folk's gloves

what a stunning creature.  I've tried to germinate foxgloves for a few years now with no luck, but this year I managed to make a bucket of seedlings. Then I rewarded myself with the purchase of this fine specimen

towering over some lesser foxgloves. The big one is up to my shoulder now. 

the girls

foxgloves are also knowns as digitalis, and all parts of the plant contain digitoxin. Most animals know to avoid them, but humans used it to make heart medication and/or poison.

germination seems to involve leaving the seeds in the cold for some time and then warming them up. Nothing happened for a few weeks until I put them outside for a week and then brought them back in. Foxglove seeds normally fall to the soil at the end of summer and lay dormant until early spring, like most plants, but it seems like they need a cold period to germinate. Maybe it's because the fallen seeds would germinate in the mild temperatures of September otherwise, and this is their way of making sure they wait until april. I think it's interesting that the irreversible lifecycle changes a plant goes through: germination & flowering, are governed by the same set of genes, which inhibit the plant if its too cold or if the conditions are otherwise sub-optimal.  Flowering came first in plant evolution, and then when seeds came along they just used the same genes to make sure the environment was perfect before risking coming to life. 

foxgloves for next year in some amended soil. They like to live on rocky outcroppings or at the edge of forests- rich, soft, well drained soil. pretty much the opposite of what I naturally have in my yard. So I dug out about a foot of topsoil and mixed in a lot of peat moss. The soil smelled rotten when I first pulled it up, a sign of poor drainage and lack of oxygen. 

I thought tomatoes were supposed to be easy

oh, babies. Edit: these were planted at the end of february, and sprouted within a week. This is them in early March. I can never tell how fast plants are "supposed" to grow

I lost the whole first batch to damping off. These are heirloom persimmon yellows and some juicy friendly reds

first leaves, maybe a week later

I transplanted them when they had around 2 sets of true leaves. The purple spotting on the underside of the leaf is a sign of phosphorous deficiency

I originally thought this was from a virus, but now I think it'll go away when I add the fertilizer. You're supposed to water tomatoes from the base so their leaves don't get wet, as this makes it more likely for viruses and fungi to stick to the leaves. And yet despite all of my efforts, most of my plants have something like this. Could tomato diseases really be that aggressive? I doubt it, and I'm really hoping this is a nutrient problem. 

super green fed with blood meal

some little guys from the seedlings pictured above, as of this morning

I'm not having much luck in getting my seeds to grow. I used seed starting soil and I bought a heating pad but nothing is coming up. I planted them 2 weeks ago.

My succulents are doing well though :)

 Succulents that Margaret brought from San Diego

april garden

It's been a rough week, but I've finally made it back to working outside. I've realized that my garden probably has a universal phosphorous deficiency, so some of the lack of growth I've been blaming on the cold nights and rampant tomato viruses, is probably something I can fix with a bag of fertilizer.

the seedling corner. Artichokes on the left, moonflowers from some damaged seeds on the right, and a little bit of red basil which is growing at a glacial pace (anybody know why?) The moonflowers are especially weird. They've always grown so well for me, but their cotelydons emerged yellow and have holes in them.

Finally! After months of dormancy, in which I assumed they were all eaten by birds, california poppies are emerging. Abby and I scattered these when she visited me.

Avocado tree. It's still small, only about a foot and a half tall. The yellowing of the leaves is due to a deficiency in phosphorous, I think. I've added a lot of blood meal to the soil here, which should have given it plenty of nitrogen. It's hard to find organic fertilizers that aren't made from animal by-products: dried blood, bone meal, fish emulsion. And who knows where the chemicals in miracle grow are from. I've ordered some kelp meal, which is high in phosphorous and nitrogen. And there's always human urine. 

Worthless garden bean stalks. They've grown vigorously to about 9 inches and stopped, flowered, and are now producing tiny little shitty bean pods. This spot has very rich soil and plenty of sun, so I'm assuming it's because the dirt is shallow with a layer of dense yellow san diego sand directly underneath. I'm gonna pull them up and make a deep trench of softer dirt and plant something else here next, maybe artichokes, which I think can tolerate tougher soil.

The icelandic poppies that I bought had deeply bound root systems, and are tolerating the shallow soil. 

another plant that is mysteriously not growing. They have remained unchanged in the soil for months, not dying, not growing. I think this also may be a phosphorous problem. Update next week after I get the fertilizer.

tomatoes are about 2 inches long and starting to turn yellow, dozens of em

foxgloves grown from seed, they're about twice this size now. 

foxgloves from the nursery, last week

all of them are blooming, stunning. All different shades of purple and white and cream. The tall one is over four feet high. 

last week, their leaves were still this yellowish color. This week they're almost all deep green, thanks to the nitrogen in the blood meal. 

monster nasturtium, this guy is climbing all over the place now

some inspiration & some basil

I wanted to share this with you guys, an interview with Annie Novak from the Eagle Street farm in brooklyn, some of you have had the pleasure of meeting her. I think she is just about the coolest person.

check out the farm too! Whenever I went to volunteer for a few hours there it was the best day of my week.

red basil, sweet basil (grows faster, apparently) and little echinaceas. This was probably two weeks ago,   I'll update this weekend.

turtles all the way down

constellation of drainage holes on the bottom of the turtle sandbox

Here she is, phase two, bamboo spokes, knitted irrigation tubing. Next step: filling some of the gaps and cracks, then dirt. And to get rid of those conscious pupils on that thing. too playful. This looks like a boxing rink right now.......but it looks right to me. It feels right too.

Can someone please edit this post so that the type is centered? I don't have the patience I've tried to fix it 11 times.