It finally cooled down enough for the tomatoes to start ripening …
Category: Fruits and Vegetables
Fall Seed Starting
I got the seeds started for our fall harvested vegetables. We bought these little seed starting trays on Amazon — a tray, a 12-cell insert, and a humidity dome with an adjustable vent. The kit came with plant markers … but it seemed silly to write something permanent on the marker. So I turned them into reusable markers by adding some of the blue tape you use for painting a room (because that’s what we’ve got & pen works OK on it). First I put three of the markers in a line on the tape.
A couple of quick slices with an Exacto knife, and I can change the label as needed.
I started the normal fall veggies — broccoli, broccolini, chard, and lots of cabbages. But I also started a sweet tomato that’s meant to produce in 60 days and a watermelon that’s supposed to produce in just 75 days. That’ll be the end of September so maybe we’ll get some watermelon this year!
Garden Progress
I knew the garden was growing well — there are tons of bean flowers, cucumber flowers, and tomato flowers. The buckwheat has sprouted, some of the corn is about a foot high. But it’s really cool to see a few veggies forming!
Orchard Layout
We should finally be past freezing nights for the season, so it’s time to get the fruit plants out in the orchard. I’ve got a couple of gooseberries and a hardy fig to put somewhere. But, in the next few days, I’ll get the currants, honey berries, seaberries, pawpaw, and cherry trees planted.
2022 Garden – Seeds in Dirt
The pepper seeds are in their little pots and (hopefully) will sprout in the next week or so. Anya put a few of her herb seeds into pots as well … but she’s got more seeds to start.
Next up, I want to get the broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, ground cherries, and tomatoes going.
2022 Garden – Seed Starting
We started soaking our first seeds for the garden this year — Anya has quite a few herbs getting ready to be started, and I have an assortment of peppers.
Home Automation and Gardening
Something like 20 years ago, I tried to grow a plumeria flower in my apartment. I had a broad-spectrum light, plenty of heat, and plenty of humidity. But getting the light turned on and off at the right times wasn’t easy (especially if I was at work all day!).
This seems like a really good use for home automation — our home automation system tracks the sunrise and sunset times for our zip code. It’s possible to essentially cron “stuff” off of these times — e.g. get the birds ten minutes before sunset. I could easily track sunrise and sunset in Honolulu then have my light turn on at sunrise (or first light) and off at sunset (or last light). Voila — “sunlight” that runs for the proper duration every day.
2022 Seeds
We’ve saved seeds from the garden (and seeds from both ground cherries and hot peppers that we picked up at the farmers market) that will make up much of our garden this year. I purchased a bunch of flower seeds to expand the bee garden, and a few new vegetables. And I really hope to get asparagus established this year!
| Seeds for Honeybees | ||
Autumn Beauty Sunflower Seeds – XL Packet |
Ballerina California Poppy Seed Mix – XL Packet |
Ball’s Orange Calendula Seeds – XL Packet |
Butterfly Weed Seeds – 1/4 Oz |
California Giants Zinnia Seed Mix – 1/4 Lb |
Globe Annual Candytuft Seeds – XL Packet |
Fairy Bouquet Snapdragon Seed Mix – XL Packet |
Dwarf Shasta Daisy Seeds – XL Packet |
Swiss Giants Pansy Seed Mix – 1/4 Oz |
Single China Aster Seed Mix – XL Packet |
Painted Daisy Seeds – XL Packet |
Money Plant Seeds – XL Packet |
Ice Plant Seed Mix – 1 Oz |
McKana Giants Columbine Seed Mix – XL Packet |
Indian Blanket Seeds – XL Packet |
Imperial Rocket Larkspur Seed Mix – 1 Oz |
Imperial Pincushion Flower Seed Mix – XL Packet |
Iceland Poppy Seeds – 1 Oz |
Sparky French Marigold Seed Mix – XL Packet |
Common Milkweed Seeds – 1 Oz |
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| Seeds for Food | ||
Sugar Beet Seeds |
Anise Seeds |
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Chioggia Beet Seeds |
Easter Egg Radish Seeds |
French Breakfast Radish
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Sparkler White Tip Radish |
White Icicle Radish Seeds
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 Hickory King Corn |
 Pencil Cob Corn |
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 Triticale |
 Winter Rye |
 Dundale Pea |
 Hull-less Barley |
 Burbank Hull-less Barley |
Oats |
Wheat |
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German Extra Hardy Garlic |
 Chesnok Garlic |
Music Garlic |
Dutch Red Shallot |
Dutch Red Shallot |
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Hazelnuts!
Our hazelnut bushes are finally growing the male part of the flower that comes out in the Autumn! Fingers crossed, we’ll be harvesting hazelnuts this time next year. It’s been seven years since we planted the bushes, but deer and rabbits chomped them down to little nubs the first year they were planted.
Strawberries!
The strawberries I planted two years ago are starting to produce! Anya picked fourteen ripe strawberries a few days ago, and she found a handful again today.
