Growing My Dinner

Orchid

2009-04-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

The orchid has been mounted!

Tolumnia photos

2009-04-02T04:48:00.000-07:00

well my camera isn't happy. I guess that's what happens to 4 year old digital cameras.... 4 years shouldn't be so old. lol

Here is my new Tolumnias Volcano Orchid via cell phone photo... at least you can see the monopodial growth, the flower not so much... I included a google image of a flower that is an almost perfect copy of what i have :-).

Tolumnias

2009-04-01T04:30:00.000-07:00

This is a post for the green thumb blog.

My newest Orchid find: Tolumnias Volcano. One thing I learned right away was false advertising of this orchid online, specifically eBay. It is being called a miniature Oncidium. While this flower looks just like one, they are different in many ways. Oncidiums have psudobulbs, prefer morning and afternoon sun and a good watering with out drying out completely. Tolumnias are monopodial, like the Phalenopesis, and grow upwards with long dangling roots. They prefer lots of sunlight, direct sunlight too (which many orchids to not like). These orchids don't like to be drenched or over watered, daily misting or bi-weekly dunks in water are enough for them. Potting can be done but they'd rather lay out their roots, so you should not bury their roots in a pot, instead let them crawl out, or fix them to a piece of bark that they can climb.

Most of this I learned from the Orchid gardener I purchased from as well as some articles online. I am ecstatic to have this unique flower! When the nights are no longer 50 degrees I'll be putting this new Orchid in the sunroom window where it gets sun almost all day and stays warm and slightly humid. I'll try to get the orchid started on some bark this summer so that by fall, it will be fixed to the bark and I can hang it in the sunniest window for winter. Too bad the cats like this window the most and snacked on the orchids that were living there. I'll be following Maricel's idea of using my poor mans greenhouse for the orchids when I get more room.

Growth in the Garden!

2009-03-30T19:06:00.001-07:00

Look at the beans! They're over 3 inches tall.... The Barley cat grass is on steroids.

Beets

Parsley

Kohl Rabi, cucumbers are sprouting below

Action in the greenhouse

2009-03-23T15:54:00.000-07:00

The pole beans are already sprouting. They sprung out of the dirt, one of them was hanging half out of the peat pot! This time next week I might have a bean stalk. I need to go eat chinese food so I can get some chopsticks to use for these quickly growing beans.

Romaine lettuce has little sprouts.

Nothing else to report.

I started the vine cherry tomatoes my dad brought over yesterday. "Hey can you start these for me in your nifty greenhouse?" When they are big enough he's going to come take them and plant them in his yard.

I hope all is well while I'm in Boston for the next 3 days.....

Cattelya Orchid

2009-03-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

The Cattelya Orchid has sprouted it's first growth!! I can't wait to see what the flowers look like :-)

The other Orchids are happy to be in new pots. The Phal is still green, the spike just hasn't had any growth since the fall. I split the Oncidium after I got it and now they're in their own new pots. Both have new growth coming in.

Poor mans greenhouse

2009-03-22T12:52:00.000-07:00

I started my greenhouse planting! I made it with PCV piping, cardboard, foil, and a hard foam cover for easy access to the plants. The plant light was the most expensive thing.

Garden 2009 has begun.

2009-03-07T13:42:00.000-08:00

I purchased some supplies today to get my green house started so I can transplant in April. Knowing how we get late frosts here in good 'ole Virginny I'm not risking a thing. All of my little buds will start out in the sunroom/closed in porch. Once They've sprouted and the weather stays consistent I'll move them out to the big world! The Lettuce will be the first out as it can be harvested twice per year. With them, the beets, pole beans, banana peppers, and bell peppers. Later in April will be the tomatos, parsley, oregano, carrots, cucumber, and kohl rabi. I found some biodegradable pots to use which excites me a lot sicne I was planning on just using egg cartons, but these will break down much faster! I have 50 little pots for only $2. My egg cartons will be used for the heartier plants if I run out of the bio pots.

I haven't mention in this blog yet, but I am an orchid fan as well. I have 3 at home and 1 at work. They've had a tough winter but I hope to get them backup and happy again by repotting them.

The Iris's I planted last fall sprouted later fall/winter when we had a very warm week and they thought it was spring. They stopped growing and I thought they would die but they are still green and may pick up where they left off pretty soon. They are a May flowering plant so we'll see what happens.

I bought a rose bush today to put in the place where previous growerd have not succeeded in growing flowers. I hope this bush flourishes here, it is suposed to be a beautiful flower- orange and red tones. my favorite!

Composting

2009-01-04T11:56:00.000-08:00

To help me with my compost pile my boyfriend's parents got me a compost pail! For those days when I don't make it out to the backyard b/c I get home when it is dark out and everything sits in the fridge for a week.... Not anymore! Now it can start composting in my pail and once a week I can dump it all in the pile! :D

Flowers

2008-10-13T14:11:00.001-07:00

Besides growing veggies I have also planted bulbs. Next May my mail box will have a lovely display of white, yellow, and purple Irises! I planted them in nice little rows, my only fear is that one or two of them may have been planted upside down... I also planted them along the walk up to the front door.

Garden 2009

2008-10-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

I've decided to chronicle my garden adventures. It started out as a garden of over grown weeds. After several weeks of work, I got the garden to a manageable plot. My compost pile has been going so well that some of the scraps I put in there started to grow! So I moved them to the garden... we'll see how they do through winter. Transplanted were three potatoes. One of the potatoes is slightly smaller than my fist. That's how out of control it is! The other transplant is an onion. Almost all of the romaine lettuce butts are sprouting new leaves. Since I don't want all this growth stealing the nutrients from the compost pile I chopped it up with my hoe/fork tool and shifted the dirt. Next time the lawn is mowed I'm going to put a layer of grass clippings on top.

Here are some photos of the 2009 Garden!