The Decision

I apologize for the ominous title, but cutting off some of my tomato plant’s flowers was a difficult decision for me to make. You see, I grew this tomato plant from seed. I fertilized it every week, watered it regularly, I bought it a special, really tall pot so it could send it’s roots deep into the soil. I picked off caterpillars and directed lady bugs to eat smaller pests.

I really pampered this tomato plant, and my effort was rewarded with three stems of flowers, with 7-14 flowers each. I was going to have around 30+ tomatoes!

So why in the world would I cut off the flowers? Well, even Southern California’s beautiful weather has its limits. It is cooling down here and I was afraid my beloved tomato plant wouldn’t have enough energy to finish growing all the tomatoes. So I sacrificed a few of the flowers that haven’t yet started to set fruit, so that the plant could concentrate its effort on growing the tomatoes that are already started.

What would I have done with 30+ tomatoes in November anyway?!

October 30, 2008 | Filed Under Fall Gardening, Fruits & Vegetables | 8 Comments

Anyone Can Grow Iris in a Container

As someone with legal training, I’m hesitant to make such a broad claim, but I am pretty sure I am safe with this one:* Anyone can grow Iris in a pot. If you can add water when the soil is dry, you can have a beautiful one of these…

Photo by **Mary**

The ideal time to buy iris rhizomes (fat roots that look sort of like fingerling potatoes) was back in August and September, but you should still be able to find rhizomes in your garden center. When you head out to the garden center, you will probably find rhizomes with clipped roots and leaves. The rhizome should be firm; it should not be dried out, mushy, smell bad, or have holes from insect damage.

Planting and caring for Irises is really easy:

A 6″ to 8″ pot will work for Dwarf Iris; a 12″ pot will work for Tall Bearded Iris. Make sure your pot has good drainage (i.e. a big hole in the bottom or several smaller holes).
For soil, choose a fast draining, light potting soil.
To plant, dig two shallow trenches with a ridge between them. Put the rhizome on the ridge and spread the roots carefully in the trenches. Cover the roots and rhizome with dirt, but don’t bury deeply. The top of the rhizome should be very near the surface and the leaves should be above ground.
Put the pot in a sunny location.
Water only when the top two inches of soil are dry (it’s better to water too little than too much with irises).
Fertilize one month before blooming with 5-10-10 fertilizer. Bearded irises generally bloom in May and June, dwarf irises in April. Check the tag of your particular iris for a more precise bloom time.

If you live in an area with mild winters, you can leave the pot outdoors for the winter. But if you have “real” winters, bring the pot inside and find a sunny spot. Since this is a bit late to start irises in temperate climates, they might not have enough time to get established before winter. But next year, you can leave the pot outdoors with a protective layer of straw or leaf mulch or something similar.

If you forget to water or fertilize, don’t worry, your iris is most likely fine. I know my grandma didn’t fertilize her irises and they still bloomed like clock work. Many varieties of iris can even tolerate partial shade.

Sources: Iris Colorado, Schreiner’s

*Please don’t sue me if I’m wrong. I promise it would be a waste of time because I have no assets to take if you won the suit!

October 29, 2008 | Filed Under Fall Gardening, How To | 3 Comments

Vegetables And Herbs You Can Still Plant Before Winter

Close your eyes and imagine this scenario…Okay, don’t close your eyes, because then you can’t read the scenario…

You just moved in to a new apartment and it has a great balcony with plenty of sun and you are thinking it would be great to beat the rising food costs and grow some of your own vegetables and herbs.

You’ve had a great balcony for some time, but you just haven’t gotten around to planting any fall vegetables and herbs, and now you’re finally feeling motivated.

The only problem, you realize, is that it is late October and you’re not sure if there is anything you can grow at the moment.

If you resemble either scenario, don’t worry! So long as your balcony still has some sunshine and the dirt in your pots hasn’t turned to ice cubes, there are still things you can plant now, and even some seeds that you can sow.

Arugula - Sow seeds or buy transplants
Broccoli - Buy transplants - Look for ‘Premium Crop’, Romanesco, and ‘Violet Queen’
Cauliflower - Buy transplants - Look for ‘Amazing’
Endive - Buy transplants - Look for curly and broad leaf varieties
Kale - Buy transplants - Look for ‘Winterbor’
Spinach - Buy transplants - Look for ‘Tyee’
Garlic - Buy cloves - Look for ‘Chesnok Red’ and ‘Spanish Roja’
Onions - Buy transplants - Look for ‘Buffalo’
Parsley - Sow seeds - For cooking, look for Italian flat leaf varieties
Rosemary - Sow seeds - Look for ‘Arp’ or ‘Sawyer’s Selection’ for cold climates, ‘Tuscan Blue’ elsewhere

One last tip: when choosing a pot, pick something that won’t crack after a light frost.

Sources: Sunset Magazine

October 23, 2008 | Filed Under Fall Gardening, Fruits & Vegetables, Herbs | 4 Comments

Bell Pepper Experiment

Over at Buddy Garden Blog, Louise summarized an Organic Gardening article about growing better bell peppers that reminded me that…DUH…I am growing bell peppers, maybe I should try some of the techniques they mentioned. I was thinking that I could put my nearly year-round gardening climate to good use and test out the Organic Gardening techniques and report back to you all before you start growing peppers in the Spring. So…now’s the time to subscribe to my feed! Sorry, I’m shameless.

Photo by Edmond CV218

Here are the tips/techniques I plan to implement from the article:

Add dish detergent into liquid fertilizer helps the fertilizer coat the leaf surface (1/4 teaspoon in 1 quart of water).

Add worm castings in the soil around the base of the plant for nutrients and give the peppers a good start in the beginning.

Spray the plants with liquid kelp at 4-week intervals to prevent blossom drop.

Here’s how my pepper plants look right now:

I’ll report back at regular intervals and to let you all know how it’s going.

October 2, 2008 | Filed Under Container Gardening, Fall Gardening, Fruits & Vegetables | 2 Comments

SYS: Save Your Seeds

In the past month or so I let quite a few of my herbs flower and then go to seed. Collecting seeds is a pretty easy (and free!) way to get more plants.

In the photo above I have some dilll and cilantro seeds, and the templates I photocopied from You Grow Girl by Gayla Trail. I am planning on using the orange and brown polka dot paper to make the seed packets.

Saving seeds is pretty easy. When the seed heads were fully formed but still green, I cut them from the plant. I then put them in a small plastic cup and let them air dry. When they were completely dry (it took about 10 days) I removed the stems and was left with what you see in the photo.

Making the seed packets is just as easy. You just trace the template on to the paper, cut, paste, and voila! You can make pretty packets out of patterned paper (check the scrapbooking section of your craft store; even Target has some neat scrapbooking papers) and then host a seed swapping party as Vanessa Richins suggests (anyone in So Cal want to meet at a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and swap seeds with me?).

September 26, 2008 | Filed Under Fall Gardening, Frugal Container Gardening | 2 Comments

The Thing About September - Fall To Do List

September is my birthday month, so maybe that’s why I spend so much time this month reflecting on the year thus far and thinking about what I want to do next year. Or maybe September is just that sort of month. A transitional month straddled between the growing season and the resting season. The last few days I’ve been pulling out plants that didn’t really wow me to make space for bulbs I expect to greet me with purple and yellow flowers a few months from now (I finally decided where to plant those Ranunculus).

Photo of kitty helping mulch the flower beds by geeezelouise

Whatever the reason might be, this is a good time to take stock of your containers, pull out things that didn’t work very well, prepare the keepers for winter, and clean out pots for next Spring. It’s also never too early to start dreaming about what you’ll do next year. Here are some more things to do in Fall:

Pull weeds
Mulch
Plant spring bulbs
Plant cool weather ornamental and edible plants
Prune trees and perennials
Divide perennials and bulbs
Plant trees (in a pot on your balcony or join a community group helping to green your community!)
Clean tools
Journal (I use and highly recommend My Folia)

What have you been up to on your balcony or patio?

September 25, 2008 | Filed Under Fall Gardening | 4 Comments

Looking for Low Maintenance Fall Color?

If you’re looking for fall color, but don’t have tons of time to primp and preen thanks to the season’s shortening days, try some ornamental grasses. You don’t need to spend tons of time trying to put together the “perfect” pot, just plop the grass into an available pot, and away you go!

Blue Oat Grass

Helictotrichon sempervirens Zones 4-9

Frost Grass

Spodiopogon sibericus Zones 3 - 8

Red Switch Grass

Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’ Zones 5 - 9

Japanese Silver Grass ‘Gold Bar’

Miscanthus sinensis Zones 5-8

September 24, 2008 | Filed Under Fall Gardening | 7 Comments

Not Your Grandma’s Bulbs

In case you’ve been in a coma the past few weeks, fall is here! And fall is bulb time. Pretty much everything that grows from a bulb is more spectacular than anything you could find growing in a six pack at Home Depot. But what if you really want to out do your self this year?

Photo by Xerones

Try some planting some of these more unusual bulbs now for something fresh and fun this spring:

Globemaster Allium - Gigantic (10 inches across), purple flower heads on stalks that are three feet tall. These would look very modern planted/potted in a long row.
French Shallots - Shallots are the ideal plant to grow at home. They’re expensive to buy in the store and easy to grow yourself. They taste like a cross between an onion and garlic, but have a more subtle flavor than both.
Snake’s Head Fritillary - A delicate, tiny, bell-shaped flower. The flowers aren’t a solid color. Instead they have a checkered, or snake skin appearance.
Oxblood Lily - Deep, intense red flowers that look like small lily blossoms. Each stem has several flowers.
Byzantine Gladiolus - An heirloom that is much more casual looking than the gladiolus you can buy at the florist. Sends up 18 inch flower stalks with instense magenta flowers. Doesn’t need staking.

September 22, 2008 | Filed Under Fall Gardening | 1 Comment

What Are Your Best Tips for Growing Ranunculus?

I just learned a new word. Bleg. It’s when you use your blog to beg for information. Isn’t that a funny word? I certainly got a little chuckle from it. Anyway, that’s exactly what I plan to do in this post, ask you for information.

Have you ever grown ranunculus? I picked up six ranunculus tubers from the nursery yesterday. Three yellow ones, and three deep purple ones. That is, if I remember correctly. All the tubers look the same.

What should I do with them? Pot them together? Sprinkle them around my pots? Any and all ideas and information are greatly appreciated.

In case you’ve never heard of ranunculus before, check out this Wikipedia article. I also found this basic article about planting instructions.

Photo is by tanakawho

September 15, 2008 | Filed Under Container Gardening, Fall Gardening | 5 Comments

More on Bulbs

If my post on forcing bulbs piqued your interest in growing bulbs, check out these links for more interesting info on bulbs:

Jim McCausland, over at Sunset’s Fresh Dirt blog, has some how to info on layering bulbs in the same pot, to fit more bulbs in and create pretty combinations of flowers.
Better Homes and Gardens has tons of info on growing bulbs, including a forcing timetable and growing bulbs in containers.
Columnist, author and chef Leslie Land writes about tulips and offers some tips to get them to do their best.