Mikhailah's Blog
Mikhailah's posts about: sage
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 23, 2007 | 6:02 AM PST
Tags: sweet basil , beetroot , cauliflower , coconut tree , sage , pole beans
On doing my usual daily rounds of weeding, feeding or watering I found a baby bean still on the vine, it's maybe 2-3 inches long and very skinny but still a pollinated bean nevertheless!
I'm not sure if it's one of the one's I tried to hand-pollinate or it did it of it's own accord, boy do I hope so, the prospect of having to pollinate beans (of all things!) by hand seems really daunting, to say the least. I guess later down in the week I'll know.
The eggplants are flowering now, despite being rained on by giant coconut tree leaves (fronds). It's a good job their kind of flexible and give way so easily. They have really beautiful pale purple flowers, I LOVE purple flowers. So much that I've been gathering picture of them (and white, cream and yellow flowers) in an album so I can dream and plan which one's would grow well in the climate I live in.
I pulled up my sweet basil out of the herb garden, way too invasive. I also cut back my sage, I then found it had something yukky growing on it, looked like dry cottage cheese with orangey-red tiny egg-looking mush inside. Cleaned that up, not sure what on earth it was. I need to keep an eye that it doesn't come back. I pulled up my dill also, it was looking spent and sorry for itself. I will be planting coriander in it's place.
I lost a lot of the baby beetroot plants I planted out, I'll wait till what remains are bigger/stronger and replant them more together to save some space. The sun was a bit too much for them.
My lone cauliflower is forming curds now. I loosely tied some of it's leaves around it to shade it from the hot sun. Hoping to get a less 'yellowly' head when it's ready to harvest. This is the first time I've tried this, hope it works.
I heard about some place I can get miniature fruit trees from in St. Andrew. Apparently these trees will bear in the first year and the fruit is sweet and delicious, the price (around $4 each) is pretty good too! So I'll be looking into that. I like the idea of 'miniature', that way I can easily net them to prevent the monkeys chomping on them.
Once the basement apartment is completed we'll be leveling out the rest of the back garden, then (if all goes as planned) I plan on having a deck with some lounge chairs, a bbq pit, shading, plus some bermuda grass and huge pots for the fruit trees and some medium sized pots for my flowers. Sounds like a plan!
My six cucumbers are coming along nicely, (she said tentatively!). some of them have tendrils, they haven't flopped down and begun crawling yet, I can see flower buds forming too. After so many disasters maybe April is a good time to grow cucubits in my garden.
