Gardening Journal - Post your gardening updates here

After 8 days growth. Looks like the homemade fertilizer is helping.

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Now a bad little rain shower this afternoon. Began at 2:39PM as I logged it.

Just about a 10th under and inch as Rain Lot was in Libra.

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In South Florida and Ive been a grower/collector of tropical fruit trees for many years. Currently Im growing:

10 mango trees all fruiting with total of 20 different varieties (one tree has 12 varieties)
Lychees currently holding a lot of fruit
Sapodilla
Jackfruit
Atemoya
Sugar Apple
Avocado
banana
many other rare species of fruit trees


All this on 1/4 acre

Nice. You can do a lot with a quarter acre.

Post picks and tips when you can.

My poison Hemlock seeds and Datura finally came in this today.

Can't wait to get them planted.

Big gardening day tomorrow.

Very nice! My kids loved mangos but then one developed allergies..who knew they contain the same toxin as poison ivy, although in levels most people tolerate well. Sadly, they don't grow this far north either. I bet it smells wonderful when things are blooming and again when fruit is ripe.

We have apple, nectarine, and apricot. I had a beautiful plum tree but it got a fungus and we had to take it out before it infected the others.

Just bloomed this week.

https://imgur.com/MUdFlJF

Definitely! will get some shots tomorrow. Ive removed so many trees too. I actually have a couple fruit trees planted at the fire stations as well. Once i ran out of room I still kept buying. Ive also had a large garden, raised 20 cornish cross chickens for meat, had 6 egg laying hens, a bee hive, and a 500 gallon aquaponics tank. I really want a farm.

Yeah, that the biggest issue with mango, some folks have allergies to the sap. My buddy's wife likes them so much she has him cut them up so she can eat them. Im actually down the street from famous mango breeder, the Zills. He has created some of the most delicious mango hybrids Ive ever tasted. People come from all ver the world just to eat the mangos here in my city. A few of the mango flavors developed by Zill Im currently growing:
Coconut Cream
Fruit Punch
Pina Colada
Peach Cobbler
Lemon Zest
Orange sherbert

A mango mixed with coconut flavor will change your world. My first coconut cream just ripened this season. My daughter and I are gonna devour tomorrow!

Coconut flavored mango sounds awesome!

I hope yours turns out true to flavor.

Ummm...


A huge Comfrey?

Just remember during the season that if you make a mistake or something gets messed up, take it all in stride and keep pushing forward.

It's like the old saying "to err is human; to garden is divine."

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Every once in a while you run across an invention truly interesting.

Out here in the southwest, we have to think in terms of xeriscaping. Many plants that may have been impossible before are very possible now with the waterboxx.

You're wanting some nice pumpkins and acorn squash at end of summer harvest?

It would have simply taken too much water out here before. With the waterboxx, you fill once and your finished watering for the season.

It's been tried in the Sahara to the Gobi desert with good success.

Are you a prepper?

Well, here's your meal plan.

Now to indoor gardening.

The question I had when choosing the iHarvest this year is would this thing actually work.

It seemed nearly impossible to believe that plants could grow with only two small led grow lights.

But sure enough it does work and will even germinate your seeds.

First Henbane Sprouts popping out this morning.

Out here in the semi-desert, our water is so alkaline, you can actually see lime deposits on the rapid rooter sponges, so I have to lower my PH as it's around an 8.0 coming off the tap.

One advantage is that I really don't have to worry too much about algae in the tanto as long as I keep empty grow holes covered with aluminum foil.

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Do you sing to your plants or play on the lyre for them.

They used to think plants responded well to wind chimes.

I don't know, so I'm trying to do a controlled experiment between plants that had constant music played for them and plants that didn't.

Which will turn out better?

Will they be the same?

That's the question.

Tarantula spotted near mulch pile. A good sign in the garden as it means it's finding plenty to eat.

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I don't know what got into the Amaranth. It was all planted at the same time and it's going crazy.

Whatever it is, it's liking it.

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Ah, in the night, all music haunts me here. . . .
Is it for naught high Heaven cracks and yawns
And the tremendous Amaranth descends
Sweet with the glory of ten thousand dawns?
— Vachel Lindsay

Red Amaranth 5/21/21

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I was just weeding to make room for the veggie starts and found enough of these for a nice batch of hash browns for dinner.

https://imgur.com/IWdCMQd

Oh, nice. Yep, they'll be good and fresh. Now if you had some trout to go with it... :-)

Foxglove is coming along nicely, but something is gnawing on the leaves.

Whatever it is, it's dead now.

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Poison Hemlock sprout confirmed.

I didn't know if it would grow out here or not.

Conium likes kind of marshy areas, or being by a stream or irrigation ditch in some partial shade. So, I put it back in a little shady area that holds the water a little better, and it may go ahead and come up.

First Conium Maculatum (Poison Hemlock) Sprout

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As could be expected, the Monkshood is struggling.

It's starting to get into the hot season out here in the southwest and the little Monkshood is far from its mountain forest home in China.

Adding another layer of wood chips and when ahead and set up a 30% shade netting canopy around it. Let's see if that more closely resembles the partial shade and moisture its acclimated to.

Monkshood, any species of Monkshood, is going to need some extra tender care below 6500ft.

Monkshood with 30% shade netting 5/29/21

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Journal note:

There has been a limited amount of research showing antiviral and spike protein bonding inhibitor properties of 2-hydroxyohenoxy. Solanum elaeagnifolium (Silverleaf Nightshade) contains this novel compound.

Much more research needs to be done on this compound.

FYI: 16 Packman broccoli plants made 14 pints of frozen bags. Harvested in first week of June in southern Ohio.

Will replant bed with bush beans. (Masai variety)

*2-hydroxyphenoxy

Could there really be antiviral properties in this American desert cousin of European Deadly Nightshade?

If it is a spike protein inhibitor, then a tincture corresponding to the recipe and dosage of Atropa Belladonna may be best to start for independent experiment.

Glad they made it. :-)

Weather has been ... different.

First day to hit 110F in the desert here.

Monkshood is not liking this. Not sure it's going to make it this time around. Will have to plant before March to give it a head start. Next season will start at Imbolc.

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7 percent humidity today. They say it's a dry heat. I could feel my nose hair drying up. You can definitely see why olive oil to coat the hair and beard was so prized by desert dwelling ancients.

This is the part of the story where we find out which herbs can stand the summer kitchen and which can't.

It's official. The Ki'Kam Hun has arrived. They say this variety of maize is a true xeric maize, requiring only monsoon season rains to mature within 60 days.

I consider it to be a great honor from the Hopi tribe to allow me 3 packs of this ancient maize. They don't let everyone have it. And since that is so, I consider it also a great responsibility to hold the secret and use this maize responsibly.

The Hopi call it their 'Mother'. And if it got them through 2000 years of desert conditions, I call it my mother too.

We'll see what it can do during a drought year.

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