A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

i think the yellow flower is yellow loosestrife. we used to have a varigated version of that plant. the same bugs that liked that also like the moneywort.

I think you're right, it certainly fits the growth profile of loosestrifes. Strangely, this one was actually variegated when it was first planted 14 years ago, and every year it came back less and less variegated until it became totally green. Which is okay with me; I seldom thin it, water it, give it food or weed it, so that is plus plus all around for me.

 

[heirloomgal]

It was a purple day!

I tried to put the last pepper 'Purple UFO' into the salad tonight but I thought I'd try a taste first out of curiosity. Yikes, nuclear powered. Better for a little kapow factor in the guacamole.

 

[meadow]

I didn't know there was a 'Joker'!

Yes, yes there is! I don't think that we're allowed to post links to products, but if you search "Wild Garden Seed" that is Frank Morton's website. There you will find all of his offerings (plus a few others). Although if it is out of stock then the listing disappears from the site. The descriptions are good reading.

He has a Merry Men Mix that contains Jester, Joker and Falstaff. I got this much of a description of Falstaff from the Wayback Machine (I could only see the preview page): Falstaff NEW IN 2011! Somewhat between a 'Jester' and a 'Joker', a jovial icy red-splattered ball becomes a slightly tallish tight crisphead at maturity. Margins...

 

[digitS']

Very pretty purples, HeirloomGal.

It takes experience in our own garden environments to gain understanding on garden plants and varieties. DW likes leaf lettuce and production has graduated from the earlier hoop house to the open garden. The season won't be long and I have been unsuccessful growing it as a fall crop. Cool season? Yeah, but the temperatures often go from too warm to too cold for lettuce. If it drops near freezing, it stalls and that's it.

It took me years before I tried radish pods. Just like the roots for me, harvest has to be just at the right moment and then they are oh so tender and flavorful! Maybe rat tail has a longer harvest time but whoever thought of that name didn't have my ~ persnicketiness.

Saisai leaf radish was something that I grew for a couple of recent years. It bolted almost immediately. Pods were good for a few days. Planted late, it did the same thing! Last March, Saisai was planted in the hoop house and behaved a little better but bolted as soon as the plastic came off.

BTW, of the few that I have tried, every radish variety had tasty seed pods. There are kohlrabi in the garden this year. I just might leave a few plants and find out how those pods are .

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

I think you're right, it certainly fits the growth profile of loosestrifes. Strangely, this one was actually variegated when it was first planted 14 years ago, and every year it came back less and less variegated until it became totally green. Which is okay with me; I seldom thin it, water it, give it food or weed it, so that is plus plus all around for me.

ours started variegated and then over the years parts of the plants switched to full green leaves. we ended up removing it due to bugs eating it so much that it wouldn't flower or grow much any more and i didn't want to spray it or have to baby it. plus i needed more bean growing space inside the fence and that was a large garden doing very little.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

General update

Finally have a few tomatoes poking their heads up.

Cucumbers are getting their permanent leaves, as I said before.

On the side.

I think the plants in the cold frame are ready to be put in their permanent places. All look GREAT.

It's sort of hard to tell if anything is going on in the sweet pea pot. There IS one seedling that doesn't look like a weed, but it doesn't look much like a sweet pea seedling either. Guess I'll have to wait and see.

The white pot with the legume and other wilding mix is COVERED with seedlings. Problem is, I have no clue what is what (apart from the bindweed like ones).

The other one doesn't seem to be doing anything. And since that one was sown with grains (which shouldn't take all that long to germinate) I worry the birds ate it all.

The black pot now has 4 lupines.

 

[heirloomgal]

The watermelons are acting a little like the lima beans right now, slow. So tonight I gave the watermelons a significant dose of alfalfa, kelp and azomite and watered all that in with fish emulsion. I have found that watermelon transplants take time to adjust, they shock more than other transplants. The first time I did watermelon transplants it was in peat pots, which I stopped using afterward, because it seemed that the peat was slowing the growing process down. Too slow to break down. But the plants are doing the same this year with no peat pots. Maybe it's just how watermelon rolls. The last time I grew this many watermelon vines (about 10) they started slow but once they hit their groove they grew like gangbusters, I hope I get a repeat of that. I probably should have automatically limed the soil first, since they're in a pure compost bed. Maybe that'd help a bit.

 

[heirloomgal]

General update

Finally have a few tomatoes poking their heads up.

Cucumbers are getting their permanent leaves, as I said before.

On the side.

I think the plants in the cold frame are ready to be put in their permanent places. All look GREAT.

It's sort of hard to tell if anything is going on in the sweet pea pot. There IS one seedling that doesn't look like a weed, but it doesn't look much like a sweet pea seedling either. Guess I'll have to wait and see.

The white pot with the legume and other wilding mix is COVERED with seedlings. Problem is, I have no clue what is what (apart from the bindweed like ones).

The other one doesn't seem to be doing anything. And since that one was sown with grains (which shouldn't take all that long to germinate) I worry the birds ate it all.

The black pot now has 4 lupines.

I'm a little curious....what tomatoes are you growing? I suspect they're likely VERY exceptional.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I'm a little curious....what tomatoes are you growing? I suspect they're likely VERY exceptional.

I'm growing four types. In terms of ones I actually selected, one pot has Abracazebra and the other has Phil's #2, both Tom Wagner tomatoes. I think Abracazebra is another one of his attempts to outdo Green Zebra (as popular as it is, Tom has always maintained he can do better.) Phil's #2 is basically a green when ripe version of Reisentomate (the "brain" tomato with all the individual peel off sections.

Besides these, and a hedge, I also tossed in two freebie tomatoes I got this year some Brazilian Beauties (freebie with the picked one) and some Jamfi cherries (don't remember WHO sent me those.)

The cherries are also a concession to the fact that I have always had a problem growing full size tomatoes. Even if I can get the plants to live to maturity, they tend to put out one or two very undersized fruit, then drop dead.

 

[flowerbug]

The watermelons are acting a little like the lima beans right now, slow. So tonight I gave the watermelons a significant dose of alfalfa, kelp and azomite and watered all that in with fish emulsion. I have found that watermelon transplants take time to adjust, they shock more than other transplants. The first time I did watermelon transplants it was in peat pots, which I stopped using afterward, because it seemed that the peat was slowing the growing process down. Too slow to break down. But the plants are doing the same this year with no peat pots. Maybe it's just how watermelon rolls. The last time I grew this many watermelon vines (about 10) they started slow but once they hit their groove they grew like gangbusters, I hope I get a repeat of that. I probably should have automatically limed the soil first, since they're in a pure compost bed. Maybe that'd help a bit.

i wouldn't lime compost, but mixing in some garden soil might have made some difference, still i think in the end they'll pick up. it seems like the melons i grow here are similar in that they start out slow but then once they get more roots down they take off and by the end of summer the vines are 20ft long - and all from such a tiny seed too!