RKayne's Blog
i dig my own holes
Last Post 56 days, 18 hours Ago
Mar 19, 2008 | 11:57 AM PST
But guess ya'll will see me hitting the container gardening a lot more soon. *sigh* I gave away the baby self supporting, stringless sugar snap peas I had sown in a winter box a few weeks back this morning...to someone who will be in one location and able to harvest them.
I am going to miss having fresh peas and lettuces and spinach (don't know who will get to enjoy them). Nothing like putting a lot of work into something and finding out it is for naught. That being on MORE than one level. I will be the balcony gardener for awhile, but maybe get at least two tomatoes going as it will still be early enough in the season for me to get some going?
I do have to have a balcony, my bonsai must stay outside so that is a given...wish me luck on the hunt, morn the lost garden for me. A bit o good will never hurt anyone...
Mar 19, 2008 | 11:47 AM PST
Tag: Tree Aloe
So, I have a friend and they had this huge succulent (that I should post in ID) that was a bit sad. Perhaps I should have taken a pic of it before I 'helped' it out. I gave it a nice trim....I gave it a nice shower....and here it is! My new plant thingy!
Feb 11, 2008 | 3:12 PM PST
Tags: Walla Walla Sweet Onions , Parsley , butterleaf lettuce , greenleaf lettuce , rosemary , Smooth Leafed Olympic Spinach
Allright! Got some pictures finally so you can see why we had so much fun, haha! This was last year, start to *halfway* finished. Go Here.
So, anyways, my post last year about why we stopped halfway, Here.
Well, now we have claimed the full space. That blackberry got a bit too happy were it was, guess I should have taken a pic, it had grown halfway up the space!
SO, now we have THIS space!
See the happy happy Parsley? All that soil..begging for plants!
There was a surprise, you can kinda see it down there. There was so much overgrowth under that blackberry that I had no clue it was there....
A rosemary bush. A very tough one who just now sees the light of day....
That was a serious chore that I felt, for sure :D
Here is a nice shot of G's garlic, he had some flower bulbs coming up (I *thought* I had gotten all those tulips out!) so he learned the difference between the garlic and them fast! As I know garlic really does not like to be transplanted I showed him how to take it ALL up, get out his garlic and then replant the garlic by digging the hole REALLY deep and dangling the roots down while filling the dirt around them. Fast learner, he is.
So, we proceeded to plant the entire area. In his garlic area he planted Early Radishes and towards the end he planted Spinach, then some Walla Walla sweet onions.
On my side I put in a *tad* bit of spinach, some more onions, some butterleaf lettuce and greenleaf lettuce. It's time...time to grow!
Feb 10, 2008 | 4:24 PM PST
Tags: Brandywine , Cherry Tomato , compost , butterleaf lettuce , green leaf lettuce , Walla Walla Sweet Onions , Smooth Leafed Olympic Spinach , Radishes , Garlic , Black Prince , Cold Frame
So, I talked to G today about how we really couldn't do much until we treated the dirt at the end to make it soil. He totally got it but was a bit put out as we really wanted to put the Walla Walla sweet onions in today...so, I came inside and got Carry to take me to the local Home Depot and we got some 'emergency cow poop', came home and I dumped about a bag and a half between the two spaces.
At this very moment I am reading a book called 'Cubed Foot Gardening' by Christopher O. Bird. Well, I really like what he has to say. So, we are doing an intensive seasonal rotation garden. Going through it I decided to ignore the packets suggestions (I know! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING???) Either way, I looked through our last frost, possible first frost...and found that for some reason (Ring of fire? Could it be the volcanoes? Hmmm...maybe ;) ) that our growing season is actually LONGER then where I grew up in NC! Maybe a month or so longer! Wow.
So, we planted! We planted the Walla Walla's that we were going to anyways, but they also planted the smooth leafed Olympic spinach according to the 'cubed ft design. Spinach is kinda tall so it gets the north side of the garden all over! Then we put the onions in front of the spinach to fill the area on the north side. On the south side I planted all the lettuces and some onions. I put the butterleaf and greenleaf through my newly opened area and then in his 'garlic rectangle' G put early radishes. So, assuming things work the way I have been reading, both online and in the book, and from what I saw last year....we should have solid green in about a month! wOOt!
Next week? Cold Frames based out of the containers that our greens come in.
We shall plant the tomatoes, we have Brandywine and my cross breed black prince/brandywines from last year, and some cherry sweets for G cuz that boy can GO through some maters!!! our deal, on his side he can eat all of them he wants, on ours, ASK! LOL!
Honestly....pics...
soon. I took some but the batteries need to charge up a bit, had to chare them a tad to take pics. Damn we need a new camera, haha.
Feb 10, 2008 | 9:20 AM PST
Tags: blackberry , rosemary , sage , thyme , parsley , coffee grounds , preparing soil , yellowjackets
Last year, when we moved it, I started reclaiming the section of 'gardening space' next to the house. These were fallow sections, with an odd assortment of flower bulbs that were in weird places and a lot of grass. I could barely see the walkway between the two raised beds. Granted, this is a rental house but how could I possibly NOT use them? Well, after the work the youngest and I did yesterday, guess we will have to stay another year, lol.
So, at the end of these beds was a HUGE nasty, mean and thoroughly entrenched blackberry, one of the sorts that makes you understand why they are the bane of the PNW. I figured, go ahead and clear what I could and then cut it back, at the very least. No way, there *is* also a nest of yellowjackets, who knows how long they have been there!
Being the organic gardener I am, and having turned rather a bit of the soil already and seeing all the 'wonderful' (note sarcasm) grubs that were here and there...I had an odd idea. I left the yellowjackets alone! They eat grubs so we had an understanding, I leave you alone, you leave me alone :D That worked out great, I think there was only one time I went around the corner and thought, hey...not today...not going in there! Otherwise, we were out there all the time so it balanced well and I didn't have to go through the trouble of wiping out an entire colony, haha. I know...yellowjackets, and ground ones at that, the kind that if it stung my Mom, she would be dead...but still, didn't want to kill them, especially since they were such a help in the end.
I know they are still there, but they are hibernating so we went ahead and did the clearing. I really don't know exactly were they are, I am not sure they are actually in the garden itself but maybe in some bushes that are very thick at the end, which is actually the top of a rockery beside our very steep and very narrow (pretty much the Seattle norm) driveway. Guess we will find out when it warms up! I really need to take pics, still have one somewhere I can dig up to show where I stopped digging last year. This year our youngest has the gardening bug so he gets to claim he helped a LOT.
So, cutting that blackberry, I started cutting sections and tossing them back to G to put in the yard waste...and cutting...and cutting. The grass was long enough that when it died out for winter there were a couple sections that I just pulled it up with NO weeds below. Of course where there were weeds they were seriously there, and then the bulb thing. Shouldn't you have a rhyme or reason to placement? No...whoever had put these in thought :D
The best thing was, in the corner I *think* the yellowjackets might be, under that blackberry from Hades...was a 2-3 foot tall Rosemary. Healthy, happy...and I had a chicken in the fridge so I sent G out to get some rosemary. He knew which one was the thyme as I had pointed it out between the silver and purple sage, and a handful of parsley and let him stuff them all into the chicken. So, lot of work, but immediate benefits. I will try to get some pics later, it has been raining pretty much ever since we were out there (started sprinkling while we still were but the little trooper has to have that gardening bug, he stuck it out, refused to leave until he was done turning the coffee grounds in!).
Feb 10, 2008 | 12:34 AM PST
We beat the rain, C suggested (pointed out) that it was NOT raining for a sec, so we dashed out, got all the diggy tools, and reclaimed about 25-30 sq ft of gardening space...too tired right now to go into HOW it was to be that it was not claimed last year, will do so tomorrow. Maybe take a pic or two, show off the disgustingly happy parsley and garlic...lol. Let us say there was a lot of coffee involved, well, grounds, worked into the soil....
Jan 21, 2008 | 1:42 PM PST
The Max is back, he is as bad 'normal' as he was before the broken hip...to all who are involved, Max loves ya ;)
Jan 21, 2008 | 10:35 AM PST
Tag: exotic plants
Thanks to garden98011's tip, we happened to be south of Seattle this last weekend and stopped by Jungle Fever Exotics. He doesn't have a web presence, no website...not even his own computer! So, looking around, I saw what a wonderful place this must be, granted it is January but all of us gardeners know potential! He gave me permission to take some pictures so I will share those....I got a card, the address is 5050 N. Pearl, Tacoma, WA 98407 and phone 253-759-1669. The selection, now, in Winter was amazing! There were rather a few things that I am going back for, I can't even begin to name all the goodies, all I can say is if you are in the neighborhood, stop in. Keep in mind, this is ALL outside, right now.
Jan 17, 2008 | 9:40 PM PST
Tags: spinach , slow bolting
WOO HOO! Time to plant spinach, been pretty well staying around 40 during the day and got a pack of slow bolting spinach. Going to keep an eye on the weather and if it cooperates there will be spinach soon!
Jan 17, 2008 | 1:01 PM PST
Tag: poinsettia
Our landlady brought us a huge, beautiful...overgrown and rootbound poinsettia right before Christmas. So it sat, and I looked at it for a few days. In my office building wholesale slaughter was occurring. The plant people brought in tremendous amounts of poinsettias and placed them all up and down all the halls. This is a 15 story building, mind you. After they started suffering, they THREW THEM AWAY and placed NEW ones there. They would not allow anyone to take the 'refuse' as they have to account for each and every one. That killed me. I thought about that as I looked at this beastie whom I have never had, nor tried to keep. I am a sucker for things with leaves (ok...and fur...and claws...that go 'Meow') so I just couldn't do anything BUT decide to actually keep it. I took it outside, I had a big square pot that was going to eventually be a banana pot but the banana has rather a bit of growing to do before it is ready for a pot this size anyways, haha. Then I find out it has a 'cage' of sorts to keep it upright (are these even MEANT to be kept alive???) and to get it out of this there was going to be some loss. Several of the branches did break off, but not too bad. The roots? There was NO way to break them up, it will take awhile but I hope it just 'gets over it'. I cut a bit but that was all I could do. Bring it in, it seemed happy, still does. Our GOOD cat, purl, flipped for some reason one night and went racing across the room and FLEW through the air and broke another one off, haha, but it is ok even still! I have decided this plant will live. We shall see :D Otherwise, I got a nice big pot for something else ;)
Jan 17, 2008 | 12:49 PM PST
Tags: Nigerian Coffee , coffee watering , Mini Rose , banana , Orange Tree , Cuban Oregano , Dragon Fruit Trees
Why do they call it a tree if it actually is more of a vine? Good question but they sure do taste good as well as seem to grow good too, haha. They just popped up, and were doing their thing and stopped so I figure, ok, maybe it is just cold...perhaps they just start fast and grow slow? So there they sat, with the cute little 'baby' leaves (what sis the term for those???) and doing....well...pretty much nothing but taking up windowsill space! So...I started watering them with cold black coffee. That is ALL. No water. Nope. Just my old, cold coffee.
They went NUTS. In the past two weeks they decided to grow, lol, so that is what they get. Coffee.
On another note, the cuttings in the green glass are Cuban Oregano. The only ones I have as, for some reason, the parent plant just died. Who knows? Que Sera, Sera. My motto? If it grows, great, if not, plant something else there! I figure it this way, they are very healthy and rooting nicely, seem to be content to stay in the water (maybe I should give one some room...set it the top of a flared vase and see what happens?) so I have no great rush nor need to plant them as of yet. Thinking I am going to wait till it gets warm enough outside for them. The one in the shot glass is a piece of my orange tree, I will put a pic below as it is the one I am making bonsai. It shot that piece UP right in the center and that is not an allowable thing, in my book, so I cut it off :D There I was, standing, looking at this nice...green growth. Yard waste? Why not give it a chance. We shall see what happens!
Ah, heck with a pic, here is the orange tree :D ORANGE TREE TRAINING
So, the citrus and banana are in a winter tank. I like to give them a nice, full spectrum bulb and everyone is very happy so far.
I know it shows the banana and mini rose outside of the tank, but I have shuffled them in now.
So, that is that for now.
Jan 17, 2008 | 10:56 AM PST
Tags: triple curled parsley , compost , companion planting , tomatoes , kohlrabi , Walla Walla Onions , cold frame , garlic
We are in zone 7B here. Almost time to gear up! I have a couple of the large boxes that salad comes in so am going to introduce our youngest to cold framing. He is going to grow Kohlrabi this year so it looks like, the best bet, would be to go ahead and cold frame the starts at the end of this month, beginning of next as our last frost SHOULD be about March 24th.
The other item he is going to grow is Walla Walla sweet onions. He got the area ready and composted in Fall so they will have he perfect setting and I plan to place them randomly as they also lend to being a pest deterrant.
I need to get a new pic of my Parsley, you can't see it between the last of the tomatoes there but it has gone plumb crazy with the nice cold weather, beautiful tufts of green-ness, like giant green snowballs (the pastry...if you can call them that, haha). I had put it in for two reasons, one, I love fresh parsley, but more so for the fact that parsley and tomatoes are companion plants. I had the added benefit of having something nice and green through these winter months on my side.
Interestingly enough, the garlic (this hedges his space, sides and back, random side and back on my side) decided to come up with our warm snap. Nature came to her sense and was all over the being winter again these past few days and the garlic does not seem to care so maybe it will just keep going. G there is excited as this is the first results he is seeing for all his hard work, he went out the other day 'just to look at the garlic'. Hard to teach an 8 year old patience but he has been pretty good at it (or he just kinda forgot for a bit, hehe).
Nov 8, 2007 | 3:04 PM PST
Tags: Tomatoes , basil , oregano , sage , thyme , dahlia , hydrangea , radish seed , alpine strawberries , yellow rose , bees , Parsley , cotoneaster , Japanese Elm , Japanese Maples , bonsai , Storm
So we had an amazing wind storm not that long ago. We even cleaned up the yard and battened down the hatches, so to speak. Got all the potted stuff down in a protected spot (will be the winter spot too!) and all the furniture and our bikes nice and tidy and close...
Max is a dumb cat, I love him so but he is CRAZY. The wind started blowing HARD but it was not raining yet so I decided to give him some outside time. Nut job goes running around with the WILD KAT look in his eyes. You know the drill...run run run...mad dash...STOP! look around madly with flashing eyes.
He does not have that collar anymore, little jerk keeps losing them. This time was the worst as it had his license and a name tag. Jerk.
Then he did this and I was thinking 'Ain't he cute!'. As you can see all the brown in him, he snuck in as a regular cat and once he was established he is letting the Maine Coon out.
Then he FLEW over to one of the cedars and ran on the roof. Not happy. Wasn't happy a bit. He had no clue how windy it was, and how fast he could fly off! So I ended up standing in the raised bed while he teased me by coming to the edge when I was whistling and calling and finally came down so I promptly tossed him inside! Jerk. Cute, fuzzy, lovable jerk. My wife calls this shot 'fluffy butt'.
So, on to the destruction,
The dahlia. It took one hell of a beating...
My tomatoes, oh dear, my poor Black Prince...
The radishes I let bolt? So close to get my seed? Not a chance in hell. The wind snapped every single one of them and it was going so well. They would have had SO much seed. Damn. I had a fit and went ahead and cleared them out. They are now mulch. See all those seed heads? I don't even want to look.
So, upset as I was, daunted by the greenery that needs to be cut, tossed...all of the above, I started looking around. I have pretty much missed the nice fall foliage that so many are harping on as our nicely colored leaves have been passing us at about 90 MPH. I looked at my Bonsai and had to take another glance (and pictures!) as they are most gorgeous! Here is one where I took two different breeds and literally wrapped the Female around the Male to create a piece I call 'co-dependence'. hehe. Her color is amazing! He has just started to change a bit.
And one of my favorites, these are all about 4-5 yrs old. Such a nice yellow! Guess we have to keep our trees behind a wall in order to be able to see the colors!
The Japanese Elm has lost most of its leaves so gets to show off it's corkscrew nicely!
And the Cotoneaster is showing off it's berries, the wind took off a lot of them but it still has a few ;)
Then I notice the thyme and sages, how happy they are...it has finally cooled down enough for them.
And yes, I will get in there and weed them!
My herb pot looked a little unhappy, then I looked closer and changed my mind when I saw the flowers :D
The Parsley is happy finally, it does NOT like it hot-hot-hot, haha!
I come out of the garden area and see this, a cool little volunteer. One of the great things about a rental is you really don't know what is there so it is always a surprise
Yes, I know the buggers next to it have to go, lol. I *promise* LMAO!
Heading up the hill I see the dahlia in a different light...and that bush behind it? Never stopped flowering, it was leggy, like 8 ft tall and I cut the bejeezus out of it. So it flowered and has not stopped since early spring. Oh how the honey bees and bumble bees love it!
Then I look over and see that the yellow rose our youngest decided to trim this summer, with a toy sword *eek!* gave us something.
I look to the left and see fall colors on the hydrangea with a guest that really set it off!
Much better mood. What can I say, there is good in everything...I think. Excepting our present government, hehe. I decided to FINALLY plant the alpine strawberries that have been floundering and mocking me continuing to flourish despite my treatment of them. They will be great here, this spot is full of bulbs so is interesting for about 5 minutes then Blah.
So, we lost power, had to toss a blanket over the lizard cage. It was cold and windy, rainy and the power cut off while my non tv watching butt was in the middle of Grays Anatomy. I will not get radish seed this year from my crop. My tomatoes are a mess...the dahlia is half broken and the yard is a basic mess. A basic beautiful mess!
Nov 8, 2007 | 10:57 AM PST
Tags: Cuban Oregano , Walla Walla Onions , brussel sprouts , Purple Kohlrabi , Tomatoes , Garlic
It is getting cold and much cleanup must be done. Our youngest is getting his side ready, all by himself. I need to get him some mulch to help the fact that we have a neighbor cat pooping in his bed! Once we get some mulch he is going to plant Garlic and Walla Walla sweet onions. We sat and created his plan last night, of course he is *almost* 8 so he is a bit disappointed that he will not really see anything till spring but I already picked him up some Brussels Sprouts and Purple Kohlrabi seed for spring too so that will be fun! I also promised this little tomato eating machine his own tomato plants so maybe the rest of us will get some, LOL! See how much nicer his side is? I really need to get out there! I did *not* tell him I dumped half a bag of cow poop in with the soil he was working in!
So, to counteract his disappointment I showed him something last night. He had forgotten that I had taken a couple cuttings off of my *very* irritated Cuban Oregano to see how fast it would root in water. Lo and behold it is rooting rather quickly so I showed him one and he goes 'Roots!' and then I reminded him that he would get on for his room. Little guy walked around for a half hour sniffing one of those wonderful, soft leaves so I told him we would make sure he gets one for his room too. Then he goes 'Can we have ten? Twenty? a HUNDRED???'. I could only laugh, thinking I am creating a monster (and he does know where the pots are, hard to miss them!).
Oct 22, 2007 | 3:42 PM PST
Tags: Dragon Fruit , Dragon Tree , seedlings
OK, they call them dragon trees. But they are a vine, a succulent vine that likes to climb. I got the idea to save the seeds so asked and Spiceoflife had some growing. Taking their advice and my own weird ideas...I have SEEDLINGS! Rather a few in fact...and more popping up...and the good thing is I have people who will like them too, haha!
