If you have ever wanted a calendar showing you what is blooming for each month of the year, here you go: California Native Plants – Calendar of Color The nursery that put this together, Tree of Life Nursery, is in southern California and they focus on native plants for their area. This calendar shows many […]
Calendula seeds are the most unique-looking seed I have planted yet. It looks more like a dried up part of the flower that has curled back upon itself, revealing a spine with a double ridge. I am starting some today and don’t know whether i should try to fit two to a hole, or only one. […]
The first time I grew sweet potatoes, it was from some store-bought tubers that started sprouting. I was so happy I tried it. It’s a beautiful ground cover with purple fluted flowers, and produced tubers that I harvested in the fall. They were a little fibrous, so I have to research what caused that, but […]
Last year I trialed several grafted tomato varieties next to their non-grafted plants. The grafted plants were definitely the winner, as they didn’t show any symptoms of any of the wilts (fusarium, verticillium, bacterial) that hit the non-grafted tomatoes. They also didn’t get hit with Curly Top Virus, although their neighbors did. The production was […]
[Intro text] Botanical Information Taxonomy Brassica oleracea Capitata Group member of Brassicaceae, the Mustard Family Related to Collards, Broccoli Raab, Broccoli Rapini (GV) History Physical Description annual Roots go down 12″ to 5′, with the plant reaching 12″ to 15″ tall, 24″ to 40 ” wide Seasonality Cabbage takes a long time to mature, so […]
This year I finally figured out how to get a successful bell pepper harvest in Redding! The trick was to grow them in a wide bed, instead of a row, at biointensive spacing. What this means is that in a 4’x4′ bed I grew 14 plants in a honeycomb pattern, with each plant only 12″ […]
Compared to my 2010 bell pepper harvest, I had more fewer peppers, and less overall weight. In 2010, each plant produced 3 peppers and the average pepper weighed 2 oz; this year, 2011, each plant only produced 1 or 2 and they weighed only 1.5 oz, on average. This reduction in overall production is probably […]
Bell Pepper Varieties Chosen for 2011: RED BELL PEPPERS: Bell Boy Cal Wonder Fat & Sassy ORANGE BELL PEPPERS: Cal Wonder Orange YELLOW BELL PEPPERS: Super Heavyweight Quadrato Asti Giallo (New trial for this year!) PURPLE & BROWN BELL PEPPERS: Purple Beauty Sweet Chocolate (New trial for this year!) Growing Conditions: Since the last few […]
Each year I have grown 10-12 plants with maybe only 1 or 2 successful peppers each. The plants have been rather small and not very strong. Last year I gave them a bit more room than I usually do, but still had poor production. They also set pretty late and therefore most of them were […]
Lemongrass, grouped with herbs in many classification systems, is a grass that grows rather tall. Even though it’s considered a tropical or subtropical plant, it grows well in my area, which gets frosty in the winter – hardiness zone 9b. It is an essential herb for Thai, Vietnamese, and other East Asian recipes, and is rather […]