Steve's Garden: April 2010

A small update on a few of my favorite plants this year that have been dramatically changing/growing over the past 2 weeks or so...

Dwarf Lime Tree (Tons of new growth...looking great! I may get a few limes off it this year):

Dolly Madison & Canna Flower Bed (Hopefully, a few more Cannas will pop up to fill in the center):

Close-up of Orange Cannas (These are beautiful flowers when they bloom!):

Garlic Chive Flower Buds (I'm excited about these! First year i've seen flowers starting on these 3rd year chives):

Nasturtiums (5 out of the 20 or so have germinated already...Should hopefully be a full basket of them soon!):

The 2 Biggest Tomatoes So Far (These should be my first 2 non-cherry tomatoes to ripen...They are about golf ball sized right now!):

Strawberry Bed (Some huge leaves on these things...They grow about a set a day & have had 2 flowers bloom so far):

I probably worked at least 14 hours, total both days, on preparing my garden for Spring. Some of the things I did this weekend are:

*Potted up 7 of my January 23rd sown tomato plants most of which are flowering already (2 of them have mini maters!).
*Potted up about 8 other smaller tomato plants (ones started mid February).
*Potted up Red Dragon Flower plants, Indian Mint, Bee Balm.
*Potted up all of my pepper seedlings (about 25 or so).
*Put up hanging bracket for Nasturtiums (so they don't keep getting blown off that da** tree branch I had them on! lol).
*Put up 2 more hanging brackets which are holding metal/coir baskets that will be homes for two cherry tomato plants.
*Finished preparing butterfly garden. I even expanded it by adding an about 4x4 ft section. Butterfly garden contains the following: 5 Dolly Madisons bulbs (Planted about a month ago & already looking great!), 3-5 UT Orange Cannas (depends on how many come back up...2 have already), 9 Red Fire Canna bulbs, a handful of Vitex Chaste Tree seeds, scattered Four O' Clocks Rose Beauty seeds, scattered Pink Wistera seeds, Gladiolus bulbs, a Keria Japonica centerpiece & scattered Gateway Joe Pye Weed seeds.
*And more stuff i'm forgetting right now! =)

Here's a round of pics I took this weekend as I finshed things, discovered stuff, etc. (not pictured are several tomato plants not in their final homes yet, pepper seedlings, flower seedlings, my African Violets, 2 cacti, 14 Mixed Heirloom Iris, Daffodil, White Hyacinth & a few other small plants):

First tomato!!! (top middle of picture):

Alliums & more (2 pots California White Garlic, 2 pots misc. softneck garlic, 1 pot Elephant garlic, 1 pot white onions, Egyptian Walking Onions, Bee Balm & a few others):

Bee Balm (before being potted up):

Better Boy Tomato:

California White Garlic (1 of the 2 pots of it):

Container Strawberries (May get my first fruit harvest off this plant!):

Dolly Madisons (These should start blloming in 2-3 weeks! 2 of the 5 in first picture & close-up of one in second picture):

Dwarf Lime Tree (Close-up of the new growth):

Ehyptian Walking Onions (Haven't walked away yet...lol):

Elephant Garlic (3 of the 6 are newly planted bulbs from a few weeks ago):

Flower Seedlings (about a third already removed from here & potted up to cups...I'll get a list on here soon of what i'm growing):

Future home of some cherry tomato plants (probably Sungold or Sungold Select II):

Grape plant buds (I know this is a wocked blury pic where you can't really see much of anything, but I had to try to take one! Upon close inspection of my grape plants, one of them has a handful of what look like bud sets!):

Indian Mint (I love this plant, thanks herb lady! =) One of these days, i'll use some of it to cook something...lol):

Mother of 1000 Plants (Two in the front are cuttings I received a few days ago in the mail, still rooting & will hopefully make it. The one in the back is all that's left of the beautiful one I received last Fall at the MTPS. =( I killed the mother, but this baby had been nurtured for about 5 months now & is doing well!):

Nasturtiums (This pot started with only like 4-5 seeds in it...I want these to be fuller this year, so I put about 15 more seeds in this a few days ago):

New Succulent (I have no idea what it is...I went to my favorite organic nursery last week to look around & just had to buy a few plants, this being one of them...looks cool eh?):

Niagra & St. Croix Grape Plants (2 in back are Niagra & 1 in front is St. Croix. The 1 in front has the buds shown above):

Patchouli (Also came from my favorite organic nursery):

Persimmon Tomato:

Red Dragon Flower Plants (These things are so fragile! The plant in the cup, 4th back, is new because it fell off one of the others, so I had to get it rooting...lol):

Rootbound Tomato (Perfect example of how root bound tomato plants can get, even in slightly large pots! This is a pic of one of my 3ft+ tall plants pictured here on this post, before I put them in the 5+ gallon pots. It was in a 1 gallon pot. The whole thing slid out of the pot easily because it was 99% roots!):

Rutgers Tomato:

Sedums (1 "Dragon's Blood" & 4 Blue Spruce...Two of which are babies I didn't even know existed that I found in the bottom of the pot they were all in before being separated):

Stevia (First one is my attempt at growing this from seed, which is supposed to be really hard! I would have had 4 of these wee babies if I hadn't drowned the other 3 while watering them all. The 2nd pic is one I found at the organic nursery):

Strawberry Bed (Some massive leaf sets on these bad boys...They should give me a handful or two of berries this year...Thanks, Dave!):

Sungold Tomato (My two biggest, got potted up to their final homes yesterday):

Triple Crown Blackberry (Should get a few handfulls of berries of it this year):

Wandering Jew (Absoltely beautiful & cool plant!):

White Onions (Growing great! Father-in-law gave me some seed onions for these that he got at a local co-op...They're obviously great quality, like co-op stuff usually is...I have about another 2 pots worth I need to plant asap):