This and that

This is a  little bit of this and that, so forgive me as I seem to jump from one plant to the other....
firstly my lipstick plant has seeded!  I heard that they could be propagated by cuttings and have started some off quite successfully, and then noticed these long dangling strips where the flowers had died off.  Well now I noticed they had opened up - I am probably going to have hundreds of tiny lipsticks plants growing up around the hanging basket now.

 These cosmos sure attract the butterflies, but I want the zinnia to bloom as well - soon the vegetable garden will be bright with color and that should bring on some pollinators.  I am also letting some of the basil flower for the same reason.
 The amazon lily flowers intermittently through the year - I still cant figure out when is the "right" season for it to flower.
 Celery, bok choy and lettuces are slowly getting a little bigger every day, and I am continually fighting the pests.  I thought I would leave the big half chewed bok choy for them and maybe they will leave me the rest?
 My snow peas are looking good - we are having some nice cool weather so they should do well this year - you never can tell, sometimes we dont have any cool weather and then the snow peas wont grow.
 Of course the thing that the gemsquash doesn't like is humidity.  We think it is very dry lately but I do see a touch of powdery mildew already - I better get out that milk spray!  I pulled out the butternut that was growing her to make room for the gems, and also because it had lots of powdery mildew and I wanted to give the gems the best chance.
Maybe this will be the year that I grow and harvest gemsquash.  Now I am beginning to wonder - is gemsquash really that wonderful?  or is it just that we hanker for a taste of our youth?

Comments

  1. garden girl in SAThu Jun 02, 02:18:00 PM

    Good luck with the pest control, in my experience they will now flat ignore the bok choy and take a taste of every other plant.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AliThu Jun 02, 04:54:00 PM

    I have got no idea what gemsquash - but sounds great! For the powdery mildew I have also tried chamomile tea - less expensive and stinky than milk... I buy lovely fatty fat fat milk and hate wasting it on my plants!

    Your cosmos are very pretty, I have got no idea where mine went, although perhaps the ants took off with the seeds, they certainly made off with the carrots I sowed today!

    ReplyDelete
  3. BomThu Jun 02, 08:42:00 PM

    I don't think I've even ever tasted gemsquash. However, I will now look it up and see what I can learn about it. I envy you your vegetable garden. You are very lucky. I don't have soil around the house so I have to find containers big enough to hold any vegetable I intend to plant. It seems that it will take so much more effort and so many, many containers.

    ReplyDelete
  4. DesireeFri Jun 03, 03:56:00 AM

    Your garden is looking wonderful! Those veggies are leaping out of the rich earth and look so good! I'm so envious!

    ReplyDelete
  5. SusanFri Jun 03, 07:36:00 AM

    Very nice cosmos...they definitely add a lot of color to the veggie garden. I had forgotten about the lipstick plant (used to have one)...it is very pretty and unique.

    ReplyDelete
  6. GigaFri Jun 03, 08:46:00 AM

    Bardzo mi się podoba biała lilia. Pozdrawiam

    ReplyDelete
  7. africanaussieFri Jun 03, 12:39:00 PM

    Garden girl,
    Actually they just like the silver beet and bok choy so for now I just wont plant them...
    Ali,
    Gemsquash is a South African squash that I grew up with. Oh you are supposed to use skim milk, and only at 10% strength - I find that works the best. The ants carry your seeds away? gosh naughty ants!
    Bom,
    Oh yes I think container gardening is harder - so easy to under or over water I think. I am so glad that at last I have my oil soil and am enriching it every minute with my compost.
    Desiree,
    well not exactly reaching out, I personally think they could be growing a lot quicker - guess I shouldn't check up on them so often then? I want one of those permaculture veggie gardens where you cant even see the heads of the gardeners as they are harvesting into huge baskets. :) still dreaming.
    Susan, Yes funny I thought they would self seed, and I am so glad I remembered to plant some seeds again this year. I love that lipstick plant, although it took a while to settle in.
    Giga,
    Yes that amazon lily is a tropical plant - it likes moist shade.

    ReplyDelete

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