GreenWise Gardening 2017
“I grow my own vegetables and herbs. I like being able to tell someone that the lunch I’m serving started out as a seed in my yard.”
– Curtis Stone
5/1/17:
It was great to see the rhubarb sprout last week. The delphinium seeds and two parsnips have come up also. I’m still waiting for the peas planted in March to germinate. In the meantime, I’ve sown more in the planter box and covered it with squirrel-deterrent netting. I also bought three new seed packets: borage, spinach and dahlias, to grow in the empty starter pots. These are from my favorite seed company, Renee’s Garden.
Nasturtiums have self-seeded in more pots than ever before. If I were to let them keep growing in all the places they’ve sprung up, these yellow and orange flowers on long, often-tangled vines would rival geraniums and ivy in taking over my container garden! I consolidated the smaller plants into a couple of decorative pots, and want to sort out the rest over the next few weekends.
One of my three recently-purchased pepper plants, the Fresno Chili, has gotten all its leaves eaten off. Another, the Cubanelle, has been hit even worse: the main stem’s severed an inch above the soil. Could this be cutworm damage? I’ve rarely noticed that particular pest in our yard, however, so snails/slugs are also possible culprits. The third pepper, a Hot Golden Cayenne, is doing okay. A couple of leaves chewed on, but it’s growing new ones. I’m protecting this plant, and recently-sprouted cayenne seedlings now moved outside, with cardboard rolls around the stems.
Nasturtiums have self-seeded in more pots than ever before. If I were to let them keep growing in all the places they’ve sprung up, these yellow and orange flowers on long, often-tangled vines would rival geraniums and ivy in taking over my container garden! I consolidated the smaller plants into a couple of decorative pots, and want to sort out the rest over the next few weekends.
One of my three recently-purchased pepper plants, the Fresno Chili, has gotten all its leaves eaten off. Another, the Cubanelle, has been hit even worse: the main stem’s severed an inch above the soil. Could this be cutworm damage? I’ve rarely noticed that particular pest in our yard, however, so snails/slugs are also possible culprits. The third pepper, a Hot Golden Cayenne, is doing okay. A couple of leaves chewed on, but it’s growing new ones. I’m protecting this plant, and recently-sprouted cayenne seedlings now moved outside, with cardboard rolls around the stems.
Clicking on the small images below will bring up a larger version.
Thriving nasturtiums.
Hoping this pepper’s adequately protected.
Dracaena and African violet.
The landlady decided to have the interior walls and windowsills of our house painted this week. So Steve and I spent many hours moving furniture and other belongings away from the walls. I brought my houseplants outside on Sunday, placing them in shaded, sheltered areas for the most part. I think the Thanksgiving cacti and seedlings from the kitchen windowsill could do well with more sun, however, so I tried to put them in areas where they could get decent light and that aren’t frequented by snails.
At work, I found a little ceramic pot sitting on a pile of discarded odds and ends. It held crispy remnants of leaves in completely dry soil; perhaps a succulent of some sort. I transferred this to a plastic container at home (in case something might still be able to come up from the roots) and filled the ceramic pot with an African violet from the grocery store. I’m hoping that the nice big skylight above my desk area will provide the right amount of indirect light for it. I don’t have much experience with this particular houseplant, only having owned one years ago. And I remember the violets the church gave away on Mother’s Day every year when I was a child didn’t live very long. But the temperatures and lighting of my work area have been appreciated by the dracaena, so it seems worth a try to experiment with a flowering plant too.
At work, I found a little ceramic pot sitting on a pile of discarded odds and ends. It held crispy remnants of leaves in completely dry soil; perhaps a succulent of some sort. I transferred this to a plastic container at home (in case something might still be able to come up from the roots) and filled the ceramic pot with an African violet from the grocery store. I’m hoping that the nice big skylight above my desk area will provide the right amount of indirect light for it. I don’t have much experience with this particular houseplant, only having owned one years ago. And I remember the violets the church gave away on Mother’s Day every year when I was a child didn’t live very long. But the temperatures and lighting of my work area have been appreciated by the dracaena, so it seems worth a try to experiment with a flowering plant too.