Gardening

Yet another old interest returning

By Curtis  |  2010/09/29 01:32 Posted in Gardening  |  Comments (2)

I have not been serious about gardening, plant cultivation or anything of that sort in years, but now I find myself expecting delivery of 75 bare root strawberry plants in November, 2 blueberry bushes in December and 150 regular strawberry plants in February, as well as having an existing 5 Muscatine vines that will need tending to. Over the past few days I have been gathering what little information that exists on the topics that is freely available and trying to compile a good amount of it into a usable form. At present it is feeling a bit like a research paper, which is how I will likely approach getting this information together into a concise bit of information that might be useful to me and to others. The odd question I find myself wondering though is what format does the field of horticulture use for research papers? I suspect botany, being a division of biology would use MLA, but horticulture is a bit more bare bones, less biology and more “ground” work. The research paper theory would work better for this if I had a base for it, some question or main thesis to go against. All I know is I want to compile information that will result in the best berries from my plants and vines that I possibly can do.

I partially wonder if I am using this topic as a distraction from preparing paperwork for graduate school. Maybe it is, or maybe it is just an old interest getting new life again, now that I am once again prepared for such an interest. My head has been too filled with technology, philosophy and psychological theories lately. I need some diversion that is a little more grounded and a little more basic, and in some way puts me in touch with earth again. Academic thought is a wonderful place, but at the end of the day, its still just thought and all that can be done with it is think or write. Even art, photography and ceramics, has to much thinking involved. Things must have balance and must be framed just so. It is all very tiring and leaves me looking for fond memories of accomplishment without so much thought.

Bell Peppers

By Curtis  |  2009/08/11 21:48 Posted in Gardening, Photography  |  Comments Off

Just got a few bell peppers out of my Earth Box garden on the west deck this evening. My tomatoes hate the heat, but the peppers seem to be enjoying it.

This was not originally supposed to be an artistic shot, or even a formal shoot, just an image of a pepper, but a white countertop and black microwave and refrigerator seem to have encouraged other traits for the image.

Aphid Annihilation

By Curtis  |  2009/05/22 23:00 Posted in Gardening  |  Comments (1)

This week I have discovered my absolute worst garden enemy, the aphid. The only problem is they are not in the garden, where it is easy to kill them. This is on the AeroGardens, indoors. Today I have been trying to get the little bastards off of my pepper plants. I started by trying to spray them with water, that worked out ok, but not great, it got a lot of them off. I brought the garden in and let the dead fall off, that took out a few more of them. A few hours ago I became bored enough to decide to kill them off manually. I went after the colony with tweezers, q-tips and a cup of warm soapy water (1 part Dawn detergent to 3 parts water). The big boys that I pulled off with the tweezers I drowned in the water, and then the others I swabbed off with the q-tip soaked in the soapy water. That seemed to do the trick, there are few to none of the demon insects left and I feel a little better about the new pepper plants that are growing in the garden I just started.

Aphids are no fun, but its kinda cool having their corpses chained together in a cup of soapy water.

Not Enough Time

By Curtis  |  2009/05/12 17:07 Posted in Gardening, General Life  |  Comments (1)

One may think that with being bored, that any chance for activity to occur would be a welcome blessing. Unfortunately, in my world, things seem to all hit at almost the exact same time. My mother has decided to take the rest of the week off from work and take care of some things in the yard, so of course I am needed for that (since she can barely carry a light bag of mulch). Also at the same time, the boyfriend wants to hang out, and by the time I finished with my mother it was too late for that, and now boyfriend is crushed, and I feel nothing but guilt for the fact that I didn’t put a time  limit on my mother, since I did agree to hang out with boyfriend, and the thing with my mother was sort of a last minute thing (don’t even remember agreeing to do it, just sort of got started). Now that I’m done with mother, and boyfriend is upset, uncle calls. I have no clue what uncle wants to talk about, since I have decided to take a few minutes to calm down instead of totally cracking, but whatever it is, it is time consuming, since he only calls when he needs technical advice or someone to fix something that he has broken.

I don’t like disappointing  people, especially not people who are very close to me.  I often wonder if there is something wrong with me, since I can not manage to avoid getting roped into helping certain people, when I have already agreed to do something with someone else. I  suppose in my life there aren’t that many things that require a lot of time and that block me from doing other things. In other words, my time management skills suck, and GITI is by no means able to make things like this work (no stated time, so no way to schedule).

On a positive note for today, I have planted about 16 pepper plants, 8 or 10 tomato plants, 2 hibiscus and an azalea (but I can’t forget the 1 broken heart and 1 ignored relative).

Warm weather

By Curtis  |  2009/03/07 22:59 Posted in Gardening  |  Comments Off

The snow has melted and it is as if we have gone straight from winter to summer in just a few days. Luckily the nights are still cool and the weather is not too unbearable yet, but 80 degrees in March has me not looking forward to what the weather will be like in June.

With this warm weather I have gotten in the mood for planting and preparing for my summer garden. Earlier today I transplanted the last of the strawberries in the AeroGarden to different containers to finish maturing their root systems, and then I planted my tomato and pepper seeds in the starter tray as the next batch. With a little good weather I should have quite a nice garden this summer. I do not know what I am going to do with 46 tomato plants and 24 pepper plants.

Unfortunately this weekend’s weather will not hold and therefore I am stuck with 20 strawberry plants sitting on the kitchen table until the last frost (traditionally signaled by the blossoming of blackberries).

Strawberry Fields…In the AeroGarden

By Curtis  |  2009/02/25 07:52 Posted in Gardening  |  Comments Off

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One of the strawberry plants that has not yet been transplanted out of the AeroGarden has begun blooming. This is a fairly small plant compared to the larger friends that were removed from the garden recently.

This week I have to take these plants out and the starter tray and put them into soil so that I may begin prepping for the summer tomato and pepper plants that will be grown in the new starter tray. 

Majestic Redwood

By Curtis  |  2008/12/22 20:33 Posted in Gardening  |  Comments Off

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Okay, so they aren’t quite that majestic yet, but they are working on it, give them another hundred years or so…

Then again, Bonsai is quicker with them, maybe they will settle for cute and not majestic?

Lifetime of an AeroGarden

By Curtis  |  2008/11/11 08:19 Posted in Gardening  |  Comments Off

I have had my AeroGarden tomatoes going for several months now. Over a month ago I ran out of nutrient tablets, but a strange thing has happened. Since running out of nutrient tablets the tomatoes are growing better and producing more than they did when the plants were being actively fed. This is making me curious as to how exactly the nutrients work, and if the “refill” nutrients are ever really required.

Sequoia Arrived

By Curtis  |  2008/10/27 21:00 Posted in Gardening  |  Comments Off

In the shortest Back Order of my life, my Sequoia seeds have arrived :-)

New Seed Source

By Curtis  |  2008/10/24 22:18 Posted in Gardening  |  Comments Off

On Tuesday I began searching for a new variety of strawberry to plant, something distinct from the ones that I have presently. I ran across Whatcom Seed Company, a company with relatively few varieties of plant, but the ones they do have are rare and exotic. They do not sell plants, just seeds. Today my order arrived (I ordered the strawberries, Coastal Redwood [Sequoia], Blue Shrimp Plant, Cedar Cup, Turk’s Cap Lilly, and Japanese Flowering Cherry). My Redwood was backordered, so it will arrive later. The order arrived with the seeds really well packed in plastic bags (not waxed paper shit some companies use), as well as with complete instructions for how to get them to germinate. The company won’t guarantee germination (because some varieties are difficult), but they provide a lot of information to insure that the seeds will grow.

The website  for this new supplier has given me an idea for a new hobby that I would like to try, Bonsai, a specialty of the company. I ordered the Seqoia and the Japanese Cherry to be full size trees, but with more than 50 seeds of each one, I don’t think I want that many full size trees, so Bonsai could be fun with them. I am presently considering starting each of my new seeds in my AeroGarden to ensure their germination.