Gardenia Cuttings: I put half the cuttings in water, like MIL recommended. The other half went into my little green houses with rooting hormone. Some of the each went brown and dry. One of the cuttings in the greenhouse is doing very well though.
Lantana Cuttings: Doing well and showing tender, tiny new growth and tiny roots, see below:
Mum Cuttings: nothing happening yet, but they're also not drying out or wilting, so that's good!
African Daisies: each have their first true leaves! It's going slow though. Since they are on the porch behind the screen, they might not be getting enough sun. Will move them outside to see if that changes anything. See below:
Carrots: growing, growing, growing, see below:
Beets: growing, first true leaves about two weeks ago. See below:
Beans: still have blight (I think) but they are now wrapping themselves around the bamboo canes. I guess that's a good thing.
Crotons: the cuttings are still rooting and producing new leaves. Aside from the Dracaenas, the Crotons have been the most successful cuttings! They do excellent in the green houses.
Cacti: they are very slow! The green sprouts have turned a dark pinkish shade and very little growth. I'm planning on moving them into the terrarium jar tomorrow. See below:
Peace Lily: She's doing a lot better stuck in the water jar than in the soil. After I divided her, I cut back the roots and I know she didn't like that! I'm going to keep her in that jar, she seems to like it!
Parsley: having true leaves now! I love parsley in many recipes and I can't wait to harvest bundles of them to use and freeze the rest. See below:
Chives: doing alright but not very fast growers.
Onions: Benny, the cat had been eating the tender tops. They grew back but like the chives, they are slow!
Mr. Plant: has adjusted well to his new location wrapped around the tomato cages. Will have to move him eventually when it gets colder at night.
Morning Glory: bought a packet of seeds last weekend. Can't wait to sow them along with the Moonflowers next spring!
Did I forget someone? No, I think that update covers everyone; veggies, cuttings and seedlings!
Now for the weather, that's a different post.
Carrots doing well!
Despite Buddy marching through the pots, attempting to sleep in them and pushing down many seedlings, the carrots have recovered and are doing very well. They actually look like carrots now!
Can't wait to put these babies through the juicer!!!
My Vegetable Garden - work in progress
Because we live on a golfcourse, we can't plant in our back yard (golfers need to be able to walk around in our backyard to find their stray balls).
To the left is the small patch I used to start my vegetable garden. The photo was taken right after we moved in. Nothing but weeds, very little "lawn". The waterhose close by is definetely a plus!
I added a small bed to the left of the concrete bed. I filled it with pebbles (found burried underneath mulch in the front yard), added some 16" square concrete pavers to display my plumbagos. It looked pretty bare! I liked the look of the river pebbles and after checking how much a bag of river pebbles sells for at Walmart, I determined there were at least $200 burried underneath mulch in the front yard. As I worked on the front yard, I collected the pebbles in buckets to transplant them to their new destination.
It's really sort of counter productive: the rocks absorb heat during the day and then release it in the evening and nights. No wonder we were sweating like crazy sitting on the porch at night.
I know I need to find a new location for the rocks............
Anyway, this is what my veggie garden looks like now:
To the right side of the patio door are pole beans, carrots and beets. To the left is my pot with dracaena cuttings, moses in the boat babies, croton babies, parsley, onions and chives.
Both beds are pebbles on black foil, I admit not the most ideal combination to place black nursery pots!
Either way, this is what I have now, it will evolve as I go along.
Will add a photo later - the other day I gave up on the squash and gave seed discs for carrots a try. I read about seed tapes but since I only use containers, I needed to adapt it. I used round disks of kitchen tissue, positioning the carrot seeds with white school glue (non-toxic). It took 4 days to germinate, yesterday I had the first tender little sprouts.
Hubby has both cameras with him (someone's gotta make a living while I play gardener, LOL), so I gave the Blackberry camera try. Also took photos of parsley, chives and onions. All photos made it okay except for the carrots!
"Honey, the Onions are out!"
Great weekend! Beets yesterday, carrots and onions today - the beans are growing like weed!
I've never grown onions, mainly because I'm confused about bunching onions, bulbing onions and what to do with each.
I bought a bunch of bulbs a few years back at Home Depot, dug them into the ground and they rotted away. I decided then that I wasn't going to try onions again.
This year I figured if I do what the seed packet says, I should be fine.
So, they have germinated and I'll see what happens next. The 13-year old that lives with us loves them with eggs on freshly baked bread.
"Honey! The Carrots are out!"
Finally! Oh boy, I'm excited! We love carrots for their juice and I have a special recipe for "Karottengemuese", a German side dish my Mom used to make when I was a child in Germany. Maybe I'll post it here!
We had carrots last fall, sown directly into the garden. This year, I'm doing container gardening. My mother in law (the best MIL in the world!) gave me plenty of large and deep containers to use and they are absolutely perfect for my carrots.
I'd love to do succession planting but even after 7 years, I'm still not that crazy about Florida's growing seasons. I think it has to do with the lack of seasonal changes. There is no real spring. There is no waiting for the snow to melt, no waiting for the soil to warm up.
Anyway, the carrots took 7 days to germinate! The beets were one day faster, the pole beans only took 1 day (pre-soaked) and I'm still waiting on chives, onions, peppers and lettuce.
"Honey, the beets are out, the beets are out!"
Can you blame me for being excited? I've been inspecting my lovely black plastic containers for almost a week now, looking for tender sprouts to appear. So far, only the pole beans have broken through the soil and they're doing GREAT!
I started to think that all my efforts were for nothing because day after day, there was nothing but black soil and no sign of vegetation.
Well, not so today! Tender, deep reddish and green sprouts have pushed through the soil; my beets!
I remember eating pickled beets, homefries and brats (I'm German) when I was a kid. The juice from the beets got soaked up by the fries (scalloped taters slowly fry-roasted in butter with scallots). Now I'm going to have to call my Mom and ask for the recipe for pickled beets.
