Sunday, July 12, 2009

July 12, 2009

All of the sunflowers potted with the organic soil are sprouting. Still waiting for the 3 potted in seed starting soil to show signs of life.

Marigolds are doing well and many have already started to sprout.

Lavender and sage have still not shown signs of life.

Strawberry plants seem to be doing well with daily watering.

Lobelia and coreposis are also doing well with daily watering.

Geranium did not get any water today.

Mint, Italian flat-leafed parsley and Thai basil seem to be doing well so far.

Chinese coriander/cilantro was repotted in a container without drainage holes since it was the only container around. Roots were too tangled to separate.

Cosmos are doing well and growing quickly.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

July 11, 2009

Found out yesterday while browsing in Home Depot's gardening center that the flowers in C's hanging basket are Lobelia and Tickseed (Coreopsis).

Marigolds have started to grow.

One of the sunflowers started in the Miracle-Gro organic potting mix has started to grow. The ones planted in the Miracle-Gro seed-starting mix have not appeared yet.

Next time when using seed-starting mix, make sure that the soil has been tamped down so that it can absorb the water from the bottom of the peat pot.

Thinking of planting Russian sage in the front between the tall grass and fuzzy grass.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

July 9, 2009

Watered the boxwoods for 30 minutes using a drip hose. Watered the other plants also. Cilantro did not get any water yesterday and was very wilted today.

Strawberry plants seem to be flowering again. The bottom of the bag is not doing as well as the top of the bag. Plant them in a trough next time. Strawberry plants at the top of the growin' bag are looking healthy.

Christopher's purple and yellow plant is looking much healthier. It may be because it is getting regular waterings, i.e., every day, instead of once in a while.

Geraniums flowers are starting to get brown. Will have to tend to them later today since I've been busy.

Basil: checked for signs of brown spots which were there before I plucked off the infected leaves. No signs of brown spots.

Cosmos in the ground are doing well and are growing. The taller ones are about 5 inches tall already. Seems to be an easy plant to grow.

True Lavender. Gave one to C's mom for the Fourth of July, so now there are two left and they are about 3 inches tall. They seem to be doing well in their peat pots. They get water almost every day since they seem to get dry almost every day. Will continue to water whenever they are dry until they are in the ground.

July 8, 2009

Fertilized plants with Miracle-Gro at 1/2 strength. Tried to separate sage seedlings, but roots reached the bottom of the saucer and were too hopelessly long to untangle without risk of breaking them off. Threw the entire saucer out. Next time, plant them individually in peat pots to avoid this from happening again.

Planted some sunflower seeds, marigolds, true lavender, sage, and sweet pea in peat pots. They are currently sitting on the heating mat with a dome over them. Would like to plant more seeds, but there is not enough room to plant them all.

Seedling soil seems to work better than the peat pellets which seem to have a higher percentage of plants damping off. Also, planting in individual peat pot ensures that if a plant does succumb to damping-off, it can be isolated from the others so that the fungus doesn't spread (unlike the seedling trays with individual cells).