And The Winner Is...

Me! And my friend, Kristin. You see, I am about to embark on a week-long, cross-country vacation, so I'm feeling pretty good at the moment. But, in exchange, I am going to miss a very special milestone: my first homegrown tomatoes.

Yesterday I noticed that my tomato plant looked like this:

See those green orbs of goodness? Those are baby tomatoes, and they won't take long to ripen because my plant is a Yellow Pear tomato, so the fruits don't get very big. My friend, Kristin, is taking care of my plants while I'm gone, so she'll probably be the one to enjoy the first harvest. I'll post her review of the tomatoes if this is the case.

In less fortunate news, part of my tomato plant looks like this:

The yellowing (or chlorosis) and necrotic spots on the lower leaves lead me to think there's some sort of fungal problem going on, but I can't quite identify which fungus is attacking. When I return, I'll investigate further and probably invest in some fungicide.

To end on a good note, look how big and healthy my thyme is! For a long time, there was basically just one stem.

Next post: not for a week or so. Sorry!

Fruit Ahoy!

There's a special time in every edible plant's life when it approaches functionality. That time is coming for two of my favorite crops.

 

Here are the first two tomato flowers I found on my tomato plant. There are a few more now. Thank goodness tomatoes are self-pollinating.

 



My chard also looks like it's coming along better now. It's recovering from whatever was hurting it. I'm a little surprised at this chard. It was supposed to be 'Rainbow,' but the stems are only one color. Either it's an extremely unlikely coincidence, or I just got a variety of red chard. It doesn't concern me too much, though--the nutrition and taste are what I'm after.

Next post: knocked out by roses.

Garden Experiment One: Progress

Good news--it seems that all my purslane cuttings are doing well! I may never have the answer to my research question of whether rooting cuttings hydroponically or in soil is more effective, but I'll have a new green to put on salads and sandwiches. A free new green, at that.

Here's a very blurry shot of the roots. They're probably an inch and a half long. I was just happy they rooted at all.

Here are all six cuttings, looking even happier now in their new home. I believe that the soil cuttings have also taken root, since their appearances never dwindled. Hopefully all these plants become established and take off soon. Next week I'm taking a vacation, so maybe they'll be dramatically bigger when I return!

What luck have you had with cuttings? What have you taken cuttings of?

Next post: fruit on the horizon.

Flowers and Food

Sadly, this post is not about edible flowers (someday!). This post is a mixed news report from the past few days.

First, I visited some relatives in the southern part of the state over the weekend, and they had some marvelous irises. I'm a sucker for irises in general, but these were particularly spectacular. They looked more purple than blue in person.

The area had a late frost, which might explain why the flower stalks aren't upright.

The flowers are still wonderful even so low to the ground.

My other news is that when I returned from my trip, I found that my purslane cuttings in water had started developing roots! You can (sort of) see them below as squiggly lines in the water. I suspect the cuttings in soil are getting roots too, since their aerial portions are not nearly as haggard-looking as the indoor plants..

Maybe all six cuttings will grow into thriving purslane plants! Stay tuned to find out.

I think I'll keep these three cuttings inside until their roots are slightly more robust, then plant them outside. Since I don't want to dig up the plants outside, the results of my experiment may just be determined by which plants end up the healthiest. We shall see.

Next post: tomato madness.

What My Plants Are Up To

Too infrequently do I get a chance to really study my plants and evaluate their conditions and activities. But the other day, I was fortunate enough to observe lots of new changes.

 

 

First off: my purple shamrock is flowering! When I bought this plant, all its peers at the farm were flowering, but since I like these plants for their foliage, I chose the one with the nicest, biggest foliage. Maybe this one's just a late bloomer. The flowers are pretty (though blurry--my apologies), and a lot closer to lavender than they look here. 

 

Interestingly, all the flowers here are nestled underneath the leaves. I've never really seen a plant do that before. Usually they want their flowers as high up and visible as possible to encourage pollination. I wonder what advantage this flower placement confers to the purple shamrock.

The evening after I first saw these, I noticed that the blooms had closed up. I thought they might be one-day blooms, but I was mistaken. They just close up at night and open again the next morning.

In less joyful news, it seems that something is eating my Swiss chard. It looks a bit better now than it does in this picture, but some of these leaves look like they're really not doing too well. Do you know of any pests that really like chard? I hear they're fairly rabbit-proof (and I don't think we have rabbits around here anyway).

Also, we've had a lot of rain recently. As in, more rain than I expected to get all summer. This hasn't pleased my desert rose, but look at my sage go! It's huge, compared to when I got it! It's already started to form a woody stem, as you can see in the picture. I'm a proud mama.

The peppermint and lens flare are also enjoying the rain.

How has the weather affected your garden so far? Do you have anything that's struggling?

Next post: another exciting development.

Garden Experiment One

I apologize for being silent for so long. I've been busy working. I work at a plant research lab now, and seeing all kinds of research going on around me has inspired me to do some of my own. My research question is: is propagation by cuttings more effective when cuttings are started in water or in soil?

I've read a lot and talked to a lot of people about cuttings. Some say to place the cut end in water; some say soil. I've had the soil method work for me before, but only when rooting hormone was used. For my research I'm using purslane (Portulaca oleracea), which I got for free and which grows everywhere, so I don't feel the need to purchase rooting hormone. Since purslane is so vigorous, I'm going to see if it can take root without fancy hormones.

My research design is simple, though by no means perfect. I've got three cuttings of purslane (I wish I could have gotten bigger ones, but I couldn't find any) in a cup of water and three in a pot of soil. The soil is mostly clay and not very good, but purslane is said to grow in even the poorest soils.

Here are my water cuttings. There are a couple of problems with this setup: it is difficult to keep the cuttings out of the water (which I want to do so bacteria won't alter the results), and I don't want to put this cup outside. That means the light quality isn't the best, though this is right next to a window.

These are the soil cuttings. They're outside, and they're being watered as needed (which shouldn't be much until they grow roots). If these don't take and the water cuttings do, I'll plant them here when they're ready.

Oh, and you may be wondering, "Why are you growing purslane? Isn't that a weed?" Why, yes, it is a weed. It just happens to be an edible and pretty yummy weed that doesn't grow in my immediate vicinity. I would love to cook it up with some Swiss chard for greens.

I will post on the topic of my experiment again when I have updates. But speaking of the chard...

Next post: plant update time!

The Finale of the Dawn of Summer



The theme for today's final venture into summer is purple and white. These two colors always go well together, especially in irises, as seen below.

 

While a creamy white iris would go well in a moonlight garden, this is about as white as it gets. Thus, this would probably work better.

These irises remind me of flowy dresses--or what flowy dresses should look like, at least.

This toppled iris is the darkest one I've seen in town. All irises stand out, but this one caught my eye despite being half covered in grass and foliage.

Perhaps these nearby blooms are a better example. Unlike the white iris, these aren't blinding, but they do capture the attention.

This peony bush (genus Paeonia) was in my yard. Peony flower buds are beautiful in their own right. They look like oversized wasabi peas (only they smell better).

I brought a couple of these flowers inside, and they delighted the house with their smell for the whole week.

What a lovely plant. Peonies have looking and smelling good down, and they require negligible maintenance.

This post concludes my Dawn of Summer series. Stay tuned for...

Next post: cuttings and/or views of the campus in summer.