Category: Seeds

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Evening things in the Pacific rainforest that is Norman

Cowpeas coming up among corn, beets, and peppers. Coreopsis in background.
Black coat runner bean flowers.
Mini bell pepper flowering.
Rouge Vif d’Etampes squash has big leaves!
Inca pea bean leaves.
Golden jenny melon needs more sun I think. Its seedling seems stuck.
Madhu ras melon is in a better spot.
This beetle eats solanaceous plants. It is sitting on my Peruvian ground cherry. This beetle is now gone.
Presumed beetle eggs. They are gone now. A mysterious giant finger squished them.
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Loofah central

Last year we grew a lot of loofah (luffa? I’ve seen both spellings) gourds and processed them (removing the outer skin from dried gourds) here in the front garden. Obviously a few seeds escaped!

We have almost two pounds of seeds if anyone wants to grow their own…
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Basil and oregano pizza

Basil on top of cheese and oregano is hiding below cheese. Salad is the big Boston lettuce that is heading right now.
Basil outside hasn’t come up yet so I’m still nursing along the window basil. I’m hoping this harvesting will encourage them to get bushier and more leaves. The red rubin in particular are spindly. The mammolo basil (the green ones) have bigger leaves but not very many.
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Bean sprouts (and their friends)

Slippery silks pole bean are up in both beds 1 and 4
Marketmore 76 cucumber in bed 4.  None of others up yet.
Vaquero bean (a pole bean) in bed 1.
Bolas maycoba bean next to lettuce leaf in bed 6.
Greasy grits bean (a green pole bean) in bed 1
Mbombo beans (a bush type) in bed 5.
Blue lake green bush (another bush type) in bed 5.
Dutch corn salad greens beginning to make immature seeds.
“hilled” potatoes with more dirt added, so they will grow more roots and thus more potatoes.
Inca pea beans are the only ones not up yet.
Oregon sugar pod peas all fruiting now with more flowers.
The lettuce is thinking about bolting so I’m picking any that are growing taller.
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BEAN CENTRAL HERE WE COME

A very kind friend came over this evening and helped us attach a 100 ft roll of welded steel fence to our new wooden backyard fence. Now all I have to do is clear more of the non-bean plants near the fence base, and wait a few weeks for the soil to warm up sufficiently for tepary beans. I might start some runner beans in the shadier areas so they stay cool longer.

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How can things grow this much in a week?? Backyard edition

More wow!!!

Englemann Daisy blooming.
Bachelor’s buttons are not native but were in a mix I got and do get some nice little bees.
I believe this is greeneyes from seed from Mom.
Hedeoma seedling from seed from Paula in western Oklahoma. It’s in the cactus planter.  You can also see a baby moss rose and some widow sedum.
I think this is going to be an Echineacea, could be either the purple or pale one as I’ve planted seeds of both.
Rudbeckia (I think?) leaves are wonderfully soft.
Cilantro is blooming beautifully!  Future coriander.
One parsley is thinking about blooming.
Walking onions are so cool.
Gaillardia blooming!
Sooooo many evening primroses!  Last week only a few were open!
This mound of Oxalis was here when we moved in and it just gets showier all the time.
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How can things grow this much in a week?  Front yard edition

Wow!!

Rouge Vif d’Etampes squash seedling.
The Brunswick cabbage apparently had enough and has gone straight to flowering.
Dutch corn salad greens have bolted too.
I got wild after seeing soil temperature is above 60°F and planted some beans and all the basil.
Sedums are blooming! Thanks for these, Judy!
I found surprise kale seedlings (two, the second is not pictured). I believe they are Russian red but I had thought they all got eaten so there’s no label anymore.
Perennial coreopsis are big and just starting to bloom!
Black coat runner bean making good progress at the base of a crepe myrtle.
Mealy blue sage about to bloom.
So many strawberries and there’s still more flowers!
Sugar peas are blooming.
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How can things grow this much in a week?? Sprouting trays edition

The Chef took very good care of the garden while I was on vacation and we got very, very, very, very lucky to get rain and no hail in our part of town.  I’m poking at my potted plants right now.  I’ll do another post later with the ground plants and raised beds and permanent planters.

Echineacea pallida left out all winter sprouted well (seeds from prairie moon nursery) a while back. I put some of the seedlings in the ground when I left and I’ll plant these last ones soon.
The Chimayó peppers from Judy grew almost all these adult leaves.  When I left each had one small adult leaf.
Hungarian heart tomatoes to replace the one that got killed by the late frost.  The seedlings emerged in the plant window so I put them outside yesterday when I got back.
I repotted this eggplant right before I left. It has grown a lot.  The other one I repotted hasn’t grown as much.
Finally the culinary sage is starting to sprout!  The only one that was up before now has an adult leaf.
These passionvines are the ones where I just smooshed the fruit into a pot and left them out all winter.
Liatris mucronata has a hilarious long leaf. I had another one in a bigger pot but it seems to be dying.
This yucca now has three leaves!  I also planted one in the ground when I left, because it was in the relatively shallow sprouting tray, and it is still alive in the ground.
Planted the other tray of green milkweed (Asclepias virida) before I left and will plant these ones soon.
Volunteer redbud dug from front raised beds. Eventually I’ll put it in the ground here in backyard. I don’t think it grew any taller, so hopefully it’s working on roots.
I now have at least three baby columbines in the sprouting tray and one out in the yard. The package said direct seeding in fall was best, even over stratifying manually, so that’s what I did even for the trays. These babies look a lot like clover, especially when smaller, so I’ve had to be careful.