Saturday, April 7, 2012

Status quo


The kitty's catnip is starting to bloom, but I seem to have forgotten whether I bought a creeping form last year. Why is this so flat?


Annual pansies and nemesias.


The lemon cucumber seedlings. The germination rate has not been good. Is it Botanical Interests seed, is it the Organic Mechanics Seed Starting Mix, or is it Me?

I mean, I don't need 16 cucumber plants, but that's what I sowed.


An oak across the road, in bloom. We live with the upper third storey of these three, tall trees. I love them.


The fig looks happy, though it is early days, yet. I'm always convinced I've killed it with the root pruning. How many will ripen this year? The famous 2010 crop was over 100; last year, just beyond 30.

I have also planted five tuberoses (what was I thinking?) in a pot of their own; five gloriosa lilies (spread around the terrace, total crapshoot) and ten Abyssinian gladiolus (that's fine, they like it here, I know). I got rid of the pink hardy begonia. It was time. I hated it, lush as it was. It has left its offspring, however, and this evening I moved the ones I could find to the steps of the building. I won't mind them, there.

5 comments:

  1. Cool as a cucumber. Are they outside? You know those cukes were born of dry, warmer climates. They do not like the cool and damp. So how many you got is pretty good if April warms up. And May stays so.

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  2. Howdy Frank - like, duh? :-) Sown the same time as last year, and indoors. I do take them into the sun every day for a little R&R.

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  3. I too grow a fig tree in a pot (along with other fruit trees) and could it be that it is not so much the root pruning as the fertilizer? I need to do a better job of it, if the following link is correct (scroll down for fig tree feeding).

    http://www.figtrees.net/

    What are you using to feed your tree? I'm still looking for just the right fertilizer.

    Love your blog- my growing conditions are quite different than yours (the desert southwest) but because of poor soil, container gardening is where I find the most success.

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  4. Ah, tomorrow is the pruning of the 15 foot fig tree. this one is not in a pot. Since all the figs last year grew at the top and fed the birds, this year I will, with the help of my wonderful neighbor Dave, be hacking off a good 5 or 6 feet. After which, all the branches will be distributed to other neighbors who want to grow fig trees. Waste no.

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  5. Ah that gladiolus smells of the beach and suntan lotion :)

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