The Fruit and Vegetable Garden
During the winter, I happily get my garden fix by maintaining the plants I keep indoors. With spring around the corner, and a few mistakes from last season still lingering, my workload is about to get a lot heavier.
One mistake I made was introducing a single wild woodland strawberry to my garden. That one plant grew many stolons (runners) with more plants, which in turn sent out their own stolons. This continued until about half my garden was overrun.
They all bloomed but no fruits set because apparently you have to cut the stolons so that the "pup" plants are no longer connected to their "mothers". Needless to say, I'm tearing them all out. (I'm still also paying the price for letting 2 wild lettuce plants go to seed a few years ago a well).
With the strawberries gone, there will be room for these new goji berry seedlings. Depending on how big they get this season, I may or may not plant them outdoors.
I did already plant my purple potatoes outdoors! I read that a good time to plant them is around St. Patrick's day or about 6 weeks before the last frost date for your area. I went ahead and planned them a week early so that they could get a head start in this beautiful weather we've been having. Before I planted them, I put them in the sunlight thinking the shoots would continue to grow but they only turned people like the potatoes.
I planted 6 of them in this raised bed of sorts. It used to be a compost bin but since last year when literally a hundred tomatoes sprouted inside, it became a raised bed.
Now I know what some of you might be thinking: why am I planting potatoes after tomatoes? Shouldn't I rotate my crops? It's true, potatoes and tomatoes are both solanaceous so probably use up a similar nutrient profile. However, potato plants will not use up nearly as much nitrogen as tomatoes. I also added more sawdust plus partially finished compost to replenish the nutrients. The biggest change though is probably going to be the biochar I mixed into the soil subsurface. That will increase the water retention, improve nutrient bioavailability, and provide a home for various microfauna and fungi. I've detailed in a previous post the benefits of using biochar and how to easily make your own!
I topped up the bed with a thin layer of dry grass clippings and then a layer of mulch.
This mulch came from a maple tree that my new neighbors decided they didn't want in the backyard anymore. When it got cut down, shredded, and tossed in the alley, I salvaged 2 large yard waste bags full! I like it because it doesn't have the added colors like the store-bought kind and because it's pretty finely shredded.
I also planted some more potatoes (I have a surplus) in 3 pots. These aren't covered with plastic so I added my foolproof pest repellant in and on top of the soil.
TIP
To protect your peppers, beans, potatoes, etc. from slugs, pill bugs, squirrels, and what have you just sprinkle some of your used coffee grounds around the area! When filling the holes I put the potatoes in, I staggered in some sprinklings of coffee grounds in case some desperate squirrel still decides to dig. And it worked because the next day I found a partially dug hole that didn't make it to the potato.
proto26: 1
squirrel: 0
Indoor Plants
We'll start this section with plants that normally should belong out in the garden with everybody else.
Here is the latest member of my bean mutation induction experiment. This plant is 2 generations after mutagenesis, which is when any recessive mutant alleles could manifest. This could be my big break in the experiment! You know how when you plant a bean (or most any seed) the sprout comes up with the 2 halves of the seed (the cotyledons)? That's how it should be, but this bean split into three pieces! Very odd! And then on top of that, when the first 2 seed leaves unfurled one turned out to be a double leaf!
I'm excited to see what the flowers and seeds will be like. Hopefully this is just the beginning of the abnormalities!
Next up is my pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) which has been in bloom for some time now.
Many of the flowers are closing back up and falling off but I'm not worried. In my experience when planting legumes in containers, you will always see some aborts. I think the plant overcompensates how many flowers it can support in the limited soil and then drops the ones that would probably end up making low quality fruit if it was kept.
I love it when the pods are as showy as the flowers. This plant will be planted in the ground once it is warm enough.
Trees
I pruned my tamarind tree to half its height, mostly in an effort to make some clones of it.
The clones will serve as insurance in case the main tree does not survive the rootwork it will have done to it later.
I plan to let my guamuchil grow wild for another year but I think it needs a root pruning.
That long branch growing to the left is a sacrificial branch that I'm using to thicken the trunk.
It will have to be cut some day.
This is what what happens when you forget to remove a branch training wire. Hopefully that will fill out.
My goal is to turn all my miniature trees into bonsai trees.
My acacia tree was the first successful root pruning and its growing with lots of vigor now.
My second success at root pruning was my mystery citrus tree cutting. If they are in good health, citrus trees can be pruned top and bottom in one go. The trick for pruning roots is to lop off thick tap roots and keep the fine "feeder" roots.
Bonsai teaches patience and discipline. I'm hoping it will bring new life (and more space!) for my tree collection along with helping me learn more skills and tricks in my general hobby of horticulture.
This post is in response to the Garden Journal challenge, hosted by @riverflows, that you can find here.
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STOPI"m so excited to host this gardening challenge as I'm loving seeing these posts pop up! I imagine I'm really going to see progress in your garden over the season whilst mine is relatively dormant.
I love the look of those purple potatoes - I got purple obsessed last year - purple kale, purple lettuce, purple tulsi haha. The kale has been the best - it was in the wicking bed and hasn't gone to seed yet.
I'm amazed by the tamarind tree - where do you live? I'm wondering if I can grow one in my hoop house. Off to google! Plus, I have a lot of hops to collect before it rains...
I went through a purple phase too. Purple tomatoes, purple beans (both technically black).
I live in the Midwestern United States (zone 5 of that means anything!). I only take out the tamarind in the spring and summer. Fall and winter it spends indoors.
I collected hops once during a horticulture job I had. Big day for lady bugs of all kinds.
I've never seen goji berry seedlings before! I really like your work, you have so many diferent plants. But my favs are those tiny trees, especially the one that already looks like a bonsai tree!
Thanks a lot! I appreciate it! I got the goji seeds from my favorite trail mix. As for the tree, I've been working on that one for a few years now, that's why it's more presentable than the other one.
Well, it turns out really really beautiful! Good luck and keep growing these awesome plants! You're doing a great work, I really liked the trees though :)) bonsai trees in miniature sounds awesome :d