Sunny's Garden

Container Gardening: Growing Salad Bowls

2010-11-27T11:55:00.000-08:00

Garden Log : June 20, 2010

2010-06-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

June 20, 2010

Unfortunately, my original grapevine didn't grow any grapes this year.
I'm not sure why. But I'll try to figure it out.

The vine itself looks great. The leaves are green and healthy.

Last year, I planted a riverbank grape seed in a flower pot and early this spring it actually germinated!
I'm so proud to have a healthy baby grapevine that I grew from a seed.

Granny Smith Apple Trees Pictures and Update

2009-09-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

Baby Granny Smith Apple Tree Pictures

The sun was really shinning that day so the pictures were
fuzzier than I expected but here you can
actually see my little apple tree!

Here you can see both of the baby Granny Smith apple trees.

One of the apple trees had just been transplanted into the larger pot.

Since these pictures were taken I have transplanted the other apple tree into a larger pot as well.

I plan to transplant both of the baby trees into larger pots if I need to.

The idea here is this :

I'm moving out of this house and into a new house before the Summer of 2010 and I am going to have a much larger back yard to work with at my new house. When I move out, I'm going to raise chickens, plant gardens and even grow my own fruit trees. This includes Granny Smith Apple Trees. I can't afford a bunch of grafted granny smith apple trees at this time and I happen to have great luck sprouting Granny Smith apple seeds. So I will take what I can get (for now).

I'm curious what color apples I may get from these trees, if any. I'm sure that you are a bit curious too! They say that it's a bad idea to grow apple trees from seeds because you never know what your going to get. Well don't you think that somebody should show you the results of the tests that proved that apple trees grown from seed are undesirable?

I will perform that test! I will let you know exactly what the apples look like, how long it takes the trees to bear fruit, and I will even try to explain what the apples taste like. Don't forget about the pictures that I will be taking throughout the entire process.

For the Record :

In the Summer of 2010, my 2 baby apple trees will have lived through an entire (year-long) growing season. Which means that they are an entire year closer to bearing fruit! YAY!

I'm also going to continue to sprout Granny Smith Apple Seeds until I get a few more trees. At the moment I am attempting to germinate 6 more Granny Smith apple seeds that I bought on eBay. I will let you know how that turns out so Stay Tuned!

Later Alligator,

* SunnyStars *

Growing Artichokes!

2009-09-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

Do you want to learn how to grow artichokes?

Growing a garden full of artichoke plants is easy and you might be surprised
how many artichoke plants you can fit in a small space.

1 Year Old Artichoke Plant

I've been growing artichoke plants for over a year and they are extremely healthy. I have eaten an artichoke that grew in my garden and I never want to touch a store bought artichoke again! I only wish that I had more artichoke plants and that the growing season was longer!

Check this blog regularly for updates regarding my artichoke garden. I'm working on getting clearer pictures of my artichoke plants and I will post the picture here on this Garden Blog.

I also plan to share with you some of the many artichoke recipes that I just adore!

So Stay Tuned!

Check out my *Artichoke* article on eHow :

How to Grow a Garden of Artichoke Plants

See ya next time!

* SunnyStars *

Peanut Plants, MidSummer Update

2009-07-23T13:18:00.000-07:00

Peanut plants are very pretty! They remind me of Mimosa plants (The Sensitive Plant). Peanut plants are larger of course. A peanut plants leaves close-up just like a sensitive plants leaves do. So far I have noticed that a peanut plants leaves will close-up when the weather is hot, if the dirt is dry, when it's nighttime or if you stress the plant in any way.

I will touch a few of my peanut plants leaves to see if they close-up upon contact or at all. I'm surprised that I haven't tested it yet. I will share my results with you in the next few days.

At this time, 2 out of 3 of my peanut plants are doing great! One plant is dying or 'hanging on for dear life', I will move this plant into a more shady area and see if that helps at all. The other two healthy plants are sprouting yellow flowers all over them. These flowers will eventually bury themselves under the dirt where they will turn into peanuts! I'm very excited! As usual, I can't wait to eat some homegrown peanuts.

See you soon!

* SunnyStars *

How to Grow Dill Plants

2009-07-10T17:54:00.000-07:00

I have dill plants that re-seed themselves each year. I never buy dill seeds anymore (after the first packet of dill seeds that I had ever bought.)

I will have dill plants for the rest of my life unless I stop watering my garden altogether. I love gardening so that's never going to happen.

Check out my other dill plant posts to learn more about why I love dill so much!

You can grow your own dill plants too! Here's how :

Step 1

Buy a packet of dill seeds.

Step 2

Plant the entire packet of dill seeds.

Step 3

Keep the soil moist until the seeds sprout or else the seeds will dry out. Then they won't ever germinate (sprout into a plant). Keep the soil moist until the baby dill plants are healthy.

Step 4

Keep caring for and growing one dill plant until it flowers. Then the dill plant will grow it's seeds. Then the dill seeds will dry out and start falling.

Once seeds are falling off of the plant on their own it's time to harvest some seeds. Pick some of the driest seeds from the dill plant, bring these seeds inside of your house, dry them out and save some of the seeds so that you can plant them next year.

Depending on the weather in your area you might be able to get away with growing dill plants all year long.

Step 5

Make sure that you plant at least one dill plant each year to keep the cycle going.

A dill plant that is allowed to fully mature, naturally will re-seed itself, That means that you will have a healthy, carefree, dill patch every year with little or no maintenance!

It's that easy to grow your own dill seasoning which you can use to flavor :

dill pickles, soups, meats, etc.

Catnip Plants

2009-07-10T16:36:00.000-07:00

Grow an easy garden plant that bees and cats go crazy for!

Catnip Plants

Dill Update, Healthy Sprouts

2009-07-09T16:09:00.000-07:00

The baby dill plants have thinned themselves out, thanks to the heat and whatever other forces.

Now I have about 100 baby dill plants that are about an inch tall with many little fuzzy leaves. I just love dill plants! They help to make gardening even more fun. Everyday I am greeted by dill plants no matter the time of year. Whether I have tiny baby dill plants or huge dill plants that are seeding, the dill plants are always there for me to "experience", it's awesome.

Seeds from last years large dill plant blew all over my yard via the wind. So now I have a few oddly arranged dill plants. One baby dill plant has established itself in my turtle pond area which is funny. We will see how long it lasts before the turtles eat it. Unless dill is just too pungent and spicy for turtles. Then it will grow into a huge plant and that will look really neat!

Anther baby dill plant is growing in my strawberry patch. Unfortunately it can't stay there so I'm going to try to transplant it into the turtle pond area next to the other baby dill plant.

Apple Trees

2009-07-04T15:26:00.000-07:00

The hot Las Vegas sun has dried out two of my young Granny Smith Apple Trees. I moved the other two young apple trees into almost complete shade where they seem to be doing better.

I'm going to buy some more Granny Smith apples and plant some more seeds in the hopes of at least having a total of four granny smith apple trees.

I will keep you updated and next time I will have plenty of young apple tree pictures.

See you soon!

* SunnyStars *

My Mini Grape Vineyard

2009-06-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

Grape Vine Update!

My grapes are finally mature and ready to harvest.

Everyday for at least the next week I will be eating fresh homegrown grapes!

I will get some pictures.

See you soon!

* SunnyStars *

Rollie Pollie Ville

2009-06-15T01:06:00.000-07:00

When I was a young girl, my dad used to call me Rollie pollie. I think it was the cutest nickname!

In case you didn't know, rollie pollies are super cute! They can roll up into a ball but I rarely get to see that since I don't threaten them, I just observe them, feed them and give them water. Sometimes when I find a rollie pollie that seems to be lost I will add him into one of my "Rollie PollieVilles"

Allow me to explain. :         =)

I have a "unknown type of " pepper plant growing outside in a flower pot. I named this flower pot and another one of my flower pots "Rollie Pollie Ville" because each pot is filling up quickly with a healthy Rollie Pollie colony.

At first I noticed one rollie pollie, then another until I realized that they were building a small "pill bug settlement "in my flower pot. I've been noticing more and more rollie pollies in each pot everyday! Ive always loved rollie pollies. My whole life I would "move them to safety" / put them in the garden.

I think I might like rollie pollies so much because "rollie pollie" was my nickname as a child. Well that and "sweet pea" was another nickname and I love sweet peas too!   =)

So, I've got these rollie pollies and I really like them. Eventually after watching them long enough I have been inspired by my pet colony of rollie pollies. I'm going to write a species profile about them and publish it to my website. I really like my pet rollie pollies and I'm going to show you all some pictures of them ASAP. I will let you know once the article is finished, so.......             =)

Until next time,

* SunnyStars *

Artichoke Update

2009-06-14T04:47:00.000-07:00

I have three artichoke plants at the moment.

Here's the artichoke update :

Plant 1 - This one isn't looking so good. It doesn't get enough sun and (so far) it hasn't flowered.

Plant 2 - This one flowered and I already ate the artichoke that it produced! (It was small but very tasty!)

Plant 3 - This one is flowering as we speak. I decided to let the fruit turn into a flower so that I could collect the seeds and save them for next year. Artichoke seeds are expensive and it looks like I won't ever need to buy them again.

See you soon!

* SunnyStars *

Pumpkin Patch

2009-06-05T01:45:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to grow a whole patch of big healthy pumpkins. I've grown a few pumpkins throughout my life but nothing like how many pumpkins I'm going to grow this year!

I have at least 5 large pumpkin plants that are already growing baby pumpkins on them.

I'm going to get some pictures of them and document the process here. I also plan to write a few articles about Growing Pumpkins to Seed.

I'll keep you posted so Stay Tuned!

* SunnyStars *

Granny Smith

2009-06-02T21:06:00.000-07:00

This morning I found another Granny Smith Apple Tree Sprout outside.

Here is what I did :

I put the seeds in a small pot with potting soil. I buried them less than an inch under the potting soil. I kept the soil moist and placed the pot in a semi-sunny location. So far two of the Granny Smith Apple seeds sprouted this way. It's too easy!

Now I have four baby Granny Smith Apple Trees! I have my own mini apple tree orchard!
=) - SunnyStars

Germinating Seeds - Indoors, Paper Towel Method

2009-06-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

I'm going to attempt to germinate some seeds today including the following types :

* Pomegranate Seeds ( I am trying to germinate the last four seeds that I have, so wish me luck!)

* Cashew Nut Seeds

* Wisteria Seeds

* Cattails

I'm using the most effective sprouting method for germinating "touchy" seeds that I know of.

You can read my eHow article where I explain how you can germinate seeds indoors using this super easy and effective method. Here is the link :

SunnyStars eHow Article
How to Sprout Plant Seeds Indoors Without Using Dirt

I will let you know if any of my seeds sprout since I check on them daily.

Later Alligator,

- Sunny

Pomegranate Seed Finally Sprouted

2009-05-31T23:05:00.000-07:00

This is crazy because I tried many different methods of sprouting these pomegranate seeds that I had bought. None of the methods seemed to be working and none of the seeds were sprouting. So I decided to try my usual method of sprouting used for "touchy" seeds. "The Plastic Baggie Method".

This method of sprouting seeds worked all too well for the pomegranate seed! It worked so well in fact that I'm going to try it with the rest of my (expensive) pomegranate seeds right now!

Whats strange is that I had just wrote an article detailing my plastic baggie method on eHow. This is the "seed sprouting" method that happened to work while no others did.

Here is a link to my eHow article :

How to Sprout Plant Seeds Indoors Without Using Dirt

I will keep you updated concerning the pomegranate seeds and the tiny pomegranate tree (sprout). In addition, I'm working out the whole picture thing.

Later Alligator,

- SunnyStars

Dill Seeds, Sprouts and Plants.

2009-05-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

Dill

The Wonder Herb

Dill (Anethum graveolens) The Wonder Herb, by SunnyStars

My Dill plant is seeding and the seeds are so fertile that I already have 500 baby dill plants sprouting up out of the ground.

The plant smelled so good throughout it's entire life and I have saved at least 1000 seeds from it and then I have the 500 sprouts growing underneath it.

Now I need to get some cucumber plants to grow and I can make some homegrown pickles. I am very excited about that!

I am going to grow out plenty of these tiny dill sprouts so that I can harvest the pungent leaves and dry them out. Yes, I am talking about adding homegrown, dried dill into my soups and meat dishes and of course my homemade dill pickles. I'm going to buy some sturdy pepper shakers so that I can start using my own spices that I grew and dried myself. Unless I can think of a more homemade alternative I'm just going to have to settle for store-bought salt and pepper shakers.

I can't say enough about how much I've enjoyed growing dill this past year. Dill is truly a beautiful plant with huge flowers that the bees and butterflies love! Dill is a beautiful accent to your yard or garden. Not to mention how useful dill is! You can't make a dill pickle without Dill!

If you walk within one foot of the dill plant you will instantly smell dill pickles! It's an awesome plant that everyone will ask about.

My original dill plant is dying now but it was over a year old and since it flowered and seeded it was it's time to die. That's just the way things are for dill plants. It's not dead just yet, it is still growing dill seeds on it that are not fully mature. But like I said, I already saved back over 1000 dill seeds and there are about 500 dill sprouts and each dill sprout already has two healthy leaves.

I know that all of the dill seeds are fertile because I have even checked a few batches of the dill seeds at different growing stages by sprouting them and it looks to me like they have all sprouted. So I'm kinda overwhelmed with dill plants and seeds just from one plant. I'm going to have to dry a bunch of dill out and store it once these plants are about one to two months old.

Dill plants get pretty big, about one to two feet tall and two feet wide. We had to stake our dill plant up about two months ago or else the wind would have blown it over and killed it.

I'm amazed that one dill plant could produce so many seeds. It also put on quite a show. It shot up huge yellow flowers and the wildlife has been having a field day. I was able to give many of my friends and family free dill seeds. If they grow at least one plant to-seed they will have free dill for a lifetime or more.

- SunnyStars

I love to eat fresh garden pickings

2009-05-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

My Garden is just as beautiful as I pictured it to be. It's amazing what I have created in such a small space!

Everyday I am enjoying some form of fresh food from my garden in one way or another.

The types of fresh foods that I am eating from the garden include :

* Mesclun (mixed greens)
* Lettuce of all kinds (romaine, purple, curly, etc.)
* Garlic leaves (I love to eat these straight from the garden!)
* Snap Peas (edible pods)
* I had been eating fresh grapes but now the fruiting season is over for my grapevines.
* Chives, etc.

Granny Smith Apples

2009-05-26T15:22:00.000-07:00

Granny Smith Apple Seeds

I bought a few more bright green, Granny Smith apples from the store and I already ate two of them and although none of the seeds are fully sprouted yet and they don't have any roots coming out of them. The seeds seem to be opening up. The brown outer shell has peeled back which revealed the inner contents of the seed which is white.

I have a feeling that the seeds are in the early stages of sprouting so I am going to plant them immediately! I bet that at least two of these Granny Smith apple seeds will sprout! I can't wait to see their little, baby tree leaves!

Later alligator,

- SunnyStars

Granny Smith Apples

2009-05-24T15:30:00.000-07:00

Granny Smith Apples
Baby Trees and Sprouts

I am so happy to report that I am still the rightful owner of two very small but beautiful Granny Smith Apple Trees. At this time they have 3 - 5 leaves and the stem or "baby tree trunk" is less than an inch tall. They are so cute to me, it must be because I know that they are Granny Smith Apple trees. Lol.

Today when I went outside to water them I noticed that another one of my apple seeds sprouted so that brings my total to 3 Granny Smith Apple Trees!

Now I need a lot of land to plant them on! For now I guess they will be fine if I just get them a larger pot.

Stay tuned, I'm trying to get you some pictures of the baby trees ASAP!

- SunnyStars

Granny Smith Apple Seeds

2009-05-20T00:41:00.000-07:00

Granny Smith Apple Seeds and Sprouts

About a week ago, I bought 3 green Granny Smith Apples (Malus domestica) from a grocery store and brought them home. I put them in my fridge for about 2 days and then I cut one open to eat it.

Now this is perfect timing because I had just read about this happening the other day but I didn't think it would happen to me especially the very next time that I bought some granny smith apples! I'm very happy about this and I'm pleased to report that when I opened the first apple up I found an apple seed inside that had already sprouted!

The next day I opened the second apple looking for sprouts. There weren't any sprouts so I carefully removed the seeds. I will try to germinate these seeds as well. The next day I opened the last apple and low and behold I found another granny smith apple seed that had sprouted inside of the apple!

Both of my apple tree sprouts are healthy and I have already taken them outside and placed them in a semi shady location. I am going to keep the dirt moist and replant them when necessary.

I have heard that my apple trees might not turn out to grow granny smith apples and that the seeds might have gotten hybridized during pollination. Even if it takes 2 - 5 years for my apple trees to bare fruit, I am still going to grow these trees up and see what kind of fruit they grow.

And of course, I will take pictures and keep you updated! =)

See ya soon,

Sunny

Artichoke plants

2009-05-15T18:28:00.000-07:00

Friday, May 15, 2009

My artichokes are fruiting!

I have wonderful news :

* I have 3 artichoke plants instead of 2!
* They are all 3 fruiting and I will be eating homegrown artichokes before the end of May!

I couldn't be happier. Everyday my garden brings me more and more happiness.

Garden Log : Thursday, May 14, 2009

2009-05-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 14, 2009

The baby grapes on my grapevine are getting so big
and they are growing super fast!

I can't wait to finally eat them. I hope to get a picture of the tiny grapelets in the next few days.

Big healthy grape leaf.

New growth on the grapevine.

I love to pick tiny/baby grape leaves and add them into my garden salads.

See you soon,

Sunny

Sat-4-25-09 My Pomegranate Seeds Arrived!

2009-04-25T05:28:00.000-07:00

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Pomegranate Seeds

I ordered some pomegranate seeds off of eBay a few days ago and they arrived in the mail today.
I followed the instructions that came with the seeds, which directed me to soak the seeds in warm water for two hours and then plant them in loose/moist soil.

I didn't plant all of the pomegranate seeds so that I could save some of them. Just in case the seeds that I'm sprouting at the moment happen to NOT sprout for some awful reason.

I am also trying a totally different sprouting technique with three of the pomegranate seeds. I am trying to maximize my chances of having any of the seeds sprout. I will keep you updated on both of my seed sprouting processes and I will take plenty of pictures of my new pomegranate adventure.

My whole family has been begging me to grow them some pomegranates and finally the time has come and I'm super happy about it!

I will take pictures throughout the entire growing process of the pomegranate seeds so STAY TUNED! =)

See you soon!

- Sunny

Fri-4-24-09 Wheat Grass - Timothy Hay

2009-04-24T11:55:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 24, 2009

Wheat Grass and Timothy Hay Update!

Five days ago I planted some Wheat grass seeds and some Timothy Hay seeds. I am pleased to report that all of the seeds have sprouted and are looking rather healthy!

I will get some pictures of these tiny plant sprouts and some pictures of the seeds within the next couple of days.

Later Alligator,

- SunnyStars