astrid Posted April 25, 2019 Share Posted April 25, 2019 Make sure you grow 2 tomatillos, even if you keep one very small. They don't self pollinate so you need 2 for fruit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktmoomau Posted April 25, 2019 Share Posted April 25, 2019 22 minutes ago, astrid said: Make sure you grow 2 tomatillos, even if you keep one very small. They don't self pollinate so you need 2 for fruit. Will do, the very nice lady at Ivy Nursery let me know that when I only had one picked up (and also said since I am on a balcony if I might need to use a little paint brush and pollinate). She had some very cool varieties of eggplants they had already sold out of... I have never grown tomatillo before, hoping it does well, Hubby loves tomatillo salsa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astrid Posted April 26, 2019 Share Posted April 26, 2019 They can be productive and keep very well. Months in the fridge and freezes well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktmoomau Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 I need to post pictures... so in the back patio the leaf lettuce I planted as seedlings is ready for us to eat salad for days at this point. The kale get a little less sunlight and is just taking a little longer, but is getting there. The spinach came up from seed, but I think the warm weather doomed it from being very robust (and I didn't plant a ton) so I will retry in the fall. My herbs have been loving the weather, I could supply the whole neighborhood with parsley, I am using a ton of fresh herbs just to keep them pruned back. I finally found lemongrass plant this past weekend that wasn't one small sad stem of grass. I am not sure why that was such a challenge, but someone else told me they were having trouble with that too. On the top balcony, my bell peppers already have small and medium peppers on them, it's nice to not have to worry about pests as much up there. Both tomatillo plants have flowers and are pretty large, I am now pulling off suckers. I have four tomato plants (sungolds, black cherry, and two other heritage varieties from Mount Vernon that I need to look at the tags) that are all growing fairly well. I have caged everything but this week I likely need to find a pair of ripped nylons in the back of my drawer to tie them up a bit. I don't really get pollinators up there, it is really windy, so that is my main concern at this point, I will do some self-pollination this week with a little paintbrush, I just don't trust the wind to completely take care of it. Oh and I have a zucchini that is doing it's thing. I just planted some bush beans from seed, and I need to do the okra, but I need one last bag of soil for that planter... I also am annoyed with myself for not spray painting all my cages to go with my balcony decor, but they are in and I am not doing it now. Oh well, next year. Oh and Hubby installed a great little irrigation system for me on both levels that is controlled by the iphone and doesn't water when it is scheduled to rain, that has been a huge help so I can go away and not worry. It was from Amazon and very cheap. I should get the details, I highly recommend it for people doing container gardens that are not too far from a hose connection. The only downside is it came apart on top of my Hungarian wax pepper pot and flooded it for a few days before I saw it- so that plant needs a little love and a lot less water for a few days. I am still investigating getting a dwarf lemon tree, I just haven't wanted to order one off the internet, and I really wanted a jalapeno, but I don't have a lot more space in the "gardening section" of the balcony. I couldn't make the Greenspring Garden show last weekend, I had to go to Garrett County. It's one of my favorites, so a little sad I missed it. I am getting ready to start volunteering at the Mount Vernon horticulture dept, so that should be fun, and I should learn a lot. BTW: For anyone interested, tonight is the information session for the fall Master Gardener classes for Alexandria/Arlington. https://mgnv.org/ I don't think I can do it this year, but it has been on my list of things I would like to do. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktmoomau Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 So my kale was attacked by cabbage worms. I fought a fierce battle with some organic caterpillar killer, and picking off caterpillars and sending them to a soap-water grave. The kale is now coming back, it was in a bad state- they attacked while it was really rainy, so I didn't see it until it was pretty bad. Our neighborhood just really doesn't have a huge amount of birds, I have noticed all the roses and bushes out front on the HOA property are pretty ravaged, I suspect by beetles. The lettuce has pretty much stopped producing due to the heat, it had an aphid attach that I quickly quelled with some neem and it rebounded, trying to decide if I want to plant something else in there, like some annuals just for looks the rest of the summer. The mint must have been attacked by a fungus, people said different things on websites about whether it would rebound. It was a pretty health plant, some leaves took a beating, but then it bounced back and now seems to be fine, other than the last couple days of rain mean it needs some cutting back. My thai basil really never has not grown much at all, I am not sure why it just seems to be content staying it's same size, not very happy about it's growth. On the balcony, the tomatillos are forming baby tomatillos, the tomatoes have fruit, but not ripe yet, one plant isn't quite as robust as it had a flooding incident that waterlogged it, bouncing back though and now has some fruit on it. I am thinking any day the cherry tomatoes will start to get some color. I have baby squash that I am just waiting until they get to a decent size to pick. My bell peppers are robust, I have already harvested 3, and they are weighing down my plants, I have had to steak them up. Beans are growing. The balcony is just amazing because there really is no threat of anything eating my produce, so it's been great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astrid Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 Swiss chard or Malabar spinach might fill that gap. They typically can manage to continue harvest through the summer and I had chard survive to bloom next spring. It might be possible to keep a very heat tolerant lettuce such as Jericho going if you water it very well to minimize stress. If you're willing to go with something more unusual, amaranth greens or huazontle do well over with heat and were trouble free for me. In case you're looking to stock up on seeds, Renee's Garden Seeds is doing end of season 50 % discounts on most of their seeds right now. They are a good company and I've been quite happy with their seeds and selection. Another option is succession planting some dill, basil, or cilantro seed. They will grow quickly and be ready in 45 to 60 days. The Thai basil might have gotten stunted by cold weather, dryness, or being root bound. Basil grows really easily in warm weather, so I would just plant more seeds or start some new plants with the basil from your next Thai or Vietnamese veggie platter ( just stick in water until it roots). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktmoomau Posted August 30, 2019 Share Posted August 30, 2019 Well I seeded chard, and it was coming up, but something ate it while eating my kale last weekend. At this point it is pretty much- what isn't eating my kale, to which there is a short answer- me. I have killed the aphids, cabbage worms, slugs. I then got a few handfuls and it was doing great, until this past weekend. This new round last weekend may have been beetles, as there was no sign of the culprit on the plants this time. (And it's on my fenced in patio, and we don't have any squirrels or rabbits much to Max's dismay.) But it is still growing so we will see. A few sprouts of the chard remain, but I am going to seed some more. My salvaterra's secret have only produced three actual fruits that have ripened at this point, but I have been told that they produce a lot more fruit late in the season, so I am hoping for a boom, they have a lot of flowers. My cherry tomatoes did really well, and the black cherry tomatoes from Mount Vernon are just delicious, they have slowed down a little bit now, and the one just finally recovered from the water logging- I am not sure it will have any more fruit, we will see. The squash has been fine. Tomatillos are coming on strong, the purple ones have done better than yellow for early producing- we have already used the first batch for a sauce for tamales. Bell peppers are just producing like no tomorrow again, they stopped producing during the heat spells. I also seeded some radish, we will see what happens with it. The balcony plants are doing way better than the patio due to one just pure sunlight, two although we do get some insects, it seems to be pretty beetle/slug/worm free up there. Well, there also isn't kale up there... (grumble, grumble- things stop eating my kale!) I have made myself good notes for next year on what I would get again and from where. I love kale so much, but we will see whether I bother with it or not, I think you need to be in area with more worm/bug eating birds to have successful kale. My poor hydrangea is also going through an attack, I think from bacteria, I have pruned, gotten rid of the dead leaves, given it some new dry soil, it has neem on it, I am doing all the things. It would have died through the winter anyway as it is in a planter box, but it was huge and we were thinking of replanting it into the ground in a spot on our patio, oh well. It's sibling that sits in the next box over- didn't get very big; however, is fine. My palm trees on my balcony have been great for a little privacy, will move those in, although next year I am thinking ornamental banana or lemon tree out there in the summer too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astrid Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 What are you planning for this gardening season? It was supposed to be a light gardening year for me because we were expecting to move house, but now we're definitely staying put. Started tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant about 3 weeks ago. Some greens are almost ready to transplant. Started another 2 tray of greens this week. Have about 50 lbs of seed potatoes coming. Garlic in the ground, some spinach and beets not doing a lot yet, but should start taking off nowish. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktmoomau Posted March 21, 2020 Share Posted March 21, 2020 My kale is still alive from last year, but I am waging an aphid battle on it now, which is annoying given the cabbage worm war last year, it is going to seed anyway so oh well. I planted some carrot seeds, but haven't seen anything happen yet... I have some chard seedlings coming up, and will have to thin them. I just got my meyer lemon tree. I ordered some tomato and pepper plants, which will arrive later. I am constantly taking my lemongrass in and back outdoors, same with my palm trees. The palm trees were going gang busters, and then I think I just missed some watering and now they are about as small as when I bought them, oh well. They will grow back. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MC Horoscope Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 Celery, parsley, chives, and thyme made it through winter and bounced back. Starting lettuces next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandynva Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 My chart and even some lettuce made it through the winter, which is great, so between that and the minors lettuce which comes up every year we’ve had salads for a couple weeks now which is great. I’ve planted radishes, more lettuce, and pineapple tomatillos, and herbs. Do you things I’m trying are Garnet Amaranth and asparagus peas. We’ll see how those do. I planted ordinary peas, but I’m a little worried about them-I planted them at least 10 days ago, pre-soaked and everything, but there are no sprouts yet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts