Amazing radish seeds

Planted some Radish seeds yesterday (29th) & they started to grow in less than 24 hours.
( Radish -Raphanus sativus ).

Today they look like this.I used an old shallow tray to plant the seeds. They will be thinned out as usual & planted directly in the ground.

Four days after planting. Maybe I will wait a day or two before moving them to bigger pots.

Once planted have to keep soil moist as summer is approaching fast. Hopefully after a month this is what I should get.

Image courtesy of http://www.umassvegetable.org/

I live in a zone 11 area by the way.

My Radishes after 7 days  

I started thinning them & moving them into bigger pots

I gently pull on the plants to get them out of the soil & dig a hole to easily accomodate the roots without forcing them down 

I space them at least 5-7 cm apart

Within another 3 weeks they should be ready to eat.

Tip : don't leave them too long in the soil otherwise they become pithy & will start to crack.Don't over water them , just keep soil moist. Plant motre in 10-14 days in order to get a steady supply during the growing season. Enjoy .

Love it when my seeds start to grow

Just planted some Celosia Argentea flowers which is an annual flower by the way , 3 days back & they started to grow.

I always wash any containers I use as plants can get diseases from dirty pots.












The small plants will be thinned out once they grow a bit & moved to bigger pots. Hopefully they will grow to look like this flower

Image copyright home-and-garden.webshots.com

Carissa macrocarpa or Natal plum

I finally managed to get a positive identification for a plant that I really like. it's called Carissa macrocarpa.

It's native to South Africa. Likes sun to partial shade. Tolerant to many types of soil . Prefers Sandy soil but main thing is that soil should be well drained. The leaves are nice leathery green colour.

Flower scent is like jasmine. Shrub can be trimmed to make small walls. Had it for two years now & it's grown to 3ft - 1 meter almost. Never had problems with disease on leaves etc.

It produces a small sweet plum edible though some say seeds are poisonous. They use the plum in South Africa to make jam.

Just bought five more plants the minute I saw them at my local vendor.

One thing I don't like about this plant is the prickly thorns but Roses have thorns also .

Growing your own ginger

Having come across the fact that ginger has Rhizomes I rushed off to my local grocery store to buy some fresh ones to try planting them. Don't forget I am a green newbie gardener :)

Lily Propagation - bulblets, bulbils, scaling

I love this Oriental Lily cultivar Casablanca,( Genus Lilium )

The flower has a fantastic scent & looks great when it blooms summer time.

My Lily has produced bulblets with their own roots, so I will seperate them & move to another pot.

I mananged to get 3 bulblets so I potted them in a seperate container just below the surface. These bulbs will pull themselves down into the soil to protect themselves till they are ready to grow new shoots etc. Again never overwater the new bulbs to avoid root dampening which will cause them to rot & die .

This one had a shoot already so I kept it above the soil obviuosly :)

Very interesting methods to propagate lilies.

Lily Propagation - bulblets, bulbils, scaling

I hate it when my cat digs up my garden

I hate it when my cat digs up my garden & spoils my newly planted seeds .

I've tried small stakes etc to no avail.

Now that she's gotten a new litter of 5 kittens the problem will get worse I think.











Someone suggested using black pepper powder & red chillies powder on the soil. Surfing the net I found this home made recipe which I will try & let you know the results.

mix 1 cup vinegar and 2 tablespoons chili paste with garlic (sold in Asian markets)with 1 quart water. Sprinkle the mixture over the area cats frequent
1 Quart = 946.352946 Cubic Centimeter (cc)

Link to the original site

Citrus trees leaves infested by the leafminer

This is first time I am happy reading about leafminer. According to the link bekow it doesn't kill the Citrus tree & there isn't much we can do about this leafminer :)

Picture copyright The Press-Enterprise

Ask the Master Gardener: citrus trees leaves infested by the leafminer Columns PE.com Southern California News News for Inland Southern California

Lemon tree with very yellow leaves! Help! - UBC Botanical Garden Forums

Nice ideas about fertilising lemon trees

Lemon tree with very yellow leaves! Help! - UBC Botanical Garden Forums

Mytho-Fleurs,Erables du Japon,arbres,arbustes,fleurs tropicales,vivaces,maggnolias,pommiers,fleurs du Vietnam,hamamelis

A French site that has lots of plants & flowers pictures with scientific names. Nicely indexed info .

Mytho-Fleurs,Erables du Japon,arbres,arbustes,fleurs tropicales,vivaces,maggnolias,pommiers,fleurs du Vietnam,hamamelis

.

Fleurs du Vietnam or Flowers of Vietnam

Fleurs du Vietnam

Trifoliate Orange

According to this site it's not edible & used only as an ornamental shrub & used as a rootstock to produce winter hardy citrus plantss

Q&A - Trifoliate Orange

3 part citrus that I couldn't identify

I had a citrus rootstock shoot that had leaves with 3 parts which I couldn't identify. It looked like this . I did a Google search & came up with a possible identification

Poncirus Trifoliata (Trifoliate Orange)

or is it 'Troyer' or some other citrange (Poncirus x sweet orange hybrid). ?

is it or not?

citrus tree leaves with three parts - Google Search

Crop nutrient replacement: calculator for fertiliser requirements | NSW Department of Primary Industries

Crop nutrient replacement: calculator for fertiliser requirements NSW Department of Primary Industries

Tropical fruit | NSW Department of Primary Industries

Growing tropical fruits

Lemon Growing Manual | NSW Department of Primary Industries

Lemon Growing Manual NSW Department of Primary Industries

Horticulture | NSW Department of Primary Industries

Horticulture NSW Department of Primary Industries

Welcome to the Plant Protection Service Homepage

Welcome to the Plant Protection Service Homepage

Whisk: a food blog: Lemon Balm and Verbena Mojito

Whisk: a food blog: Lemon Balm and Verbena Mojito

Spice Pages: Lemon (Citrus limon)

Spice Pages: Lemon (Citrus limon)

Coconut - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coconut - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Commodity Profile - ASAMB

Commodity Profile - ASAMB

Rangpur “Kona” Lime

Rangpur “Kona” Lime

PlantFiles: Detailed information on Day Jessamine Cestrum diurnum

PlantFiles: Detailed information on Day Jessamine Cestrum diurnum

Great plant classification site

Great site for scientific name classification of plants

Kingdom
    Subkingdom
        Superdivision
             Division
                 Class
                     Subclass
                          Order
                               Family
                                    Genus
                                         Species

One tip though . Please be carefull when searching by common name. Try searching for Natal plum.
You should get carissa macrocarpa . Unfortunately I got something else, so again be carefull with common names & double check the results if not sure :)



http://plants.usda.gov/java/ClassificationServlet?source=display&classid=Solanaceae

I love this site for gardening info & tips

Really  worth visiting if you are a new gardener like me. It helped me to identify my garden plants but you need to register to access that service. I was amazed how I got an identification in less than an hour or so.


Dave's Garden: Gardening Tips, Seeds, and Design; Flower Gardens, Organic Gardening