Ann's Air Gardens

Hawaiin Papaya

A neighbor surprised me with a dozen sprouted Papaya seeds. 

 

 

 
Wow, I didn't realize it was getting so late.  More on these when I get back from a trip up the coast!

Update on my Lemongrass: Before and After

I planted a couple of lemongrass "suckers" that my nice neighbor brought over in February and seriously I did not believe they would survive.  One has a few roots, but the other was just a stalk that was dead looking in a matter of days and stayed that way alll "winter."  But when Spring came there were a few green tips showing and look at them now:

 

There are a few dead leaves due to the fact that while I was away on a trip someone who was not aware that I had installed an automatic sprinkler system decided to water my plants for me and shut the valve off after watering.  Fortunately this was only one day before my return so nothing died.

Three of my baby figs lost all their leaves, but the root systems were strong and they all started leafing out again in a couple weeks.

I have another before and after shot posted on

The Empty Cabinets of my Mind. It shows one day's growth in my new EasyGreen Auto Sprouter.

Empress Tree Cloned in Water

 
 

There was much excitement in my kitchen when healthy roots showed up on the bottom of a stem I whacked off from the little Royal Paulownia I've been nursing back to health for the past several months after having left it home alone while I had to be away for a month.  That was before my new sprinkler system was installed so that I can go away guilt-free.  The Empress Tree was pretty sad looking when I came back to find it all dried out.  All of the leaves had fallen off, but now it seems to be thriving again.  Here it is in a photo taken a month after its ordeal.

 

And here is its first baby.  Not a great photo but the detail shows how the roots grew out from the bottom  of the stem at the diagonal cut across the stem, not from a node.  I had no idea the Empress Tree (Royal Paulownia) could be propagated so easily.  Admittedly, the first time I tried this, the stem cutting wilted and died, but I am not one to give up after just one try if logic tells me something might work.l 

A Pink Hydrangea

 
This plant was a gift from a sweet neighbor who liked the bulbous blue flower head when she saw it at the florist's.  It was perfectly round and as large as a grapefruit.  The first time it bloomed since then I did adjust the pH to get blue flowers, but the blooms were quite small and not perfectly shaped.

This time I let it go pink and frankly I love this color just as much as the trendy blue.  My flower head is not round like a grapefruit, but it is the size of half a melon.  I think it is just gorgeous and am hoping my dear neighbor will come over and see it soon.

My Favorite Pepper

I sliced one of these up and sauteed it with my Tilapia, along with a few flowers from the Japanese Mustard and my chicory plant.

Here is the rest of the story: Tilapia: A Breakfast Treat

I read two interesting things somewhere:  1) that in a city near Tokyo they cut mazes out of the brilliant yellow fields of flowering Mustard, and that 2) this is the plant used to make Canola oil.  After I planted mine from seeds this Spring, I noticed that the sell the bedding plants at WalMart.  How cool. 

 

 

New Zealand Spinach

A really neat cyberfriend sent me some New Zealand Spinach seeds (or should I call them fruits?) just before I went across country so I've been salivating over the chance to come back and plant them for some time now!

Wanting to know whether the gnarly little fellas should be soaked before planting and what their heat tolerance was going to be (it is HOT here in the Palm Desert) I tried Googling up some information and found this awesome blog:

Matron's post from March 27, 2009

Meanwhile, I've been so proud of my modular pot-in-pot system, but this morning I encountered a difficulty. Apparently due to my having set the automatic watering widgets to spray too much water, the hole in the bottom of the outer pot plugged and was not draining. I had to go out with the kitchen baster and suck up extra water from one of the holes, as the last thing we need in this neighborhood is standing water to attract more mosquitos. As usual, this sort of thing happens right after I have manicured my nails.

On the other hand, this baby fig tree seems pretty happy with my pot-in-pot system.  I lifted it out for this photo:

Transient Morning Glories

This small pot of morning glories that I grew from seeds germinated indoors in my AeroGarden started outdoor life under these supports, but the ground squirrels gnawed them, stems and all, down to an inch about the dirt.  So I put the flower pot in my raised garden and left for a month's vacation.  When I got back the vines pictured above were entwined around and around a couple of tomato plants and the grape vine was wrapped around them as well.  It was a jungle! 

So I carefully unwrapped all the strands, cutting through with a scissors when necessary trying not to disturb the blooms, and returned the pot to its original home.  But this time I put it on top of a 12" shelf and stacked square paver bricks underneath. 

I predicted that the hot afternoon sun would kill this plant but my neighbor who has lived in Texas said they love the heat and full sun won't hut it.

My neighbor said two additional things:

        1) the pot is too small, and

        2) the plant will get too big.

I replied "Not if I keep it in the too-small pot!"  So the bet is on.

Cornflowers

Please click here to See a flower from my chicory plant.

What my Garden Taught me Yesterday

This is a DUH moment.  In the past I have always gone out to cut my Swiss Chard fresh just before using it.  But yesterday when I was harvesting good stuff to eat from my garden a neighbor came over and while we were chatting the intense heat wilted the chard I had just cut.   By the time I was able to get it indoors it was pathetic! 

But I got the idea to run some cool water over the leaves and then put the stems into a glass of water.  It didn't look like much at first, but this morning all of the leaves had completely revived.   Please remind me to try this experiment again but to take photos before and after.

Meanwhile, here is a cluster of red cherry tomatoes.  They took longer to ripen than the Sun Golds and are about half the size, but there sure are a lot of them.  

I noticed that a small bird who flew in to steal a tomato from my raised garden went right past the ripe orange Sun Golds and dived underneath some foliage to snag one of bright red kind instead.  I forgot what other kind of tomato seeds I planted, but there are definitely indeterminate and should keep bearing fruit for several months and then I'll just bring cuttings inside to maintain until it is warm enough to put them out again in the spring.   I planted these indoors in February.

Pictured left are some ripe sun golds and below is a red lipstick pepper.

I tasted a green lipstick pepper a bit over a month ago and it did not impress me much.  But having returned from vacation I saw that my plant had produced several pretty red ones, and so I sliced one up on a hamburger.  It was delish!  Not terribly hot, but it had a bit of a bite.  

The lipstick pepper plant is compact, prolific, and the ripe fruit are not only ornamental, but also yummy.   I think I will keep growing these. 

Home Wednesday

I just spoke by phone with neighbors who say my garden is doing great in my absence and they are eating a lot of my orange and red sweet cherry tomatoes which just starting bearing fruit a few days before I left on a month's trip.  Will be home Wednesday and cannot wait to take photos of my plants and the automatic watering system friends helped me put in before this trip. 

They said there were a few ripe strawberries, too.  My first!