My recent visit to my Father's house.

Here is a small selection of what I found while walking through my father's yard.

Spanish Squash

Allspice Tree

Bay Rum Tree

Papaya

Banana

Lemon Grass

and a few random pictures:

More to come later.

An Update

The Basil is doing good.

I've planted a couple lavender cuttings.

The mint cutting is doing very good, and the cutting taken from the cutting has new growth as well.

and the peppers still haven't sprouted. Though they should pop up within the week though.

Lets plant some hot peppers

Recently I wanted to make something spicy for dinner. After making it, I came to the realization that the hot pepper flakes and store bought hot sauce just weren't cutting it. So, today I'm going to plant two different types of hot pepper, Cayenne and Habanero, with the goal of making my own hot sauce from seed to bottle. Lets get started.

The first thing to do is to pick up your pepper seeds if you don't already have some, get out the potting soil, and to fill a vessel of some sort with the soil. In this case, I'm using the bottom of a water container, into which I've punched 6 holes for drainage. When filling your container with soil, make sure you break up any large chunks and make sure you don't compress the soil. You want the soil to be very loose to ensure that your seedlings won't have to struggle to grow.

Now, use your finger to establish rows in which to put your seeds. These should be no deeper than one half of an inch for most plant seeds. Once you've made all your rows, remove the number of seeds you'd like to plant from its package and place them into one of the rows you've just created. In this case, a 2 inch spacing between seeds is being used to prevent over crowding of the seedlings. Once in place. use your fingers to gently push some soil from either side of the rows to cover up the seeds. Be sure not to apply downward pressure over the seeds as this will compact the soil, making it harder for the seedlings to push through.

At this point, all thats left to do is to label the rows you've just planted and to water them. Now, while you don't want to drench your seedlings on a daily basis, you want to give them plently of water, bordering on over watering them, right after planting. This is done for two reasons. One, is to shock the seeds into growth, and two, to add moisture to the new, often very dry, soil that is in the planter.

So there you have it, you've just planted some new peppers. Ensure your seedlings receive plenty of light, fluorescent in this case, and keep the soil moist. In a few weeks we'll have a few small seedlings pushing through, and in a few months we'll have peppers growing. I'll keep you up to date with the peppers as they develop and mature. If all of the seeds sprout, they will have to be transplanted into separate larger containers to give them ample room to grow, but we'll tackle that when the time comes. Now, get out there and grow some of your own.

Labeling you garden

So you want to remember what it is you've planted, but don't have old labels you can reuse. No problem, just make some for yourself. All you'll need is an old milk, water, or juice jug. Cleaned of course.

Here I've cut the large bottom of this water jug to use as a planter for seedlings. The top part lacks a stable base when turned upside down, but it can still be useful.

Simply find large flat areas of the plastic that can be used to make strips of plastic about an inch wide and 4-6 inches long. Cut out the strips leaving a little extra material for trimming later on, and once you've cut them trim them to the desired shape.

 Now, using a permanent marker, write down the type of plant you are growing and push the label into the soil. You've just created a food / garden safe lable that you can reuse for seasons to come, all while recycling.

Just an update.

The basil seedlings are doing good and more are pushing through the soil every day. I can't wait till they're fully grown.

Lets look close, real close.

I thought I'd take a closer look at the garden today, so here are a few macro pictures of some of the plants..

                                                  The Greek Oregano,

                                                     Flat Leaf Parsely,                                  

                                                    German Thyme,

                                                            Sage,        

                               
                                              and Romaine Lettuce.

I hope you like the pictures. I promise to have more interesting postings real soon.