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Showing posts with the label gardening

Eggplant Challenge

  I am such a Nervous Nelly when it comes to planting "exotic" plants like this little hardy(?) eggplant.  10 seeds cost me $7.   When/if it actually germinates indoors, then, the following instructions:  "Using a clear plastic cloche or floating row cover (hoop bed????) will help growth by increasing warmth.  Cool Temps increase leafy growth but no fruit will set. Plastic mulch(????) placed over the  prepared and fertilized soil for a week before transplanting will increase the temperature and increase better fruit set. Grow like peppers BUT keep in mind that eggplants need even more warmth before transplanting (mid to late June.) If the plant is below 21°C (70°F) the fruit may not set "ARGHHH *West Coast Seeds: Untreated seeds for organic growing, non-GMO

Collecting and Saving Teeny Yellow Tomato Seeds

Today we have teeny yellow (and red) tomatoes coming out our yin-yan. I am joyful with such abundance during a year of drought, and grateful for the friends who passed the wonderful little yellow tomato starter plants on to us (when we had opted not to grow tomatoes this year after a couple of bleak harvests). These tomatoes were labeled "Tumblers".  My gardener-daughter-in-law was here earlier in the summer and exclaimed several times over how sweet and tasty the tiny yellow tomatoes were.. like candy.  Could she have some of the seed? Soooo.... I am saving seeds... and with a method that will work for any other tiny tomato (grape, cherry, etc.). HARVEST: For the best possible seed production, let your fruit ripen on the vine if at all possible (and you know that it happens quickly with these little tomatoes).   If you want to ripen the little guys you save from the first frost, they WILL ripen, but slowly, and in a cool, dry location. Seeds will always b

Make Your Own Seed Mats (for Tiny Seeds)

This year I am excited to be trying a new technique (or me) for carrot planting... I am going to make my own seeding mats ! Have you ever planted carrots and either been overwhelmed by all the seeds that burst through in one spot, making it difficult to thin them without pulling up too many, or just feeling how wasteful it is to be aborting all those potential wonderful carrots? PLANTING CARROT SEEDS IS THE HARDEST PART OF GROWING CARROTS Carrot seeds are teeny-tiny.  It is difficult to see them when you plant and because they are so light you will sometimes find them flying about willy-nilly.  Here are some methods you can use to lessen these frustrations: Buy " pelleted seeds "-- these are various tiny seeds with a clay coating that make them easier to see and work with.  The coating needs to be kept moist during the planting process and eventually falls away.  They are fairly pricey ($6+ for 100 seeds).  Order HERE . Buy Seed Mats or strips.  T

Putting the Bokashi and Worm Compost Equipment Together

--> As I mentioned in my last post, I am putting together composting equipment for this winter -- a set of bokashi pails for the kitchen and a worm composting (aka vermi-culture) bin for the side room off the kitchen. Bokashi involves culturing kitchen scraps with a sort of probiotic that one sprinkles on the waste each time it is put in the pail. It is an anaerobic method of composting (meaning there is no air involved-- more like making traditional sauerkraut) and I intend to take the probiotic scraps and bury them in an 18" deep trench in my backyard and cover the probiotic with soil.  In 2-10 weeks (depending where you live), the bokashi will be unrecognizable as kitchen scraps.  It will even digest meat, bone, and avocado pits.  I have been reassured that there is no nasty odor involved in making bokashi. The kit for making my bokashi includes 3 5-gallon pails and 2 tight fitting lids for the pails.  Today I drilled 3 small holes dead center in the bottom of 2

Organic Harvest Score Card 2010

Friend Generous Mike's lush organic kale crop This year our older grand- daughter started kinder- garten. After her first day in the system (an hour in a Montes- sori classroom) she announced, "Kinder- garten is fine, Lola. I made lots and lots of friends". And I watch other kids returning to school in their new duds or new post-summer identities, all looking hopeful, with their new backpacks slung over their shoulders. All this hopefulness and optimism for the coming year reminds me of my gardening persona in about May. Any May. I have sprouted new plants, tilled and amended new garden patches, read new advice in books and online. By mid-July (any mid-July) I have pretty much slacked off on the daily 10-minute check for weeds, the necessary watering, the pruning of roses, the pinching off of bolted Cilantro, etc. We travel here and there doing fun summer things. I spend a lot of time on the Internet doing fun writing projects (or just maintaining my su