RKayne's Blog
RKayne's January 2008 Entries
Last Post 169 days, 22 hours Ago
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).
