Recent content by Branching Out

Bleach could work; I will keep that in mind. So far if a seed molds I just remove it, which seems to be sufficient. And when time permits I am trying to dry the cups of vermiculite out before starting a new batch of seeds in them. If things begin to deteriorate after several round of seed...

I've heard of nutria, but never seen them in person. They are R.O.U.S's. right? Rodents of unusual size?

Good question! The little cups are filled with vermiculite, which seems to work well for germinating seeds. It is quickly becoming my preferred medium for starting lettuce, basil, and peppers seeds because the seeds stay moist-- even when I am away for a couple of days. You would think the...

The past few days friends have been coming by to pick up some of my extra tomato and pepper seedlings, which is lovely. It also helps reduce the number of plants that I am caring for. We have a warm spell coming so I'm trying to get as many plants in the ground as I can. They dry out really...

Due to a sensitivity to insect bites my fragrance is Eau de Bug Spray.

A warm welcome from British Columbian! I have yet to be successful with cabbage, so unfortunately I have no advice to offer you. However, one of the cabbage plants that I over-wintered is still alive, and I hope that I will be able to save seed from it. Fresh seed might make growing cabbage...

Yay-- progress! :)

Three more days of warm sunny weather ahead, so out to the garden I go! Lots of beans hitting the dirt here too.

April is kind of nuts with seed starting, planting out, weeding, and many other garden tasks. Fun, but exhausting. There are just not enough hours in the day! Today I planted out almost 200 blocks with bush and pole beans that were ready to take off. We just had many days of rain so I didn't...

The introduced species map is an interesting tool-- and I too am surprised that zinnias show up in those states.

Baker Creek has this lovely habit of sending a *free* bonus packet of seeds with each order, and I am always curious to see which seeds they include. The last parcel had Yedikule, an ancient lettuce of Constantinople that is new to me and that has an intriguing story...

My fascination with starting seeds on vermiculite continues. Five days ago I tried placing a bunch of Red Ryder (bush, dry-- thank you flowerbug!) bean seeds on top of vermiculite in a sunny window. At the same time I rinsed more seeds with water, and placed them in a closed cup in the fridge...

We have a stretch of rain ahead so my latest tray of bush beans in 2" blocks will have to be held on the deck for a few days before I can plant them out. Typically I like to use row cover to protect them, but the tall stems seem fragile; I'm concerned that the seedlings might get damaged if the...

Some of the Sweet Basil seeds that I started April 18th on vermiculite in a propagating dome were ready to prick out today. I used the same small 12-cell tray that worked well for basil in the past; not sure how many I should have per cell, so I did various combinations to see what works best...

Yes-- there definitely are many approaches, and all are hard work when a mature tree is involved. Our old pick up truck has pulled out a lot of shrubs over the years.