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Sunflowers and Flowers In The Vegetable Garden

September 8, 2011 · Filed under BEES, FLOWERS, general · Tagged borage, cosmos, flowers, Hopi sunflowers, rattlesnake beans, scarlet runner beans, tip tip nasturiums, Titan sunflowers, zinnias

Titan sunflower at dawn

The sunflowers are in full swing right now in the garden. In the entry way are ‘Titan’ sunflowers. I call them the guardian angels of the garden. They can get huge (up to 24 inches) although mine did not this year as they were planted late (like middle of June). Still beautiful.

Hopi sunflowers

Inside the entry are some other sunflowers-Hopi sunflowers, and Chianti sunflowers. We also have wild sunflowers that grow here in NM, they just haven’t found my garden yet.

: Tip Top nasturtiums

I love the green and white dappled foliage of these Tip Top nasturtiums against the other greens in the garden.

Borage is a bee plant

Borage is a companion plant to strawberries and the bees love them too. I’ve never seen the strawberry plant so lush and the bees are crazy for them!

Scarlet Runner Bean

Scarlet Runner beans are a vining pole bean and produce a beautiful orange flower. Here a bumblebee is visiting some flowers.

Entrance to the garden

Scarlet Runner beans compete with the Rattlesnake beans for the arbor.

Zinnias

The zinnias look great mixed in with ornamental corn, tip top nasturtiums and cosmos.

Cosmos

The cosmos next to the silver leafed squash are in full bloom now.

All the flowers have added to create a beautiful entrance and attract beneficial insects as a bonus. I even saw some hummingbirds this year in the garden which I haven’t seen before. If you didn’t plant flowers in your veggie garden this year, you should perhaps consider them for next year. They add so much beauty and I love hearing the bees in the garden doing their thing.

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My Garden Kicks Ass!

August 3, 2011 · Filed under asparagus, BEANS, Costata Romanesco, EGGPLANT, FLOWERS, general, PEPPERS, SUMMER SQUASH, tomatoes · Tagged bread and butter pickles, scarlet runner beans, vegetable gardening

I think this is my best garden ever even though I don’t have a lot of produce yet-but it’s all coming! It’s gotten so lush with just a couple of days of rain. I don’t mean to brag but I must-it’s really hard to grow a garden like this in the high desert. I fight the pests and have problems too just like you but diligence and hard work has really help. Hope you enjoy these photos.

This is the same angle from the corner of the garden I’ve photographed since the beginning of this year. Wow what a difference 2.5 months makes.

55 tomatoes planted May 15th!

Here is the same corner in the beginning of the season back on May 15, 2011

Here the view is looking towards the entry from inside. Zucchini, flowers, scarlet runner beans, rattlesnake beans tomatoes, corn, asparagus, sunflowers, rhubarb all stuffed in the entry!

These Emerite pole beans are hiding the teepee now.

Corn, asparagus, flowers, rhubarb and sunflower coming along.

Baby cucumbers- these are Boothsby Blonde variety. They will make great bread and butter pickles.

Caleb, my apprentice, gave me a gourd seed that someone had given him but he didn’t know what type it was, so I call it-Caleb’s mystery gourd. Notice the purslane in the left corner. I’m going to try some this year so I left it in..

Flower bed to the right of the entry-zinnias, cosmos nasturtiums, pole beans and sunflowers. I can only imagine this when they all bloom.

My one lone cosmos flower yet but what a beauty-Magenta cosmos flower

Here is Caleb’s baby mystery gourd-wonder what kind it’ll be. Kind of looks like a pear right now.

The tomatoes have really shot up-about 5 feet tall now. Now the Long Gourd tower in the background doesn’t look as tall.

Best tasting zucchini ever-Costata Romanesco

Pepperoncinis’ with eggplants behind them

The Long Gourd is stretching towards the top of that 10′ trellis tower I built! Never thought I’d see that!

Scarlet Runner bean flower-beautiful!

Here’s one of Caleb’s bees doing it’s thing with the pumpkin flower.

Finally the Shishito peppers are kicking in.

View from the inside looking out towards the gate. The Rattlesnake pole beans are producing and growing over the arbor now. Way in the background inside the corral is the pumpkin patch.

Finally a baby ‘Greenie’ pumpkin-about 5 inches in circumference right now-small but I’ll take it!

Put my cell phone on top of the giant pumpkin today to give it some perspective. It put on 11.5 lbs yesterday— went from 56.5 lbs to 70 lbs. Hope the squirrel doesn’t get it. Been hiding all the pumpkins under row cover and burlap to discourage the squirrel.

Today’s small harvest-slow but steady!

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Signs of Springs

April 20, 2011 · Filed under 10 things to do in April, FLOWERS, general · Tagged flowers for spring, spring flowers, spring gardening, vegetable gardening

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Spring is popping out everywhere from the trees to tulips and irises. I even like spurge with it’s chartreuse yellow green color in spring. Photos by Elodie Holmes or Jannine Cabossel

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Edible Flowers List for 2011

February 20, 2011 · Filed under EDIBLE FLOWERS, FLOWERS, general · Tagged edible flowers, flowers, vegetable gardening

2011 EDIBLE FLOWER LIST

titan sunflowers

There are many flowers that are edible and beautiful either in regular garden or vegetable garden. I like to put all kinds of flowers in the veggie garden—some pollinators, attractors, and edible. I like the entrance to the veggie garden beautiful. Following is the list of edible flowers that will be planted or are already on the property:

Borage

Calendula-Tangerine

Chives

Lavender (in existing different area)

Marigold-Lemon Gem

Nasturtiums-Alaska Tip Top

Pansies

Violas

Roses (in different existing area)

Black Oil Seed sunflower (for the birds!)

Titan Sunflowers

Grow Black Oil Sunflower Seeds For Your Wild Birds

January 21, 2011 · Filed under BIRDS, EDIBLE FLOWERS, FLOWERS, GARDEN PLANNING, general, SEEDS · Tagged Black oil sunflower seed for birds, blck oil sunflower seed, growing black oil sunflower seeds, Peredovik Black Oil Sunflower seed, sunflower seeds

Peredovik Black Oil Sunflower. photo by westcoast seeds.com

I just came back from the bird store where I got some black oil sunflower seeds for my wild birds when I thought why not grow my own for next year? My favorite sunflower up to now has been the Titan sunflower which is a striped seed and is not a black oil seed. Black oil seeds compared to striped sunflower seeds have a higher oil content and are meatier. They are also easier for small birds to crack open. I already cut off the sunflower heads from sunflowers for the birds so why not give them what is really good for them. One variety that I found is Peredovik Black Oil Sunflower Seed from Russia. You can get it at westcoastseeds.com. You can also just plant the black oil seed you get in your birdseed. I read that the sunflowers are 3 feet tall with black heads. So this year I’m going to add them in with my other sunflowers for a treat for the wild birds.

Hmm, now I wonder if I can grow that real expensive finch seed, Nyger? I’ll have to look into that! It is super expensive but I don’t know if it will grow here. I’ll get back to you on that one..

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2011 Seed Catalogs

January 10, 2011 · Filed under EDIBLE FLOWERS, FLOWERS, GARDEN PLANNING, general, RECOMMENDED BOOKS, SEEDS, VEGETABLES · Tagged 2011 seed catalogs, Baker Heirloom Seeds, bbc seed, growing tomatoes, John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds, Johnny's Select Seeds, Peaceful Valley, seed savers exchange, seeds, The Cook's Garden, Tomato Growers, Totally Tomatoes

2011 Seed Catalogs

Now’s a great time to look at all those new seed catalogs we’ve been receiving. I’ve gotten a few new ones (for me) as well. I am now going over them and deciding which seeds I can’t live without! So many choices! I’m only adding a few new tomatoes as I par down the list from the past 2 years. That and I am not going to grow as many as last year because I need to rotate them to new areas. I’m planning on growing more flowers down in the main garden as well. For more information on all my favorite seed catalogs, go to my catalog page at the top of the blog (also on the right sidebar)

two new seed catalogs for me for 2011

I also got 2 new seed catalogs-One’s called ‘bbbseed’, which features heirloom vegetables and wildflower seeds. It’s veggie section is little but what interested me in the catalog is it comes out of the Denver area and seems to be a good resource for wildflowers for our areas. You can order a catalog at www.bbbseed.com. The other catalog is John Scheeper’s Kitchen Garden Seeds. It looks interesting with it’s larger veggie and flower section. You can order one from www.kichengardenseeds.

Christmas Cactus blooming!

January 9, 2011 · Filed under FLOWERS, general · Tagged christmas cactus, christmas cactus care, flowers

Closeup of a Christmas Cactus Flower-Jan 2011

I have a Christmas cactus which isn’t exactly a vegetable (what’s it doing here) and isn’t exactly a cactus. It is a Zygo-cactus that looks more like a succulent. With care it can bloom around this time of year. I noticed my flower buds in early December and it was blooming by Christmas. I got to admit, I’ve never had much luck in getting them to bloom so I did some research this year (after it bloomed) It is amazing it bloomed at all this year considering I did almost everything wrong.

Christmas Cactus plant-Jan 2011

There is actually 3 hybrids of this cacti-Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter Cactus so maybe you don’t have the Christmas type if you didn’t get it to bloom around that time. It is native from Central and South America and is a member in the Zygo-cactus family (that’s not Zydeco-it won’t dance). They are tropical cacti and have different care requirements than the standard cacti. So here is what you should do and what I did..

1. Your suppose to keep them in a cool room starting around Sept-Oct, in indirect light and where the temperature is around 50°. I had it in my main great room, in indirect light but in a part of the room where it was right by the floor heater. I have to admit temperatures were certainly much higher as I’m not going to be in that cold of a room! Around Thanksgiving I noticed the leaves burning from the heaters so I moved it further away.

2. They also say to keep it in total darkness at night. That didn’t happen either as their are big windows that let the moonlight in and there are many sleepless nights where I go out into the great room (meaning lights on).

3. We’re suppose to water less when you want them to bloom which I always do anyways. Less meaning I really let it dried out between waterings but not to the point of wilting.

4. Christmas cactus require 50-60 % humidity. Good luck on that one in high desert. I coulda put a pan of water by it but like I said put it by the heater instead. Opps..

5. It likes to be pot bound-no problem there.

Fertilome Geranium, Hanging Basket & Pansy fertilizer

6. The best fertilizer is 0-10-10 but they say no higher than 10 on the nitrogen which would be a 10-10-10 fertilizer. I blew it there too. I started giving it a 20-20-20 around the beginning of November which I have never done before. Suppose to fertilize around 3 times (that sounds about right) But the plant By December 15th or so it started getting little flower buds! It seem to really liked it. The fertilizer was ‘Fertilome Geranium, Hanging Basket & Pansy’, all purpose fertilizer -20-20-20 (non organic-only in house)

So here’s what I got right (and evidently it was enough): the indirect light, didn’t overwater, let it be pot bound, and did give it some fertilizer (although the wrong ratio). It is still flowering beautifully. Evidently it’s not as picky as they say. Good thing plants are so forgiving at times..

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