The weather is stabilizing and more plants are sprouting! Of the 73 beans I planted, many are breaking the surface. Some got stolen by squirrels or munched by pill bugs. Coffee grounds can only do so much against the desperate wildlife.
I'm surprised that these fish pepper seeds sprouted in a matter of days! All the other peppers took weeks. Fish peppers are hotter than jalapeños and are striped. The plant itself is variegated too and is showy, for a pepper. You just wait and see. The other peppers which have sprouted and were featured in previous updates are rattle peppers, yellow mushroom pepper, and puma (this plant is dark purple!).
I thought these tinguaraques (wild Mexican tomatoes) weren't going to sprout either but a little patience goes a long way.
These are what's left of the first tomatoes I planted, which are of the yellow grape variety.
Compare to others which I transplanted and took outside.
They haven't grown much because I got so excited over the last frost date and left them outside, forgetting that it is still quite chilly sometimes. Now that they're back indoors, they will probably start growing again.
These ground cherries from the tomatillo (husk tomato) family grow ever so slowly. A new one just sprouted though. These works have been my second and third plants but a squirrel destroyed the first one. Damn squirrels...
Here's another plant from Mexico that I'm growing. It's a cotton plant! I think it would be cool to grow my own cotton, so I planted 2 out of the 3 seeds that I had brought back. According to my research, cotton will only grow of the temperature is consistently above 60°F so I probably won't plant them until June, along with the tomatoes.
This little shoot is turmeric waking up from its winter dormancy. After the foliage died back last fall, I watered the container and then put a lid on it. This has worked for me in the past. If you want to grow turmeric and live in a temperate region like me, yes, it's possible. Even the first few years I grew it I didn't seal it off and it still grew back. They don't need much in the way of water during their dormancy. Once they spring back to life, however, make sure the soil is always evenly moist!
This is another experimental bean I just planted, same generation as the other one you've seen so it's either its sibling or cousin. I planted where I had my oat plant that just kept on giving. The oat plant died and I plan to replenish the soil in this container with the bean. At the time of planting, I added some legume inoculant to help with nitrogen fixation. When the bean broke through, I also added some worm castings to cover the exposed roots. This bean should do nicely here, and I hope the moss stays too!
Judging by the amount of flowers I've been seeing, I think we're going to have a bountiful harvest of strawberries this year. Very soon, I need to deploy some decoys to confuse birds and other wildlife. The trick is to paint some stones red and put them near your plants BEFORE they fruit. Animals will see the color and investigate but will be sorely disappointed. When the real bounty starts setting, they should, in theory, ignore the fruits.
In other news, or looks like the apple blossoms were pollinated! It is recommended to have at least two different trees so that they can cross pollinate but I only have the one. There's obviously some other apple trees in the vicinity, or maybe they got pollen from the crab apple trees in the school grounds a few blocks away. I can't remember which variety of apple I planted, but I planted this tree from seed. I was amazed to see flowers in just a few short years. I guess the saying that it takes 20 years for an apple tree to mature and bear fruit is a myth.
That's it for my garden update. I always try to include some tips both time-tested and new. I hope they help! Until next time!
P.S. Here's a little goodbye picture of an 'unconventional' flower.
