Mikhailah's Blog

A Gardener's Diary - Parsley and Fennel and Gladiolus, oh my!
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.