Mikhailah's Blog
Mikhailah's posts about: Sunflowers
May 15, 2007 | 12:59 PM PST
Tags: english peas , pumpkin , cauliflowers , cukes , monkeys , sunflowers , gladioli , lettuce , purple basil
Two varieties of my english peas are showing thru now. The ones I got from Canada are still sleeping I think. Maybe I'll plant the more of the others in their place if they don't show.
I have one pumpkin seedling right now. The first true leaf is a bit speckly. Hoping that is not PM!
I harvested the remaining cauliflowers including the tiny one. Having them with dinner tonight.
Cukes were growing fast, and some got eaten by some ravenous monkeys. So I made a scarecrow, or scaremonkey. My youngest named it Margaret Scaremonkey. She has a big straw hat with sunflowers around the rim. I'll take pictures once she is mounted. I have to change her location every now and then.
The sixth gladioli in the pot came up... with two shoots instead of one. Though one did look kind of weird and misshapen it seems to have straightened up now. I seem to be more successful growing bulb/corm flowers than those from seed. I hope I haven't spoken too soon!
I bought some more seedlings. My lettuce I sowed didn't show so I bought some more 'salad bowl' , the reddish oakleaf variety seedlings. I also bought some Purple Basil. Since the Sweet Basil seeds I sowed before haven't showed up either. I'm just waiting for them to take off, go nuts, then, as usual, I'll pull them up. Or maybe this time I'll prune them back and keep them under control!
The lettuce I let run to seed was pulled up last evening. I collected a lot of seeds from them. That wasn't too difficult.
Will be harvesting a couple of cabbage this evening. My husband thinks they need to come up. He's probably right, they're so heavy they are actually leaning over.
Something has been eating my eggplant, something quite large! I'm hoping the lizards have eaten it, whatever it was.
Most of the corn has come up, I may have to fill in a few gaps this evening.
O, yes... one of my hot peppers have turned completely red, the one in the herb bed.
May 9, 2007 | 6:52 AM PST
Tags: bush beans , flowers , sunflowers , english lavender , cucumbers , shakespeare , sonnets , ants , scotch bonnet
Well, just about all of my bush beans are up now. There's always something very satisfying about growing a simple bush bean, of the few things guaranteed in life, bush beans are one of them. I wish I could say the same for growing flowers!
I'm a bit puzzled as to what to do with my flower seedlings. Not sure whether to put them in bigger cells or what. They are still indoors and not doing much of anything. Can't you tell I've never grown flowers before, ever!
Only one of the sunflowers I sowed has surfaced, and it's not looking that great. The seeds were bought (two packs) in the UK. This particular pack has a really low yeild. I may try the other pack and see if it fares any better. Or maybe sunflowers take forever to germinate in general. I'm not sure.
My english lavender is struggling a bit. Some of them have browned and are almost dead. I'm thinking it may have been the fertilizer burning them or something.
I had to pull up another sickly looking cuke. So now I'm down to four. Well at least they look healthy and are fruiting nicely.
I saw a hummingbird hopefully pollinating one of my Scarlett Emperor beans, yes, I'm still hopeful. Even though another hummingbird came and chased it off before it could do much. Apparently there's a problem with honeybees in other parts of the world too. I rarely ever see any here anymore.
One 'Golden Sunrise' and two 'Red Pear' tomato seedlings are now up. It will be quite a while before they get planted out, looking quite frail and a bit leggy right now.
None of my english peas have germinated yet. I know they are generally slower, I hope they make it!
On my to do list is getting rid of an army of black ants that have taken up residence on one of my older sweet pepper plants, I tried blasting them off but they're pretty resilient. Lemon juice carefully applied might help. They're coming from next door's garden.
The chives in the herb bed got 'shaved' on sunday, I sent our youngest out, he did a pretty good job. They're around a couple inches tall now.
I was looking at some scotch bonnet pepper pictures online last night, I read that they are small and grow to 2-4cm, I was wondering why one of my sons asked 'why are your peppers so big?' . They are quite big compared to the size they're supposed to be. I'm not sure what's going on there?! I planted them right next to my sweet peppers, I'm not sure if that factors into their size though? All of them are still pale green, they're supposed to change to various shades of orange and red. Looking forward to that.
Mmm, this seems to fit in here somehow, my favourite of his sonnets.....
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
and trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
and look upon myself, and curse my fate,
wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
with what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
haply I think on thee, and then my state,
like to the lark at break of day arising from sullen earth,
sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
that then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Shakespeare- Sonnet #XXIX
Apr 30, 2007 | 10:21 AM PST
Tags: lobelia , sunflowers , gladiolus , flowers , cauliflower , chives
I haven't been in the garden since early saturday, sometimes I like to have time away, that way I really notice changes that have happened. I'll be out there this evening, just before the sun sets to check on things. We may be having one of those cauli's with dinner tonight. Will be cutting back the unruly chives in the herb bed and adding that to some mashed potatoes, throw in some fried fish and we have dinner!
My flower seedlings are coming along nicely. the Lobelia seeds have all come up, they're so TINY! I'm not sure how I'm going to separate/space them. Sunflowers had to be started again, I had checked thru in the soil to see if any were germinating, only one seemed to be, kept that one and threw out the rest as the cardboard (toilet rolls cut in half!) had been placed too close together and had begun to go mouldy. So I should see at least one pushing thru in the next couple days.
I potted up my gladiolus' (april 28th) in a couple of large pots, they're on the patio for the moment.
I NEED MORE GARDEN SPACE! Now that I'm getting into flower growing. Hopefully I should get two 3x15 ft beds in the front for all my flowers. Will have to pave over the rest for parking space.
Apr 27, 2007 | 10:25 AM PST
Tags: flat leaf parsley , fennel , dill , mint , thyme , sage , Zinnia , mangoes , Balsam , Alyssum , sunflowers , hot pepper , sweet pepper , Coconut , Eggplant , Cucumber , beans , lavender , beetroot , Lobelia
I went to a slightly bigger garden centre yesterday, I was actually taking our youngest son to the barbers, left him with his dad and wandered off.
I bought some more plants for my herb garden: some flat leaf parsley (I've never been able to grow it from seed) and some fennel; not sure what I'll do with the fennel regarding cooking with it, it really does look a lot like the dill I just recently pulled up.
I planted out the mint in its pot, too. (thyme at the back, flat leaf parsley in the middle and the mint in the foreground)
I bought some Gladiolus - Blue Isle bulbs. I'm hoping I can simply pot these up and they will grow, any advice on growing these would be most welcome. They're not as bluey-purple as I would like them to be but, I guess, beggars can't be choosers.
Some of my seeds I sowed on Tuesday came up, (they came up yesterday actually!) it took only 2 days for them to show. The tall 'leggy' ones are the Zinnia and the tiny ones behind them are the Alyssum. One of the Balsam are coming up too. The covered seeds you can see are the Lobelia, really small seeds that have to be sown on the top with no covering, the plastic keeps them moist. I'm keeping them all inside for now, they dry out less quickly that way. The sunflowers haven't shown yet, the seeds are not as reliable so I decided to start them off first and then plant out the one's that show up. The variety is, I think, Giant Single, it has grown to over five feet in the past, with a huge, monsterous head that became so heavy it bowed down.
A bit windy and blustery today, raining on and off, the wind won't let it rain continuously. Lots of leaves blowing off the mango tree next door. I'm hoping the coconut tree won't drop anything today!
Young mangoes on the tree.
The cukes have male flowers that have dropped off, and also some female baby cukes. I'm pleased to see that the flowers are a good size, I never had flowers that big before on a cucumber. They're growing and developing really quickly. I'm still not sure why these are doing so well.
Cuke flowering.
Nice healthy leaves.
Some of the baby beets are taking off now, a lot stronger now, I'll give them another week or so before I move them nearer together to save some space.
Baby beets.
The lavender is taking its time growing, I have some in the sun and some in the semi (mango-tree-that-isn't-even-
mine-hogging-the-sun) shade. May move all into the sun.
I sprinkled salt on the gravel pathways again, I may have to try some vinegar too, to stop the weeds from growing. Trying hard not to use chemicals.
I saw some really pretty ideas at the garden centre for using up small cacti. They were in a shallow bowl terracotta pot, the arrangements were really attractive.
I may have to pull up the Polestar beans, they don't look good at all and are beginning to yellow. The Scarlett Emperor's are not fruiting at all! The 'baby bean' I had found is kinda shrivelled a bit. I'm hoping, in the future, that the potted flowers I'm growing will attract more bees and hummingbirds to my garden and maybe I'll have some success with pollination.
Sickly looking Polestar bean.
Here's some more pictures of various veggies..
Cabbage and cumber getting along nicely with each other.
Mature beets.
Really messy, long chives, not sure how to make these neater!?
Sweet pepper.
Cauliflower.
Shy flowering eggplant (wouldn't look at the camera!)
Nice healthy cabbage, growing bigger by the minute.
Monster sweet pepper...tree? In its 2nd 'season'.
Scotch Bonnet, hot pepper, still green.
Apr 24, 2007 | 10:13 AM PST
Tags: peppermint , flat leaf parsley , Lobelia , Zinnia , Balsam , Alyssum , Sunflowers , cabbage , cauliflower , eggplant , scarlett emperor , polestar , onion , chives
I went to a small garden centre yesterday looking for parsley seedlings, ended up buying some peppermint instead. After reading up on mint in general I found that I need to restrict the roots to stop in from taking over the whole bed. So I have potted one plant and will be sinking it into the herb garden.
Not sure what to do with the rest, would like to put them out in the veggie garden out back. Will have to get some plumbing tubing and plant them in that. I would love to get my hands on some chocolate mint seeds.
The question is: is this really a peppermint? I looked at pictures online and the peppermint I saw didn't look like this. I also read somewhere that it should have purplish leaves? Maybe it will change as it matures?
I finally sowed some flower seeds today.... Lobelia, Alyssum, Zinnia, Balsam and 9 Sunflowers - in trays. See picture above.
I checked my baby bean yesterday, it hadn't grown any and I didn't see any more growing either. I think I'll just let it get on with it by itself. The polestar variety over on the other side is not doing too well, not very green and growing/flowering very slowly.
Cukes are still doing well, never had leaves this big before, gotta watch out for bugs all the time.
My cabbages are doing really great, I wish I'd planted more, I'm thinking to get more seedlings, you can never have too much cabbages, it's a pity they take up so much space though.
What else?.... oh yes, I'm getting a lot of sweet and hot peppers flowering and fruiting now, amazing how quickly a pepper grows, I'm giving them lots of water in the evening and they're producing well, compared to previous years.
My oak leaf lettuces that I let run to seed are now flowering, pretty little yellow flowers, hoping it will be straightforward to get the seeds from it.
I think this blog is becoming a 'note to self' . I'm hoping that I can organize my garden by looking back on this gardening diary and make good choices regarding when, where and what to plant and how I have dealt with problems when they have arisen. Sounds good in theory...!
I bought some strawberry seeds from the UK, still trying to figure out what to do with them, so much is against this project being successful, and I only have 13 seeds! (I was given some hope when I heard that they have been grown in the Blue Mountains in Jamaica! )
Another seemingly impossible project is getting rhubarb from seeds to grow here in the caribbean. Those of you in 4 season climates must think I'm nuts!? It can't hurt to try I guess.
