The Rookie Garden

Westfield Mall - Carlsbad, CA

2017-02-10T17:29:00.000-08:00

We originally headed to the mall to check out the new Dave and busters that just opened but the line was so long we went to the arcade downstairs instead. And good thing we did! $5 and 10 rounds of the claw game got us some nice prizes! A girl angry bird, a minion, and Chloe from secret life of pets!

My $10 Worm Bin!

2011-06-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

I have made my next big step toward reducing my carbon footprint-- worm composting! I've been interested in worm composting, also known as vermicomposting, fore a while now, but all the worm bins on the market are so expensive (anywhere from $80-$100) and seem like such an investment for something I just wanted to "try out." The idea of getting worm castings (poop) for free is awesome to me, and with worm castings being one of the best fertilizers in the world, how could you go wrong?

Well, it turns out there are a lot of great resources online that tell you how to build your own worm bin! Here are the websites that I got my worm bin instructions from:

"Cheap and Easy Worm Bin" - Lots of good pictures

VirginiaTech "Composting Your Organic Kitchen Waste with Worms"

"The Down and Dirty on Worm Composting" by Liz Pevytoe - A pdf file that is a short E-Book on the subject. Very thorough!

Here is what I did to build my own worm bin for $10!

First I went to Wal-Mart and purchased two 10-gallon Sterilite plastic containers ($5 each). Apparently worms like the dark, so make sure you get bins that are not transparent, but opaque like these. Transparent bins can also make it hot for the worms, which could kill them! One bin will serve as the actual worm bin, and the other will serve as a catch tray for the "worm tea."

I then followed the instructions and took a 1/8" drill bit and drilled holes along the top of the bin and on the lid of the bin. These act as air holes for the little wormies so they don't suffocate. It is also important to keep these holes small so that it prevents fruit flies from getting into your bin and eat your yummy rotting kitchen waste!

I also drilled some 1/8" and 1/4" holes at the bottom of the bin.

This serves two purposes. (1) It provides drainage for any excess liquid in the bin, including worm tea, which is just a nice name of worm pee. Apparently the worm tea also is a great fertilizer for your plants, and an effective organic pest repellent when you spray it on your plants. Bye-bye aphids! (2) When this worm bin gets full, I can stack it onto a new bin with scraps in it, and the holes allow the worms to travel between this bin and the new bin.

I then filled the bin with some bedding, which basically was paper bits from my shredder that I soaked in water. Make sure you squeeze out any excess water. The bedding should be wet like a damp sponge, but should not put out more than a drop or two of water when squeezed.

In the second bin, which has no holes in it, I placed four miniature pots, one in each corner, to act as risers for the worm bin. You can use bricks, plastic cups, etc... This will give the worm bin plenty of room to drain out while also catching the valuable worm tea.

I then stacked it all together and it was ready for the worms!

The next morning we went to the Vista Farmer's Market to visit Rubi, of "Rubi's Reds." She is there every week and sells worm castings and red wrigglers. She had her worms sitting in a bin similar to mine, and when I made my purchase, she grabbed a plastic bag and shoveled a couple piles of wormy goodness into the bag. She showed me pics or her worm farm, where she raises tens of thousands of worms in piles of dirt on her land. She also showed me some of her plants that she's been feeding worm castings to, and all I could think was, "Hey, you don't have to sell me on the idea. I'm sold!" I also asked her a number of questions based on the reading I had done, and she told me not to worry about all the things I read. Just dump the worms in, put the lid on, and they'd take care of the rest. It was that simple. I was so excited to take these little guys home!

Back at la casa, I opened up my bin and dumped the contents of the bag into the bin.

At first, all I could see was the dirt that they came in, but looking a little closer, I was able to spot the little guys. They burrow pretty quickly and are good at hiding, so I'm not really sure how many worms I have in there. I'm sure there are more than I realize! There were even baby worms that you had to really concentrate to find.

So we'll see how it goes. I gave them a little bit of a banana peel yesterday, and I can't help but go check on them everyday (this is my third day since I brought them home). Everyone says be patient though, so maybe I'll let them be for another week, and hopefully I'll see some progress soon!

San Diego County Fair - Plant Envy!

2011-06-18T22:41:00.000-07:00

I went to the San Diego County Fair today and visited their "Farm" section, where they planted a bunch of crops and also had some educational exhibits on composting and vermicomposting. I had such plant envy as I looked at all the bountiful vegetables that they were growing and at how huge all their crops were!

Herb Garden

Sunflowers

Gourds

Corn

Sweet Peas

Raised Bed for Herbs

Tomato Garden

All of their tomato plants were at least 4 feet high!

Giant Cabbages

Carrots

Radishes - Looks like something out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon!

I also learned about vermicomposting, or composting with worms. There are several ways to do it, but the most common is with a worm bin. I've always been reluctant to try this out because commercial worm bins on the market typically cost anywhere from $80-$100, plus another $20+ for worms. Seemed to be too big of an investment for just trying something out. But I learned today that I could make my own bin for less than $10! Here are the instructions that I got from the exhibit:

I also met a nice lady who does her own worm composting and she made it sound so easy! So I'm going to go to WalMart and get some plastic bins and build my own! More on this next time!

Blueberry Pot

2011-06-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

I bought a blueberry plant about a month ago and planted it in a large black plastic container. It looked really ugly in my backyard, so I decided to spruce it up with a vintage print and a little Mod Podge. I found this vintage blueberry can label on Flickr and printed it out at Kinkos.

A coat of Mod Podge and a quick spray of varnish sealant, and viola! A vintage inspired blueberry pot. Looks so much prettier!

When Life Gives You Bees, Make Honey

2011-05-26T13:55:00.000-07:00

OK everyone. For those of you who've been following my backyard bee adventure, the Bee Guy came by and relocated all of the bees to his bee farm (I'll post pics and video of that crazy ordeal in the next blog entry) .

The Brr Guy gave us some of the hive to extract fresh honey from. I've never done this before, but it was such a cool process, and so much fun! I just finished my video about how to extract honey from the hive! Here it is for your viewing pleasure:

BEES!!

2011-05-14T22:28:00.000-07:00

Being in the middle of spring, I've noticed lately that there have been more bees in my backyard. I've welcomed them because they pollinate all the vegetables in my garden. This morning I was pruning some of my plants and I noticed a white chunk of something sitting on a branch of a tree in my backyard. Funny, I thought, looks a bit like beeswax.

Later in the afternoon, I noticed a few white chunks on the floor beneath the tree: I looked closer to investigate and saw a couple of bees on them, and sure enough it was beeswax.

I wondered where these chunks of beeswax were coming from, and looked up into the tree and to my horror, I discovered this:

HOLY SHIT! I have no idea how long these bees have been here or building this hive. It's about 2 ft long and at least a foot wide!! Here are more gory pictures:

Clearly these are honey bees, and so far they've been pretty peaceful and have kept to themselves, but they still give me the heebie-jeebies in a massive way. Even those these bees are scary looking, they are very beneficial to the environment, and we did not want all these bees to be killed-- that would be such a waste. We have a bee specialist coming on Monday to remove the hive and he'll be relocating it to a bee farm. It'll be really interesting to see how he gets up into this tree to remove the hive!!

Until then, we'll just be extra careful not to disturb this hive or piss the bees off!

Rookie Garden: New Beginnings for 2011 - ALL ABOUT BULBS

2011-02-12T07:34:00.001-08:00

Happy 2011 everyone! This new year is a year for new prospects, and now that the weather is warming up here in Southern California, it's time to get planting!!

Since November of last year, I have pretty much neglected my Rookie Garden, except for a little weeding here and there. My day-job had left me little time to tend my garden, plus there was little point to planting things when the weather was so cold. Nothing was sprouting outdoors, and since I was traveling so much for work, starting seeds indoors was futile since my dear hubby would always forget to water them.

But yesterday it was a warm 78-degrees here in San Diego (sorry about the poor weather to the rest of the country) and it was time to clean up the rookie garden and plant some new things! I started out with "a little" weeding. All that green that you see on the concrete there... WEEDS.

This planting session was all about planting bulbs! Last year I had purchased some bulbs from the 99c Store, and decided to give them a try. At a buck a packet, I thought, Why not? Some of them turned out nicely, but some of them are really blooming this year like this Freesia:

And here are some Gladioli bulbs from last year starting to grow shoots!

Since they're looking so strong this year, I decided to give them another try, and I went to the 99c Store once again, and bought a bunch of them! When the cashier was ringing me up, he commented, "Are you planning to get your hands dirty? You're buying A LOT of them!" I smiled as I thought about how lovely my garden will look once all of these bulbs start to bloom.

ROOKIE TIP: When planting bulbs, a nice trick is to store the bulbs in the refrigerator for a week before you plant them. Bulbs generally like having a cold period that helps them go dormant and become stronger.

Here are the bulbs that I planted...

Gladioli

I love these tall flowers. In Chinese, they call these "Sword Orchids." They should be planted at a depth of about 8 inches. You can plant about 4 of them every square foot. They take 60-100 days after planting to bloom, and love full sun.

They were a real success last year in the Rookie Garden. Last year, I got the peach and white varieties, and this year I decided to add to the palette. The Plumtart and Tradehorn are my favorites because they look so bold in color... I really hope they bloom nicely this year.

I planted the gladioli against the wall (see the stone circles depicting the planting locations) since they can grow to be up to 5-ft tall!

Freesia and Asian Buttercups

Freesias are sweet smelling flowers that are symbolic of innocence. They should be planted at a depth of about 5 inches. You can plant about 12 of them every square foot. They generally flower in late spring, and love full sun or partial shade.

The Asian Buttercup is also known as the Persian Buttercup. They should be planted at a depth of about 5 inches. You can plant about 16 of them every square foot. They bloom in early to mid summer, and love full sun or partial shade.

I'm excited about the Freesias since the ones I planted last year are so pretty this year (see yellow freesia pic above), but I'm even more excited about the Asian/Persian buttercups! They just look so pretty! I planted these two flowers together with the freesias in the back and he buttercups in the front. Hope I'll end up with a colorful mass of flowers by late spring!

DRUMSTICKS and MUSCARI/GRAPE HYACINTHS

Drumsticks should be planted at a depth of about 5 inches. You can plant about 5 of them every square foot. They generally flower in mid-summer, and love full sun.

The Grape Hyacinth should be planted at a depth of about 5 inches. You can plant about 16 of them every square foot. They bloom in early to mid spring, and love full sun or partial shade.

These were some of the more peculiar looking bulbs that were available at the 99c Store, so I just had to get them!

I had no idea what "Drumsticks" were, but a quick search on the internet showed that these are a type of onion plant. In fact, "Allium" is the onion genus, and in Latin, means "garlic." This makes sense because the flowers of onions and chives look very similar, kind of purplish and bulbous. Overall, people seem to be happy with this flower as it is easy to grow, and it attracts birds and bees.

The grape hyacinth, or Muscari, is also strange looking, at least in the picture on the package. Another quick search on the internet shows that the grape hyacinth is not really a hyacinth at all, but a member of the lily family. Aside from the strange looks, part of the reason I bought them was because the name reminds me of the character Hyacinth Bucket from "Keeping Up Appearances," one of my favorite shows ever! I think Ms. "Bouquet" would be very proud of this.

Right now there are several bare spots in my Rookie Garden, mostly from taking the old annuals out and putting these new bulbs in. I'm not sure at all how these will turn out in the Spring, but that's all a part of the adventure and excitement of a Rookie Garden!!

A Small Break from the Rain

2010-10-25T15:07:00.000-07:00

It has been raining and raining and raining for the last two weeks!! My goodness. And it's raining again today. BUT, at least it didn't rain over the weekend, which gave me a moment to actually enjoy the outdoors and run a 5K for charity.

Rain sucks, especially when you're a spoiled San Diegan like me that basks in near perfect weather most of the year. But here's what doesn't suck about rain:
- There's a drought in SoCal, so we can definitely use the water
- You can turn the sprinklers off and save on your water bill
- Your plants get a nice deep watering for the year (including all those blasted weeds)
- Your grass gets nice and tall!

Especially that last one...the grass being tall. Because it's been raining so much this month, the boy next door has not been over to mow the lawn, and it is as long as it's been since we moved into this house. Plus, all the brown patches have really greened up!! Look at it!

Vegetable Bounty

2010-09-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

I've finally came to terms with the fact that I need to pick my vegetables. They've been sitting on the plants for a while now, and I've been hoping that they'd ripen even more, but I think that they have reached their peak. If I wait any longer, I won't be able to enjoy them. So today, I picked most of my bell peppers (including one mutant pepper), a few tomatoes, a cucumber, and a couple of okra. I'll probably bring some of these peppers to my mom tonight so she can make some of her awesome stuffed peppers.

Here's my tiny okra:

And a Mutant Pepper!! It's like a little one trying to emerge from the big one! Just like the mutant tomato in my last blog entry!

I'm so sad that summer is coming to an end. My garden will take a little rest soon, and it'll be time for focus on winter vegetables! Stay tuned!!

MUTANT TOMATO!!

2010-08-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

Look at what I found in my garden today.

To the casual onlooker, this looks like an ordinary, lovely garden tomato.

By a closer look reveals-- EEK!

A MUTANT TOMATO!!

This reminds me of those stories of a baby absorbing its twin in the womb, except in this case, it looks like the twin is trying to emerge from it.

I have no idea how this happened, but I'm looking forward to eating it! :)

Good Bugs vs Bad Bugs

2010-08-20T11:30:00.001-07:00

Summer has suddenly decided to appear in San Diego (a little late, in my opinion) and bugs are rampant! Just this morning I went water my plants and found that my basil had been ALL eaten up overnight!!!

And the nerve of whatever it was that ate my plants to leave droppings all over the floor:

And then I found this hungry little guy in my flower bed...

Rookie Tip: A highly diluted soap solution will help get rid of aphids. My friend Rebecca also says that a cayenne pepper solution will work with garden pests.

However much to my delight, I also spotted my first praying mantis in my garden! YAY! I had bought a praying mantis egg sac months ago and wasn't sure if it ever hatched, but I guess it did! This one is about 1 inch long, so it's still a baby! I hope it helps with some of the pests in my garden...

Rookie Tip: Praying mantises will eat all sorts of bugs in your garden, but also know that they can eat the beneficial bugs as well. Regardless, they're fascinating to have in your garden!

Right now for me, I have some many non-beneficial insects in my garden like beetles, flies, aphids, and caterpillars, that I think this little one will have plenty to feed on. I just hope I don't accidentally throw him away when I'm pruning my garden!!

My Garden - 5 months later

2010-08-15T11:37:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd give everyone a look at how my side garden looks 5 months after my baseline entry. To remind you all, here's how the Rookie Garden looked in March 2010:

With a lot of sweat, blood, and tears--- well, mostly sweat... and achy hands, it has since been cultivated to look as it does today. A few weeks ago, I covered the bare spots with wood chips, and it really finished the area up.

*ROOKIE TIP: Wood chips are great for your garden not only because they look nice, but they also help to retain moisture, prevent weeds from growing out of control and some types will deter deer (I think cedar wood chips help with that).

I'm so proud of how my garden looks today!!

From the other end:

Sorry the pics are fuzzy... took them with my phone camera. You can click on the picture to see a higher resolution version. I'll have to take some detailed before and after pictures to compare how everything looks now in relation to my very first blog entry.

I've really learned a lot in the last 6 months and continue to learn... Here are some pictures from other areas in my garden:

And look! Siamese cucumber twins!!! Can't wait to eat that one! =)

Thanks for visiting!!!

HOLY MOLY!!!

2010-07-02T16:06:00.001-07:00

I got home today after a week of business travel. My hubby's been gracious enough to water my plants everyday while I've been gone, and I was so happy to see that my plants were doing really well when I got home. I went to check out my Italian squash plants and, HOLY MOLY! Here's what I found!!

These were more like Italian Stallion Squash!

I don't know what the hubby did, but WOW!!

Needless to say, we'll be eating lots of squash this weekend. :)

Morning Hawk

2010-06-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning to a shrill cry in my garden. I went outside and found this wonderful creature in my palm tree!!

It's too bad it wasn't a sunnier day so I could get better pictures. I hope they little fella will catch some of the rats in our yard.

My $5 Compost Bin

2010-06-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

I don't have nearly enough organic material from my garden and kitchen to create a giant compost heap, but I want to do my part in trying to reduce my carbon footprint (isn't that the cool thing to do nowadays?). I've always wanted a compost bin, but those fancy shmancy bins are too big for my yard, and frankly, too expensive. I started late last year with my first attempt at composting with a small plastic box (about 8 gallons). It served its purpose, and I could see the effects of cold composting, but I soon outgrew it.

Then I ran into this article online: http://organicgardening.about.com/od/compost/ht/storagecompost.htm which shows how to make a compost bin with a plastic bin! And to my delight, Big Lots was selling these plastic bins for $5 a piece! Here is the bin that I bought.

I more or less followed the instructions and drilled holes in the top, sides, and bottom of the bin.

Then I threw the compost from the little box that I had going already, and discovered that I now have tons of room for more organic material!

I added some cuttings from my garden this morning.

Cold composting takes a lot longer, but Mother Nature still finds her way to take care of things, regardless of how small the pile is!!

So, lesson of the day is: Composting can be nice and cheap, as it should be!! Go do your part today!

And with that, I leave you with a picture of my lazy dog. :)

Tonight, we shall have peas!

2010-06-07T15:14:00.001-07:00

Sugar snap peas, that is! Freshly picked from my garden!

I think I'm going to give these guys a quick stir-fry and have them with some rice! YUM!!

The fruits-- or shall we say-- Vegetables of Summer

2010-06-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

Well, well... how quickly Summer approaches us! And with Summer are the vegetable that are FINALLY starting to show up in my garden!!

TOMATOES:

ZUCCHINIS (Or are they called Italian Squash?)

Snap Beans!

And here's the beginning of a young cucumber!

I've been traveling a lot for work lately, and have found that my garden seems to make more progress while I'm gone for a few days. Maybe it's because I'm not going outside every 4 hours to see if anything's changed!! Hahaah!!

Attack of the Ladybugs!

2010-05-09T14:08:00.000-07:00

My last post was about aphids. I tried soapy water, and it seemed to mitigate them, but it also turned the leaves of my plants brown. Next plan up my sleeve: LADYBUGS!!!

I bought these ladybugs at the Armstrong Gardening Center in Carlsbad, CA. $8.99 for 1500 ladybugs! I walked around the entire store looking for them, only to find that they were placed in containers in the soda fridge! They come in this little pint-carton. If you weren't paying attention, you'd think this was ice cream, and you'd be in for a nice surprise! :)

The ladybugs are stored temporarily in the fridge because it slows down their movements, and I'm guessing makes them expend less energy, and hence won't die as quickly. When I got them home, I put them in my fridge as well, since it's recommended not to release them until early evening so they won't fly away immediately. Here the are in my fridge:

Once the sun went down, I went outside to release them. Here is my homemade video capturing all the fun!!

The next morning (yesterday) I went to check on them, and they were everywhere!! On the fence, on my plants, on the patio, in my shoes... overall a good thing since most of them were still there, but there was a bit of a "ladybug orgy" going on. Here's some "ladybug porn" for you sick-o's out there :P! (Sorry about the poor quality of the video)...

Hope they actually laid some eggs in my garden! A few more pictures.

Today, most of them seem to have flown off to other places. Guess that means I don't have that many bugs in my garden. I still see a few lingering around my pots and vegetables. I don't know if I would do this again unless I had a huge aphid infestation. But the nine bucks I spent was certainly worth a try, and was overall a fun experience.

Next: praying mantis egg sacks!

Eww! Gross!! Aphids in the Rookie Garden!

2010-05-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

Plant them and they will come. Typically, I am hoping that "they" are the fruits, vegetables, and flowers that sprout from my garden that I so adore. But today, "they" are the bugs in my garden that are eating all my plants, and frankly just give me the willies!

I've been noticing that my tomatoes and bell pepper plants in my side yard have been exhibiting signs of damage. The tomato leaves are getting spotted, and there seems to be something eating up my bell pepper plants. Well, yesterday, a closer look revealed, YIKES! APHIDS and other strange tiny bugs!! I found these suckers on my tomato leaves:

Any ideas about what the heck this is:

On top of that, I've noticed these little blue bugs on my mint plant... in clusters.

In examining them closer, I realize that they're not little blue bugs, but dark green YIKES! APHIDS!!!

How many do you see? I counted 6 above, and 7 below...

Ugh... I'm getting goosebumps just looking at these pictures and thinking about them. I'm also getting itchy all over... they're so disgusting.

So I went online to see what I could do to control these things without pesticides I found this great article from the Golden Harvest Organics website:

Ants "farm" aphids often keeping them in their nest during winter, then bringing them out in spring and placing them on the host plant. The ants eat the honeydew the aphids produce and move them from plant to plant spreading any diseases that are present. The honeydew favors formation of a black fungus known as "sooty mold." Control of the ants may often solve the aphid problem. Aphids abound in warm moist environments and will attack almost anything, favoring succulent new growth.

Predators: Green lacewings, ladybugs and their respective larvae have a voracious appetite for aphids. Larvae from the syrphid fly also consume aphids. Hover flies and praying mantis feed on aphids.

Repellent plants: Anise, chives, coriander (cilantro), garlic, onions, petunias and radish. Nasturtiums act as a trap crop. Aphids definitely prefer yellow flowers.

Squashing a few aphids around the infested plants releases a chemical signal that makes the other aphids drop from the plants and leave.

To foil aphids: flatten a square of aluminum foil around the base of plants to bounce light on the undersides of leaves. This also helps the plants in giving them more light.

Try a barrier of powdered charcoal, calcium dust or bonemeal to keep them away from your plants.

Stinging Nettle Spray: Aphids & Thrips - Cover 1 quart nettles with water, cover and ferment for 3 weeks. Mix 1 part nettle tea with 7 parts water. Spray.

Spread out a barrier of tansy around the base of the plant to stop those ants.

Use a spray made from a tea of tomato or potato leaves and water.

Chop 12 or so tomato leaves and 1 chopped onion in 1/2 cup of of 70% isopropyl alcohol for a few minutes. Apply the mixture directly on aphids with a cue tip or paintbrush.

A forceful spray of water is often enough to knock the aphids off the plant and may discourage the ants, well sometimes.

Put a bright yellow plastic pan in a strategic spot in the garden. Fill it a third of the way full with water. Aphids are drawn to the yellow color, land on the water, sink and drown.

A soap spray can be used to strip them of their protective wax coating, dehydrating them. Mix 1 tablespoon of Castile soap to 1 gallon of water, spray.

Garlic oil spray can kill aphids and other soft bodied pests.

A dusting of diatomaceous earth is lethal to aphids. Wear a mask when using DE.

Teas made from elderberry or rhubarb leaves can act as a deterrent. Oxalic acid is the compound present in these plants that makes a spray effective. It is poisonous.

Place banana peels at the base of infested plant. The peels give them a shot of potassium too!

Also See: Treatments: Horseradish, elderberry and yarrow tea.

For wooly aphids on apple trees: grow the trailing type nasturtiums training them to wrap up and around the tree trunk to ward off these pests. Very attractive too! Note: nasturtiums will specifically attract the black aphid while repelling others.

Yesterday, I tried the soapy water and it seemed to help. I saw the aphids falling to the ground. I think I'll also try the banana peels and the yellow pan. I've always thought ladybugs are cool... maybe I'll get some of those...

Interesting about the ants farming aphids. I've noticed ants in my flowerbed, and I imagine they have something to do with this!!

I'll keep you all posted on how the Battle of the Aphids at Rookie Garden comes along...

Rookie Tips for Growing Tomatoes

2010-04-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

This Rookie Gardener has been experimenting with tomatoes for about a year now. I grow every one of my tomato plants from seed (mainly from store-bought tomatoes that I use for cooking). If I eat an interesting tomato, I try to harvest its seeds and grow it. When I first started, I really didn't know what I was doing, but over the last year, I've acquired some tips along the way, and am starting to see the "fruits" of my labor. These pics are from my tomato plants as they are today... as you can see the fruits are just arriving!

I can't say that I'm anywhere near experienced in growing tomatoes, but I think the following are basic tips in successful Rookie tomato plant growing.

1) If you start your tomatoes from seeds, wait until the seedlings are at least 3 inches in height before transplanting them. If you plan to grow your tomatoes in a container, and you see roots peeking out the bottom of the pot, move the plant to a bigger pot to encourage growth!

1-a) To answer TMCPhoto's question: How to harvest seeds... I've done it two Rookie ways: 1) Just take the seeds straight from the tomato and throw it right into the dirt. 2) Put the seeds in a glass of water. Stir twice a day for 2-3 days. By the third day, the seeds will have settled to the bottom of the glass. Sift them out on a paper towel and they are ready for planting! The second method gives you more control over where you plant the seeds, but either way works well, especially with fresh seeds.

2) Pinch off any leaves growing below the lowest flowers on your plant.

3) When you plant starts growing rapidly, use a tomato cage to guide its growth, so it doesn't get unruly.

4) Tomato plants LOVE coffee grounds! Sprinkle some in your soil.

5) Make sure your tomato plant gets LOTS OF SUN, and I mean LOTS!

6) Occasionally give the top leaves of the plant a light shake so that the pollen from the upper flowers make contact with the flowers below. Tomatoes self-pollinate with their flowers.

7) This is one I need to work on: Patience! Plant it, and the tomatoes will come!

If you've got some tips of your own, feel free to leave them in the comments section! I'd love to hear them!! And if you're a total rookie too, I hope these tips were helpful!

In Memory of My Grandmother

2010-04-18T17:16:00.000-07:00

My grandma passed away a week ago (4/11/2010), and yesterday I decided to plant an avocado tree in her honor.

I had been eyeing these avocado trees that Costco was selling for $16.99. Anyone who has ever tried to grow an avocado plant from a seed can probably attest to how difficult it is to do this. I’ve certainly tried a couple of times with little success. So when you’re presented with an opportunity to buy a small tree that has been growing for at least a year, for under twenty bucks, you definitely have to think about it. Unfortunately, I didn’t know where in my yard I would plant one, so I had refrained from buying one of these trees.

I finally caved last Thursday, and asked the hubby to make a jaunt to Costco and buy one of these trees. I came home Thursday evening to see the potted tree sitting in the side yard.

Often times, it takes me about a couple of weeks before I get around to finding the motivation to plant a newly acquired plant. However, I had a compelling reason to plant this tree earlier. Yesterday, I was scheduled to leave for Los Angeles at 3pm to participate in the first of several ceremonies that my family was having to commemorate my grandmother. I made the abrupt decision at 11am to plant the avocado tree in her honor. It just seemed like the right thing to do. So I grabbed a pair of gardening shears and just started hacking away at the bushes, and cut them down far enough to make a clearing for the tree.

I think the avocado tree looks pretty happy in its new home.

My grandma wasn’t exactly a fan of avocados. In fact, I don’t think she had ever tried one when she was alive. I’m hoping that this tree will bear fruit, and that in some goofy way, she’ll finally get to try an avocado out, stuffed with crabmeat and mayonnaise. I’m pretty sure she’ll like it. :)

Plant Progress Report #1

2010-04-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

My plan is to have weekly progress reports, to show how much my plants are growing, especially since the weather is really warming up and things are starting to grow like crazy!

NEW PLANT!
My parents gave me this little loquat tree that they grew from a seed! I love loquat fruits, and I really hope this one grows!!

TOMATOES

All the tomato plants in my garden were grown from seeds that would have otherwise been discarded after cooking. I have found that tomatoes are some of the easiest plants to grow. I have more tomato seedlings than I know what to do with, so an idea that I came up with was a braided tomato "tree." I took three tomato plants (I have no idea what varieties they are) and braided their stalks together. We'll see how these turn out. I'm hoping that I'll end up with a bush that will produce three types of tomatoes! We'll see!

The behemoth tomato plant below sprouted from some baby heirloom tomatoes that I bought from Trader Joe's. I've had this plan for almost a year now, and it just keeps on growing!! I'm also finally starting to get tomatoes too-- golden ones! These are some of the tastiest tomatoes I've ever had. Any ideas on what this variety is??

CONTAINER GARDEN

I'm starting a little container section on my patio. My mom gave me some tong ho, which is a Chinese lettuce (tastes sort of like watercress, but slightly spicier) and cilantro, which I transplanted to the large container. More tomato plants (again, no idea what kind they are) on the right, and strawberries in the small one. I'm hoping to grow more herbs in this section.

SIDE YARD EDIBLES

My chayote plant (L) is growing pretty well, and flowers are starting to appear on my bell peppers (R).

My dwarf sugar snap peas:

Cucumbers seedlings are starting to sprout!

LEMON TREE
Look! Flowers! And a good number of them! Hope that means I'll have fruits this year!!

SIDE YARD

The bulbs are really starting to grow, but no flowers yet. My poppies and snapdragons are becoming stronger looking. The Alyssum is also starting to bloom. It was looking a little sickly when I first transplanted them, but they're definitely starting to take!

Views from both sides of the garden:

Succulents:

House Among the Weeds

2010-04-01T08:18:00.000-07:00

I have this little house in my garden as a decoration. Most people don't even realize it's there because it's only about 4 inches high! Recently it was even harder to see it with all the weeds that were growing around it (I've plucked them since then):

Kind of messy, if you ask me.

Close up though, it looks like the house is in an enchanted forest.

I love this picture!

Baseline - How My Garden Looks Today!

2010-03-28T15:43:00.000-07:00

Here's where we start. This is the baseline. Since this blog will be about my adventures in gardening, I thought this would be a good place to start. This will help me track my progress, and show the evolution of my garden. This is the beginning of a beautiful thing.

I present to you, my garden as it is today.

My backyard:

Yes, it usually looks like this on any given day (the sun and blue skies, I mean). It's one of the perks of living in San Diego, CA. My grass is way overgrown right now, but you can't tell in the picture. Let's say it's a little too healthy right now (but for the little brown spot). We purchased the Adirondack furniture a year ago from an antique shop for $100 and stained it ourselves. What a bargain! And yes, the giant palm tree is very cool. Love how it's part of our property.This yard/garden really is my little piece of paradise.
But this is the stuff that came with the house, and was done by professionals.

Then there are the parts of the yard that are being cultivated by me, the Rookie Gardener. These are my experimental gardens. To give this rookie a little practice as her thumb turns from black, to the current color: greenish-brown.

Here is the garden on the left side of the house:

Not anything special right now. Just a few camellia bushes along the wall of the house and the kitchen window. Oh, and the ugly AC unit at the end of the row. The stepping stones were there when we moved in, but were hidden under wood chips. I uncovered them about a year ago. I have plans to make this into a little rock garden eventually. At the end of the path there is a potted bamboo plant. It adds to the Asian feel that I want to eventually achieve.

Here is the right side of the house:

This side of the house is my baby because I've built it from scratch. When we moved in, this side of the yard had three dead trees, some out of control ground cover, and lots of weeds that blended in. The hubby and I hated it, and my mom told me that it was bad feng shui to have those dead trees and all that overgrowth, so we dug out trees, and pulled out all the groundcover and weeds. And it sat there as a plot of dirt on the side of our house, with dreams of turning it into a garden one day. Unfortunately, I had never been able to keep any kind of plant alive for a long time.

Then one day, I was at the 99c Store, and I saw these kalanchoe plants for sale. I thought, what they heck, they're only a dollar each, so what if I screw up? So I took a shovel and dug some holes in the dirt and planted them. I knew nothing about gardening. I couldn't have picked a better plant to start with for the clay dirt because they flower forever, and they're very drought resistant. Once I saw how much color they added to this plot of dirt, I was hooked. In fact, the flowers in the front row are the kalanchoe that I started with!

That was a year ago. Since then, I've learned that the clay dirt needs to be prepped, and I have mixed looser soil in as I've tried my hand at planting other things with various levels of success. I'm still not as diligent as hardcore gardeners because tilling the entire plot seems like so much work to me, and is very daunting. Instead, every time I plant something, I dig a hole and fill it with gardening soil. I figure this area will slowly become more enriched as I plant more stuff. I'm in no hurry. And now that I have a basic idea of how to plant stuff, I hope this blog will help capture this area as it develops.

Enough of my hopes, dreams, and aspirations! More pictures!!!

Here is more up-close look at the flowerbed as it is today. The bursts of color that are prominent here are my snapdragons, kanachoe, and poppies.

Here are some bulbs that are beginning to sprout out of the ground:

There are some areas that don't get a lot of coverage from the sprinklers, so I've planted my little succulents here. Each of them are about 2-3 inches wide. They seem pretty happy so far:

The rocks that I use for borders and to surround these little guys are all from the dirt. I like the idea of using the local natural resources for landscaping.

And here is my little edible section. I've got bell peppers, tomatoes, and strawberries growing here. I grew the peppers and tomatoes from seeds that were taken from vegetables that I used for cooking.

Close-up of the strawberries that are appearing. Don't mind the names on the markers. They were for some seeds that never germinated. Thought I'd use them here to keep the fruits above the ground.

Here is the other section for edibles: chayote (left top), tomato, and bell pepper.

Oh, and I also planted some beans with the chayote at the base of the teepee, and they're starting to sprout!! I hope this teepee will be enough to handle both. I'll probably have to divert the plants so they don't tip in over eventually!!

So as you can probably see, I love my garden, and I'm very excited about all the things that are starting to grow in it!! We'll see how it goes!! Wish me luck, and stick around for the ride!!

Time to Start a Blog!

2010-03-16T11:53:00.001-07:00

Spring is upon us here in Southern California, and just as the seeds in my garden are beginning to sprout, so has this blog!!

I am a total rookie to gardening. It started with just trying to maintain the front and back yards of the house we bought three years ago. Then my parents gave me some plants that I sadly neglected and managed to kill off. But as of October of last year, the gardening bug suddenly bit me, and I have become obsessed with my plants!! I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it!!