Bamboo Recovery started

Hello everybody!

I am making progress on getting my bamboo back to health. As you might know I was having problems with my bamboo dying. I found that the problem was either too much liquid fertilizer or a bacterial infection OR SOMETHING ! But the cure was simply to change the water every three days and replace it with a solution of 1 tablespoon bleach to 1 Gallon water, and to disinfect the Snapple bottle I am using as a vase. This is the progress of about 7 days of treatment.

This is the whole thing. Much of the bamboo shaft turned yellow, and most of the leaves have turned yellow and fell off. Extensive damage was done, in fact if this were a car accident those people who provide car insurances would have totaled it, and just issued me a check for a replacement. However I feel rather sentimental about this particular bamboo, as it is my first, and I want it to grow to be huge and prosperous!

 As you can see there is new growth , which makes me very happy! The tiny leaf in the middle shooting out is the start of recovery. The bamboo is basically a grass, and as such will shed the dead stuff and start over.

The yellowing on the secondary stalk should come right off once the green parts under it have matured. It will act much like a scab when you scrape you elbow, protection for the soft under parts!

OK, Thanks for reading guys! come back again soon! Next time I will probably show off my avocado tree baby! 

I will probably not have any "real" garden stuff for you guys any time soon just because of the weather and time of year, but once spring shows up I will ride that season for all it's worth! 

Hello All! It has been a while. But as winter has taken hold the garden has basically died off an left me with only my few indoor plants to talk about. Here goes my briefing on my bamboo . 

I bought this fancy little bamboo stick for a full DOLLAR at my local 99Ranch Market. The store always smells like fish, because they have a huge fish department, but I might have to go back in to get a new bamboo because I seem to be killing my first. 

 Bamboo is supposed to be one of the toughest plants around, but I guess if you do things wrong you can kill just about anything. haha. Poor bamboo, it's got yellow leaves and even the steam is changing color a bit.

I know, lots of you thought I had a green thumb, and maybe I do have it a little, but relying only on talent will not be enough I have
found. I need to learn enough to keep my plants healthy.

 But I was able to email my aunt, who is crazy smart, and she told me what to do after I told her what I was doing. I was using a liquid fertilizer, probably in excess, and the plant was burning, or it was a bacterial infection and changing the water and replacing it with a solution of 1 TBS Bleach to one gallon water is about all you can do in both cases

The next step is to sit and wait, and hope for the best.







So, that is about it, I might have an update on my basil soon, or perhaps my Orange tree again, I am thinking of giving it a trim for the first time!

Thanks for reading all! and come back again soon!

Sunflowers are at max height.

I would like to introduce you all to my sunflowers!

These Things have gotten huge! If you have been reading along with me you have seen my sunflowers grow to great heights! They have reached their maximum height now, and have begun to flower, blossom. It's a wonderful sight!

 The sunflower on the right in the picture above is around 16 FT tall. That's crazy tall and about 1 1/4 stories tall compared to my house behind it.

As you can see the smaller of the two sunflowers is filling in nicely, but the blossom still has some green in the middle, so it has some time yet to mature to the point where I can start to dry it out to eat!

 Here is a better view of the blossom. It's mighty large, and it attracts many bees which was the whole point other then to look fancy.
Now to sit back and wait for it to mature so I can make me some tasty roasted sunflower seeds!

Then lastly here is a first person view of how tall the 16FT sunflower is. Man that thing is big, and not to mention the trunk is so big around I can not wrap my fingers all the way around.

KK! thanks for the reads, and come back soon, I'll have more fun things to show you about my sunflowers, for  instance, what kind of insects have decided to stop by.  

SunFlowers, how tall will they get?

About the only thing that has made an significant change is the sun flowers At my sisters House have gotten really really big. about 4 of them are close to 6 FT tall. Its getting crazy big over there! That makes me very happy, it shows the soil is quite fertile.
Although, at this point I'm just waiting. Waiting for the tomatoes to turn red, waiting for the cantaloupe to get bigger then a baseball, waiting for the peppers to grow. AND Waiting for the herbs to get more green and leafy.

The cages in the background are just over 8FT tall, so you can  compare the sunflowers in front to the cages in the back and you can see that they are getting really big. I believe they have a 55-65 days of growth before flowering. Just to make sure the root system is in order, and the plant has grown as tall as possible before it sends out its big flower.

 This is the center of the sunflower, where it will pop out the flower. These Particular sunflowers are supposed to procure edible flowers. This will make me happy because I love to eat those things. Very yummy! I Just have to figure out how to harvest them.
I wonder If I should add a flavor to the sunflowers before eating them? or just use salt. not sure. Maybe do half and half.

Then the Pepper plants at my sisters house are doing very well. I think it is because the timer to the soaker hose was turned off and the hose was moved to water the front lawn. I need to get my sister a third hose so it can be used only for watering the garden. haha

Thank you everybody who has read this. Come back soon, I'm sure I will soon have great fruits to show off!

My Grandfathers Garden Progress

For all you crazy folk out there who have been following along, this is my grandfathers garden. It has progressed from a few tiny plants into a very nice little place for lady bugs to rest.

 For those of you who have seen previous pictures of my pooch, KunKun, this will give you some perspective as to how big things actually are. This is my doggy showing off the tomatoes. There are four tomatoes, all a different variety, and all growing in 8FT tall cages.

Next in line is the Crookneck Squash plant. It is directly behind KunKun.

 . This is what the Crookneck squash looks like. It's still very small, and as the plant is suffering from White Powdery Mildew I don't think we will have much in the way of a harvest with them. Just gotta treat for it, and hope for the best. Although it does have a few squash already, so who knows!

Next in line for being shown off is my Green Bean plant. It is growing up the cage and I hope it will soon cover the entire thing!

Also in this picture you can see at KunKuns feet some Leafy Lettuce like plants called RED CHARD. Its great in a salad or stir fried with bacon. yummy!

Then directly above and behind KunKuns head is my Blueberry Bushes!

 Here you see my Grandfathers two varieties of blueberries. You need two of them because they typically do not self pollinate and require the cross breeding to form fruits and speaking of fruits...

The Blueberry bushes have already started to produce a tasty, if small, harvest! So happy. I already tried one and it was yummy!

OK! thanks everybody for reading! Next time I will go into more detail on a specific plant... probably the crawling green bean or the blue berries. Some come back soon! 

Because I dont have DIRT, or least much dirt.

At my house I'm stuck with about 3X5 Square feet of dirt to work with, but worst of all its not all in one place... Thank goodness for EarthBoxes. That is how I'm growing me a SINGLE tomato bush . oh well. Least I have something. But with the limited space I have to work with I decided to move my plants outside my patio. There is a nice big space of Dirt where a couple of trees used to be. But they were old and removed by the home owners  association.

So, I took over the space with some plants of my own. Really... I do not know the name of the HUGE plant in that is taking up most of the space , but it is very aromatic and looks pretty. It is also getting pretty close to flowering. That should be a nice sight!

 Oh, and that is my dog KunKun. You can see that the whole space I have to work with is kinda big... but the dirt itself is terrible, and needs to be amended. This winter I will cut back that big green varigaited bush thing, and add some soil nutrients.

As I get closer to the plants themself You can see what I'm gradually getting closer to. I must admit though, most of these plants were put here by my mother, so I really do not know the names of them.

 But as we get closer to KunKun you can now see a little better the dessert plants to the right.

Then as we get even closer and a little to the right of the patch of dirt you can see the main feature of this here fancy post. That small green bush thing just to the right of KunKun.

Have you guessed yet what plant I'm talking about? well, if you did not then I'll tell you. Its the Bush Bean plant. In the last pic it is between the planter and the dessert plant. I'll have to post another picture when the sun is not in my eyes. But thats it folks! My bush bean plant! with some luck it will grow to be a wonderful big Bean plant and produce a nice little bounty of Green Beans for me! Oh, and as parting words, if you look closly at the last picture at the dirt you can see TINY green sprouts, those are the second Platoon of sunflower seeds I planted. Next post will probably focus on them.

KK! thanks all, tune in next time for more pictures of Kun Kun!

Blasted Weather STILL!

This is the weather I'm dealing with here. Live in Norther CA, and IT'S RAINING IN JUNE!
why is the darn weather being so bad! When I was a kid I would be getting out of school around this time and I could go swimming at the pool , or walk around in shorts... NOT AN UMBRELLA AND FREAKING PLASTIC PANTS!

Weather for Walnut Creek, CA

58°F | °C Sat Sun Mon Tue Current: Shower Wind: SE at 5 mph Humidity: 95% 66°F | 52°F 71°F | 54°F 65°F | 50°F 71°F | 52°F

Because of the rain I have not had much of a chance to get out and tend to the garden. If nothing else I dont need to water it. Save a few pennies there I guess. However I did start some sun flowers from seed that I'll show you.

I started a few different kinds of sun flowers

You can see them poking their way out of the soil, and getting ready to get nice and big!

One of the more interesting of the sprouts was when it poked out of the soil with the seed still intact. Getting a little ahead of itself there. Silly thing!

As they grow I will document them, and update you on it. I plan on moving these guys to my sisters house and to my grand fathers house. Should Add a nice little bit of color to the garden, as well attract some bees!

OK! thx all for the reads! come back again soon!

Growth, at night too!

When you first plant your garden you get really excited. You have grand ideas of the crops and produce you will be picking. You go to bed and dream not of sugar plumbs, but buckets of tomatoes and bushels of corn all garnished with the great healthy herbs your growing! Then you wake up and realize that you put them in the ground and they have not grown but more then a few inches.

So you get your camera out and document every little change you can find.

What I found was that my green bean plant had stretched out it's tentacle and grasped onto part of its cage. It was finally big enough to use the cage. Made me happy.

So as you can all see, the little changes make all the hard work worth while. Very pleasing to see the plant filling out its living quarters.

But once the thrill of your tiny growth has worn off you start to get bored. and at this point there is almost nothing you can do but wait. Sit and watch them grow.

I deal with this problem of boredom by going and buying more fun things for the garden.

I went out and purchased 10 of those solar powered lamps that are super cheap. I actually went to the dollar store to get them! great buy. I was thinking when I got them home I would have about a 75% rate of success. But to my great surprise all of the one dollar lights worked. HOWEVER they are not very bright. They really look cool but stay light for about 3 hours before dying out.

 If you want some of those cool lights


OK, thank you all for reading! have fun, and get out there and plant some solar lights!