Kitchen Garden

We have been eating lots of cilantro. This was sown by crushing old flower heads from last year's cilantro, letting the seeds scatter on the mulch. The flower heads were saved by leaving them in the garden shed over the winter, unprotected. The cilantro is flavorful and tender. This method fits into the "cheap+lazy" gardening philosophy. I putter around far too much to be considered lazy, but "virtually no effort" takes up too much room in the labels.

The strawberries hold a lot of promise. The most blooms, ever.

The Inchelium garlic looks like corn plants. No scapes yet.

Several of the tomatoes have flower buds, even though they are only about 9 inches to a foot tall. I've started pinching out the lower branches, to maintain a cordon shape. One grouping had pale leaves - uncelar why, but this area did not get as much chicken compost. I added fish emulsion and added some epson salts for good measure (Mg and sulfur) and the leaves ARE greener today.

I hate to say it, but I planted some 'orphan' tomato plants in an area that is frequented by the cat for her litter box. These ARE larger and greener than the others. I guess this is OK - they are fruits, so the food part is not near the cat's 'products'.

We've been eating lots of scallions, both of the 'potato onion' type (my favorite) and the "Egyptian walking onion' type. And some of the 'I don't know what they are' type, that just happened to be left in the ground from previous years. These are perfect for the "cheap+lazy" gardener, since each onion produces sets for next year, at the top of the plant. These can be planted in the fall for early scallions, at zero cost and little effort. If you ignore them, they'll fall over and plant themselves, which is esentially zero effort for the gardener.

Today I planted another set of Ning's beans. In addition, I planted bush zucchinis. Something ate the prior seedlings. I planted new cucumber seeds, for the same reason.

Ginkgos

The is the largest of 3 ginkgo seedlings in the yard. Ning started it about 8 years ago in a flowerpot, from seeds that my Dad collected in Quincy Illinois. The parent tree was in the yard of Herman Deege, who taught me about the ancient heritage of the ginkgo trees, and told me that they were deciduois but more closely related to conifers, and taught me that they came in 2 sexes. I was 10 years old at the time. When it looked like this tree might not flourish in the flower pot, I planted it in the ground. It has the advantage of lots of nutrients, since it is in the area that the dogs use for their bodily functions. It is also watered during the summer, for the same reasons.

This tree is the same age, but was planted in the ground one or two years after the first, for the same reason. This year I fed it with fish emulsion and compost. The cat was using the compost mulch for her litter box, so I mulched it with thistles, which seems to have corrected that behavior quite nicely. It has grown about 9 inches so far this year.

I am somewhat of a ginkgoholic. There are 3 seed-grown young trees planted in the yard, with intent to grow into full sized trees, and multiple seedlings in flower pots. I don't know what I will do with those.

More Irises

"Bumblebee Delite". It's in a container. This is a small flower on a small plant. The falls stand out at a horizontal angle, rather than drooping. As soon as I find a location, I'll move it into the ground, where I think it will do better. Very cute little flower.

No-name 'Black Iris'

Liaison. This was the first one that we planted. It's a late bloomer, nicely fragrant.

A view of multiple varieties.

Another view of various varieties. The dark one is "Dusky Challenger" The color is a very dark blue, almost black.

Trachycarpus in bloom

Irises in bloom

China Moon

Edith Wolford

"American Classic"

Immortality. I hate to say it, but this one smells like cat urine. I first noticed it when I brought some inside. I kept thinking, "Where did the damn cat pee?". After taking it to work, people kept commenting "something smells like cat urine!". So it is very pretty, but stinky. This one is also supposed to be remontant. It is, but the first flowers are the most significant.

"No-name"

Whats blooming / what's planted / what's growing

This is the first that this wisteria has bloomed. It only took 6 years! Very fragrant.

SOme bearded iris are blooming. Photos hopefully to follow.

Tomatoes were all planted 1 week ago. Purchased pepper plants as well.

95 degrees for 3 days. Now in the 50s.

Cluster Map

clustermap.com shows 14,612 visits as of today. Hello there!

Ning's beans

Yesterday I planted more of Nings beans. Today I re-stringed their trellises. These are on the South side of the house, so they shade windows in the summer. Also the location is warmer in Spring so they might germinate and grow faster. It's hard to see the trellis - it's just cotton string, and doesn't show well in the photo.

The seeds that I planted were old ones from the bottom of the seed box, so I dont know how old they were. They did swell nicely on soaking. Then I found the package here, probably about 4 years old. So I soaked some of those to plant as well.

Just follow these simple instructions.... Maybe I'll have Ning translate when he returns from China later this month.

Finally, I found the seeds that I had saved last year. These will be planted if the others don't grow. They are about 5 or 6 consecutive years of saved seeds, so I'm hoping to continue them.

Spring Garden Diary

This is where things are currently.

The new little Desert King is either quite happy in this location, or it just gets to an earlier start compared to the other fig trees. It looks quite happy.

The garlic is knee high. These are on the south side of the house. The garlic in the front yard (north of house but still in sun) is not as large, but is also not from the 'prime' garlic bulbs (Inchelium red)

Grapes are starting to bloom. This is Venus, but other varietes are not far behind.

The recently planted beans have started to show. These were the Romano Bush Beans planted April 26th. About half are showing now. None of the corn or squash planted that day are up. Yesterday I planted some yellow string bush beans, and more romanos, after an overnight soak. Also replantged the corn after an overnight soak. I suspect the issue is soil temperature, but the soaking probably wont hurt anything and might speed germination. Also today I planted old seeds. I mixed together old packets of lettuce, mesclun, basil, spinach, and vegetable chrysanthemum, then planted thickly. These seeds are anywhere from 1 to 5 years old, and most probably wont grow. I didn't want to waste space for individual trials, so they are all planted together. Of note, this WSU publication gives life expectations for common vegetable seeds. They show lettuce, cucumber, and spinach seeds may be viable for 5-6 years; carrots beans and peas for 3-4 years. Maybe they WILL grow, after all. Oregon State say's don't presoak corn or beans at all - that this method damages seeds! Of note, I did presoak beans last year and they sprouted well, so who knows?

Here are some comments about presoaking seeds: This author - goes further and and discusses presprouting (chitting) his seeds. Hmmm... I'll have to try that. This author says DON'T soak bean seeds! Apparently they become more fragile when soaked. This author says DON'T soak them, due to concern for rotting! This author says DO presoak them! This author recommends presoaking certain seeds but doesn't address beans. Well, the consensus appears to be that I shouldn't have soaked them. We'll see if they grow! If no growth in 2 weeks, there is time to try again.

The chickens laid one egg each today. Must be the lengthening days, although I would like to think it is all of the weeds that I have been feeding them!

Tomato planting time

After a trip away for a few days, now some time at home for a brief "staycation". The tomatoes look sturdy:


So I planted them. This year I learned from past mistakes and placed the stakes before planting the tomato plants.


In light of recent entries regarding phenology, "When the flowering dogwood is in peak bloom it is time to plant tomatoes, early corn and peppers. "

So here we are:


Also, the "Tomatoes can be set out when lily-of-the-valley is in full bloom." And it is (sorry, they are too small for this camera to do a good job photographing).

So, I planted most of the tomatoes. About 6 remain, due to my un willingness to throw away some 'duplicates' that I had thinned out at the seed-leaf stage and stuck in soil to see if ehy would grow. They did.

So what other phenological phenomena should I be tracking. Well,

The dicentra is blooming.


The miniature (early) iris have been blooming for one week.


The wisteria catkins reach from the 1st joint of my thumb to the end of my index finger.


The purple rhodie is starting to show color.


The strawberries have begun to bloom.