The Life of A Garden

"The Garden Keeps Growing Whether I Have Time to Write About it Or Not.." KHT

Gosh, I can't believe it's been a full week since I last posted and my oh my! How much things have changed since then! I apologize to any subscribers who have been left to wonder what has been happening. In a word: LOTS!

For starters, the Moon Flowers are HUGE:

I did not try to start new peppers because I thought it was too late even after doing all that research (which will come in handy next season), but to my delighted surprise, as soon as I gave up they went ahead and germinated themselves.

I think I over watered them. I hadn't quite gotten the wicking system of the APS working correctly (for whatever reason - the wicks may have been upside down?). Anyway, I was watering the heck out of them and as soon as I let them dry out, the little guys poked their heads up.

We now have six Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Italian Frying Peppers growing as twin companions ala TOFA and the Chocolate twins are doing great...

And there is even some hope reserved for this tiny little King of the North who showed up late and weak but at least he showed up so we're giving him some TLC and we'll see what happens.

And OMG the tomatoes! Yesterday we transplanted the do-over seedlings and they're standing up tall and beginning to grow their secondary leaves:

We're up to twenty-three heirloom varieties that I'll list on a separate post so I can give them their due. I can almost taste them already and am desperately trying to figure out a cheap, preferably recycled way to stake them so that we can maximize their yields, as I plan to go restaurant to restaurant to sell them as they come in.

As a former chef, I personally can't imagine refusing a local, organic gardener with her arms full of heirloom tomatoes still warm from the sun....can you?

XXKHT

I'm Being Followed By a Moon Flower...Moon Flower, Moon Flower"

More of the miraculous growth of the mighty Moon Flower...

Tonight, I moved them to their own rooms. I didn't want any fighting or tangling of roots.

Brande says that they'll  begin trying to twist around everything in their periphery soon. I am thinking of trying some chopsticks...we shall see!

XXKHT

"So I sing to my seeds. What about it?" ~ Leslie Gaydos

Even though it's April Fools, the following is real...

To all you old seasoned gardeners out there, what follows is not likely to astonish you. But, to us new gardeners, you won't believe this...

Late this morning I noticed the Moon Flowers had broken the surface and around 1:00 pm took this pic:

Then, I went out for a couple of hours and came back to...

Around 3ish, they'd unfurled further...

By about 6:00...

about a half hour later...a new baby arrives!

and then...and by 7:30...

If I hadn't been there to witness it, I might not believe it.

AMAZING!

XXKHT

By the way...those are large yogurt tubs.

"My Love is Like a Seed, Baby...It Just Needs Time To Grow." ~ Janice Joplin (Trust Me)

Today I learned that I may have done pretty much everything wrong so far.

For one thing, I don't think I have nearly enough light system for what I am trying to grow. Woodchuck Gardener's locally experienced advice aside, every other garden source states that windowsills are only to be used a last resort and without grow lights, it's a waste of effort.

But it's not enough to have a grow light, you have to have enough grow light as well. Through sheer luck I ended up with a super light contraption with full spectrum blah blah and I haven't the least idea what any of it means but it was free so I took it (gratefully!).

I was also gifted an APS planting system starter kit and then added to it without really knowing what to expect, and now I feel overwhelmed with trying to fit all the pieces together using what I have and have purchased.

As of this minute, I have what can be covered by lights under the lights. I thought I could have the lights hang up higher and cover more area, and it was pure green horn ignorance that got us to this point.

Apparently, the lights don't do any good, or rather they can even do harm by producing spindly weak plants if the source is too far from the seedlings; the little ones burn themselves out reaching for the light. Rather than concentrating their energies into producing fat, dark, energy producing leaves, they grow long vulnerable stems that crush and break easily.

On top of that, I read today that I may have started my tomatoes a month too early! According to Garden Desk:

"For instance, tomatoes should only be under lights for 4 to 6 weeks before transplanting and you shouldn't transplant them until all danger of frost has passed. In my area, the average last frost is May 15th. That means that I should wait to plant the seeds of my 27 main season tomato varieties until mid-April."

THAT'S MY LAST FROST DATE! JEEZUM CRIPES!

I'm tempted to start over. But then, the peppers are coming up. All but the Italian Ice and Hillbilly Potato Leaf tomatoes have broken ground. The marigolds are going great, as is the kale which I now want to plant more of.

And then there're the four tiny basil seedlings that I know I'm going to want more of when the time comes because I just discovered that basil is an excellent companion plant with tomatoes. How apropos!

I think I may have killed the Johnny Jump Ups. Impetuously, I put the light on them right after we installed it and left their humidity holding bags on. I think the blunder steamed them to death!

I will just have to start them again, because I'm going to have their happy faces in my garden this year. And this IS going to all work out fine, whatever it takes - even if I have to break down and buy a few more light fixtures.

Oh yeah...to end on a happy note - The Moon Flowers have cracked and are going in the dirt today. They look like dinosaur seeds. Click on the photo and see for yourself...

XXKHT

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” ~Albert Einstein

Moths and Moonflowers

Last week, my beloved B sent to me some seeds from her collection. She not only added greatly to our tomato selection, but also a variety of marigolds and an edible flower/bean called Scarlet Bees.

She also enclosed Moon Flower seeds that she'd gathered from her own gorgeous vines that she grows over the brick and iron wall of her city garden in downtown Baltimore.

Moon Flowers might be my favorite flower of all. A member of the nightshade family*, they have an enormous, pungent white blossom that unfurls after dark like a virgin on her wedding night - one time only - then closes back into a beautiful fractal spiral within which a fat pistachio shaped, hard-shelled seed will grow inside a sexy coffee colored pod.

The seeds are so hard, that in order for them to germinate, the cultivator must nick them - or as I like to think of it, give them a love bite.

What flower is more sensuous than this? I can't think of any.

Velvety, ghostly, voluptuous petals reek of desire. They require particularly well endowed moths like the Carolina Sphynx - one of the hummingbird species - noted not only for resembling the bird in size and shape, but also for it's extra long proboscis, the better to reach into the deep wells of their sweet nectar.

Oh my. Moon Flowers and Moths have it all over The Birds and the Bees. I move to change it.

XXKHT

A nice poem about Moon Flowers is here: Cold Tea Blues Moonflowers

The picture at left is jacked and edited from here:
Moon Flowers and Carolina Sphynx Moths

*Same as tomatoes, peppers, egglplant etc. but a different genus.