Some flowers bloomed next to a gas station at which we stopped. There is another road on the other side of this piece of nature.
I Could Not Figure Out What This Was
These one inch wide nodules were present on some of what I thought were queen palm roots, which I encountered while I was digging up some of the southwest garden. I have been unable to find anything online to explain what they are. Are they bacteria harboring nodules to fix nitrogen? Sooner or later I will find out what they are.
Here are the queen palms, photographed in December 2013.
As you see, I dug around the queen palm bases in order to be able to plant the vegetables and flowers that I most recently planted, and in doing so, I disturbed the roots to some extent. this is how I found those roots with nodules.
Planting Nasturtiums
There were forty-five nasturtium seeds in this packet, which said to file each seed, so I did. One of the main reasons I wanted to plant nasturtiums was because they help to control certain garden pests. We are doing organic gardening. According to The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible, by Edward C. Smith, nasturtiums discourage squash bugs and whiteflies, so I planted some individual seed next to the freshly planted cucumbers and eggplant, near each of our three citrus trees, as well as next to carrots and cabbage in the main kitchen garden.
On the Burpee website, it said that nasturtiums have whiteflies as one of their several possible pests. I can speculate that there is no contradiction, but I will watch and see what happens here.
I had never paid so much attention to planting individual seeds as I did today with the nasturtium planting. I filed each seed, and soaked them in water for a couple of hours before planting each in its own, well-spaced little hole, the locations of which I only approximately know. I am hoping to be able to recognize them when they come up by way of them not looking like weeds, and by these approximate locations.