Steve's Garden

2012 Garden Seed List Draft

2012-01-08T15:33:00.001-06:00

These are most the veggies, fruits & such that I will attempt to grow this year (or want to grow, at least, as I'll run out of space). I may add a few more as the year goes on. This doesn't mean I'll be able to sow them all either, as some like Stevia are hard to sow, but I'll sure as he** try! =)

Tomatoes:
Golden Nugget Tomato
Coyote Tomato
Chadwick Cherry Tomato
Placero Cherry Tomato
Super Sweet 100 Tomato
Amish Paste Tomato
Orange Banana Tomato
San Marzano Lampadina Tomato
Sungold Select II Cherry Tomato
Yellow Pear Tomato
Celebrity Tomato
Wild Everglades Tomato
Dr. Wyche's Yellow Tomato
Amazon Chocolate Tomato

Herbs:
Thai Dill
Broad Leaf Sage
Stevia

Peppers
California Wonder Bell Pepper
Golden Marconi Pepper
Long Thin Red Cayenne Pepper
Cowhorn Pepper
Scotch Bonnet Pepper (Yes, I'm crazy...lol)
Hawaiian Sweet Pepper
Orange Sweet Pepper
Yellow Bell Pepper
Cherry Bomb Pepper

Cucumbers
Thai Green Cucumber

Fruits/Melons:
Dragonfruit
Sara's Galapagos (Tiny Currant like fruit with tomato flavor)
Tigger Melon
Sugar Baby Watermelon
Dwarf Pomegranate

I think I need to add in some beans. Will definitely start more garlic & probably add a few more other misc. edibles.

Happy Gardening! - Steve\tn_veggie_gardner

tn_veggie_gardner is back!!! =)

2011-11-22T09:51:00.001-06:00

I know it's been a while since I've posted on here & I want to apologize to my dedicated followers for that. I have had both of my hip replacements done & am in a nice duplex/house where I can have a great garden again. In the time between my last post on here & this one, I lived 3 different places, had one of my surgeries & also had to have my garden taken care of by my aunt for a few months. Crazy, huh? =) I plan on trying Winter sowing again & also soon will be ordering my usual round of seeds from Baker Creek, and probably a few supplies from Greenhouse Megastore. For now, here are a few pictures I've taken over the last month or so...

A few pics of my Red Dragon Flower. After having a few plants of this (and giving away a few, then growing a few more from single stems) for 3+ years, I finally got to see a bud & flower!

My Dwarf Lime Tree, now about 4 years old. She's getting big! I say this every year, but hopefully I'll get some limes off it this year!

A few cherry tomato pictures. None of these plants turned out too well since I was recovering from surgery & unable to take care of them, but that doesn't mean I didn't get any maters or cool pics of them! :)

I got the usual mid Summer cheapie $1 tray of 8 pepper plants from my fave nursery, and as always, most of them grew well. The 4 I managed to bring back to my house grew excellent. The 4 I left at the not-a-green-thumb-aunt's house did not do well. ;)

Some berries, almost all of which went to the squirrels. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

A pic of my aunts pretty (unknown) Hibiscus.

Some pretty flowers I found growing on the Stones River side of the dam.

A lil critter pic from work.

Hope you like the pics & look for more posts to come soon regarding my Winter Sowing! Happy Gardening!!! - Steve/tn_veggie_gardner

A few weekend updates

2011-05-09T08:40:00.007-05:00

Thanks to Mother Nature calming back down, my plants went back outside Saturday afternoon. I think though, they somehow got a little wind/cold burn on 4-5 of the mater plants though, when they were inside (prob cuz I had window open those 37 degree nights...good job, Steve!). :-\ Stuff happens when you garden though that you just have to deal with. I'll give the burnt ones an extra little shot of fertilizer this week to help them recover. All will be well. :) I found a few more signs of Spring & some of the higher heat (Summer soon to come) too!.....

A bud set about to open (I'd say by this weekend!) on one of my Sungold Select II cherry tomato plants:

First open Blackberry flower! Probably about 100 buds on this plant; Not nearly as many as the Wineberry Raspberry plant has, but still enough:

Last, but certainly not least, is a pic of this supposedly invasive plant I saw at my friends house on Friday (while we were drinkin a few beers & cookin some dang good ribs!). I think i'm gonna try and get him to split it/give me some. Love the little blue flowers! Some kind of Cane Grass, he says:

Happy Gardening, all!

Gardening Awesomeness!

2011-05-04T12:46:00.007-05:00

Just want to throw a few pics up that I took yesterday of some new growth I have recently found in my garden, along with a funny picture of everything I had to bring back in for a few days, thanks to mother nature. I love the Spring!!! =)

Fall planted garlic, except for the 4-5 small ones you see on the outer rim, which I planted in late Winter to make up for the squirrel destruction:

Grape plants all miserably intertwined together, since I forgot to train the vines...lol:

Kerria Japonica (Japanese Rose) babies!!! So excited to see that the mother plant threw out 3 of them this year! One a few inches tall right by main stem of mother plant, one bottom left of pot & one bottom right of pot:

Wineberry Raspberry bud pictures again. Love this plant! Tons & tons of buds should mean tons & tons of berries:

With low's in the 30's & 40's until Saturday night, I had to bring everything in hopefully for the last time. Mighty jungle, eh? =):

Nursery Bought Plants

2011-05-03T11:21:00.002-05:00

Some of you that know me, know that each year when I go to my favorite nursery to buy my container mix, I usually pick up a few veggie plants. This year, I got a Tomatillo & a Bradley Tomato. I have also already bought a Jalapeno plant (not pictured below) since I like to can some & also make Chipotle's, and I forgot to get Jal seeds this year. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Tomatillo does. They will be great for salsa! =)

Happy Gardening! - Steve

First Wineberry Raspberry Flower!

2011-04-29T07:45:00.001-05:00

A short post today because my allergies are tearing me apart & I feel miserable. Below is a pic of the flower. Probably 200+ buds on the plant right now. Should get quite a few berries off it this year. :)

The first fruit of the year

2011-04-21T18:20:00.002-05:00

With lots more close behind, on this plant & others! =) Grape set on one of my St. Croix plats...

Buds on several plants!

2011-04-18T18:10:00.002-05:00

My Kerria Japonica (Japanese Rose), Wineberry Raspberry & St. Croix Grape plants are all budding! Wicked excited to get some berries growing. I can't take a very good picture of the grape bud sets with my phone (not like the ones below are good either...lol), but there are at least 4 of them I counted. Each one usually has about 15 or so grapes on it. Plants look nice, so I should get several hundred grapes off them this year. My Wineberry Raspberry plant is 4 years old & has tons of vine, so I should also get a lot off it this year. At least 150-200 or so. Enjoy the bud pictures below & Happy Gardening! =)

Wineberry Raspberry bud set:

Kerria Japonica bud (should open within the next few days!):

Hardening off the veggies

2011-04-10T19:29:00.002-05:00

All of my cherry tomato & about half of my pepper seedlings are ready for the hardening off process. For those of you not familiar with this phrase, it means to take the plants outside on nice days & give them a little "taste" of the outdoor weather a little bit at a time, more & more each day. Mine have been out 3 separate days over the last week or so. Today I left them out for a good 5-6 hours where they got maybe an hour or two of indirect sunlight (through bushes). When hardening off plants, you do not want to immediately put them in direct sunlight or they will die quickly. My plan usually involves 2-3 days of a few hours shade, then a week or so of a few hours each day with 50/50 sun & shade. Then, a few more days of mostly sun for a few hours. Then overnight 1-2 days just to make sure at the end that they're ready for the outdoors. Feels good when you put them out there knowing you hardened them off well & you see no affects at all from sun, wind, etc.. Let's you know they'll be ok. =)

Anyway, I took a pic of them, of course. This is less than half of my total veggie plants (probably after i'm all done, will only be about 1/4th...lol). These are just my cherry tomato plants & 2 different types of peppers that were ready for it. I still have my 2 paste tomato varieties, Rutgers tomatoes, all my habanero seedlings (12 or so) & a handful of others that will need to be hardened off & put out for good over the next month or so. I'm excited that Spring is coming soon, along with the average last frost date, so I can have my garden all together. Last frost date for Middle Tennessee is supposed to be around April 21st, in 11 days. I'll play it a bit safe like I usually do & not put anything out for good until the end of the month. The peppers, loving the extreme heat & not much below 65 at night, i'll wait a bit longer with. One thing I like to do, that helps, is to keep a close eye on the weather, on a daily basis. Last thing I want would be for me seedlings to sit through a storm or whatever & get destroyed!

More updates coming soon. Almost time to pot up the 3 Habanero varieties. Also, my re-seeding of all my non-cherry tomatoes that got killed when I moved is going excellent! =) After only 2 weeks, all cells but one have germinated & they are growing second sets of leaves. I may still yet get a July 4th tomato or two...lol...Anyway, take care & Happy Gardening!!! - Steve

Cherry tomato & habanero pepper seedlings

2011-04-09T21:27:00.003-05:00

A few of my cherry tomato seedlings have wee lil bud sets on them now! Yay!!! =) Habanero (Jamaican Hot Chcocolate, Carribean Red & Orange) seedlings coming along nicely as well...

Deck/Fruit Garden

2011-04-05T18:33:00.002-05:00

All of my fruit & berry plants have been moved to a nice sunny spot on the deck. The Wineberry Raspberry plant looks awesome draped over the side. Also, in the other pic, i'm going to try and train my grape plants to grow up the pole on the covered atrium thing. :)

Wineberry Raspberry, TC Blackberry, Dwarf Lime Tree, Kerria Japonica, Garlic, Dill Weed, Garlic Chives & one or two other small plants:

Grape plants:

First round of potting up.

2011-04-03T19:04:00.003-05:00

And i'm exhausted...lol...below are some pics of the seedlings I potted up today. Tomatoes are: Chadwick Cherry, Chocolate Cherry & Sungold Select II. Peppers are: Golden Marconi & California Wonder Bell.

Tomatoes:

Peppers:

Garden Move

2011-03-28T21:16:00.002-05:00

Well, my move went well this weekend. Despite the few tomato seedlings that my friend Justin destroyed & the few that just didn't make it, most of my garden took it well! Only a few windburnt leaves on the Kerria Japonica (Japanese Rose) & 2-3 others. I'll get some updated pics on here soon. I resowed my paste & slicing tomatoes because they were either killed in the move or just didn't look great (thanks, floating pellet tray!). Luckily, it's only the end of March, so they will only be delayed a month or so (be hard to get the July 4th maters, maybe). I'm also sowing an herb garden soon, too! Take care & Happy Gardening, all! =) - Steve

Sungold Select II Seedling

2011-03-16T09:20:00.001-05:00

Just a quick post. Figured I'd share a picture I took last night of my most mature Sungold Select II cherry tomato seedling. Isn't it beautiful? =)

Seedling Update. Tomatoes, Peppers & More!

2011-03-05T19:28:00.011-06:00

They are all growing great, except for the dill weed. I just can never seem to get dill weed to stand up well from the time it sprouts throughout its whole lifespan. It needs to be tied down, but is too delicate! lol...Here are some pictures of the beautiful babies...

Garlic Chives (looking very healthy & dark green):

Garlic (planted in the Fall...got from my friend Adrian):

Tomato seedlings (this is most of them...also have 6-8 in 1 gallon pots which are Amish Paste, San Marzano Lungo No 2, Placero & one other variety I forget right now):

Chadwick Cherry Tomato:

Chocolate Cherry Tomato:

Sungold Select II:

Pepper Seedlings (this is most of them...also have 6 or so in 1 gallon pots):

California Wonder Bell:

Golden Marconi (happy that I have 4 very healthy seedlings of these! Tasty sweet golden pepper great for grilling & such):

The milk weed "test plant" is still doing fine, but still fallen over. I plan on sowing one more tray of seeds (not sure what yet) then also planting some more garlic. Things are coming along well! Many signs of Spring are showing too. Both my Wineberry Raspberry & Triple Crown Blackberry plants are growing leaf nodes (around 1 cm in length). Also, my Kerria Japonica (Japanese Rose) is growing leaf nodes (1-2 cm in length). Spring is in the air & even though I unfortunately have to move again within the next month or so (means no raised bed use. :( ), I plan on still having a great garden this year to make up for last year. Take care & happy gardening!!! =)

Seedling Update

2011-02-23T18:06:00.007-06:00

Most of my veggie seedlings are doing well. A few are getting slightly leggy (not enough to affect the plant), so I probably need to rotate all of them. Below are a few pictures.

Some of the pepper seedlings, along with a close-up of one:

Some of the tomato seedlings & a close-up of my most mature Sungold:

My dwarf lime tree has started its Spring growth a bit. Here's a pic of it:

My First True Raised Bed

2011-02-16T19:13:00.004-06:00

This will be a learning experience for me, for sure. In all my years of gardening, I have never grown in a true raised bed. I'm thinking maybe all garlic & onions? lol...Should be fun, one way or another. I'm researching soil pretreatment on it now, with the help of some friends on GardenWeb. Here's a before picture of it with all the dead wildflowers, weeds, etc. & an after picture. I dug out about the top foot of the whole thing, to try and get rid of all the old plants there. There was one root about a foot or so long by a few inches wide that took a while to get out of there! Anyway, i'm gonna fill it with compost and some good soil soon. Gotta find some compost first. :)

Before:

After about 30 minutes of digging out all the old weeds, wildflowers, etc. & tilling up the soil a bit. Looks good so far & not too hard to do:

First Veggie Plant Forming True Leaves!

2011-02-15T14:31:00.003-06:00

The excitement continues! Today, while checking on my plants, I found a Sungold Select II cherry tomato plant starting to grow it's first true set of leaves. Very cool, as at this point they usually start growing fast/take off. I have several more that are barely a few days behind this one, if even that long. So, many more of the first tomato & pepper plants I started should also start growing their first true leaves soon. Below is a picture of the wee seedling.

First sign of Spring in the garden!!! =)

2011-02-14T12:31:00.002-06:00

As always, my 5 year old Garlic Chives are the first to show signs of Spring in my garden. Very excited to get things going this year! Here's a little pic of them.

Seed starting update & more.

2011-02-13T18:39:00.017-06:00

I have had some great sucess starting my seeds so far this year. My attempt to use the floating pellet tray did not work out well though. I didn't keep much of any water in the bottom of it, but some of the "pellets" got moldy inside. I had about a 50% germination sucess with it. I transplanted a small handfull of seedlings out of it, then tossed it. I will not use this method again. I know that it is this approach alone that failed because I used my new seed starting process (explained below) in the same exact conditions and had great sucess with it. Here is a picture of the floating pellet tray...

Tray after pellets moistened & seeds added, before it was put into my seed starting greenhouse:

In past years, my veggie plants have experienced symptoms of being potted up too many times, along with some legginess caused mainly by starting them in peat pellet trays. These things, especialy the legginess, have caused severe problems with many of my plants. So, I decided to try a different seed starting method with somewhat larger pots, better medium, etc.. I bought some trays/flats & 3 inch square pots that go together (these are durable & will last a few years at minimum). I also bought some Pro Mix Seed Starting medium. I would start a flat of seeds & place it on a heat mat inside a covered greenhouse. This atmosphere also tremendously helped the germination process as inside the greenhouse would stay very humid & also quite warm, from the heating mats. Below are some pictures of the flats & greenhouse.

The flats with 3 inch square pots in them:

One of the flats, fully prepared (this one contains 6 types of peppers & some Dill):

The greenhouse I kept the flats in while seeds were germinating:

The seed starting mix, flats, 3 inch pots & a few other items I ordered from ICG.

A few pics of some of the wee seedlings, which were recently potted up to 1 gallon pots that they will stay in until they go into their final homes (5-10 gallon pots) out on the deck or in the backyard.

Milk Thistle seedling (about 2 weeks old...one of my "test plants" this year):

Pepper seedling (about 10 days old, from seed in dirt):

Tomato seedling (about 10 days old, from seed in dirt):

I am very excited to grow garlic again this year. I hope it does as well as it did last year. One pot of it was planted in late Fall & 2 more will be planted soon, in Spring. This is the Fall planted garlic.

Last, but certainly not least, are some pictures of a few more of my plants, most of which are currently living in my garden room upstairs.

Adult Aloe:

2 of my 3 Angel Trumpet plants received at the Fall MTPS swap. These were simple sticks when I got them with no roots or anything and have grown insanely well over the past 5 months!

3 baby Aloe plants, received in a mail swap. They are about a year old.

The plants I left outdoors over the Winter in dormancy. My almost 4 year old Wineberry Raspberry & Triple Crown Blackberry (should get several berries of them both this year!), 2 grape plants (will be a year old this Spring. Probably won't produce any grapes this year) & a few other random plants.

Mother of 1000's (tons of babies hanging off these)

Red Dragon Flower.

Baker Creek Order Arrives!

2011-02-02T18:01:00.002-06:00

Now i'm just waiting on my Greenhouse MegaStore order which contains my seed starting supplies for this year (and a few more things). Once I get that order, i'll immediately start some of my garden items for this year, mostly herbs. I'll probably start my tomato plant seeds in mid February then start the rest (peppers, cukes & such) in late February.

Below is a picture of my Baker Creek order which contains the following: Thai Green Cucumber, Jamaician Hot Chocolate Pepper, Caribbean Red Habanero Pepper, Chocolate Habanero Pepper, California Wonder Pepper, Golden Marconi Pepper, Thai Long Sweet Pepper, Orange Banana Tomato, Sungold Select II, Amish Paste, Chadwick Cherry, Placero, San Marzano Lungo No. 2 Tomato, Rutgers Tomato, Thai Dill, Milk Thistle, Sage, Soapwort & Stevia. This is only about a third of what I plan on growing this year! =)

Steve's Garden 2011

2011-02-01T15:51:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to drop a quick update on here to let everyone know that my 2011 garden will be completely insane! lol...I plan to make up for having a horrible garden in 2010.

Just a few of the items you'll see in Steve's Garden this year are: Dwarf Banana tree attempt #2, 4 beautiful Angel Trumpet's I got from Joe at the Fall MTPS, Maybe a lime or two on my 3 year old lime tree, a few handfulls of berries off my Wineberry Raspberry & TC Blackberry plants (almost 4 years old now), the usual few different types of tomatoes (Sungold again, for sure! Plus, I want to try San Marzano again), a few varieties of both hot and sweet peppers, the 2 grape plants in their second year (in desperate need of an in-the-ground home), more fruits maybe, Garlic, herbs, etc., etc., etc.! =)

Stay tuned for the list of what I got from Baker Creek this year & a different approach (more custom) to my seed starting.....

Winter Garden Veggies Germinating!

2010-10-26T15:47:00.007-05:00

Here are a few pics of the germination success i've had so far with my Winter Garden veggies:

Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato:

Sorrel:

Cherry Bomb Pepper (Wicked excited about this one germinating! Wasn't sure how peppers would do indoors in a Winter garden):

And last, but not least, a few babies on the grape tomato plant I got from the Fall Middle Tennessee Plant Swap:

Angel Trumpet Cuttings Rooted!!!

2010-10-25T14:14:00.002-05:00

I received 4 Angel Trumpet cuttings (2 pink & 2 purple, I believe) from a friend at the Fall Middle Tennessee Plant Swap. I simply kept them in water for about a week & they all grew tons of root nodes and a few even had a root or two growing off them! I potted them up this past Saturday and am looking forward to seeing new growth on them very soon. =) They are inside with the rest of my Winter Garden. Picture of one of the cuttings & its roots below. let me know what you think. I'm wicked excited about them! - Steve

TNVeggieGardner Lives On! =)

2010-10-18T16:44:00.003-05:00

Yes, I am still alive...lol. Look for blog posts about my indoor Winter Garden to come soon. Sorry if I haven't been keeping up with this blog the past several months. Just had a lot going on in my personal life. =) For now, enjoy the pictures below of the beginnings of my Winter Garden. In the cups are 2 varieties of tomatoes, 4 varieties of peppers, sorrel & china white mini rose, all from seed...

Garlic Harvested!

2010-07-11T22:04:00.003-05:00

My first garlic harvest ever. This is the first year i've grown it & I love it! I imagine I will grow it every year now. =)

California White Garlic:

Elephant Garlic (A bit bigger than the Cali White above! lol):

Recent Tomato Harvest Pictures

2010-06-17T12:00:00.007-05:00

Thankfully, as lousy as my temporary garden looks this year (from neglect, wind burn, etc.), I am still getting somewhat good harvests from it! Once I get into my new place/apartment here within the next few weeks, I plan on sowing a ton of seed for a Fall/Winter indoor garden of sorts (for my personal satisfaction to make up for all that I gave away this year & all that happened to the plants I kept). Anyway, here are some pics of tomatoes I have harvested so far. These don't show everything, but they give you enough of a look to let you know that Steve's Garden is still going strong despite everything that happened! =)

A few of the first Rutgers harvested, around May 28th:

Sungold, Sungold Select II & Rutgers from around June 3rd:

Sungold, Sungold Select II & Rutgers from around June 12th:

Sungold, Sungold Select II & Rutgers from around June 14th:

The Temporary Garden

2010-05-31T17:06:00.005-05:00

Here they are, most (minus 4 tomato plants & an Iris) of what I brought with me from my garden...

Finally, An Update!

2010-05-24T14:02:00.007-05:00

I haven't updated my blog in about a month due to some personal issues going on. I'm going to try to get back to updating it regaularly as I can. For now, here's a picture of the 4 Sungold tomatoes I harvested yesterday and a handful of other recent pics. First maters of the year on May 23rd...Yay! =)

The Sungold's:

A Sungold tomato cluster:

First Nasturtium bloom! (I have 2 now...These orange ones are beautiful!):

The last of my Dolly Madison's (Gave the rest away at the MTPS this past weekend):

Marigold that I grew from seed:

Rutgers tomato cluster (2 of these are blushing now!):

Triple Crown Blackberry Buds! (About 10 or so flowers open on this plant now...Yay berries!):

The "Butt Mater"

2010-04-24T22:27:00.006-05:00

I haven't had a fused bloom or megabloom in a while, so this is kind of exciting. It will be interesting to follow the progress of this tomato, that I have dubbed the "butt mater". =)

The always beautiful, growing nicely, Kerria Japonica (Japanese Rose):

One of the Dolly Madison's. They are all getting very close to opening!

One of my softneck garlic's, still growing great:

2 wee Sungold tomatoes growing. I am really aching to taste these. Supposed to be one of the most popular & best tasting cherry tomato types:

A few weekend pictures of new growth

2010-04-18T21:49:00.010-05:00

A small update on a few of my favorite plants this year that have been dramatically changing/growing over the past 2 weeks or so...

Dwarf Lime Tree (Tons of new growth...looking great! I may get a few limes off it this year):

Dolly Madison & Canna Flower Bed (Hopefully, a few more Cannas will pop up to fill in the center):

Close-up of Orange Cannas (These are beautiful flowers when they bloom!):

Garlic Chive Flower Buds (I'm excited about these! First year i've seen flowers starting on these 3rd year chives):

Nasturtiums (5 out of the 20 or so have germinated already...Should hopefully be a full basket of them soon!):

The 2 Biggest Tomatoes So Far (These should be my first 2 non-cherry tomatoes to ripen...They are about golf ball sized right now!):

Strawberry Bed (Some huge leaves on these things...They grow about a set a day & have had 2 flowers bloom so far):

Update On Baby Tomatoes

2010-04-16T11:40:00.003-05:00

Below are two pictures I took of some of my baby tomatoes yesterday afternoon. The first pic is of 2 growing on one of my Wisconsin 55 plants & the second pic is of 1 growing on my Rutgers plant. Total, on all my tomato plants, I think I have like 5-6 growing so far. I'm wicked excited about getting some tomatoes possibly as early as late May! =)

Better Picture of First Tomato & Sungold Flowers Open!

2010-04-12T20:01:00.003-05:00

The subject explains it all. I have two small tomatoes (about 1 cm thick) growing on one of my Wisconsin 55 plants now. The first pic is of one of them. I also have 2-3 more small tomatoes on other plants that are still too tiny to take a good picture of. The second picture is of one of the few Sungold tomato flowers now sopen! Yay! I' m really excited about growing Sungold this year. It' a sweet orange cherry tomato that's a favorite of many.

Long gardening weekend, butterfly garden finished & first tomatoes!

2010-04-11T20:49:00.043-05:00

I probably worked at least 14 hours, total both days, on preparing my garden for Spring. Some of the things I did this weekend are:

*Potted up 7 of my January 23rd sown tomato plants most of which are flowering already (2 of them have mini maters!).
*Potted up about 8 other smaller tomato plants (ones started mid February).
*Potted up Red Dragon Flower plants, Indian Mint, Bee Balm.
*Potted up all of my pepper seedlings (about 25 or so).
*Put up hanging bracket for Nasturtiums (so they don't keep getting blown off that da** tree branch I had them on! lol).
*Put up 2 more hanging brackets which are holding metal/coir baskets that will be homes for two cherry tomato plants.
*Finished preparing butterfly garden. I even expanded it by adding an about 4x4 ft section. Butterfly garden contains the following: 5 Dolly Madisons bulbs (Planted about a month ago & already looking great!), 3-5 UT Orange Cannas (depends on how many come back up...2 have already), 9 Red Fire Canna bulbs, a handful of Vitex Chaste Tree seeds, scattered Four O' Clocks Rose Beauty seeds, scattered Pink Wistera seeds, Gladiolus bulbs, a Keria Japonica centerpiece & scattered Gateway Joe Pye Weed seeds.
*And more stuff i'm forgetting right now! =)

Here's a round of pics I took this weekend as I finshed things, discovered stuff, etc. (not pictured are several tomato plants not in their final homes yet, pepper seedlings, flower seedlings, my African Violets, 2 cacti, 14 Mixed Heirloom Iris, Daffodil, White Hyacinth & a few other small plants):

First tomato!!! (top middle of picture):

Alliums & more (2 pots California White Garlic, 2 pots misc. softneck garlic, 1 pot Elephant garlic, 1 pot white onions, Egyptian Walking Onions, Bee Balm & a few others):

Bee Balm (before being potted up):

Better Boy Tomato:

California White Garlic (1 of the 2 pots of it):

Container Strawberries (May get my first fruit harvest off this plant!):

Dolly Madisons (These should start blloming in 2-3 weeks! 2 of the 5 in first picture & close-up of one in second picture):

Dwarf Lime Tree (Close-up of the new growth):

Ehyptian Walking Onions (Haven't walked away yet...lol):

Elephant Garlic (3 of the 6 are newly planted bulbs from a few weeks ago):

Flower Seedlings (about a third already removed from here & potted up to cups...I'll get a list on here soon of what i'm growing):

Future home of some cherry tomato plants (probably Sungold or Sungold Select II):

Grape plant buds (I know this is a wocked blury pic where you can't really see much of anything, but I had to try to take one! Upon close inspection of my grape plants, one of them has a handful of what look like bud sets!):

Indian Mint (I love this plant, thanks herb lady! =) One of these days, i'll use some of it to cook something...lol):

Mother of 1000 Plants (Two in the front are cuttings I received a few days ago in the mail, still rooting & will hopefully make it. The one in the back is all that's left of the beautiful one I received last Fall at the MTPS. =( I killed the mother, but this baby had been nurtured for about 5 months now & is doing well!):

Nasturtiums (This pot started with only like 4-5 seeds in it...I want these to be fuller this year, so I put about 15 more seeds in this a few days ago):

New Succulent (I have no idea what it is...I went to my favorite organic nursery last week to look around & just had to buy a few plants, this being one of them...looks cool eh?):

Niagra & St. Croix Grape Plants (2 in back are Niagra & 1 in front is St. Croix. The 1 in front has the buds shown above):

Patchouli (Also came from my favorite organic nursery):

Persimmon Tomato:

Red Dragon Flower Plants (These things are so fragile! The plant in the cup, 4th back, is new because it fell off one of the others, so I had to get it rooting...lol):

Rootbound Tomato (Perfect example of how root bound tomato plants can get, even in slightly large pots! This is a pic of one of my 3ft+ tall plants pictured here on this post, before I put them in the 5+ gallon pots. It was in a 1 gallon pot. The whole thing slid out of the pot easily because it was 99% roots!):

Rutgers Tomato:

Sedums (1 "Dragon's Blood" & 4 Blue Spruce...Two of which are babies I didn't even know existed that I found in the bottom of the pot they were all in before being separated):

Stevia (First one is my attempt at growing this from seed, which is supposed to be really hard! I would have had 4 of these wee babies if I hadn't drowned the other 3 while watering them all. The 2nd pic is one I found at the organic nursery):

Strawberry Bed (Some massive leaf sets on these bad boys...They should give me a handful or two of berries this year...Thanks, Dave!):

Sungold Tomato (My two biggest, got potted up to their final homes yesterday):

Triple Crown Blackberry (Should get a few handfulls of berries of it this year):

Wandering Jew (Absoltely beautiful & cool plant!):

White Onions (Growing great! Father-in-law gave me some seed onions for these that he got at a local co-op...They're obviously great quality, like co-op stuff usually is...I have about another 2 pots worth I need to plant asap):

Wineberry Raspberry (Great healthy plant! I should get a bunch of berries off it this year...Thanks Evelyn!):

Wisconsin 55 Tomato:

Happy Gardening! - Steve

Spring 2010 Garden Pics

2010-04-05T12:12:00.020-05:00

Here's a few quick pics I managed to take in between the ton of work I got finished this weekend. I managed to put together my cold frame, re-stake all my tomato plants, pot up some flower seedlings & set all my vegetable plants outside to start hardening off. All the plants, minus the 7 big ones I have left from my January 23rd set spent the night outside on Friday night & did just fine! =) They were all in my greenhouse. I thought of a neat little trick to keep them toasty & humid in there. I took the bottom half of a peat pellet greenhouse, placed it on the bottom shelf below all the plants, and filled it with hot (as hot as I could get from faucet) water right before I went to bed. It seems to help the environment tremendously. I will probably continue to do this for any even slightly cool nights we have until after last frost date.

Saturday, I got the cold frame put together, then put 90% of the stuff that was in the tall greenhouse into it. I then brought down my 7 large tomato plants. I was only able to fit two of them & two medium sized ones in the greenhouse. It seems like a slight watse, but no big deal. The other 5 that I couldn't fit in there were re-staked of course, then I tied the top of each stake to my deck fencing. They are in dire need of larger pots. The 1 gallon cursery containers are not cutting it anymore. I have to water them twice a day (and they still fade a bit before I get home), plus i'm sure they are starting to get root bound in there. I'm going to see if I can buy a load of 5 gallon nursery containers at lunch or later today. Anyways, all 7 of the larger plants spent the night outside Saturday night and did fine. =) They got a little limpy, but that's just because of their current water needs in the 1 gallon pots. Hopefully, we will not have a last frost (Blackberry Winter) so I can keep all the plants outdoors for the rest of the season. If we do though, it will be a lot of work to bring them all back inside just for one night, which will not be fun! Anyway, enough babble from me, here are the pics. =)

Cold Frame (Everything that hasn't already been outside, except the 7 large tomato plants & 2 medium sized ones):

Greenhouse (2 of the 7 large tomato plants & the 2 medium sized ones):

2 of the 7 January 23rd tomato plants:

3 of the 7 January 23rd tomato plants:

Bee Balm (I've been wondering if I need to separate this...):

Dolly Madison's Coming Up!:

Garlic (Both are the softneck varieties I received from a trade on GardenWeb. They are doing well so far!):

Garlic Chives (Doing well & getting thick, in their 3rd year):

Grape bed/plants:

Nasturtiums:

"UT Orange" Canna's (Plant on the bottom. One on top is a Sunflower. I was excited to see this pop through, as I didn't know if these survived or would even come back if they did!):

Strawberry Bed (Didn't do much at all last year, but I didn't receive them until the Fall. They're looking great this year! Hopefully, i'll get some berries. Thanks, Dave!):

Tulips:

Seed List 2010

2010-04-01T13:08:00.002-05:00

I am very thankful this year to have received so many awesome items via seed trades! Below is a full list of everything I have, a good bit of it (about 1/3rd) already sown & growing this year.

TOMATOES:
Sweet Carneros Pink
Pink Berkely Tie-Die
AAA Sweet Solano
White Currant Heirloom
Amazon Chocolate
Roma Rio Grande
Dr. Wyche's Yellow
Matt's Wild Cherry (only about 5 seeds...I need more of this!)
Brandywine Sudduth's Strain 09 X2
Henderson's Pink Ponderosa (Baker Creek Free Pack)
Roma Rio Grande (Baker Creek)
Amish Paste (Baker Creek)
Orange Banana (Baker Creek)
Sungold Select II (Baker Creek)
Black Cherry (Baker Creek)
Sunsugar Hybrid (Jung Seed)
Yellow Brandywine (Jung Seed)
Yellow Pear (Jung Seed)
Martino's Roma 09
Gardener's Delight 09
Ashleigh 08
Boondocks 09
Break O' Day 09
Gary' O Sena 09
Indian Stripe 09
Sprite 09
Snow White 09
Thessalonki 09
Cherokee Purple 09
Rutgers (Commercial Packet)
Better Boy 08
Wisconsin 55 Red 09

PEPPERS:
Tuscan Sun Hybrid Sweet
Chile De Arbol (Cowhorn)
Mixed Hot Peppers (300 or so seed)
Tabasco (Baker Creek)
Thai Yellow Chilli (Baker Creek)
Thai Burapa Red (Baker Creek)
Chocolate Habanero (Baker Creek)
Carribean Red Habanero (Baker Creek)
Sweet Yellow Stuffing (Baker Creek)
Sweet Red Stuffing (Baker Creek)
Mariachi Hybrid (Jung Seed)
Yummy Sweet Mini-Bell (Jung Seed)
Long Slim Red Cayenne (09 from my garden)
Hot Banana Hybrid (09 from my garden)
California Wonder Bell (09 from my garden)
Cherry Bomb 09
Yellow Bell (09 from my garden)

HERBS:
Agastache Foeniculum (Licorice Mint) 09 X2
Victoria Rhubarb (only stalk edible) Herb/Flower
Burpee Big Italy Parsley
Sage Broad Leaf
Long Island Mammoth Dill
Tarragon
Mustard
Burpee Cinnamon Basil
Stevia (Baker Creek)
Echinacea Purpurea (Baker Creek)

FRUITS:
Purple Passion Fruit
Orange Passion Fruit

ALLIUMS:
Bianca Di Maggio Onion (Baker Creek)

OTHER EDIBLES:
Alibi Hybrid Cucumber (Jung Seed)
Connecticut Field Pumpkin (Jung Seed)
Jung's Sweet Repeat Lettuce Mix (Jung Seed)
2 Unknowns (Possibly Fruits)

FLOWERS:
Splendens Sea Pink 09
Clematis (Jackamanii) 09
Gloriosa Daisy 09
Cleome Hassleriana (Rise Queen)
Dwarf Sunflower
Hollyhock Chater's Magenta (Alcea Rosea)
Crazy Daisy 09
Hollyhock Single Pink 09
Tithonia Fiesta Del Sol (Mexican Sunflower)
Yellow Butterfly Weed 09
Alaska Daisy 09
Gomphrena Strawberry
Speedwell Red & White Mix 09
Mixed Marigolds
Gaillardia Aristata $ Grandiflora Mix
Blanketflower Arizona
White Datura 09 X2
Red Texas Star Hibiscus 09
Pink Coneflower 09
Black Eyed Susans
Blackberry Lily 09 X2
Penstemon Huskers Red
Red Cypress Vine
White Butterfly Ginger (edible??) 09
Mixed Cosmos 09
Ipomoea Macrorhiza (Pink Moonvine) 09 X2
Short Blue Balloon Flower
Japanese Morning Glory (Cornell)
Mixed Datura
Mammoth Sunflower
Yucca 09
Nasturtium Mixed 09
Hyacinth Bean Vine 09
Morning Glory Mixed Blue & White
Sweat Pea Vine (Purple) 09
Lavender Mix
Mexican Hats Coneflower
Foxglove Excelsior Mix
Datura Lilac Le Fleur
Beach Morning Glory
Mexican Top Hats Harvest Moon Mixed Cone Yellow
Canterbury Bells (Blue) 08
Zinnia (Unknown Variety)
Morning Glory Mix
Yellow Multi-head Sunflower
American Bellflower
China White Mini Rose
Damask Rose (Dark Pink)
Rosa Glavca Rose (Purple)
Purple Pavement Rose
Hansa Ragosa Rose
Mixed Roses
Asclepias Curassavica
Pride of Barbados (Orange & Yellow) 09
Four-O-Clock Yellow 09 X2
Jung's Garden Splendor Annual Mix (Jung Seed)
Canterbury Bells Cup & Saucer

COMMERCIAL FLOWER PACKETS:
Poppy Shirley
Chianti Hybrid Sunflower
Columbine Long Spurred
Cynoglossium Firmament (Chinese Forget-Me-Not)
Zinnia Lilliput
Aster Crego
Nasturtium Scarlet Gleam

OTHER:
Money Plant 09
Verbascum Album
Pidgeon Peas
Castor Beans 09 X2

Wow that took a long time to type out...lol. =)

Fully Blooming White Hyacinth!

2010-04-01T11:37:00.002-05:00

Absolutely beautiful...

Bloomin' Spring!

2010-03-25T22:08:00.001-05:00

Beautiful...My Daffodil...

First Tomato Flower Bud About To Open!

2010-03-23T12:27:00.002-05:00

I didn't even know this plant had a bud set yet. I was checking on them last night & saw a good sized (about 1 and 1/2 cm) bud on one of my tomato plants that looks like it's about to open! =) I'm excited, but this means I need to get them outside in the cold frame soon, or the flowers may drop off the plants. Here's a pic of the bud. The color in it is miserable cuz it was taken at night with my camera phone.

Garlic, Lots of Irises & Tomato Buds

2010-03-22T11:57:00.005-05:00

First off, I finally received the last 2 items from my Jung order. The St. Croix Grape plant looks great, but the California White Garlic was ridiculously moldy. =( I called Jung immediately after I saw this. The lady was like, "Well, sometimes there's surface mold on the garlic. Is it squishy?" I told her that yes, it is squishy & that the mold runs halfway through the cloves. Not too big of a deal, as I just received about 30 garlic starts (4 different kinds) in the mail this weekend that are perfectly healthy (no mold). So, i'll plant some of that instead.

Some of you may have heard of my great Craigslist find. I bought bag of easily 40+ heirloom Iris starts from a nice lady in Brentwood for only $5! I potted up as many as I had pots for this weekend. I should have several to give away at the MTPS, and also several for my 2010 Flower Garden. Yay! =) I also gave about 10 to my neighbor and still have 10 or so left I didn't have pots for. I'll have to figure something out soon before they go bad/die/rot. I've been meaning to call this guy who owns a nursery in Murfreesboro. He's going to sell me 1 gallon nursery pots for 5 cents & 5 gallon ones for 40 cents. Great deal.

Tomato Buds Are Here! =)
I have 2-3 sets of tomato buds growing now on the 7 plants I have left from the seeds I started January 23rd. It's gonna be great to about have little tomatoes growing right when I put the plants outside in their final homes mid to late April. Below are 2 pics of my indoor setup (mostly tomato plants with some peppers in the 72 cell flat & some Stevia in the 6 cell coir flat) along with about the best pic I could get of one of the bud sets.

You can kind of see the bud set growing off the main stem about in the middle of this picture. =)

An Update on the rest of Steve's Garden: My garlic chives continue to grow very well. The Triple Crown blackerry plant has a ton of little 1 cm or so long leaf buds/starts on it, along with a new cane stub growing. The Wineberry Raspberry plant leaf stubs/starts are growing excellent! They are all over an inch long now & you can see the little leaves growing out now. Both my strawberry bed & container strawberry plants continue to grow, just new leaf sets for now. I have about a 40% germination rate so far on the flowers I started from seed about 6 days ago. =) They are outside in my tall shelf greenhouse & seem to be doing fine with the bit colder temperatures. I have yet to have my Canna's, Sunflowers, Nasturtiums or any other buds/seeds planted straight into beds/pots pop through yet though. I'm hoping I'll start to see some this week.

More signs of Spring...Berry Growth...Yay!!!

2010-03-19T11:53:00.002-05:00

I checked out all of my plants after I got home from work yesterday, like I always do. No bulbs popping through yet. I do have a good bit of berry growth though. My strawberry bed is showing a new leaf set on almost every plant. I went to take a close inspection of my Wineberry Raspberry plant & saw hundreds of little cm or 2 long buds (about every 2-3 inches, for new branch with berry growth) all along each of the canes! I'm so excited to finally get some berries this year. Also, my Triple Crown Blackberry plant is showing the same kind of growth, but they're a bit smaller on it & much harder to take a picture of. Here's a slightly blurry pic of the ones on the raspberry plant. =)

Greenhouse #1 Put Together!

2010-03-18T12:59:00.003-05:00

This is the one I bought for $40 at Lowe's. One heck of a deal, IMO, as i've seen it sold for $60-$70 other places! =) It didn't require any tools. All snap together type stuff & sturdy too. It took a bit of strength to get it all secure, which is a good thing. It has a nice clear cover with zippered door. I plan on putting my cold frame together soon. This greenhouse will hold me larger seedlings that will not fit in the cold frame. I will probably take out the 2nd & 4th shelves so I can fit up to 3 ft tall seedlings on the two that remain.

Sowing my 3rd set of seeds: Flowers & Herbs

2010-03-16T15:46:00.010-05:00

Yes, I started more seeds! ;-) It's looking quite hopeful that I may actually make it to the Spring MTPS (Middle Tennessee Plant Swap)! Yay! So, I should have plenty to give away there. I have been mainly a vegetable and fruit gardener up until recently. This year, I wanted to start some flowers for my daughter and to pretty up the garden a bit. Most of them are great companion plants for veggies anyways. So, last night I sowed 50 more coir pots of seeds (anywhere from 1-4 seeds a pot, depending on seed size, etc.). I did about half flowers & half herbs. Below are lists of the items sowed, along with some example pictures of the flowers. I hope they germinate well, as they're all so beeautiful! =)

03/17/10: "Plant Care" links added for me as a reference for taking care of these flowers I know nothing about...lol.

Steve's Flower Garden 2010 (Pictures that follow are exaple pictures from web. Hopefully mine will look even half as beautiful!):

Black Eyed Susan:

Plant Care

Blackberry Lily:

Plant Care

Blanketflower:

Plant Care

Dwarf Cornflower:

Plant Care

Pink Coneflower:

Plant Care

Red Texas Star Hibiscus:

Plant Care

Small Blue Balloon Flower:

Plant Care

White Datura:

Plant Care
***Whoa...gotta keep this one growing in a safe place. Very poisonous!

I am also growing some mixed Nasturtiums & some Sunflowers.

Steve's Herb Garden 2010:

Tarragon
Long Island Mammoth Dill
Cinnamon Basil
Mustard Plant
Broad Leaf Sage
Echinacea Purpurea

Last, but not leat, I received these seeds from a seep swap, finally. With all the maters I already have growing, I still need to try at least a few of Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato! =)

Let me know what you think of my flower selections. Also, I am new to growing all of these flowers & most of these herbs. I will study up on them as I can, but it would greatly help iff you have any hints or tricks for any of them from seed all the way up to adult plant. Thanks!

Weekend Work

2010-03-14T17:46:00.010-05:00

I set out wanting to accomplish one gardening task this weekend, prepare my fruit garden bed. Despite the cold temperatures, cloudy overcast & occasional rain, I got about 2 good hours of gardening work done. I got the fruit bed prepared...Well, it's actually the fruit & flower bed now. I didn't want to try and move my Kerria Japonica or UT Orange Canna's. So, flowers on the left (Canna's & 5 Dolly Madison bulbs), Kerria Japonica as the centerpiece. Then the strawberry bed and finally my 2 Niagra grape plants with trellace on the right. The grape plants already have some small growth on them too! I love the way it looks already, even though it will look 100 times better in a month or so when the bulbs start to come up, KJ blooms, grapes grow, etc.. I still need to add a top layer of mulch/soil around the flowers & KJ, but i'll probably wait until after they come up before I add it so it doesn't inhibit them popping through. A few pics I took of the fruit & flower bed after finishing the work...

By the way, I HATE CRABGRASS!!! lol

The whole thing:

The flower bed (doesn't look like much yet with everything still being below ground!):

The Kerria Japonica (Absolutely beautiful plant when it blooms):

The strawberry bed:

The Niagra grape plants (looks like I just stuck two twigs in the ground, huh? =) ):

One more tidbit...I cleaned out all the pine needles, leaves & weeds from my container strawberries. They are starting to grow. =)

The most beautiful sign of Spring to come...A Rainbow

2010-03-12T20:32:00.003-06:00

I barely had the chance to catch a double rainbow with my camera phone! =) The first picture is the single rainbow. It must have been visible for at least 2-3 minutes if not more...

Spring is here! First signs of life in Steve's Garden

2010-03-10T20:54:00.002-06:00

When I got home from work, after eating dinner, I went outside to give my outdoor dormant alliums, fruit plants, etc. a watering. I find a few late Winter/early Spring waterings will spring (pun intended...lol) things back to life a bite early sometimes. =) Well, after I was done, I decided to do something I need to do for each of the plants, 1 at a time...clean off all the pine needles from the surface & remove any weeds that had grown in the containers over the Fall & Winter. Knowing I had to later unload 500 lbs of Pro Mix potting soil (which I got at a steal of $5.85 per 1 & 1/2 cubic foot bag!) from my truck, I decided to only clean & deweed my 3rd year Garlic Chives. Well, after doing so, I just happened to see that they're growing! I love these things. You could stick them in a closet in your attic & never water them and I swear they'd still come back next year! lol. Anyways, I counted about 12 of them at anywhere from an inch to 3 inches or so. That means they've been growing for at least a week. Awesome. The beauty of Spring starts in Steve's Vegetable Garden...

This discover, along with finding the excellent deal on the Pro Mix has me wicked excited & ready to start gardening! I think i'm going to prepare my fruit bed & plant some of the fruits in it this weekend. I'll post the final product on here after i'm done. Until then, Welcome Spring!!!

An update on the veggies that are growing so well!

2010-03-02T18:13:00.011-06:00

The first round of tomatoes, at 35 days from seed in dirt (when pictures were taken Friday February 26th), are doing great! I really think the Foliage Pro 9-3-6 fertilizer & a better container potting mix are helping tremendously. =)

The 2nd round of tomatoes, started from seed on February 11th (except for the 2 on the bottom right, which were started a week before the others in this set):

The wee pepper seedlings. I didn't get that great of a germination rate in this Germination Station. So, next time I use it, I will try a different seed starting mix (one that doesn't dry out so quickly!):

My new inexpensive light setup for the tomato seedlings!

2010-02-20T20:32:00.003-06:00

$21.67 at Home Depot...

2 75 watt Eco-Friendly CFL's.
2 8 & 1/2 inch light fixtures with clamps

33 tomato plants...

- Steve

First pepper seedling update of 2010!

2010-02-19T12:46:00.002-06:00

Finally, after painfully waiting for my pepper seeds to germinate, some of them have popped through the soil! =) I counted them last night and so far I have 4 Caribbean Red Habanero's & 3 Sweet Yellow Stuffing Pepper seedlings. I'm excited to get some pepepr plant seedlings started pretty early this year. Especially since most of the seeds I started are heirloom peppers. On another similar note, 2 of my Lavender Hyssop seedlings germinated a few days ago. This is awesome to me, as I hear Lavender is quite hard to grow from seed. I'll post a few pics of these wee babies probably sometime in the next few days.

Jung order arrived & Tomato seedling update

2010-02-18T17:36:00.006-06:00

Finally, the last of my gardening orders placed almost 2 weeks ago arrived yesterday. I got everything I ordered from Jung except for the California White Garlic & St. Croix Grape plant, which are on backorder. That kind of stinks, but is ok since I probably wouldn't be planting either of them yet anyways.

Jung seed packets I received yesterday (doesn't include a few in my original post that I ordered for the father-in-law):

Alibi Hybrid Cucumber
Yellow Pear Tomato
Connecticut Field Pumpkin
Yellow Brandywine Tomato
Mariachi Hybrid Pepper
Sun Sugar Hybrid Tomato
Yummy Pepper

Next, a short, but sweet picture update of the first set of tomato seedlings, which I started from seed in dirt(pellet) on January 23rd. They are my typical crappy camera phone pictures, but a bit less crappy this time due to good light! Yay for a quick taste of Spring! =) Some of these tomato plant seedlings appear to be leaning a bit, so I will probably give them some mini-stakes later tonight when I get home.

Rutgers:

Persimmon:

Better Boy:

Wisconsin 55:

This is the SSE facing window setup. The cups on box are tomato seedlings that were just last night potted up. They are Amish Paste, Black Cherry, Sungold & Sungold Select II.

This is the SSW facing window setup.

An update on the tomato seedlings

2010-02-14T20:00:00.009-06:00

They are growing well. I'm tired, so a short post with pictures follows. I gave them their first (diluted about 1/2 strength) dose of the Dyna Gro Foliage Pro 9-3-6 today. =) I have nothing but great expectations for this fertilizer. Thanks, Al from GardenWeb!

Tomato Pics:

First window (SSE facing):

Second window (SSW facing):

Rutgers:

Persimmon (Seem to be doing the best):

Better Boy (Seem to be healthy, yet a lot shorter than the others):

Wisconsin 55:

Sungold (Started later than the others):

- Steve

More Stuff Arrived! =)

2010-02-12T13:09:00.006-06:00

Yesterday, I got 3 more FedEx packages. I received my heating mat thermometer, my fertilizers & my cold frame! Yay! The only thing left, that I have not received yet, is my Jung order. Below are a few pictures of them. Also, I believe I have finalized my list of what i'm growing this year. I have yet to start the Stevia or Echinachea Purpurea because it's too early to do so. I will probably start a few seeds of each in early to mid March. Here's my final list (well, as final as any gardening addict like myself can get...i'm sure a few more items will pop up later on...lol):

Tomatoes:

Rutgers
Persimmon
Better Boy
Wisconsin 55
Sungold
Sungold Select II
Black Cherry
Amish Paste
Martino's Roma

Peppers:

Chillie Chili
Hot Banana
Mucho Nacho Jalapeno
Melrose
Capsicum Baccatum (Pendulum)
Chile de Comida (Guajillo)
Chocolate Habanero
Caribbean Red Habanero
Red Thai Burapa
Tabasco
Sweet Yellow Stuffing

*I may add one or two more sweet pepper varieties when I receive my Jung order.

Other starts this year:

Lavender Hyssop
Mexican Papaya
Garlic Plant
Stevia
Echinacea Purpurea
St. Croix Grape

Ongoing from last year:

Triple Crown Blackberry
Wineberry Raspberry
Strawberries (2 patches)
Elephant Garlic
White Globe Onion
Garlic Chives (will be the 3rd year for these!)
Indian Mint
Dwarf Lime Tree
Dwarf Cavendish Banana

I also have 15 or so various non-edible plants that will continue to grow in my garden this year.

Here are the pics of my newly arrived items. I'm excited about the cold frame & the fertilizers! The cold frame will allow me to get some of the seedlings outside a few weeks or so before the last frost date around here (April 15th-23rd), which is great since I started many of my tomato plants a few weeks before you are supposed to in my zone. Come on July 4th tomatoes!

The fertilizers should give me much more productive & healthy veggie plants this year. I've been researching a better fertilization plan & with the help of a few kind folks from GardenWeb, have found that a 3-1-2 ratio is best for vegetable plants, as it most closely matches what levels of NPK they naturally take in. The Foilage Pro 9-3-6 also has Calcium, Magnesium & a few other essential minerals that should help prevent things like the BER I had last year in my San Marzano's. The Protekt 0-0-3 will be added to my fertilization plan a bit later on & help with fruit production.

This is also my first attempt at using the Germination Station (heated dome seed greenhouse). I'm antsy to see how fast & better it makes the seeds grow.

Heat mat thermostat:

My new Cold Frame (will be put together in mid-March when i'm ready to use it):

The fertilizers:

The Germination Station:

Baker Creek Order & Some IGC Stuff Have Arrived!

2010-02-11T11:55:00.004-06:00

Yay! I am so excited! My Baker Creek order arrived yesterday morning. Excellent fast shipping (bought last Friday night & got here on Wednesday) & I got everything I ordered. I also got my Germination Station & 2 Seedling Propagation Mats from Internation Greenhouse Company (aka Greenhouse MegaStore) yesterday. I'm looking forward to seeing how the heated germination station helps with seed propagation. Here's a few pics of my supplies i've gathered so far. First one is the Baker Creek order, second is the IGC stuff & third is some miscelaneous supplies (insecticidal soap, spray bottles, plant tags, bag of Perlite, etc.) I bought at a few different stores...

Baker Creek Seeds:

Bianca di Maggio Onion
Chocolate Habanero Pepper
Tabasco Pepper
Caribbean Red Habanero Pepper
Thai Red Chilli Pepper
Thai Yellow Chilli Pepper
Sweet Red Stuffing Pepper
Sweet Yellow Stuffing Pepper
Orange Banana Tomato
Sungold Select II Tomato
2 packs Amish Paste Tomato
Roma Rio Grande Tomato
Black Cherry Tomato
Echinacea Purpurea
Stevia

IGC stuff:

Misc. supplies:

A quick update on the tomato seedlings

2010-02-09T01:00:00.003-06:00

At 16 days from seed, they are growing their 2nd, 3rd & 4th sets of leaves! Growing out not up, like I hoped for. My plan seems to be still working this year. I'm now trying to find a good potting medium to replace last years, as I had a Ca deficiency in the San Marzano's & a slight one or two other issues. Along with that search, i'm trying to find a new better fertilization method. Here's a pic of one, crappy cam phone pic, but you can still see the nice 2nd set of leaves. =)

Tomatoes & Stuff...

2010-02-06T20:02:00.004-06:00

The tomatoes are growing up nice, despite son boy wiping out the cherry tomatoes...silly little boy. =) Most plants are now heavily growing in their 2nd sets of leaves. They'll be on the third set of leaves soon...I love this stage when they take off sideways, slowly grow upwards & form a nice sturdy stem. I think the ceiling fan in the room is making them stronger. If used in moderation, a fan definitely helps.

So, I got my tax return this past Friday & had to go a bit crazy with the gardening stuff. I think I stocked up well on seeds & a few things for the long term garden collection. =)

From Jung, like I originally wanted to do:

California White Garlic
Alibi Hybrid Cucumber
Colorado Potato Beetle Beater
St. Croix Grape
Super Sweet Jubilee Hybrid Sweet Corn
Blue Lake Fm1 Pole Bean
Yellow Pear Tomato
Blue Lake S-7 Stringless Pole Bean
Connecticut Field Pumpkin
Yellow Brandywine Tomato
Mariachi Hybrid Pepper
Sun Sugar Hybrid Tomato
Yummy Pepper

From International Greenhouse Company:

1 Cold Frame Double
2 Seedling Propagation Mats
1 Thermostat for Seedling Mat
1 Germination Station

From my new favorite online seed store...Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (I love this place!):

Bianca di Maggio Onion
Chocolate Habanero Pepper
Tabasco Pepper
Caribbean Red Habanero Pepper
Thai Red Chilli Pepper
Thai Yellow Chilli Pepper
Sweet Red Stuffing Pepper
Sweet Yellow Stuffing Pepper
Orange Banana Tomato
Sungold Select II Tomato
2 packs Amish Paste Tomato
Roma Rio Grande Tomato
Black Cherry Tomato
Echinacea Purpurea
Stevia
Bright Green Cap

These are my Tomato Seedling babies so far (see post below for varieties):

- Steve

Excellent Germination Rate On Tomatoes!

2010-02-01T18:27:00.003-06:00

A short but sweet post for now. All 5 varieties of my tomatoes I started in the Jiffy peat pellet greenhouse are doing great! After 6 days, about 60-70% of the seeds had popped up through the soil and straightened out towards the light. Yesterday, the germination rate was easily over 90%. In fact, they are growing so well that, after only 8 days, I already potted up all the Rutgers to their next home and will probably do so with the rest of them as time allows over the next day or two. Below is a picture of the whole greenhouse full, taken yesterday afternoon before I potted up the Rutgers. The picture was taken after I thinned out/pulled about 30 or so weaker looking seedlings! They are starting to get a bit leggy, but will be moved to a sunny windowsil location very soon, which will hopefully help the legginess to stop like it did last year.

On another note, this year I want to keep better track of mineral levels in my potting mixes to avoid BER & the like. I imagine I will get a pH testing kit, read/research a bit on GardenWeb & also change around the potting mix composition a bit.

2010 Garden Begins!

2010-01-27T12:56:00.003-06:00

This past Saturday, January the 23rd, I started 5 sets (set = peat pellet with 3-4 seeds in it) of each of the following 5 varieties of tomato: Rutgers, Persimmon, Wisconsin 55, Sweet Million & Better Boy. I have them in a 25 pellet Jiffy greenhouse (same one I used to start my peppers last year). I'm excited to get my tomatoes started early enough to where I should get those coveted July 4th tomatoes this year! =) I will do the usual & thin out the plants in each peat pellet down to the one strongest. Then, when they have had a second set of leaves growing for about a week, i'll trasplant them up to the semi-translucent plastic cups which worked so well for me last year & finally put them in a sunny windowsil.

Some of you may wonder why I started my tomatoes 11 weeks before one would normally put them outdoors in this zone. I don't want to have to wait until late August before I can harvest any. I have planned it out where I am going to purchase a cold frame that they will go outdoors in sometime in March. This will keep them from cluttering up the house when they get quite large, be a good way to harden them off & also obviously allow me to place them outdoors a few weeks before I normally would.

Here a link to the cold frame i'm thinking about buying: Cold Frame

I plan on starting some peppers, 2 more tomato varieties (Sun Sugar & some type of paste tomato) & a few other items also over the next few weeks. I'm not totally sure what i'll grow for peppers this year, but 2 items that will deffinitely be on the list are some type of Jalapeno (probably the Mucho Nacho ones from Jung) & the Hot Banana pepper that did so well for me last year. I get quite the nice tax return next Friday so I would not at all be suprised if I spend about $400-$500 on gardening stuff alone over the next month...lol. Wish me luck! Pictures soon to come.

UPDATE: I couldn't wait any longer, again! lol...I raided my gardening closet, grabbing some MG Potting Mix & some square coir seedling pots. I ended up starting 2 of the pots of each of the following 5 pepper varieties: Hot Banana (family strain), Mucho Nacho Jalapeno (from Jung), Melrose, Capsicum Baccatum & Chili de Comida (Baker Creek). I put one seed close to each of the 4 corners (ya know, about a half an inch away from any side), so if I have good germination rates like I did last year, I should end up with at least 4-5 (if not 7-8) of each type of pepper plant! =) I say this because the pots are large enough to where the seedlings should be easy to seperate until they get quite large. I also took some of my famous low quality camera phone pics of the peppers & tomatoes I started. The tomatoes should be popping through the peat any day now...

The pepper seeds (love the pumpkin pan, eh?):

The Jiffy peat pellet greenhouse with tomato seeds (open & closed):

- Steve

Propagation Of Rose Cuttings

2009-10-29T19:04:00.005-05:00

My first attempt at propagation (first attenpt at this for anything) is going well! I got a basic rundown of how to do it from a GardenWeb friend who is a Master Gardener. She's awesome (Thanks, April...lol)! Basically, these are the steps she told me:

*Get a 2-liter soda bottle, wash it out & cut it in half
*Put some soil in the bottom half of the cut bottle
*Dip rose cuttings in rooting hormone
*Place cuttings into soil, putting at least 2-3 leaf nodes below soil level
*Water heavily
*Place top of bottle back on (around) bottom half, leaving the cap on, forming a terrarium of sorts
*Put bottle in somewhat sunny location, but not too sunny so cuttings don't get cooked in bottle
*Once rose cuttings start to show a bit of new growth, take top of bottle off for a few hours a day
*Once a good bit of new growth has formed & roots are visible on edges of bottle quite well, etc., transplant & you have new rose plants!

Well, I followed these directions with my 3 Zephrine Droughin Climbing Rose cuttings I got from another good friend on GardenWeb (Thanks, Connie!). They have been "propagating" for almost 3 weeks now. About a week after I started them I saw roots coming off all 3 cuttings. I was so excited (as this is my first real attempt at propagating anything)! =) Now, they have started to get a little bit of new growth & are almost close to the stage where they need to be transplanted. I bet, by the end of November, I will have transplanted all 3 to their own homes. I just think it's awesome to be able to cut a 6 or so inch piece off a rose plant and using what it seems like is so easy of a process, make it into a totally new plant! Below are a few pictures of the process, in chronological order. The first one is from a day or two after I started them. The second is from about 8-9 days ago & the third is from Wednesday morning of this week. I know it's not too easy to see the plants through the bottle, but you can get a general idea of their size (somewhat...lol). Let me know what y'all think. =)

Fall Middle Tennessee Plant Swap Garden Additions

2009-10-19T13:59:00.024-05:00

This past Saturday, the 17th, I attended the Fall MTPS (Middle Tennessee Plant Swap) with about 30 other great kind awesome people! I brought home some beautiful plants. Some of which will make up my new flower garden. I also got several neat herbs which will be my indoor Winter herb garden & more. Below are some pictures of them along with identification. Thanks again to all the great friends from the MTPS who gave me(or traded for) these new additions! =)

UPDATE: All unidentified plants have been named. =) Thanks to some of my gardening friends on here & on GardenWeb for help with them.

OUTDOOR WINTER GARDEN

Aloe:

Bee Balm:

Cereus Tetragonus 'Fairy castle' Cactus:

Caryopteris:

Grape Hyacinth: (Thanks a ton, Evelyn! There must have been over 30 wee bulbs in the lot you gave me!)

Kerria Japonica (Japanese Rose):

Close-up of Kerria Japonica:

Dragon's Blood & Blue Spruce Sedums: (Thanks Jenn F. & Dave for the identification help!)

Cereus Peruvianus Monstrose Cactus:

Strawberry Bed: (Thanks Dave, these should do well. Half of them have already started straightening up!)

Kalanchoe Daigremontiana (aka Bryophyllum Daigremontianum...also known as Alligator Plant & Mother Of A 1000): (I love this plant! It drops wee lil babies into the soil)

UT Orange Canna's: (Jeff: If you see this, you're proud of me now, right? ;) )

INDOOR WINTER GARDEN

Old & New African Violets, Lemon Lime Basil & My Target $1 Plant Tests:

Herbs (Parsley, Greek Oregano, Cilantro, some type of Purple Basil, some other herb I forgot the name of (in bottom left corner), and my new Red Dragon Flower cuttings. Thanks, Wanda!):

Indian Mint (Deffinitely one of my new favorites!):

Wandering Jew:

Fall Seeds & Plants: Preparation For Spring

2009-10-16T16:13:00.004-05:00

Some of you may be aware that tomorrow I will be attending the Fall Middle Tennessee Plant Swap. I already have a handful of pre-arranged trades & i'm sure will be coming home with some other items I didn't expect, also. So, i'll have some new things to grow next year from seeds & plants I get there, plus from seeds i'm getting off the GardenWeb Seed Exchange forum. I am very excited about some of them. See below for my already building list of new items for next year, which include my new flower garden section! =)

New additions:

*Dwarf Pomegranate Tree seeds (will be a great addition to my fruit garden!)
*Kerria Japonica plant
*Zephrine Droughin Climbing Rose plant
*Bee Balm plant
*A few more Red Dragon Flower starts, as my current plant seems on its way out due to the weather :-\
*Melrose pepper seeds
*Wisconsin 55 tomato seeds
*Sungold tomato seeds
*Canterbury bell flower seeds
*Aloe

The Hyponex Experiment Story & Results

2009-09-28T12:45:00.014-05:00

HYPONEX EXPERIMENT

Born: April 5th, 2009
Died: not yet

Many of you may be aware of what I dubbed my "Hyponex Experiment" plant this year. With the cost of pre-mixed Miracle Gro or another type of pre-mixed good quality potting medium (Pro Mix, etc.), I decided to do an experiment of sorts seeing exactly how bad Hyponex Potting Soil is for growing vegetables. I picked a Jalapeno Early Organic pepper plant to use. It's somewhat common knowledge how substandard the Hyponex soil is, but I wanted to see for myself. It supposedly clumps together easily, has sand in the mix, etc., etc..

A great link that shows its composition & also compares it to 4 other types of soil is below.

Potting Soil Comparison

The 40lb (2 cu ft, I believe) bag of Hyponex is about $1.50-$3.00. The same size bag (if it existed) of a Miracle Gro Potting Mix would be over $20! The 1.5 cu ft bag of MG runs about $10-$15. You can see one of the main reasons for my experiment now. =)

This test lasted about 18 weeks, from the day I put the Jalapeno seedling in the Hyponex until just a few days ago when I took the final picture of it (see pics below).

I found that over the first few weeks, with the same exact feeding & watering regiment as my other Jalapeno plants, that there really was not much, if any, noticeable difference! Probably because the plant still held nutrients from it's previous home/medium. I started to notice it was drying out a good bit quicker than the others, so I about doubled the amount of water it got for the remainder of the experiment. I still, throughout the whole 18 weeks, kept the feeding the exact same as my other Jal plants. After about a month to a month and a half, I started to notice the other Jal's leaving it in the dust so to speak. The Hyponex plant was flowering a lot less, producing slower, producing smaller fruit & looking a good bit less healthy (yellowing). It stayed that way for the rest of the experiment lifetime, eventually even yellowing a good bit more over the last month or so. I probably got about 7-10 total Jalapeno's off the plant, most of which were smaller than Jal's off my other plants (which, on average, have already produced 40-60 Jals a piece).

Summed up, Hyponex provides pretty much no nutrition for a plant at all. It does work well as a good physical supporting medium, as I didn't have to stake the plant. I may have done so for a week or two just to be safe, but it was not necessary. The first few weeks with a plant in this soil with show little to no difference than the same type of plant in a better medium. Over time, the plant in Hyponex will show nutrient deficiencies which cause yellowing, low fruit production, smaller fruit production & possibly other effects as well. I would not reccomend using Hyponex for any plant that doesn't love poor quality soil (for instance, it would work just fine for Nasturtiums, as they prefer poor soil). I believe Hyponex, if supplemented with some type of nutrient rich matter, would be just fine for single season plant growth. In fact, next year I plan to continue this experiment. I will put another Jalapeno plant in a mix of Hyponex and some type of nutrient supplement like compost or whatever.

Below is my original introduction blog post about The "Hyponex Experiment" & a picture life-cycle of the plant. Please let me know what you think. If you have any suggestions for the supplement to use with it next year, keeping in mind it must be cheap as I don't want the cost to add up anywhere close to what a good potting mix would cost. Any other suggestions, comments, questions, or anything I may have left out of this post that you're curious about are welcome. =)

Thanks - Steve

Introduction blog post

PICTURE LIFE CYCLE:

05/12/09 (Date of transplant into Hyponex potting mix):

05/18/09:

05/27/09:

06/04/09:

06/11/09:

06/15/09 (First flower):

06/20/09 (First Jalapeno forms!):

06/22/09:

07/01/09 (First Jalapeno continues to grow):

07/06/09:

07/06/09 (closeup):

07/11/09:

07/18/09:

07/30/09:

07/30/09 (closeup):

08/11/09:

08/11/09 (closeup):

09/24/09 (Final picture):

My Latest Additions

2009-09-18T18:10:00.004-05:00

A plate of peppers...Orange Habanero's, Serrano's & Hot Banana's:

Some pickled red & green Jalapeno's, one jar of which I will be bringing to the Fall MTPS, if I can make it there:

A few pictures & some unfortunate news.

2009-09-09T23:39:00.007-05:00

Pictures i've taken since the last update on Steve's Garden are below. Enjoy. =)

The unfortunate news being i've been diagnosed with Avascular Necrosis in my right hip & am having surgery soon...at 32 years old.

Serrano:

Orange Habanero:

Dwarf Banana Tree:

about a week ago...

August 21st...

"Monster Cherry Tomato" seedling experiment plants, at about 7 weeks old are 3 feet tall are confirmed to be to producing maters. =)

Garden Update: Real Harvests Are Starting!

2009-08-11T12:01:00.032-05:00

Welcome back to Steve's Garden. Some of you may be aware that i've already pulled about 40-50 or so Cherry tomatoes. They were all quite tasty! I've also harvested about 5-6 Hot Hungarian Wax peppers, 2 Jalapeno peppers, some herbs & various other small harvests. Well, the pictures below will explain this better, but starting last week, my Early Girl tomatoes are ripening & I probably have well over 150-200 peppers on several different plants that will be ready to pick within the next week or two! Not to mention, I am constantly picking herbs, have pickling cukes well on their way & beans soon to flower. I imagine i'll have a constant flow of fresh veggies for the rest of the season, which is awesome! =)

Here is a round of pictures of only the plants harvested off of already or very soon to be harvested...

First off are a few pictures of some maters I yanked off the plants within the past few days.

My favorite, the Early Girl tomatoes i've picked within the last few days (3 of the maters pictured are from my neighbor):

Cherry tomatoes (This is about 2 days worth off 2 plants. I'll be waiting 2 weeks or so for the next set to come in & start to ripen.):

Next, an update on my dwarf fruit trees.

Dwarf Banana Tree (This thing is taking off bigtime! I love it! Heck, it might be 2-3 feet tall before I have to take it indoors for the Winter.):

Dwarf Lime Tree (Continues to get new growth at the same rate.):

Early Girl Tomato Update (I was so excited to get my first ripe EG this year! With all the crazy weather throwing everyone's plants off where their maters won't ripen, I was a bit worried. Almost every tomato in the following pictures will probably start to ripen & be picked within the next week or two.):

Pepper Plant Update...

Hot Hungarian Wax & One Jalapeno:

California Wonder Bell & Yellow Bell (Cali Wonder first, then Yellow. Both of which now have 4-5 peppers growing on them! I didn't think I would get many of these this year as they just started finally producing fruit about 2 weeks ago.):

Isn't she beautiful?!?! =)

"World's Hottest Habanero" (This plant has probably 40+ Habs growing on it with many more to come soon.):

The "Serrano Tree" (lol...I call it a tree because the dang thing is probably over 4 feet tall now. It also has probably 30-40+ peppers growing on it & many more soon to come.):

The "Hyponex Experiment" Jalapeno (Continues to show yellowing leaf stress/malnutrition from crappy soil, but still producing! It probably has about 6-7 Jals on it currently.):

Pickling Cucumber bed & Yellow Wax Bean bed (cukes still trying to take over, but they've luckily taken to the bamboo I am trying to get them to grow on. I should have a few to pick quite soon!):

My experimental Cherry tomato seedlings, grown from seeds picked out of one of my "Monster Cherry Tomatoes.":

Full Garden Update: End Of July

2009-07-31T14:23:00.044-05:00

It's been about 2 weeks since my last full garden update. A lot has changed. My Bell Peppers (California Wonder) are finally starting to fruit. I have a ton of mini hot peppers on different plants. I continue to harvest a few cherry tomatoes each day or two. Several Early Girl tomatoes should be ready to pick in about 2 weeks or so. My new additions are mostly doing well. The Tabasco pepper plant did not make it, but that's ok because I have a ton of other various peppers growing & being harvested. Steve's Garden goes well. =) Updates on each plant are below.

Dwarf Banana Tree (Did not do much for the first week or so & made me worry. It has started to grow two more leaves/branches though, so all should be well):

Pickling Cucumbers (They have way outgrown their original bed & are starting to intrude on the tomatoes & yellow wax beans...lol):

Yellow Wax Beans (Growing nicely, at about a foot tall. They should start flowering in 2-3 weeks):

California Wonder Bell Pepper (Finally there's a Bell growing on this one after the first 15-20 flowers just dropped off. I think the crazy weather this year has something to do with that):

"World's Hottest" Habanero Pepper (There has to be close to 100 buds on this thing. Already 8-10 little Habs growing. Soon i'll have more than I can handle):

Hot Hungarian Wax Pepper (Continues to produce well. I should have 2-3 more off it in a week or so):

The "Hyponex Experiment" Jalapeno Pepper (4 new Jal's growing on it. The leaves look yellowish, so the poor quality Hyponex Potting Soil continues to strain the plant):

Jalapeno Pepper (My other Jalapeno Early Organic plant. Faring quite a bit better than The Hyponex Experiment one):

Serrano Pepper (Probably over 4 feet tall & just like my Habanero, it has 100 or so buds on the top of it. Some are wee 1 inch peppers, some flowers & some yet to open. This plant should also overload me with peppers soon):

Yellow Bell Pepper (Still yet to give me one Bell. That's what I get for buying it from a chain store...lol):

Chocolate Mint:

Mint:

Lemon Balm:

Mammoth Dill Weed (Still in the process of "going to seed"):

Dwarf Lime Tree (Continues to grow well. Hopefully, i'll get some limes off it next year):

Garlic Chives:

Strawberries (Leaf sets are starting to get big on one of the two plants, so I might get a handful of strawberries this year):

Thai Basil:

Thyme:

Triple Crown Blackberry:

Wineberry Raspberry:

Early Girl Tomato (Growing like mad! Each plant probably has 20-30 tomatoes growing on it, if not more. Some of them will start ripening very soon. Yay!):

The Infamouse "Monster Cherry Tomatoes" (Whole plant pics are kind of hard to make out with the pine tree in the background, but I wanted to at least try and take some of the complete plants. The larger one in the third pic is from an angle where you can't see too many of the tomatoes on it. The fourth pic is of 4 seedlings from one of the plants/tomatoes):

San Marzano Organic Tomatoes (About a 90% BER fatality rate on these so far. Probably 40 or so all started off with BER. I know am doubtful as to the "only the first bunch or two will get BER" theory about these. I'll probably go back to Roma's next year because of this. The second & third pics are of a few sets that have not yet developed BER):

Foam Flower:

Stephanie's African Violet (not sure on the care of this plant, so it's barely making it):

Indian Princess Nasturtiums (I think I followed the wrong advice on these (took out of full sun) & that's why they now look like pitiful spaghetti):

Red Dragon Flower (Looking cooler & cooler every day. I can't wait until it flowers!):

Russian Sage (Pretty purple flowers on this now):

New Plants, Canning & Soon To Be Harvested Veggies

2009-07-19T13:44:00.041-05:00

A quick update this time with a few new plants, a full run of garden pics including a few soon-to-be-harvested veggies & my first canning experience of the year. =)

Here's a few new plant additions to Steve's Garden...

Thai Basil...kind of new...store bought...the only slightly healthy plant left at Wal-Mart...lol.

The newly arrived & transplanted/potted up Dwarf Banana Tree (more like stub...lol). I'm hoping it will grow to give me some bananas in 2-3 years.

A Tabasco Pepper Plant I bought just for the heck of it. It's not doing too well. I don't think it took to the transplant very well, even though all I did was take off the peat pot. I'm hoping it will come around & survive, but it may very well not make it.

Now for a full round of pics of Steve's Garden (sorry if some are slightly blurry...they were taken with my camera phone)...

Early Girl & San Marzano tomatoes. First, a picture of all 4 tomato plants (SM on left & EG on right). Then, a bunch of Early Girl maters that should be picked within the next few weeks! Yay!

Some of you may know that the first 10-15 or so (both plants) of my San Marzano's had BER (Blossom End Rot) right from the start. I was upset about this at first & actually thought it might be the dead blossoms just hanging on. I later found out from my friends on GardenWeb that BER is common in the first set or two for this type of tomatoes & that they should start growing w/o the BER soon. Thanks to them, as I believe I now have evidence that this is true. The first pic below is one of the BER sets I had to yank and the second pic is one of the new sets growing fine so far with no BER showing! =) I have about 7-8 wee Marzano's growing now w/o BER.

Last, but not least, here's my pot of "Monster Cherry Tomato" seedlings. These came from seeds off a freshly picked mater from the enormous Cherry Tomato plants I have growing. Every single one sprouted, but I have thinned them down to the strongest few. This is only 8 days of growth straight from seed! =) For all the non-believers out there (my "sun critics"...lol), they get almost full sun (probably at least 8-10 hours a day).

The flowers & ornamentals...

Foam Flower:

Indian Princess Nasturtiums (lookin like some spaghetti...):

Red Dragon Flower:

Russian Sage (I really think this stuff needs to be in the ground...it's spreading like mad...lol):

African Violet:

The peppers...

Hot Hungarian Wax (one of the few pepper plants I have that's producing well & i've already harvested off)...Yummy peppers a bit hotter than a Jalapeno:

A close-up of the plant above & one of the peppers I picked off it a few days ago:

The "Hyponex Experiment" Jalapeno plant (picked that one Jalapeno off it yesterday & it was tasty! It has a few more buds on it that should open soon):

The other Jalapeno plant (had 4-5 wee Jalapeno's on it currently & should be a good producer):

One of its babies:

The Serrano Tree (lol...it's about 4 feet tall and has 30+ buds soon to open...hopefully, it will be an awesome producer):

"World's Hottest Habanero" (makes the Serrano above look like crap in terms of new buds...this thing easily has 50-60+ little buds on it soon to open...I really hope this one produces well):

Yellow Bell (left) & California Wonder Bell (right). Neither of these have produced a single bell so far this year. They just sit there growing massive floppy leaves. I've seen about 10 or so flowers between the two of them that just disappear...haven't had time to figure out that mystery yet. The Cali Wonder Bell has a wee pepper on it about 1/2 cm long currently. I'm hoping i'll get at least one pepper from this plant:

All the other plants...

Triple Crown Blackberry (on right) & Wineberry Raspberry (on left):

Strawberry (finally starting to grow some bigger leaf sets...maybe i'll even get a berry or two this year...for sure will next year though):

Chocolate Mint:

Mint:

Lemon Balm:

Mammoth Dill Weed (first pic of both whole plants...second one of flower heads):

Dwarf Lime Tree (now over 2 feet tall! I bet i'll get some limes off this thing next year for sure):

Garlic Chives:

Pickling Cucumber Bed:

Texas Sweet Onions (Just sitting there, alive as can be, but doing nothing...I think I planted these at the wrong time of year...i'll just keep them in the same container & see what happens):

Thyme (finally got around to transplanting this one about a week ago...hopefully now, it will grow more):

Here's the results of my first item to be canned this year (not from my garden...a friend of mine at work gave me a bag full of awesome looking Cayenne's...I didn't want to waste any so I pickled some and ate the rest fresh):

The Fruits Of My Labor

2009-07-11T19:29:00.021-05:00

An assortment of pictures showing various fruiting plants in Steve's Garden. I didn't take pictures of the herbs for this one, but they all continue to grow quite well.

Tomatoes

San Marzano Organic :

Some wee ones...

Early Girl Hybrid :

"Monster Cherry Tomatoes" :

Can you tell how many are in the first picture? lol (clues: 5 bud/tomato clusters & the other pictures do not show anything from the first one)...

Hungarian Hot Wax Peppers :

Jalapeno Early Organic Peppers :

THE HYPONEX EXPERIMENT

Last, but not least, a few wee cucumbers (with Mammoth Dill Weed already waiting on them =) ):

First Round Of Pictures At The New Townhome

2009-07-06T22:13:00.043-05:00

Here they are, in no particular order. Short & sweet update They're all camera phone pictures, so be a bit forgiving if they are not the best quality...lol. =) Click on them for a better view.

My Wife's African Violets:

The Crappy Orange Cherry Tomato plant. I put it in a better location today (more sun), so maybe that will help:

The Dwarf Lime Tree (growing nice still):

Foam Flower:

Garlic Chives:

My Daughter Emily's Indian Princess Nasturtiums:

The Red Dragon Flower:

Russian Sage:

Strawberries:

Texas Sweet Onions:

Thyme:

Triple Crown Blackberries:

Wineberry Raspberries:

Steve's Garden At The New Townhome:

The Tomatoes:

The Big Monster Cherry Tomato Plants:

87 inches long...wow! =)

The Early Girl plants. One I didn't think would make it now has wee maters growing on it & is doing fine! =) Check out all the old damage...

The San Marzano Tomatoes...Some wee maters on these...finally!

The Pepper Garden:

California Wonder Bell Peppers:

Hungarian Wax Peppers (Two new babies on this):

The "Hyponex Experiment" Jalapeno Plant & It's single awesome looking Jalapeno:

Almost 3 inches long...

A few other Jalapeno plants:

Finally, I bought this little herb garden in a box deal at Target for $1. I figured it would be a neat little herb garden I could grow for Fall & Winter use. =)

"Monster Cherry Tomatoes" Here We Come! =)

2009-07-05T13:40:00.002-05:00

They are starting to ripen on the plant quicly! The one below was completely green the night before. I expect 5-10 more ripe tomatoes wiothin the next couple of days...

First Ripe Tomato & New Herb

2009-07-03T22:35:00.002-05:00

Here they are...the first ripe tomato from one of the old school "Monster Cherry Tomato" plants. Also, is my new addition. =) The only not 110% sorry or dead plant at Wal-Mart today, it was a fountain of youth in the nasty jungle around it...

Peace - Steve

The First Habanero Flowers Arrive!

2009-07-01T14:31:00.002-05:00

Short & sweet post here. A picture of my first "World's Hottest Habanero" plant flowers is below...

Steve's Garden Expanded...

2009-06-30T00:08:00.013-05:00

I have now finished moving in to a townhome. No more apartment balcony gardens for me! =) Less than a full day since the old apartment was left for good,I already want to put in a Coy pond & waterfall...lol. ;-) Anyways, 3 Alleve couldn't alleviate the muscle aches I have, but I have accomplished a lot. My kids now have a huge deck to play on & I have a huge yard for Steve's Garden...

We'll begin with my

first harvest!!!!

I've already used the heck out of some herbs, fresh from my garden. Finally, after last year's 11 plants didn't ever make it past the flowers (never a single pepper due to spider mites & aphids), my first harvest is 2 Hungarian Wax Peppers, turned yellow a day after arriving at their new home. This offsets the tomato plant disaster, which i'll show you about in a few (*shiver*)...

From this plant...

Speaking of pepper, what's new with that "Hyponex Experiment" Steve has been going on & on about for weeks & weeks...Here she is, with a 2 inch long Jalapeno, a baby one & 5 flowers I can tell will make at least 3 peppers...

THE HYPONEX EXPERIMENT

I love this tree...not only does it shade the deck from the worst of the sun, it allows for some nice hanging baskets which I happen to have. =) My Monster Cherry Tomato plants are the only ones to make it through the move w/o any moderate to severe damage. Then, my pine-needle floor with the rest of my plants. Check out the beginning of The New Steve's Garden...

Berries & Herbs...

Peppers (they love it there with the sun protection from too much wind)& a sorry uprooted broken mater plant that probably won't last a week...lol...was a late decision anyways...

The 4 Stooges...lol...what remains of my 2 Early Girl plants & my 2 San Marzano Tomato plants. One of the Early Girl plants got slaughtered by wind & broken twice by me. :-\ It still lives though! I probably won't get a single tomato off it this year, but I will be happy if it makes it. The three others got massive wind burn on the top 2-3 feet and lost about 5-6 branches a piece...Double caged shortly after this picture was taken...

Baby Peppers, Hyponex Experiment Update & More: June 22nd

2009-06-22T12:11:00.007-05:00

The score for this year so far: Steve: 1, Spider Mites & Aphids: 0! =)Yes, I am winning the battle against spider mites and aphids this year. Yay! After seeing my results so far, i'm almost absolutely sure I must have brought them with me from my uncle's 110 year old house. I've seen literally like 1 or 2 so far this year that have been squished immediately.

I found out from some of the helpful folks on GardenWeb that my unknown variety pepper plant is in fact a Hungarian Wax. So, I now have about 4 or 5 baby peppers growing on that plant. I also have one baby Jalapeno growing on the "Hyponex Experiment" plant! A few other miscelaneous updates are also below.

Some of you may be aware that i'm moving to a townhome (that i'm renting) this coming weekend. Even if i'm not allowed to do raised beds or in-ground plating, I will still have quite a bit more space for my container garden. =) I will also be able to give some plants the sunlight they need that they just cannot get in their current environment, my apartment porch. I will try to post one more complete blog picture update before I move.

First, the peppers. The "Hyponex Experiment" goes quite well. The plant continues to grow at a normal rate. It now has one baby Jalapeno on it & several buds soon to open (within the next week or so). Here's a picture of it from this weekend.

My recently found out to be a Hungarian Wax Pepper plant is below. It's a Burpee 5 pepper seed variety pack plant I received from the MTPS that was unknown until it started to grow peppers. I asked a few knowledgable folks about it & found out what it is. As of this morning, I was able to count 5 wee peppers on it from afar. It may in fact have one or two more I can't see just cuz I didn't look too close.

One other plant I received from the MTPS and am continuing to learn more & more about is my Lemon Balm. I spotted a handful of prettty little white flowers on it Saturday! I was worried that the flowers might make it "go to seed", meaning it would no longer taste good or be harvestable. Most people seem to say it's ok to leave the flowers on it. I'm still not 100% sure what I should do though. I'll probably yank all the flowers off just to be safe. A somewhat blurry camera phone picture of the flowers is below.

Last, but certainly not least, is my favorite plant from the MTPS, a Red Dragon Flower. I haven't done any research on this plant yet, but my green thumb has allowed me to keep it alive. =) It didn't do much at all for the first few weeks. In fact, it started to look like it was on its way out. It got a gash in one of the two "main stems." Over the past week or two, this gash has almost completely disappeared & it is growing a ton of little stubs off the main stems. I guess these will grow out & become full-sized eventually. I'm thinking this plant is a hot summer growing plant just because it didn't do anything until it got quite hot recently. Anyways, here are two pics of the baby stubs.

Baby Hot Peppers & Early Girl Tomato!!! - June 18th

2009-06-18T12:05:00.007-05:00

Some of you may be aware of my laborious war with spider mites on my hot pepepr plants last year (if not, read my 2008 garden post about it). I had 11 total hot pepper plants and never got a single pepper off any of them. In fact, I didn't even get as far as having a baby hot pepper! The spider mites (and aphids) obliterated every bud and flower within a day of it opening (flower) or turning light green (bud). Well, I was quite upset & determined to get some stinkin' hot peppers this year! =) I am now already further than I was last year. I have a various (Burpee 5 mixed Hot Peppers) hot pepper plant that has 4 wee baby hot pepeprs growing on it now. The flowers fell off a few days ago. Yay! I think it's a Jalapeno plant, but won't know for a few weeks. I am not "counting my chickens before they hatch" either & still plan on keeping a close eye on all my hot pepper plants a few times daily for spider mites and/or aphids. I plan on ordering a 1000 or so ladybugs to get rid of them if they do show up because everything I tried last year (easily 10+ sprays/home-made repellents well over $50) did not work. Wish me luck! Here's a few pictures of the wee babies growing so far. Sorry for the blurriness. I'll see if I can get the wife to take some better pictures soon. You can see the baby peppers though & that's the point of the pictures. Click on them to get the bigger/full size version to be able to see the peppers.

Wee Baby Hot Peppers:

Next on this update, is my first baby Early Girl Tomato! I'm wicked excited. It's great that I have so many Cherry maters growing, but I want big ones too. =) I found another wee Early Girl to the right of this one (barely out of the picture) this morning.

A Few Quick Updates: June 15th

2009-06-15T13:31:00.005-05:00

Nothing too fancy about this update. Just a few recent pictures of new & exciting progress in Steve's Garden...

First, is my doesn't count because it's Herbs, first harvest! ;-) Some Lemon Balm, which didn't make it to the dehydrator as it was used almost immediately.

Next is an update on the two largest tomatoes on one of my Cherry Tomato plants. I expect they'll be my first true (not herbs...lol) harvest.

The "Hyponex Experiment" Jalapeno plant is flowering!

Last, but not least, my Yellow Bell Pepper plant is also flowering! =)

The First Strawberry Flower...Stunningly Awesome!

2009-06-13T01:06:00.002-05:00

I say no more...

2009 Garden Pictures: June 11th

2009-06-11T18:00:00.055-05:00

This update contains another round of professional garden pictures taken by Stephanie Boutin Photography. It's been about 2 weeks since the last full garden update. I hope you've enjoyed the little "tidbit posts" in between with various new findings. You'll see another one or two items recently discovered in this post. One of which is my first Strawberry flower (not a runner...runners apparently coming soon, after fruit formation). =) Yay! I've decided, at first, I am not going to prune anything (except dead leaves) off the plants in my ever-bearing strawberry bucket so I can maybe get a handful of berries. If the plant starts to develop problems due to this though, I will prune them.

One of my "Monster Cherry Tomato" plants has a ton of small maters growing (probably about 12-15 so far) and several more on the way soon. It will very possibly produce my first harvest of the year.

A few of my pepper plants are now flowering or within a day or two of doing so. A "Hyponex Experiment" update is below, with its brother Jalapeno Early Organic Pepper Plant. I forgot to take a picture of the Texas Sweet Onions, but they haven't changed much at all. I didn't take a picture of the Mucho Nacho Jalapeno seedlings because they got a bit too wet and lost their bearing somewhat, so they probably won't grow anyways. More information follows, with each picture or set of pictures. As always, please comment, e-mail me or ask me on GardenWeb if you have any questions or whatever. =) Peace - Steve

Failed or given away plants so far this year:

[Failed]Bannana Pepper: Damping off got this one. :-\ It was doing well too. I just let it get too wet.
[Failed]Red Sweet (Yolo Wonder) Pepper: Another victim of damping off. Ugh! I have to learn to watch the moisture level of my pepper potting mixes better.
[Failed]Southport White Globe Onions: Never got much past 2-3 inches. Then they browned up & died. I want to try onions from seed again next year, but apparently have a lot left to learn.
[Given Away]Bush Strawberry: Given away at the MTPS (Middle Tennessee Plant Swap)

California Wonder Bell Pepper:

Cherry Tomatoes (Both now at over 5 feet tall at 12 weeks old from seed in dirt. The first plant has about 12-15 tomatoes growing and a ton more flowers open!):

Mater & flower pics from the first plant above:

Dill Weed (Growing fine still. Finally at the stage where it doesn't fall over all the time...lol):

Dwarf Lime Tree:

Early Girl Hybrid Tomatoes (One of the 2 I have has a handfull of flowers and one wee mater growing now! Only one pic of both this time.):

Buds & flowers:

The wee mater, still hidden by leaves of the flower:

Emily's Indian Princess Nasturtiums:

Garlic Chives (About 50 or so new baby chives growing all around the old row in the middle.):

Jalapeno Early Organic Peppers:

The "Hyponex Experiment" plant (Had 2 buds growing last time I checked.):

My other Jalapeno Early Organic pepper plant:

MTPS Plants

*Baby Gold Goldenrod & Stonecrop given away to a good friend of mine.

Chocolate Mint:

Foam Flower:

Hot Pepper:

4 flowers on it now!

Lemon Balm (Growing like crazy. I need to pick some of it.):

Mint:

Russian Sage:

Sempervivum Cactus (Also known as Hen & Chick.):

Thyme (I need to transplant this to a larger container. I just haven't figured out what kind yet...lol.):

Triple Crown Blackberry (Still no evidence of berry/flower formation, but getting big!):

Wineberry Raspberry:

End of MTPS Plants

Yellow Tomato (Looking a ton better since being potted up):

San Marzano Organic Tomatoes (One of which has a handfull of flowers.):

The flowers:

Serrano Pepper:

Strawberry's (First bud showed up about 2 days ago. Yay!):

First Bud:

"World's Hottest Habanero" (Getting to be a good size. It should start budding soon):

Yellow Bell Pepper (Budding like crazy! =) I'll have some flowers on this one very soon.):

Buds (Kind of a blurry pic...not easy to get a picture of.):

Sweet Basil (Starting to take off a bit. I'll probably have to pot them up soon.):

Cherry Tomatoes Soon & More!: June 7th

2009-06-08T17:59:00.008-05:00

Short & sweet post with a few pictures of what will (barring any unforseen circumstances) be my first two Cherry Tomatoes picked, my first San Marzano Organic flower & a ton of baby Garlic Chives.

Soon To Come on Steve's Garden: "The Hyponex Experiment" update & a complete round of pictures of the garden taken professionally by Stephanie Boutin Photography.

The following 3 pics are of the same two tomatoes...

The first open flower on my 2 San Marzano Organic Tomato plants...

A few of the 50+ Garlic Chive babies I have now. =) I'm happy, as my 2nd year ones growing in the middle row are growing slow lately:

Flower Update: June 4th

2009-06-04T16:14:00.010-05:00

I may or may not post my weekly picture update, as there isn't too much of a difference from last week. A lot of plants grew a good bit in length, width, bud sets, etc.. My Yolo Wonder ("Red Sweet Peppers") died due to damping off, which was 110% my fault. I had an incident with my largest Cherry Tomato plant that was upsetting. I hope it will recover though. I found my first Early Girl Hybrid Tomato flower today & my first Indian Princess Nasturtium flower too! =) Some good new, at least...lol. Pictures below (some a bit blurry due to taking them with my phone camera).

I'll post the good news first. =) Here is a pic I took this morning of my first Early Girl Hybrid Tomato flower...

Three pictures of my first Indian Princess Nasturtium flower. It's extremely beautiful & definitely a candidate for Steve's Garden 2009 Picture Of The Year! I so did not know it was coming either. No evidence of its arrival was present until I noticed a massive flower coming out of one of the three plants in the hanging basket this morning. It could be because they don't grow buds (Do they???). It could also be because the hanging basket is a bit hard to see...

I love the little "tail" it has coming out from the top of the flower...

Now for the bad news. I didn't take a picture of the Yolo Wonder plant that died. I did however take pictures of the Cherry Tomato incident I had. I came home yesterday to find it bent in half somehow. The hanging basket idea, i've found out, is not a good one for this tomato plant (Indeterminate variety, obviously). I had it supported somewhat well though. Apparently, not well enough. I now have it fully supported up to about 1 foot below the top of the plant. I pruned off 2 suckers & one branch that looked like they were going to die from the bend/damage. It sucks, but i'm hoping it will give more energy to the plant to heal its wound. Will the currently growing maters, flowers, buds, etc. above it drop off because of the damage? I hope not, but it's very possible. =( Is there anything I can do to speed up the healing process and make sure buds, maters, etc. don't fall off it (above wound) while its healing? I do not know, but if it starts to look like it won't make it, I sure as heck will Google the crap out of this issue to see if I can save my baby! The "Monster Cherry Tomato" plants must live on! =)

The whole plant, after the "incident." The picture below it is a Before pic from about a week ago. Notice how much nicer it looked then. :-\

If You Plant It, They Will Come...

2009-05-30T23:17:00.003-05:00

It begins...

Here's a few more...

Early Girl bud which should open within the next 2-3 days. =)

2009 Garden Pictures: May 27th

2009-05-29T10:32:00.039-05:00

This is an exciting update, as the wait for blooms on my tomato plants (at least one of them) is over. Also, with the crazy heat & humidity lately, a lot of my various pepper plants have started bolting quite nicely! As always, please feel free to e-mail me with any questions, comments, etc.. If you'd like your Gardening blog linked on here, please also let me know. Thanks - Steve

Bananna Pepper (A little bit of growth on this one):

California Wonder Bell Pepper (Growing very nicely since being potted up to its final container):

Cheapie Target Red Sweet (Yolo Wonder) Pepper:

Cherry Tomatoes (First one is over 4 feet tall now with at least 3 bud clusters, if not more. Two of which have a few flowers open...see previous blog post & One of which I found a wee mater growing on this morning! =) I'll post my first wee mater pics sometime this weekend):

One of the handfull of bud clusters from the first plant above...

Dill Weed (May end up removing the 2nd plant in this pot as the first one is taking over & making it so the smaller plant isn't getting the light it needs):

Dwarf Lime Tree (Almost doubled in size since I received it a little over a week ago! Very healthy plant):

Early Girl Hybrid Tomatoes (I expect these to be the next of my tomato plants to flower...Probably by the end of this weekend...bud pics below):

Emily's Indian Princess Nasturtium's (This basket is all I have left of them...recently added an inch or so thick layer of Canadian Sphagnum Peat on the top):

Garlic Chives (Unfortunately at a stand still for the last 2 weeks or so. I have yet to figure out why. Hopefully, the knowledgable folks on GardenWeb will be able to help me with this one):

Jalapeno Early Organic Peppers (The first one, the "Hyponex Experiment" still goes very well after almost 3 weeks!):

MTPS Plants:

Baby Gold Goldenrod (Starting to flower a little bit):

Cactus:

Chocolate Mint (Growing a nice runner with 3 more of the stems/plants coming up from it! =) ):

Columbine (Not doing too much...just growing at a normal rate...no buds or flower stems yet):

Foam Leaf Plant (Still growing nicely, but apparently still quite young):

Hot Peppers (various unknown...budding nicely & should have open flowers soon!):

Lemon Balm (Still growing like mad):

Mint (Bolting nicely since being potted up):

Red Dragon Flower (Not doing much at all except still looks fine. Maybe I need to feed it?):

Russian Sage (Growing, but slowly):

Stonecrop:

Thyme:

Triple Crown Blackberry (Next on my list of things desperately needing to be potted up):

Wineberry Raspberries (First one needs to be potted up very soon):

End of MTPS Plants

Mucho Nacho Jalapeno (On the left...Growing very slowly...probably have to overwinter this one & wait for peppers next year.):

Nursery Bought Yellow Tomato (Growing quite fast!):

San Marzano Organic Tomatoes (Bud pic included...will probably start flowering in about 2 weeks):

Serrano Pepper:

Store Bought Everbearing Runner Strawberries (Hopefully start sending out runners soon):

Store Bought Texas Sweet Onions (Not doing much of anything...I'm guessing you need a lot of patience to grow these...lol):

Store Bought "World's Hottest Habanero" Pepper (Bolting nicely! Still haven't taken the time to see what actual variety of Habanero this is.):

Store Bought Yellow Bell Pepper (Getting big...mini buds that will hopefully open soon):

Sweet Basil (In the middle...Another late decision...lol...growing fast though):

Tomato Flowers!

2009-05-26T14:28:00.003-05:00

These are my first tomato flowers of the season. They first opened on Friday May 22nd, but these pictures were not taken until Saturday the 3rd. Yay! =) Pics are a bit crazy this time. The first one is blurry cuz I had a hard time wedging my phone under the flower (and keeping it still) to take the picture. The second one is tiny because I somehow changed my picture resolution to the smallest possible (blonde moment...lol).

2009 Garden Pictures: May 18th

2009-05-21T17:45:00.033-05:00

My apartment porch container garden has expanded quite a bit since my last full garden update post on May 9th. This is mostly thanks to the MTPS (Middle Tennessee Plant Swap). It was loads of fun...awesome plants, great Southern cooking & great people to share it with! =) Below are some updated pictures of my garden. I have a ton of buds showing up & two flowers opened as of this morning, May 21st. I'm going to try and organize my update posts alphabetically by the plant name I use (local PC folder name) so that they'll stay in the same order from now on.

A few notes: My Dwarf Lime Tree finally arrived & looks very healthy. Though, I will still never order from Spring Hill Nurseries again. There are some plants missing on here, most of which were traded for other ones at the MTPS. There are a few plants I did not take to the MTPS which I do not have a picture of on this update. I forgot to take a picture of my Yellow Tomatoes, Nasturtiums (2 out of 3 given away at MTPS) & Elephant Garlic (just sitting in the pot not growing waiting for the Fall sibce it was already pulled out of the ground once this year). I don't have one posted of my Mucho Nacho Jalapeno germination progress, as the birds have interfered in it! grrrrrr!!!. As always, please e-mail me if you have any questions, or post a comment on here. Peace - Steve

Bannana Pepper (given to me by my father-in-law a little over a week ago...still a wee seedling):

California Wonder Bell Peppers (only one shown, even though I have at least one more):

Cheapie Store Bought Red Sweet Peppers (Yolo Wonder, I believe is the true name):

Cherry Tomatoes (aka "Monster Cherry Tomatoes," my first plant to flower):

Dill Weed:

Dwarf Lime Tree (FINALLY arrived this past Monday, the 18th, and in great condition too! Yay!):

Early Girl Hybrid Tomatoes (buds appeared over a week ago):

Garlic Chives:

Jalapeno Early Organic Peppers (One of which is the plant used in my "Hyponex Experiment"):

MTPS Plants:

***A lot of these have already been potted up (not shown below) or are awaiting funds to be potted up.***

Baby Gold Goldenrod:

Cactus:

Chocolate Mint:

Foam Flower:

Hot Pepper Flat (various types, all currently unknown):

Lemon Balm:

Mint:

Native Columbine:

Red Dragon Flower (one of my new favorites!):

Russian Sage (ornamental):

Stonecrop:

Thyme:

Triple Crown Blackberries (part of my berry garden this year...mmmmm):

Wineberry Raspberries (another part of my berry garden...also mmmmm...lol):

End of MTPS Plants

San Marzano Organic Tomatoes (buds appeared about a week ago...a bit early for this variety. I'm excited about this!):

Serrano Peppers:

Store Bought Runner Strawberries:

Store Bought Texas Sweet Onions (only one pot left of these, as I used the other for my newly arrived Elephant Garlic. =) I gave the onions I took out of it to my father-in-law):

Store Bought "World's Hottest Habanero's":

Store Bought Yellow Bell Peppers:

MTPS (Middle Tennessee Plant Swap)

2009-05-19T11:58:00.006-05:00

This was my first time attending & it was a ton of fun. There was so much great Southern food & a ton of wonderful people to share it with. =) I brought about 8-10 plants and ended up coming home with about 40 or more! I took a few pictures of what I brought home. I got Chocolate Mint, Mint, Thyme, Lemon Balm, 2 Russian Sage, Elephant Garlic, 6 various hot pepper plants (budding already!), a native Columbine, 2 Wineberry Raspberry plants, a Triple Crown Blackberry plant, Baby Gold Goldenrod, Iris Cristata (sp?), a Red Dragon Flower plant (very cool!), Lily of The Valley, a small cactus, Some kind of cool looking Fuzzy Leaf flowering plant, 2 birdhouses & a few other various flowering plants. I was not going to start an herb garden this year for lack of funds, but I got quite a nice one from the kind people at the MTPS! I also got another Triple Crown Blackberry, a Hot Bannana Pepper plant, a bag full of Yellow Iris, a few Serrano pepper plants & about 4-5 others I gave to my father-in-law. He seemed to love getting the Blackberry plant! Here are a few pictures of the ones I'm keeping that I brought home from the MTPS (Middle Tennessee Plant Swap).

My Berry Garden:

The Native Columbine:

Small flat of 6 various hot pepper plants:

My flowering & other cool plants section (Elephant Garlic trying to creep into the picture...lol):

My Herb Garden:

The "Hyponex Experiment"

2009-05-13T12:07:00.005-05:00

Recently, on a GardenWeb forum, there was a discussion regarding Hyponex Potting Soil. I think it's crap mainly because it has sand in it & clumps together too much, not allowing drainage. Well, I bought one of the $1 bags of it at a local grocery store. It's about 2/3 of a cubic foot. Anyways, I have a few pepper plants that need to be potted up. I decided, since I have some spares of them, to use one for an experiment with the Hyponex. It's a Jalapeno Early Organic plant. I filled the bucket with 100% Hyponex (no other additives, soil mixes, compost, peat, etc.). I figure also, if anything can survive being in just this soil, a pepper plant would be one of those. I did give it a shot of water-based MG fertilizer to help things a bit. I would normally do this right after transplant into what I consider a known good soil though. So, the MG doesn't affect this experiment any. The main goal is to see if the plant even survives. If it does, i'll compare it to one of my other Jalapeno Early plants to see how different fruit production, growth, etc. is from this one. Wish me luck! I'll update this experiment weekly, or sooner if anything changes (plant dies, etc.). Below are two pictures I took of the plant right after transplanting into the bucket.