A New Look for An Alameda Garden

If you dropped by this site in the last few days, you may have caught this blog in the middle of a major redesign. What can I say? It was time for a change and I was lucky enough to catch a web designer friend with a little time to spare. Thank you, Mareev!

There are still a few changes to come, but the new look is now pretty much in place. Let me know what you think!

Where Organic Gardening and Meditation Meet

Don't miss the New York Times article today about Wendy Johnson, one of the founders of the organic garden and farm project at the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center across the bay near Muir Beach. Johnson is one of the pioneers of organic gardening in the U.S. as well as a Buddhist meditation teacher. As the article points out, long before Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver wrote about mindful eating and growing and the relationship between the two, Johnson was living it, growing organic produce for the famous Greens restaurant in San Francisco. I've just received a copy of her new book, Gardening at the Dragon's Gate, and will be reviewing it here next week.

Wrapping Up Propagation Month

After taking a couple days off from the trials and tribulations of trying to propagate something different every day, I thought I'd post some conclusions I've come to:

1. Of all the different seed-growing methods I tried, one stood out as a clear favorite. If you're going to plant anywhere but directly in the ground, then soil blocks are definitely the way to go. Jiffy plugs suck. They really do. Forget about them. And sowing in flats is convenient for storing on a greenhouse shelf, but it makes transplanting the seedlings more time-consuming and traumatic for all the little roots. Seed blocks on the other hand make transplanting a breeze, plus you can control the soil mix, plus you don't have to worry about having a bunch of little pots or cell-packs laying around. More control, less stuff, happy seedlings. What's not to like?
2. It really does seem that just about all of my seed-starting adventures would have been greatly helped if I'd had a heating mat or two. Heat can really make seeds pop.
   
3. Those gel-rooting cups I tried to root salvia and catmint cuttings in? Don't waste your money. Every one of the cuttings got funky, and even though the package says you can just take out a cutting that isn't rooting and put in a new one, there's no point in putting a fresh cutting into what's supposed to be a sterile gel when it's obviously contaminated.
4. Actually, I had a hard time with almost all of the cuttings I tried to root and I think the problem is that they just weren't staying hydrated enough. It's just so much easier to root cuttings with a mist house. I did some searching on the Internet and found a couple of sites describing small mist houses that people built for under $100 using a set of shelves, some plastic sheeting, and some inexpensive misters and a timer. I'd like to try putting something like that together one of these days.
5. There are a couple things I didn't get around to doing that I still hope to get done. One is to air-layer the camellia at the side of my house (or maybe the really pretty white one at my friend Mark's house). The other is to do some budding on my cherry tree.
   
6. Lastly, I have to say that I had a lot of fun doing all this propagating and I look forward to doing it again next year.
   

I'm afraid that May, however, will have to be Weeding Month. That I'm not looking forward to.

Propagation Month, Day 30: Rooting Sedum Cuttings

Something I hadn't gotten around to trying in all my propagation adventures is succulents, although I've heard they can be pretty easy to do. The basic process is to remove an offset or a leaf, leave it in the open air for a few days to callus over, and then place it to root on a well-draining medium. When I was at the IPPS conference last year I even heard a speaker talk about rooting sedums for green roofs by just chopping up a bunch of plants, sprinkling the pieces over a layer of soil and then, once they had rooted, they could roll it all up like sod and transplant it.

Working on a much smaller scale than that, I pulled off a handful of little "beans" from my Pork & Beans sedum plants to try rooting them. I left them to callus for about five days, then today I potted them up in a 50/50 mix of perlite and potting mix. I moistened them just a bit and covered the pot with plastic wrap. They should start to root within a couple weeks.

Propagation Month, Day 29: Sowing Amaranth Seeds

Last year I bought an amaranth plant. I can't remember what kind it was, but it was sold as an edible. It never got more than about 18 inches high, but it had great red leaves and tassel-like flowers. It also re-seeded freely and I've got a number of new sprouts already growing.

But I got some seeds a couple years ago for the old-fashioned Amaranthus caudatus, better known as Love Lies Bleeding. I tried sowing them but nothing came up, and once again I'm suspecting that it's because I didn't keep them watered well enough. So I'm giving it another try. I'm planting them against the south fence, where I think they'll get enough sun. The seeds are very tiny and I sprinkled them about with a pretty liberal hand. Hopefully, something will grow. I love that this plant is both ornamental and edible. Double-duty is a very noble thing for a plant to do.

Propagation Month, Day 28: Planting Garlic

While I wasn't looking, a bulb of organic garlic decided to sprout on my kitchen counter. I think August is actually the best time to plant garlic around here and I hadn't really planned on planting garlic anyway, but sometimes opportunities just present themselves. I grew some garlic last year, but the bulbs came out very small--perhaps I didn't water or feed them enough. Time to give it another try.

I only planted the cloves that had sprouted (about nine of them) and I planted them at the same depth you would normally plant bulbs--about three times the height of the bulb.

Propagation Month, Day 27: Scaling Daffodil Bulbs

Most people know that daffodil bulbs will "naturalize," meaning that they will multiply in the ground, each bulb adding one or two more each year. But there is another way to increase your bulbs--a process called scaling in which you slice the bulb into sections that will then form bulblets. Bulbs produced through scaling will take two or three years to flower, but you can potentially produce more bulbs through scaling than through naturalizing.

To scale a bulb, begin by clipping off the roots, taking care not to damage the bottom of the bulb, which is called the basal plate. Using a sharp paring knife, cut off the stem tips of the bulb. Then, starting your cuts at the basal plate, cut the bulb into sections lengthwise. Depending on the size of the bulb (I'm using the small tete-a-tete daffodil bulbs here), you can usually cut them into quarters or eighths. Make sure that each piece has some of the basal plate attached. If the basal plate becomes detached, throw out that piece--it won't form bulblets without it.

Pull out the center part of the bulb section--this is the actual flower stem and it will be discarded. Then, using the knife, separate the remaining part of each bulb section into two-scale sections, each with a piece of basal plate attached. If the scales are so thin that you can't separate all of them, that's probably OK, but you want to get as many two-scale sections as you can. The bulblets will grow between the two layers of scales.

Put the scales into a Ziploc bag filled with moist vermiculite. Gently distribute the vermiculite around the scales so that they're well-covered. Seal the bag and put it somewhere warm. You'll need to check it every so often for rot--if any of the scales look funky, discard them. The bulblets should form in about 8 to 10 weeks. The bulblets can then be potted up with each scale tip just above the surface. The bulbs should leaf out the following spring, but will need another year or two to flower.

see more crazy cat pics

Propagation Month, Day 26: Washing Cyclamen Seeds

I almost missed it, but my white cyclamen developed a seed pod and I found it just in time. It is best if you can catch them just before they're ripe enough to pop. When I brought this one inside, I found that I could easily crack it open with my finger, exposing the seeds clustered around the white fruity substance inside.

Soft-centered seedpods often contain germination inhibitors, which means you have to wash the seeds really, really well if you expect them to ever sprout. I learned a trick for doing this in my propagation class that makes seed-washing very easy.

Once you've collected all the seeds, put them in the foot of a nylon stocking and tie a knot in the end. Hang the stocking over the edge of the toilet tank with the the foot of the stocking containing the seeds dangling in the water. Put the lid of the tank back on to hold the end of the stocking securely in place. Every time you flush the toilet, fresh water will rinse the seeds. After a week or two, the germination inhibitors should be leached out and you'll have clean seeds to sow.

Linus the cat inspects my work.

Following the advice of various sources on the Internet, after the seeds have been thoroughly washed, I'll sow them in some potting soil, cover them with vermiculite, put them somewhere warm, and keep them in complete darkness until they germinate (30-60 days).

Propagation Month, Day 25: Rooting Rose Cuttings

This beautiful rose is in my neighbor's yard and it is sending gorgeous blooms over the top of my fence. I'm not sure what rose it is--it looks like Double Delight, but that's a guess. It is incredibly fragrant and the scent pulls me over to it every time I'm out in the yard. I couldn't resist the temptation any longer, so today I clipped two long stems for cuttings to root. (The bush is over 6 feet tall and covered with flowers, so the cuttings from my side of the fence won't be missed.)

I haven't tried rooting roses before so I did a few Google searches to see what techniques work. I found suggestions for everything from sticking the cuttings directly in the ground and covering with a Mason jar, to rooting them in loose, moist potting soil in a ziploc bag. I chose a middle path--rooting them in a pot of 50/50 potting soil-perlite mix sealed into a ziploc bag. I used cuttings about 5 inches in length with the ends cut on the diagonal and the end of the stem wounded slightly to expose more tissue. I also dipped the ends in Dip 'N Grow gel. I left on very few leaves, mostly because I wanted to make sure that I wasn't bringing any black spot or rust into the rooting environment. With any luck, roots should start to form in about four weeks.

Propagation Month, Day 24: Sowing Pansy Seeds

I'm still planning a small black-and-white garden so whenever I find some kind of black flower, I want it. These black pansies (Viola x wittrockiana) caught my eye and would work really well to border the bed. I love the tiny little purple and yellow throat with just a dot of white.

Today I sowed a flat of the pansy seeds, using an old wooden crate that some clementines came in. It's a great size that fits well on my greenhouse shelves. The seeds should germinate in 10-20 days.

Villains!

My back yard was invaded last night. I went out this morning to find the mulch in the largest bed scratched up into one big pile in the middle, a pot of morning glory seedlings dug through, and the potted acorus and equisetum in my container fountain unpotted and strewn about in the water. There is only one explanation: raccoons!

I don't usually mind them trekking through my garden now and then. I make sure the cats are in before nightfall and I'm willing to sacrifice the occasional strawberry to these masked marauders. But if they're going to start digging up and repotting my plants, I'm going to get grumpy.

Propagation Month, Day 23: Direct-Seeding Nasturtiums

I'm still craving more color in the front yard, so today I planted a few Whirlybird nasturtium seeds. I really like nasturtiums for their bright color, their re-seeding ability, and their generally easy maintenance. What I don't like about them is that they often end up looking scraggily, with long shoots going off in all directions. This variety, however, is supposed to stay in compact mounds. We'll see.

I soaked the seeds for a few hours before planting. They probably should have soaked overnight, but...

Propagation Month, Day 22: Direct-Seeding Sunflowers

What better way is there to celebrate Earth Day than sowing sunflowers? I had these seeds left over from a couple years ago--hopefully, they're still viable. If they are, I'll have, after thinning, maybe a half-dozen yellow Mammoth sunflowers (8-10') and maybe a full dozen of these reddish-brown Velvet Queens (about 5').