Category Archives: Garden

Anything from any garden.

Garden, July 10 2014

DSC03521 Garden, July 10.  No new plantings since last spring.  I got a garlic, newly growing from cloves I planted last spring.  I pulled it up because I thought it was a weedy piece of grass.

DSC03518 It looks like a small onion, but it smells like garlic.  We CAN grow garlic.

DSC03520 And plantains.  They need attention, but they grow really well here.

DSC03505 The little feathery seedlings are dill, which self-seeded from such seed bearing flowers (below).

DSC03517 The flowers are at the upper left, and the skimpy roots are at the lower right.  After they have gone to seed, dill dries up and is refreshed by the baby plants from its seeds.  A possible project would be to see where the dill from the seeds I saved could grow in our yard in different times and places.  Dill and plantains have completed the life cycle by dying back and propagating for future crops.  These are self sustaining.

Garlic could become self-sustaining.

DSC03510 Basil (right of center)is growing well here, but not a few feet away, where it could not sink its roots in.

DSC03509 Carrots are taking off now.DSC03511 Parsnips are growing well.

DSC03514 Kohrabi (light green in front) with a tomato plant behind it.

DSC03513 More tomatoes are visible among the plants in the upper left quadrant.  The newly planted tomatoes, which had sprouted in June among the front yard plants,  have all disappeared.  I wonder if snails eat young tomato plants.

DSC03512 Cabbage has not done too well here.  Here is a barely growing cabbage.

DSC03503 Lettuce grows, and I am going to see if I can get some seeds from these plants.  Some of it may have seeded itself.  The trouble with lettuce here, is that after snails become active, I am afraid they may pass on dangerous parasites that they leave on the lettuce leaves, unless I cook it.

 

 

 

Crepe Myrtle Flower Color Variation, June 28, 2014

Lavender crepe myrtle DSC03042 The crepe myrtle was lavender a few days ago.

Nearly white crepe myrtle DSC03204 Yesterday, it was quite white.  I thought it was because I had put all those cypress branches under, or the recent rain changed the pH, or diluted the minerals.    But the other cypress without any cypress branches also had whitish flowers.  An evening walk around showed that most of these Basham Party Pink crepe myrtles also had whitish flowers.   It was a sunny late afternoon.

DSC03220 Today the flower clusters had a decidedly more lavender color.

DSC03223 Closer examination showed that the flowers now had two colors in the same cluster, nearly white, and distinctly lavender.  Maybe the sun helped newly opening buds create a stronger color.

Online somebody said that they had a crepe myrtle which was one color on one side, and another color on the other side.

I have never seen this before.  Most likely it only happens when lavender producing conditions are marginal.

Organic Weed Killer Trial

DSC03213 The recipe for this safe weed killer is:

  • One gallon vinegar
  • two cups Epsom salts
  • 1/4 cup hand dish detergent

I mixed 3/4 of these up in a vinegar bottle with one quart missing, and placed some into my gardening spray bottle.  I relabeled the vinegar bottle WEED KILLER, and added the date.

DSC03217 I sprayed the weeds on part of the  sidewalk.  You can see where it is foamy, and reflective down to the end of the iris.  We’ll see how this goes.  I was threatening to rain, so I only treated a small part of the sidewalk.