower containers that took so much time to take care of. Also, visually it was a bit crowded. Last year I started so many flowers from seed that it filled our sunroom once transplanted from plug trays. This Spring I have planted only Nasturtium, Lobelia and Red Millet, that’s it. Happy to report all the seedlings are doing great.

When it comes to vegetables I had some unexpected failures (no germination). I planted 2 kinds of peppers, 2 kinds of Asian eggplants, cucumbers (1 variety) and 5 kinds of tomatoes. Peppers and eggplants didn’t germinate at all and 1 tomato variety (Sweet Baby Girl, hybrid F1) didn’t germinate as well. Mind you, I have seeded only 2 cells with 1 seed per cell. However, cucumbers have done well despite the fact that last year they didn’t (same seed packet). New this year are Saint Marzano Italian paste tomatoes that I bought from Thomson Morgan. The seeds are imported from Italy and come 500 seeds to a packet. Five Hundred seeds!!! Nuts! I need only a dozen or so…Anyway, I had 100% germination success with these seeds and they grow so fast! Another new for me this year are 2 heritage tomato varieties whose seeds I have collected from tomatoes we have bought from a roadside stand. We were absolutely blown away by the incredible tomato taste of these timeless varieties. I have no idea what they are, just that one is yellow in color and the other one has green and yellow stripes and is sort of flat in shape. Name is not important, the taste is. Still, I would like to know if they are determinate or indeterminate. Either way is fine with me but since I grow them for a paste determinate will work much better for me.

Four weeks till outdoor planting! By then tomatoes will have small fruits and cucumbers will be one foot high J 

Lobelia. The seeds are size of a dust particle!

Nasturtium. I love to munch on flowers and leaves and to collect seeds for "capers".

On left are tomato seedlings from 10 days ago.

And this is what they look like today. What a difference 10 days makes! Stacked pots in front center are Red Millet seedlings.

Gardening Season 2011 is Over

Garden is sleeping now with the exception of my arugula that is doing very well in my cold frame. We have made some late season changes on flower island and also the evergreen island. In both cases the changes had to be made because plants there grew way too big. We have removed the decorative grasses and moved Corkscrew Hazel together with some short grasses in their place. The root system balls of the grasses were so heavy that I just couldn’t lift them, I had to wrap a sling around them and drag them out on a piece of lumber and then I had to split each ball with an axe in order to handle them.

On Evergreen Island we had 3 species of junipers and they too were getting way too big. They were very easy to remove and now we have a small Alpine garden in their place. Both areas look much better. All the containers and planters have been emptied and their good potting soil was dumped on top of my raised veggie bed, but first I laid down weed barrier cloth to make it easier for me to remove the potting soil next spring.

Garlic is planted for a month now and spring bulbs are in the ground on both islands. Actually, they were never removed this spring. The dinner plate dahlias were removed 2 weeks ago and I stored each tuber in paper bag filled with peat moss. It will be interesting to see if they will grow next spring, I have never tried to save them before. Before I know it I’ll be growing flowers from seeds just like I did last few years. For now I have a two months of rest. Next garden post will be in February, I guess, even though I still have to spray our peach tree. As you can see on picture at top there are still lot of leaves and it is windy every day so I do have to postpone the spraying every day. But, it must be done.

In three years these grasses tripled in size...

...so they were replaced. It does look better.

The junipers on left side of island were removed...

...and replaced with small Alpine garden.

Again, it does look much cleaner.

My veggie bed serves as a temporary storage for container soil.

Middle of October Garden Update

Garden is slowly but surely coming to rest. Dahlias are still in full bloom and zinnias were replaced with fall mums. The grasses are now over 8 feet tall and sporting a gorgeous plumes. They are located south of our deck so the back-light shines right through them, just beautiful!

The roses are big surprise as they are all in full bloom and look better than in summer.
The Heuchera collection is still in full bloom and their coral bells really stand out.
Nasturtium and Hemerocalis are still producing flowers and so does Ozark Sundrops, Snapdragon and Trailing Alpine Geranium, The Gerbera is not at its best but still sending out new flowers. The Burning Bush is about 40% red so it will be few weeks before we will have a real red burning bush.
We will be enjoying our flower garden for a while yet.

 Front door with Mumms and pumpkins.

Dahlia, Snapdragon, Nasturtium and Mumms

Fall decoration.

Roses.

View from kitchen window.

Alpine Geranium.

Heucheras and Gerberas.

Back lit grasses.

Ozark Sundrop.

Burning Bush and my last pepper plant in container.

Marjo's last project - Alpine Garden.

Flower Garden Update, August 12, 2011

The weather wasn’t very kind to our flower garden but thanks to automatic low pressure irrigation all plants are doing well with few exceptions. I forgot to feed Lobelia and it does show, big time! I just hope that with some TLC and good fertilizer they will be full of gorgeous bright blue flowers.

Dahlias started to bloom in middle of July and now they are all in bloom. We bought the tubers last fall and all 5 were described as Diner Plate Dahlias. Well, three of them are more like little girl’s teacup saucer size and one of these small flower Dahlias is about 6 feet tall! Still, they are quite showy and will last till first frost. At least they did last year.

Hemerocalis were a bit of a surprise as to how slow they were to bloom and how fast they faded. Right now there are not that many flowers. Marjo fertilized them so here is hoping that they will bloom again.

Zinnias that I have started from seed last February are just spectacular! So many flowers and so tall, they are taking over our deck stairs and had to be tied because they were spreading so much.

We leave the spent and dried flower heads on because American Goldfinches just love the seeds. They are quite acrobats, hanging upside down from those small flower heads. In addition to Zinnias seeds I give them sunflower heads from our branching sunflower. When the head turns brown I cut it and stick it into flower box on our deck railing. Interesting thing is that only females and immature males will feed oh sunflower and only mature males feed on Zinnias, for whatever reason. I just can’t figure out why.

Also, couple hummingbirds are visiting few times a day and each has its own resting spot: one is on top of dead leader of our Fir and second one likes our hanging basket hook.

Climbing roses are in full bloom, again. Marjo did some great pruning and they are just beautiful.

Two years ago I started hollyhock from seeds and this year it is over 9 feet tall and growing. Flowers are not the largest I have seen but they are quite unusual dark purple, almost black, with bright canary yellow center. I think that next year the flowers will be much larger.

Hollyhock is in between evergreens.

Note: I am quite late with this post as I have started on August 6^th. I got new computer on 7^th and had to install bunch of programs plus move lots of files. Unfortunately, some older (12 years old!) devices will not run on 64 bit Windows 7 OS. On top of it all I have to get used to new operating system and new version of MS Office (2010). It will be a while before everything is back to normal.

Veggie Garden Update July 16, 2011

I can’t believe how fast time flies when you are busy. I just wish I could save some winter time in Time Bank and then in summer draw few hours here and there back. Anyway, we went with Tillsonburg Horticultural Society on 3 day tour of gardens in Gray & Bruce Counties in Southern Ontario so there was no garden work, just automatic irrigation. The tour was great thanks to incredible talent of our past president (yup, I am a member now). I will make post on some gardens later on when I wade through few hundreds of pictures. Digital cameras are great but at times they can be a real pain in the ass because it is so easy to get carried away. Enough of small talk and back to my small but very productive garden.

When I’ve planted cucumbers back in March I had no idea how many cukes they will give me. I am not complaining, I am just amazed. I pick about half a dozen a day from 2 plants growing on trellis in container.

I planted 3 varieties of peppers, all grown from seed as every other vegetable and herb in my garden. The “Green to Red” (from Johnny’s Seeds) is red already! I might pick some in next few days, maybe for my grilled pizza on BBQ.

Eggplant Greta is full of flowers and one eggplant is already about 3” long and ivory white as promised. This one will be grilled for a sandwich when ready.

Only beans I am not picking yet are the Chinese Yard Long beans. The yellow bush and French green string-less are picked daily and are very productive with great taste.

The daikon leaves were shading my tomato plants so I pulled some out and rest got serious haircut, again. The roots are decent size and very hot, right up my alley. They are next year repeat but in another location.

Margarita

We are really getting slammed with tomatoes already. Only one variety, Margarita, Roma type, is still green. However, that one plant has so many fruits on it that I will have to construct some sort of support. Not only there are many tomatoes, they are also quite large.

Since I thought that snow peas were done I pulled them out and to my surprise I picked about a quart of pods in different stages of maturity. I worked in some manure into old pea bed to get it ready for Amish Snap Peas that Ferdzy, author of “Seasonal Ontario Food”, thinks about so highly. I bought my seeds on EBay and they are, supposedly, organic and non-GMO. They will go in as soon as I get them.

Except for eggplants and yard long beans everything is being picked every day. Time to find some good recipe for pickles, I have way too many to eat fresh off the vine.

Veggie Garden Update June 22, 2011

Rats, it is 1^st day after Summer Solstice and days are getting shorter! I am not a great fan of Summer Solstice, no sir!

Not much new in veggie garden:

Couple Mountain Magic Tomatoes are red and ready to eat but we will wait till whole cluster is ripe and sweet.

Eggplant Greta formed fruits and they are ivory white.

Yellow Bush Beans are full of flowers so I should have some beans in couple of weeks.

My Hardneck Garlic scapes formed full piggy tail and so I will cut them by the weekend. I just love how long they store.

Unfortunately I have neglected my salad greens patch and they have happily bolted and are in full flower. I’ll give them a good haircut tomorrow if it doesn’t rain.

Last winter I started seeds for Marjo’s Turban Squash. Today I counted 8 flowers, some forming fruit already. It is her favorite squash and one that she painted so beautifully. Have a look and tell me if it is not super realistic botanical watercolor painting. Just click here and scroll down (4^th from bottom).

 Cucumber is new plant to grow for me and since my seedlings failed I bought some. I have no idea what they will look or taste like but it is  good experiment for me to grow cucumbers in container and on trellis.

Tomorrow I will update on containers and flower beds.