Apple Tree Seedlings

These sprouted quite well! My son saved all his apple seeds from his green apples, and they grew rather quickly from these seeds in a starter soil(dollar store) under plastic.

We'll be transplanting these in our garden when they grow larger.

First Garden Cucumber of the Year

My indoor organic Sumter cucumber plant finally produced an edible four inch cucumber(half eaten in image by my daughter). It smelled wonderful upon cutting and tasted even better. It is warm enough here that I was able to plant this potted cucumber outdoors today. I may try indoor cucumbers again next winter but use a much bigger pot and a plant light.

When planted outdoors, these Sumter cucumbers are prolific and of a good size. This will be my second year growing these cucumbers in the summer garden.

I'm not sure if these are self pollinators, but just in case they were not, I hand pollinated them with a paint brush. The female flowers have a bulge right before the flower. We ended up with many mini cucumbers, but only one grew large enough to eat.

How to Sharpen Your Own Garden Pruners

It's that time again - time to prune the shrubs, bushes, evergreens, and trees. An easy tutorial on sharpening your pruners here.

Indoor Gardening Update

My indoor winter cucumber experiment yielded little more than a few babies, but many pretty yellow flowers. I never did get a grow light or mini-greenhouse, and I'm sure if I had, they would have yielded more fruit. Still, this can be transplanted when the weather is nice and warm for an early harvest.

Signs of spring have begun here. I am forcing forsythia, and the daffodil greens are showing. Joy! :)

Grow Your Own Luffa Sponge

I know what else I want to try in the garden this year - a luffa! See here.

DIY Rustic Wood Table

We(my husband and son) built a custom table for our indoor garden project today. Built from lumber costing about $16.00, the table measures about 38"H x 4.5L x 22"W. We had the wood pre-cut at the store - one piece for the legs cut four ways, and one piece for the top, cut in half. The two pieces of wood underneath hold the two pieces of the top together in the middle. We had some scrap wood on hand for this.

We've started with an onion in some water...more kitchen scrap gardening to come. : )

This table was actually a perfect height for a kitchen island. We may make another!

Growing Plants from Kitchen Scraps

Our 2011 indoor gardening projects:

Grow an apple tree from a seed

Grow a tangerine tree from seeds
- Maintenance

Grow a potato or sweet potato plant(should have "eyes" or buds)

Grow beans, onions, garlic, and anything else that has sprouted(or the potential to sprout) in the pantry and catches our fancy.

Tomorrow I'll go searching for a long table at the thrift store to fit under a south facing window. This will be our indoor garden table. We'll experiment with different vegetables and fruit seeds from the kitchen and see what happens. I know some of these plants we plan to start will have pretty blooms once they grow larger, and if nothing else, will make pretty house plants.

If we stick with this, I may purchase this retro gardening book Don't Throw It, Grow It!: 68 windowsill plants from kitchen scraps. Read the reviews to get detailed information on the content. One of the comments mentions that this book was originally published in the 70's under the title "The Don't Throw It, Grow It Book of Houseplants". You may be able to find this at your public library. Update: I found the originally published book at our local library under the author Selsam, Millicent Ellis. They didn't have the new edition.

I have fond memories of my older sister growing potato vines and starting avocado plants in the kitchen window sill during the 70's. Having a house full of plants was much more popular back then. I grew up with plants in every room, some hanging from the ceiling in homemade macrame plant holders.

Indoor Winter Gardening: Cucumbers

This is an experiment, so I don't know if I'll have cucumbers anytime soon, but my potted indoor cucumbers are blooming in a sunny window with southwestern exposure.

Wish List: Indoor Greenhouse

Indoor Greenhouse. Grow light is not included. I've already started cucumbers in a sunny window, but they will need more room and light soon.

I would like to try this light stick, but I'm not sure whether this would give off enough light for vegetables:

"The LiteStik uses energy-efficient LED technology, soaking up sun by day, and then its innovative light sensor allows it to come on automatically when the light dips below certain levels."

DIY Greenhouse Window

Grow herbs, salad greens, etc. all year round. See here.

Garden is Coming Along

Our tiny kitchen garden/jungle in a sunny corner is doing well this year. It's full of squash, carrots, onions, Roma tomatoes, and various herbs, including fragrant lavender. In between grows wild flowers and day lilies. All were grown from seeds, so it's been inexpensive to grow.

I threaded a soaker hose purchased at Dollar General through the plants when they were small, but I have not had to use it much. We've had a enough rain to keep the garden from wilting. It's also helped that plants are packed together; they are creating their own ground shade which in turn blocks weeds and preserves ground moisture.  I do have to step in periodically to trim back the edges of overlapping plants. This is especially needed with the quick growing mints and sage that can crowd out other plants such as the delicate carrot.

List of beneficial companion plants

Simple DIY Bird Bath/Feeder

Elizabeth made this simple naturalistic feeder and bird bath recently. See here for instructions. I would make this in a minute if it weren't for so many squirrels in my backyard.

Kitchen Garden

I am working on this little garden a bit at a time. A few of the baby plants that I grew from seed withered and died while I was sick. Most of them recovered after a good watering. I planted the Roma tomatoes today. Tomorrow, I'll plant the squash.

Toliet Paper Roll Seed Starter

Time to begin planning the garden, and start cool season vegetable seeds inside.

Toilet paper roll seed starter directions here.

What To Do in the Garden - February(regional guide)

The Edible Garden

We have lots of shade in the backyard; we are covered by a cooling canopy of oak trees. So it's a bit dry and difficult to grow vegetables, although we keep trying. Things are growing much better this year thanks to Sluggo (organic slug and snail repellent) which is working better than Diatomaceous Earth.


Here are few herbs and vegetables which are growing well in a small corner with partial sun:

Sage, oregano, mint, and lavender

Garbage can potatoes














Tire tomatoes











Apples













See more at From Seeds to Harvest carnival.

Free Old Fashioned Gardening Magazines

I found this over at Google books, The Garden Magazine. There are many editions from 1905 - 1920's. See this main page at bottom right to view other editions. These books are downloadable and in public domain. A tip for printing or saving pages, select HMTL mode on side bar at link.

Old Fashioned Victorian Gardens

All from vintage gardening books:

A nice list of Victorian flowers

and

Victorian Flower Garden Designs

and

Features and Equipment of the Victorian Garden, of interest - Garden paths or walks - how to build, How to make a Hot Bed, Fruit Gardens, Garden Manures, and Potting mixes in the Victorian era.

Popular shrubs: Azalea, Holly, Hydrangea, Rose, Lilac, Forsythia, Andromeda, Barberry, Peony, and Quince.

Flowers: Delphinium, Aster, Alyssum, Chrysanthemum, Tulip, Pansy, Violet, Lavender, Daylily, Hosta, and Yarrow. Crinum lilies AKA: cemetery lilies are coming back in style.

And of course all types of ferns were popular.

I tried to find modern designs for small Victorian gardens, but they were loose interpretations, very modern(almost Zen-like) with lots of concrete patios. They should appear all natural, but somewhat controlled. They used loose and wild plantings within controlled boundaries, a bit of like a cottage garden, but more formal and tidy. The pathways were typically loose materials, not concrete or hard surfaces(unless main walkway). I'll keep looking, but artist renditions are always a good source.

Here's one in London:

Found a good one thanks to Homeliving: Explore the Victorian Garden: find resources, history and information about gardening in the 19th century.

Other resources:

Old Fashioned Living: The Garden Path, a long list of plant and garden information.

Here's one under construction in Britain - notice the sharp contained boundaries which will house plants that overflow giving the illusion of naturalized planting areas.



"There is a distinct atmosphere connected with those simple one-path gardens that is most delightful. It lies not only in the gravel paths and the stiff, box-borders, but in the fragrant old-fashioned flowers that were grown promiscuously inside the trim line of box."(Garden Ornaments, 1916) This sums up Victorian gardens to a tee, and I think I feel most comfortable with this sort of garden - ordered chaos.

Make Your Own Mulch and Compost from Leaves

"Every spring we make new leaf mold. This is part of this year’s huge pile of ground-up leaves… by next spring it will have become a pile of rich black “soil” that will do wonderful things to our gardens." Read the rest here.

We do a version of this as well, more out of laziness than anything else! ;) Seriously, this is an efficient and cost effective way to recycle, and take advance of nature's cycle of decomposition. We use a mulching mower to shred the leaves, tiny sticks, and grass into tiny pieces so that they decompose more quickly. Instead of piling them, we just mow right over the stuff and leave them. Everything returns to the earth as free fertilizer. Anything extra or unsightly gets raked up around the trees in a neat circle, or wisked into the beds as mulch.

In addition to the using a mulching mower, we get free wood chips from local tree cutting companies. I dress the beds with these, right over the leaves and weeds. It all breaks down into lovely rich soil with the help of lots of worms who find the mix lovely.

Less work and cost for us, and better for the environment.

Our local government is encouraging this natural method of landscaping in order to minimize fertilizer and other chemical run off(storm drains) into the Chesapeake Bay, which is suffering a slow death from algae bloom and pollution. In addition to loss of wildlife, waterman jobs have been lost due to poor catches. Crab and fish are no longer as plentiful.

Grow a Salad in a Table Box

This is great for urban gardening, and for those who have limited mobility. Items can be stored underneath, so it's a great space saver as well. I think the rabbits would have a bit of trouble getting into this garden!

Read more here. Alternatively(and easier), you could just nail or place the box to an old shabby table.

You could put your garbage can potatoes right next to it, and a pretty Colonial bird bottle for natural insect control on a deck post. A compost bin could be stored underneath the table. Then you could hook up a garbage can rain barrel to the down spout. If your back door is near the kitchen, this makes gardening very user friendly.

.

Make Your Own Neck Tie Snake

Click here.

HT to MJ