Category: Planting

Front Porch Preparation

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Container asparagus

Today, I finally transplanted the asparagus. It was very root-bound and definitely ready for a larger pot. I planted it in three large grow bags and sowed Zinnias (small mixed, and Giants of California mix) and cosmos (Rubinato and Sensation mix). I also planted one Dahlia tuber each (Top Mix Purple) into two medium pots and surrounded those with Nasturtium (Alaska mixed). Those five containers will go on my front porch, which I plan to revive this year. I put them on plant caddies with casters for easy moving and to prevent the floor boards from being water-logged.

Nicely germinated a few days later (May 27)

Mid-May Back Porch

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African daisy, mint, ginger (from the supermarket, I am very excited about this experiment) and lavender

Nice and sunny and warm today. I took an afternoon break to transplant some Salanova lettuce (4 tiny heads) from their peat cells into their own bigger pot. I planted the Thai pepper (from Neighborhood Farm because my seedlings strangely never set true leaves) with the radishes, and two basil cells (5 to 6 stems each) plus leaf lettuce mix in the large pot with the flat parsley. I also planted two Topmix dwarf dahlias (one purple, one salmon) in the pot with the fading tulips and sowed small mixed Zinnias and Alaska nasturtium in the same pot.

“Little Beauty” tulips on April 28
Current herb situation: parsley, cilantro, rosemary, chives and thyme.
Radishes, spinach and Thai pepper
Salad mix, transplanted from the tiniest seedlings on April 19th
Hardening off tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, Thai basil and flowers (night temperatures are now consistently above 50F). The spikes are to deter the birds from digging in the soil 🙂
Hardening off basil, Swiss chard, kale, marigolds, Zinnias; and for the community garden in the cardboard tray to the right: native perennials from City Natives (New York Aster, Goldenrod, Coreopsis, Black-Eyed Susan, Bluestar) plus fat-spike lavender and thyme from Neighborhood Farm

Re-Potting Zinnias and Kale

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Today, I repotted the Zinnias I started on April 19, and the kale. I had sown a handful of Zinnia seeds (three different varieties, Queen Lime Red, Queen Lime Blush, and Giants of California) into three different pots and today just isolated them into separate cells.

Zinnias before …
… and after
Most of my seedlings. Still to come: cucumbers and squash.

Re-Potting

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Today, I re-potted my tomatoes and the Swiss chard. I have 16 tomato plants total (two each of eight different varieties) and eight cells of rainbow chard, two seedlings each. In other news, my supermarket ginger in the blue-green pot (in the back of the picture) is finally waking up. You can see the big long shoot. And there is another one. I am sooo excited! The Zinnias I sowed three days ago are starting to sprout. And the sun is shining. Spring!

Yesterday, I cleaned my back porch, rearranged furniture and planted some herbs (parsley, chives and cilantro) and flowers (osteospermum and violas) to get the porch ready for spring. The intermediate state before full-time summer use.

Viola “Tiger Eye”

First Fails of the Season

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It’s not even April and I already recorded the first fail of the season. All my eggplant and hot pepper seedlings stalled after germination and never set true leaves. The only explanation I have is that I kept them on the heat mat for a few days after germination. Perhaps that was just too hot for the seedlings. I now will have to buy Thai pepper and Asian eggplant seedlings as it is too late to start new plants from seed.

New Seeds

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All my new seeds

All my newly ordered seeds for this season have arrived. I am all set for the season. Indoors, I already started leeks, kale, eggplant and hot peppers, and will start more eggplant (Pingtung) today.

Baker Creek has the prettiest seed packets hands down
My three favorite seed sources in order – Sand Hill Preservation Center, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Johnny’s Selected Seeds

Company

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The leeks got company about a week ago, when I started my kale (ten plants). I only recently realized that I have a dwarf variety. I was wondering last year why the plants stayed so short and thought it was my soil. Turns out Blue Curled Scotch is a cold-hardy, “compact” variety that only grows up to a foot or foot-and-a-half tall. Today, I will be starting Hot Thai peppers and eggplant (Diamond), four seedlings each for now.