Gardening

Sweet Potato — Sweeter Every Day

December 11, 2017 By Loveable Weeds Leave a Comment

Our unusually mild, though dry, autumn has given the sweet potato plants a good start in the basement.
By giving all of the indoor plants a serious trim, lighting requirements are lower. No plant blocks another’s need for more light. In December, the regrowth is tiny and the pots aren’t pretty, only alive! Again, some added light may be necessary to get through the season.
I’ve found the sweet potato containers can survive with minimal light. Survive is enough for now. I have a plan to rotate the various pots through the spots of optimal light to help them survive. This isn’t an experiment on how to kill a container plant!
I will have to be honest about my experiment. I’ve had losses in February. Just when I thought everything was going well, BAM, the plant would curl up and die. We’ll chronicle survival and the worst.

Today, things are looking GOOD. Especially the sweet potato and rosemary pots.

Three sources for indoor sweet potato plants.

These bright greenies are the new leaves that have grown since I whacked the vines off to bring the pot inside. They are growing from the 2016 sweet potato tuber. That tuber still feels solid and has two plants thriving. Even though I can see a new tuber through a crack in the pot bottom, I’m reluctant to dig it out yet and risk killing all of this green magic! If it is all still going in March, I will clip these new vines and do some digging.

The purple slips, from summer sweet potato rooting projects, weren’t quite as speedy vigorous and one has already ‘kicked the bucket.’. These leaves are looking pretty good, though. They were once a bitty sprout that grew roots in a shot glass! Anything bigger would have drowned it!

We are especially excited about the possibilities for the sweet potato plants in the summer of 2018 because they were difficult to find in the garden centers of our area in 2017. The only ones we had were those we were able to start ourselves. This time we have some from 2017 tubers still trying to survive. Others were vines shooting roots down into the garden soil. The third group are vine clippings that were rooted in water.

Soils seem to determine the sweet potato shape

Our soils seem to be difficult for the great edible sweet potatoes one finds at the produce department. They are good in color, but carrot shaped! That happened to the one container set of edible sweet potato that we had in 2017. The little carrot shaped tuber is where we start for 2018. I just have this different perception of what a good sweet potato should look like!

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Sweet Potato Games — 2017

November 27, 2017 By Loveable Weeds Leave a Comment

The sweet potato and other vegetables are optimists. They send their ‘off-spring’ out into the world with a dream of next year in the garden. In the fall of 2016, there were two nice sized tubers for decorative sweet potato in the hanging boxes where I had been coddling the parent vines. I was intrigued that the chartreuse vine produced big turnip-colored (purple) tuber. The dark ‘black’ vine had only drab brown ‘taters’.

Each sweet potato began setting ‘eyes’ in late spring 2017. VERY late spring; we didn’t get some of the cuttings into dirt until August! I just wanted some decorative vines and hopefully scrawny tubers for next year. In an old, abandoned, garden forum, I found the secret to getting good slips from the tubers. August had to be my stopping point to get them in the pots. Some of the last plants were still small when killing frost forced me to bring them into the basement shelter.

One little red/purple vine ‘birthed’ a tiny white sweet potato! I can see a new tuber on the chartreuse plants, while the ‘old’ tuber seems to be in pretty good shape, producing a long and lush vine across the grass. They are sweet-natured plants, asking very little and getting very little dirt or water, but lots of light and protection. I did pull some of the tubers from the edible vines. They aren’t very impressive, but my focus is some slips for next season. The one little ‘potato’ from the red/purple vine in the hanging box is the only one out in the air. The other pots will be kept in the basement as long as possible, being coddled, watered and watched closely.

Some of the pretty vine tips were tucked, with their exploratory roots, into a fresh pot of soil. They recovered and are thriving in the semi-darkness and shorter days of the basement. They are doing better than the older potted vines. The chartreuse clipping took a few days to get settled. I thought it might not be successful. Taking it in out of the weather into subdued lighting seemed to be the right treatment.

I have 2-3 clipping plants taking root which will go into dirt and be ready for summer days in 2018.

We’ve enjoyed growing the decorative plants and looking at the lush vines grown in containers at stores and homes. I found more happiness keeping the tiny slips in shot glasses, bitty jelly7

And we will have the ones in dirt to bring in. I want to think about putting some fluorescent lites. This ‘grow light BULB’ intrigues me.

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Planter Favorites Coming in for the Winter

November 2, 2017 By Loveable Weeds Leave a Comment

We’ve had the ‘killing frost’ for winter of 2017-2018 in keeping with the autumn season. Amazingly, our season was delayed at least 2 weeks this year. The soft plants have turned to slime. I have a good supply of plants to winter over in the basement. I left them outside as long as I dared to give bugs and parasites a chance to chill and croak or move on to warmer climates.

Those rescued plants will become a major winter to spring project. Additionally, this gardening tool set looks as if it would be SO handy to help me get the old plants through the season. I would use them to get the new slips going strong for boxes and containers summer of 2018.

Gathering a Collection of Favorites

Happily, I’ve gotten a generous collection of plants that I know can thrive in the Missouri summer which can be HOT, DRY, HUMID, WET or CHILLY!

Former old favorite wax begonias have come back to the planters after a few years of being rejected as ‘too common’. The bright foliage doesn’t ‘faint’ in the heat. The flowers aren’t susceptible to insect damage. Especially pleasant, the “mother plants aren’t difficult to keep over the winter. The bright blossoms and foliage blend well with neighbor plants. I have 5 varieties in my collection.

Two years ago we bought a six-pack of dying RED foliage plants at a local green house. They were suffering in the hot sun on the bargain table. Last year, the slips I clipped off to re-start, bloomed in the basement. Unexpectedly, pretty little fringes of flowers decorate the leaves as they flourish a dramatic deep RED. I can pinch them back to keep them fuller, making a terrific contrast for the other plants.

A few Vinca minor varigated plants had been struggling to survive. I was giving them far too good care! The vines thrived last year because I left them outside, swooping the vines around into the containers to layer. In addition, with a lovely touch, they offered a lovely touch with their classic blue periwinkle blossom in the spring while layering created more plants than I needed. No plants were destroyed in this experiment! I managed to find a spot for all of them. <br />

More graceful vines including Bridal Veil, fuzzy bunny ears, silver and purple wandering Jew and tiny mouse ears and dramatic decorative sweet potato vines create delightful fillers among the begonias, foliage and vince vines. The graceful vines all have 3 petaled flowers. Bridal Veil is a prolific bloomer!

Mother Plants Produce More For 2018

This year, there are three times as many good, solid plants to be ‘mother’ plants for next spring’s planters. Some of the current ‘mother’ plants have been in my collection for 3 years. Consequently, I’m looking forward to the clipping, slipping, rooting and re-potting for a new season with my plant friends. All the while, remembering past springs like 2016 with Under the Big Top – Tenting Baby Plants. Along the way, I learned that Vinca Minor is very irritating to tender skin! The rash they can cause resembles poison ivy enough to fool me for a while. <br />

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Under the Big Top — Tenting Baby Plants

May 2, 2016 By Loveable Weeds 2 Comments

Many years ago, a friend shared a tip for getting our coleus cuttings started. We simply put them in wet soil and stood a bread sack over the pot. I usually put a couple small sticks (old drinking straws work great) to support the bread sack/tent (my first Big Top).

Big Top Posies

This year, I had a red coleus, plus some red and white wax begonias that I wanted to keep over the 15/16 Winter and expand for the swinging flower boxes in 2016’s summer. A container of clippings from the fall of 2015 survived with a mass of roots all winter. The coleus did better than the begonias, but all in all, I thought the project was a success.

The ‘parent’ plants were looking a little straggly when I began to crave dirt under my nails in March. I clipped them all back and applied the tenting process except I used plastic produce bags for the Big Tops. They are much ‘softer’ in texture and have a nice soft translucence. Some of the plants were in dirt and others were in containers of water. I had high success with all of them. The flower boxes were filled without any plant shock. I can watch the growth progress daily.

Big Top Veggies

Now, I’m caught up in perpetual Big Top projects. There will be a TRUE Big Top for the baby tomato plants to get a booster start in their small pots. I don’t want to risk putting them in the garden for a couple weeks. They will benefit from having a separate pot for that time and a couple days under the Big Top will help.

Big Top Rescue

When I was putting the cucumber plants into 6 inch pots, awaiting garden time, one of them broke off! With nothing to lose, I put the broken top into a jar of water under a TENT. The new little roots are growing fast and we will have a covered cuke for the summer garden.

Big Top Herbs

A long term tent project involves my ‘mad scientist’ adventure for the summer — propagating Rosemary plants! I have Rosemary and Lemon Thyme clippings under tents in both soil and water and am enjoying their fresh confidence and lack of plant shock as they spend their days in a south window under produce bag ‘tents’. The Lemon Thyme is faster to get the message about growing-up in a protected environment.

The tents could be classified as disposable terrariums. The thing I like best about them is the ability to be flexible about where the plant has to get its sheltered beginning. I can put it into a long term pot, a short term home or a quick and dirty jar of water and give it economical and effective shelter while it gets a good start. My new babies are in a south window of the walk-out basement. Sometimes I get busy writing blogs and don’t get down there every day. Checking on them to find crisp plants with moist soil and ‘dew’ on the tent walls has been a pleasant experience throughout this spring season.

I hope you find this experience helpful and encouraging for your planting projects. I have been pleased to be able to produce repeats of some special plants for my flower boxes, to get new seedlings strong for my garden, to rescue the broken and indulge in mad scientist herbal propagation!

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Planting Customer Service with Tomato

April 16, 2016 By Loveable Weeds Leave a Comment

Planting Ferry Morse seeds from the Super Market will be fine for my growing experiments this year. I’m starting tomatoes and peppers. I will be shopping for some plants — cucumbers and the cold crops — cauliflower, cabbages and brussels sprouts. (The brussels sprout plants are another story for another day.)

When I planted the seeds, though, the Better Boy packet had 5-6 seeds in it. My cynical thinking was “these must be really good to pay for FIVE or SIX seeds as if there were 70 seeds!” Just didn’t seem right, so I came to my trusty Internet to see if I could find the seed company. Sure enough, Plantation Products distributes Ferry Morse seeds. And there were some stinky reviews on Google. In what I hope will be respected as pretty darn good tenacity, I called the seed company — the phone number was right there by the stinky reviews.

A very nice and well-spoken young woman listened to my plea and told me that NO, it wasn’t intentional to have only 5-6 seeds in my little red envelope. She said she would be happy to send me some more seeds if I would only give her my mailing address. Well, I was more than happy to do that.

Planting the “Happy Status”

Today, less than a week later, a padded envelope arrived with THREE packets of Better Boy seeds. Now, it should all end warm and fuzzy here, but it sort of doesn’t. I thought those packets had VERY little rattle when I shook them and sure enough, there are probably close to the 70 mg of seeds in ALL THREE packets together. Now, this is a lot more than I had last week and as many as i paid for, so I’m not hurt a bit.

I am wishing that the seed fairies will provide the people at Plantation Products and Ferry Morse seeds a new scale in the packaging system so they can possibly be more accurate.

Until that happens, the next best thing I can offer is some seed shopping advice. Check the packages at the display in whatever store you choose before dropping them into the shopping cart and heading home. They may all be ‘short’ and you may decide to grow a different plant. Or you may decide to go with what you can get. That packet of 5-6 plants is still less expensive than started plants. And not a bad deal when you add the value of the therapy you gain from being at one with your little plants from the very beginning.

My writing at The Legacy Gardens will frequently be exhibited at The Writer’s Well — a safe and encouraging place for writers.

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Spring Time Slash and Slice for Summer Blooms

March 16, 2016 By Loveable Weeds Leave a Comment

The 2016 spring time weather is amazing. Yet, according to records, not all that unusual. The weather was mild for Winter; I think that makes the pleasant warm weather seem as if summer is coming too soon. The sort of weather that attracts the clipping tools.

2016 Spring Time Slashing and Slicing

On an earlier nice day, I gave the Rose of Sharon cluster bush a serious ‘haircut’. This cluster is a group of four bushes in two colors. Years ago, I started cuttings, then put four of them in one planting, hoping one would live. All four took off. Last year, tender branches bent themselves clear to the ground with loads of flowers — double fuchia and the common singles of lavender with red centers. They were cruisin’ toward some breaking while the cluster wasn’t as attractive as it should be. They aren’t pretty in spring time because the Rose of Sharon leafs out a little late. Right now they resemble a bunch of sticks in the ground.

I’m glad that I WHACKED the purple clematis and autumn clematis a few weeks ago. This warm weather will be bringing tender new leaves and vines. I know that once they start on old growth I won’t want to cut them off — I will endure a great tangle of old stuff and new stuff.

Along with the clematis, I trimmed the trumpet vine that provides shade for the chickens. There were some old vines creating an overhang, but the trumpet is still, at 4 yrs, a young vine. I hope for lush new growth on the cropped stalks that will create even more dense overhangs. Right now, because Trumpet won’t leaf until late May, it looks like a scrawny brown vine stuck in the chicken fence. I suppose spiders will be dropping out of the overhands, but the chickens can handle that.

I know it is a weed, but we do keep a couple brush honeysuckle bushes. They are disrespectful and have to be cut back, sometimes more than once in a season. The one I’ve gotten to so far was cut clear to the ground two years ago. Now the branches are reaching out again to push me off grass into garden mud. Some of them were thicker than my thumb, requiring some serious pressure on the telescoping lopper!

Finally, the HUGE snowball bush was clipped back to about 1ft. I hadn’t done that for a few years. The task was a real ‘back-acher’, but the new growth will have better access to light. I found that the snowball canes did the same thing the forsythia branches do when things get dense…they grow horizontally for awhile then UP to get the best light. Everything becomes a tangle. While i was giving the snowball bush a buzz cut, Richard was trimming fruit trees. He cut off most of the water sprout branches that shot up after last year’s pruning.

Our brush pile is growing higher and wider.

The flowers give me pleasure in Real Life and lots of camera bait for pictures to share at Red Leaf Desktop

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