BrownThumb's Blog

I concede... I CAN'T seed !
Mar 27, 2008 | 10:15 PM PST
Tags: seed , seedling , spring , oops , weed

I have always bought the $1 starter plants as I have a relatively small plot (16x8) and very little time, skill, or patience.

Eager to get started this year, but fearing one more March frost, I gazed longingly at the little peat cups and at the 4-sided Tower of Babel on a swivel. It was filled with seeds of every sort and so many packages! I am partial to edibles but couldn't resist a pack of echinacea (purple coneflowers) and some other perty, young, colorful things.

With high hopes, I decide to take the plunge. I even bought a bag of seeding dirt and a bag of compost - which I can never get into the cart without thinking of my dad back in Mississippi. I'd say, "I'm a real city slicker now, they just tricked me into paying real US dollars for a bag full of cow droppings!"

Having grown up pretty rural, that thought never ceases to amuse me. I can see ol' Cecil laughing out loud as he loads one more plastic bag with cow chips for the city slickers. Shaking his head, he knocks the dust from his seat and climbs back into a 1978 Chevy and heads across the fields for home-spun supper. But, I digress.

I filled each peat cup with a level of seeding dirt. Deciding to err on the side of BrownThumb-caution, I elected to place about 5 seeds per bin. Mind drifting, the thought of Easter eggs crossed my mind as the peat containers reminded me of my formative years dyeing Easter eggs with my Mom.

I made little tags to mark each section. "Let's see: 4 rows of cilantro, 2 Jalapeño, 2 of these new fangled gargantuan Jalapeños, one row of my experiment (broccoli), 1 row of eggplant and some bell peppers." Into each bin, I gingerly spread the seeds apart from each other, taking care to insert them to the exact depth called for on each package, checking each with an electronic seed-sensing caliper.
(OK, I made that last part up. You get one outrageous lie per blog entry from me - then I'm spent.)

I was nearly OCD in my attention to spacing, count, and marking. One more row... I reached for the scissors, nipped off the corner and shook out a few seeds. As I reached to place the last packet back on the table, the package caught the edge of the table. And that's when my over-active reflexes altered my planting season with both drama and flair.

Snatching frantically at the opened package of seeds, my right hand shot forward, catching the package in mid-air...

...and continued on to arc through every open pack of seeds that I had placed (intelligently) just above my seeding tray. Both hands became a frenzied blur sandwiching all the packets for a timely save.

" awHahw Hohhn!! Not zo fest my leetle frends!", I thought in my very best cheesy Three Musketeers-fake-French-accent.


Somewhere about mid-gloat I noticed that both jalapeno packages were upside down and gloriously raining seeds across 90% of my seed trays. They fell in slow motion, tumbling, catching sunlight on the way down like little tiny fire-laden jewels.

Well.

Dang.

Staring down at my assortment of what appeared to be some 200 seeds and more than a little disgusted with myself, I opted to bury them all and let God sort 'em out. Having wounded my pride and lost my patience, I walked to a 10 gallon pot with last season's weeds growing in it. I hacked the weeds lickety split and sowed the remaining seeds helter skelter with all the care that a hacked-off gardner can muster. I dumped a little cover soil on top and spun on my heel to leave. Harrrrrumph!

So now I have trays full of seeds - moistened up and placed to get just a little reflected sunlight. Before long, my terribly skilled efforts have produced many seedlings - most of which are jalapeno, I am sure. I got excited all over again, forgave my idiocy, and began to dote over my little seedlings. There's just something cool about going to seed!

That is, until they began to look a little sickly. So I tried to place them outside for a small dose of afternoon sunlight. This is apparently a bad thing. The next day, all of my 1 1/2 inch seedlings promptly fell over like tiny trees at Mount St Helens. Now, I am confused. This is a pattern I repeat in various forms over a couple of cycles and now I have NO seedlings successfully sprouted in my crazy little peat pot experiment.

Ironically, the helter skleter planting method in full sun has produced a pot full of healthy looking sproutlings. How amazing is that?! Yesterday, I think when I walked by the pot I heard a tiny chorus of voices yelling, "Maama, Mama!"
...which is kind of unsettling since I'm a guy.

If anyone can expound a little on the best methods of veggie seeding, I think we can all agree it is worth my time to study it.

Trowel on,
BrownThumb

It's all about Persephone, Pomegranate, and my Honey
Mar 25, 2008 | 4:36 PM PST

http://en.wikipedia.org/w
iki/Persephone#The_Abduction_M
yth

My wife goes bonkers for pomegranates! They are probably her favorite thing in the whole world, besides me. No actually, way more than me. Being her favorite fruit, I have a personal connection with this tree. I've grown to really like it. Sure enough, like Persephone, they bring back spring - at least for my yard.

I bought my first pomegranate 3 yrs ago. It was large enough to already be bearing fruit in the bucket. I paid as much as I could stand so that she could start enjoying the fruits that very first year.

Then the BrownThumb got off his duff and went to work! I transplanted the plant and it promptly dropped all the buds. The small pomegranites even quit growing. I harvested one pomegranate that October. Scratch one season.

Honey, please enjoy your $80 pomegranate. No really, really enjoy it. PLEASE!

For season 2, I was determined to get this plant on the grow. I mulched. I watered. I doted. I read it Greek mythology and the many versions of the story of Persephone (OK, I just made that up). My plant prospered! It grew and split and grew and split - nearly doubling in size. I could barely contain my excitement as the bearing time began to arrive. It came. It went... Nuthin. Scratch two seasons.

Like any reasonable man, after wandering around for 2+ years - obviously lost - I did what I had to do. I finally asked directions.

I called the nursery and chatted a bit. It turns out that pomegranates are MY kind of plant. Water infrequently, place in poor dirt, and pretty much leave them alone. (Though I insist on limiting to 5 main stalks and keeping the suckers nipped down.) By overwatering, I had invested a year in growth - not in bearing fruit. Worser things have happended to plants under my care.

To end the season, I snipped a root that got too far above ground and started a new plant from there - armed with my new knowledge!

Season three: I started with a fine looking pomegranate tree and scheduled my neglect. Let's see... "Week1 - no water, week 2 - no water... I can do this...". The new pommy fawn rooted and began to grow! Excellent, Smithers!

Alright, to make my already long story come to an end: Season 3 was an affirmation of my faith. I got 22 pomegranates of which 4 survived the storms, basketballs, yard ninjas, and neighborhood fruit theives. We're amortized down to $16 per pomegranate and looking forward to season 4. They *were* quite tasty.

Hope Springs Eternal!

Meet the BrownThumb
Mar 23, 2008 | 7:42 PM PST
Tags: compost , container gardens , Small space container gardens , pomegranate

Great to find this place. I lurked & learned as I was starting to compost this week. I'm not so much of a joiner/blogger/online denizen but I have to say this is the best online set of gardening information and community that I have run across in my last 3 yrs of experimenting and beginning to learn the craft.

You guys rock! I look forward to continuing the journey with such a skilled, interested, and interesting crowd.  I tend to get divided interests due to job and family (3 kids) - but I have maintained some sort of growing endeavour for the last few years.

I have far more dead plants to my credit than living success stories - Hence, the "brown thumb" moniker.

Claim to fame:  I once killed an artificial ficus. Hard? Yes, but I have a deep bag of tricks.  Beware aggressive dusting. Currently, I have one 4" cilantro batch that is regretting ever catching my eye. I'll post about it for consultation. 

Success Story: Pomegranates - blog you later.

I just got a massive compost heap moving thanks to the garden guide community. This is my first year seeding and boy, do I have A LOT to learn.

I am typing this as my back is screaming about weeding the 8x16 raised-bed veggie garden. I couldn't garden last yr, so I was forced to pay the piper by "sod-cutting" a VERY established weed bed out of my lucious dirt.

I'm excited to find this group and you will be hearing about my successes and learning opportunities this season. I look forward to learning from (and with) all of you.

Topics to watch:

• composting heap - not heated up yet
• garden in recovery
• lower back on strike
• seeds underway - no idea what I am doing
• 2" starter plants and tranplanted orange mint looking for a home
• 2 grape vines and a blueberry looking for the right time to go in the ground
• Containers vs garden bed due to sunlight restriction (trees encroaching)
• One brown thumber looking for redemption