Garden Science GOES TO WAR

When I discovered one of my lemon trees broken in half, I was puzzled. When the ants carried away my sesame seeds, I pretended it was cute. When they took my pine nuts, I smiled and cursed their ingenuity. Today, though, the pests crossed a terrible threshold. As a consequence, May 30th shall be written into history as the day Garden Science declared war.

When I arrived home today I discovered nearly half of the garden unearthed. The peanuts had all been taken and only telltale skins remained. Every hazelnut had been plucked from the ground. One of the only three garbanzo bean seedlings that germinated had been uprooted and half-eaten. After some gentle digging, I discovered that only one almond remained in place. As if that wasn’t enough, the unknown culprit even decided to take the useless cooked, canned black beans. The NERVE!

Unluckily for whichever critter did this, I do not give up easily. I am also quite competitive. My multi-pronged counterattack shall be as follows:

Stage 1 - BOOBY TRAPPED PLANTS
 

Those are peppercorns. According to the internet, they prefer humid conditions for germination. I took a page out of Buzzy Seeds’ book and made them little makeshift greenhouses out of condiment containers.

If they germinate, I’ll be planting them right alongside the other plants in the garden. Something tells me an ant or squirrel that tries to eat a peppercorn is in for a rude awakening. Ha ha!

Here they are in the garden.

Stage 2 - BEEFING UP SECURITY
 

The whole idea behind the green wire was to keep squirrels and birds out of the garden. The events of today proved that it wasn’t enough, so I beefed up security with a six-pack topper and some electrical tape. There are 4 more peanuts planted under there now.

Stage 3 - REINFORCEMENTS
 

Until this lovely event happened today, I was already working on another post in which I explained that I wasn’t going to attempt to regrow the sesame seeds or pine nuts. It was mostly a matter of being short on time. Plus, I found out pine nuts actually come from pine cones and therefore grow into pine trees (go figure), and that seemed like an odd thing to be cultivating in the garden to begin with.

I changed my tune after today though and replanted everything I’d lost (excluding the canned cooked black beans… they’ll always remain in my heart, though). Somewhat against my better judgment, I took the one remaining almond out of the ground outside and replanted it in a starter pot. It’s the only one I have left, and I feel that its odds are probably better indoors. It was already looking pretty plump when I grabbed it, so hopefully it readjusts all right.

Stage 4 - POSTED WARNINGS

I made the “no munching” sign years ago to deal with an issue we were having with squirrels chewing the corn plants in half. There isn’t a great abundance of corn, but I think the sign gets the general idea across.

When the plants in the starter pots get a little bigger they’ll rejoin the rest of the garden. Your move, squirrels/birds/ants!

Experiment 4 - Planting fireworks

Yesterday I posted about these new Buzzy Seed kits I acquired at Target for a dollar apiece. The really great thing about these kits is that even if they don’t turn out, I get a full dollar’s worth of enjoyment out of just planting the things. I am definitely going to keep checking in with Target every time there’s a new holiday on the horizon.

The Daisy kit and Strawberry kit are both independence day themed, while the two herbs (cilantro and basil) are packaged in cool but un-themed mini greenhouses.

I photographed every piece of information that was included with the kits this time, just in case I need to know something about the seed batches later. The packaging is in a file folder, too, just in case. 

As always, each kit came with instructions, the proper amount of magically-expanding soil, and seed packets.

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of watching these little dirt pellets grow.

Here are the daisy seeds… I think I probably planted too many.

I planted more than the recommended amount of strawberry seeds, too, but I did this intentionally so that I might maximize the potential of having one germinate.

Note: The directions on these kits say to sow the seeds and then press them lightly into the growing medium. In my experience, attempting to do this with small seeds is pretty much impossible. There is a much greater likelihood while using this method of having one stick to your finger than there is for getting it to do anything else. My recommendation is to not put quite all of the dirt into the pot, sow the seeds, and then cover them lightly with the extra.

The recommended press-into-soil method does work great for larger seeds, though, like these cilantro seeds. Did you know that cilantro had such large seeds? I did not.

After planting everything, I doodled some quick “art” onto the pots so that I could remember which was which. The greenhouses have doodles too, although they’re much harder to see.

The two herbs are now getting to know their tomato neighbor.

The daisy, forget-me-not, and all of the strawberry kits are now roommates, too. 

Believe it or not, I managed to score one more growing kit during the time it took me to write this post… it should make a debut later today or tomorrow.

hiding-in-trees asked: I had the same Valentine's Day Buzzy strawberry kit, and it never grew. Like you said, it was hard to keep moist and I don't know if it was because of me or if the seeds just weren't viable for some reason. I hope yours do grow soon, but if they don't, you're not alone in the failure of that particular kit.

Your message inspired a bit of a wild goose chase this morning as I tried feebly to find the original packaging for the Valentine’s Day strawberry kit. Each kit includes specific information about the seeds that come with it, including things like expiration date, batch number, country of origin, etc. Since I just picked up a new strawberry kit yesterday, I thought I would compare the two and see if the seeds from the new one came from the same batch as the seeds from the old one. That information might have lead to some sort of scientific conclusion down the line as soon as the new one has had time to grow.

Alas, it appears I didn’t save any of that information. Still, it’s interesting to know that others have run into the same issues with that particular kit… I’ll be sure to post as soon as anything happens (or fails to happen) with the new one. At very least, the new kit came with a bigger pot so it should be easier to keep the soil moist.

The Shamrock

Thousands of houseplants are wrapped in decorative cellophane every year and marketed as holiday gifts. As such, I imagine there are large numbers of poinsettias, shamrocks, and other symbols of the season that end up in yard debris bins after their shining moment on the calendar has passed.

It was one such plant that I rescued about ten years ago from being tossed and left to its fate in the side yard. Meet the shamrock, one of my oldest and coolest houseplants.

Some of you might remember this photo of the shamrock from the Plant Genie Mini post I made sometime before last Christmas. If you don’t, I forgive you… it was quite a while ago and it’s probably the most forgettable photo of all time. It shows the plant in its “dormant” state, which is something all shamrocks do. Still, it looked worse this winter than any other winter I can remember, in part due to the fact that it was covered in stupid aphids. They have no natural predators indoors and therefore throw giant parties on the shamrock while I’m not looking.

Despite its difficulties, the shamrock always finds a way to turn things around. It makes a valiant effort to bloom every month of the year, even the months when it barely has the energy for leaves.

The Plant Genie is a spiffy thing, but I’ve found that I’m diligent enough about watering that it really isn’t a necessary tool in my arsenal. Still, it looks cool and I see no reason not to keep it around just in case. It’s now enjoying its retirement in the shade next to it’s favorite plant.

Since the shamrock absolutely abhors direct sunlight, I make sure it always rents out the nicest bit of shade-laden real estate in the yard. I’m expecting it to look even healthier by mid-summer!

Here’s to another ten years!

Experiment 4 makes some new friends

Today was the first day in more than a week that I didn’t have to be at work. To celebrate, I hit up Target and Dollar Tree - two of my all-time favorite places. I did not leave empty-handed!

The Fourth of July is definitely one of my favorite holidays. I may even go so far as to say it is my ULTIMATE favorite. Dollar Tree was stocked to the roof with awesome red white and blue stuff, and Target had patriotic grow kits! I bought all four varieties they had for just buck each, which still seems like an incredible bargain to me. Honestly, I can’t think of any other way I’d rather spend 100 cents than on an all-inclusive garden kit. Red white and blue shutter shades are a close second, though.

The kits are from Buzzy Seeds again, and it looks like I’ll be growing strawberries (again), daisies, cilantro, and basil. The cilantro and basil came in cool little greenhouse-type things. July 4th may be a way off still, but when it gets here I plan to welcome it with homegrown herbs. 

There probably won’t be an update posted about this tonight, but there will be something more in the very near future. In the meantime, I mentioned in my May Update that I had a gratuitous amount of photos on my hard drive that needed to be posted before their relevancy expired. This is still true, so Garden Science may be a bit more spammy than usual over the next couple of days as I try to play catch-up. 

Experiment 4 is totally triumphant

Nearly all of the growing kits chose today to suddenly become impressive.

Look at how many little cacti there are now! There’s still more coming up, too! 

The beefsteak tomatoes also emerged today, and I dashed madly out into the rain about an hour ago when a sudden outburst of extremely stormy weather threatened their safety. I moved them under the eave of the roof until I was certain they weren’t going to be crushed by angry raindrops or hail.

Perhaps most impressive of all are the forget-me-nots from the Valentine’s Day kit, which also picked today to show themselves.

I look forward to taking some more photos in the next couple of days when some of the seedlings have grown a bit. It’s definitely a great feeling to arrive home after a long day at work and see new plants waiting.

blairn001 asked: Hi. Any update on how your Buzzy strawberry kits have turned out?

Thanks for the question! As of now, I detect no signs of activity in the strawberry kits. This could be A) because I planted them at an odd time, B) because they just aren’t working, or C) because they just need more time to come up. I have found that the nature of the included growing medium combined with the very small pots makes it difficult to keep the soil properly moist. Still, they were branded for Valentine’s Day and it’s almost June, so if they don’t come up it could very well be my own folly. 

The other kits are turning out fine so far, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the strawberries may just need more time. I’m actually planning on putting together an update on the other kits tonight!

Experiment 7 - The other avocados

Snapped some more avocado photos. I was going to go out and buy a pot for the main plant this weekend, but I discovered information on the internet today that says it’s probably better to wait a little longer first. Of course I believe this information… it came from the internet, after all.

My theory: The reason avocado pits are large is so that they can store a bunch of nutrients for the sapling to subsist on without soil. I’m amazed that something can continue to thrive for so long without drawing any sustenance from the ground.

I decided to take some group photos, too. Did you remember that I actually have 3 avocado pits in water right now? I haven’t photographed them in quite some time, so I forgive you if you’ve forgotten. The largest one has been hogging the spotlight ever since it grew roots.

Above you’ll see the experiment’s two original pits. The smaller one hasn’t done anything for quite a while, but it doesn’t really look “dead” either so I’m just leaving it alone until something happens.

The third plant has a trendy, uptown loft next to one of my solar powered flowers and the ravioli succulent. There is a hairline crack running down the side of it. 

Avocados plants are cool.