Don’t onion seedlings make you think of tiny little alien tentacles or periscopes rising up from the soil?
p.s. If you sow too much, the sprouts are edible, too.
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Books by Gayla Trail
Venus Fly Trap
The other day, I bought a Venus Fly Trap (Dionaea muscipula) for the greenhouse. There is an issue with whitefly and I figured perhaps a carnivorous plant will act as a botanical guard dog and keep them away from our part of the greenhouse.
Well, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it. By that logic I should have bought one for every shelf. At least I’ll have an excuse if I happen upon any sundews for sale. Unfortunately, that almost never happens. I love sundews most of all.
I had to take the fly trap home with me tonight because there wasn’t any distilled water at the greenhouse, but I found a bottle on the way home and will be returning the plant next week. Until then she is sitting on my desk and needs a name.
Leave a commentBasil Seedlings at the Greenhouse
We are experiencing germination at the greenhouse. No matter how many times I do this it is somehow always such a surprise that these first stirrings of life will eventually turn into big plants. Big plants that I will eventually eat.
Leave a commentFlowering Cactus
This is the flowering cactus I mentioned in another post last week. It is yet to be identified. I would have done so already, but my gigantic cactus tome is currently unavailable. I’ve got it stacked in a pile of all of my biggest gardening books beneath the seed-starter, acting as a booster seat so that the seedlings can get as close to the light source as possible.
The next time you pass on a gigantic gardening coffee table book due to the expense, consider that it will serve you in more ways than one. I also use my enormous books to press plant materials and keep recently-glued paper flat. And if the unfortunate occasion were to arise, they could also make an unwieldy, but effective self-defense weapon. Come to think of it, arm weights are another possible option.
Everything they say is true. Gardening really is good for health and well-being!
Leave a commentWhat It Is
You all made some great guesses and invented some interesting products while trying to guess what was underneath the many miles of bubble wrap. I’ll take the seed bomb launcher, the combine for a container wheat field, or the automatic garden weeder, please.
One guess was really close, but went a bit too far. (Daniel: Since you were the closest, send me an email with your address and I’ll mail off your prize.) The others focused too much on the paddle-like shape, which it turns out was really just a protective box and not a good indication of what was inside.
And so……
It’s a 12 foot telescoping tree pruner!
I think I threw you off by having the photo taken on the roof when it isn’t intended for that garden. Over the years, weed trees at our community garden have been growing and slowly diminishing light onto some of the plots, mine included. Unfortunately, the trees on that side are fronted by a slope that makes setting up a ladder difficult… if we could get a ladder that tall there in the first place. I have traipsed through the neighborhood with some interesting things, but an enormous ladder might be crossing a line. If not incredibly heavy and difficult! There is also a long bed of plants we don’t want to trample on in the pruning process. The last time the trees were pruned was years ago — my brother climbed up into them to do the job! By now there are no large limbs, but lots of thin branches and bushy leaves.
We’re hoping that the 12 foot pruners will allow us to get up to the tall growth that is doing the most harm, without hurting ourselves or the existing plant beds in the process. I’ll admit that I’m a bit afraid of this device. Especially if I were to attach the giant saw blade it came with. I’m afraid of that blade on it’s own, even while still inside the package!
I’ll let you know how it works out. The first thing I have to do is parade through the neighborhood with this giant, terrifying weapon-like object in tow. That shouldn’t scare the neighbors. The good news is that the community garden is within walking distance, and accessible via side streets. I won’t need to ride my bike with it, carry it on the streetcar, or, god forbid, hail a cab.
I often tell new gardeners that in general, fancy tools are not necessary to grow a garden. Frankly, when container gardening, you could get by with a pair of gloves and a spoon. Actually, I rarely use the gloves. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that we would need something like this for our small urban garden… but here we are. Either those branches are pruned or I don’t grow tomatoes in my plot. The answer is obvious.
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Davin insisted I include this fighting pose with the handle retracted. It’s a little less threatening… but not by much.
