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Posted on by Plants: An Experiment Posted in anemone, container gardening, crocus, fall planting, flowers, garden, gardening, hyacinth, narcissus, plantblr, spring bulbs, tulips, urban gardening

Today was a beautiful fall day, and I took advantage of the sunshine to plant my spring bulbs.

Lots of sunset colours caught my eye this year, so we now have one planter filled with two types of orangey-pink tulips plus white hyacinths and another featuring orange and black striped crocuses, white narcissus with pink and yellow coronas, and blue hyacinths for contrast.

Then we have these gorgeous, gorgeous red-purple anemones that I’ve paired with dwarf irises and white narcissus.

I can’t wait to see everything in the spring! Most of these bulbs will bloom March/April, with some hanging on into May and the crocuses starting in February.

This tiny personage is an Anna’s Hummingbird, …

Posted on by Plants: An Experiment Posted in backyard birds, deck garden, garden, gardening, hummingbird feeder, hummingbird garden, hummingbirds, urban garden, urban gardening

This tiny personage is an Anna’s Hummingbird, resident of the cedars at the back of my yard and a frequent visitor to my deck garden.

She (I think? Based on colouring, I’m not an expert) likes to perch on the top of the tomato cage, and I’ve had several opportunities to watch her (or her kin) drink from the feeder attached to the kitchen window.

May 24, 2018 11 days ago I planted this tomat…

Posted on by Plants: An Experiment Posted in backyard farm, container garden, container gardening, deck garden, garden, garden blog, garden experiment, garden problems, garden update, gardening, home grown, plantblr, spring planting, tomatoes, urban garden, urban gardening

May 24, 2018

11 days ago I planted this tomato seedling after accidentally severing it from its root ball. I buried as much of the stem as I could and did my best to keep the soil moist. Tomatoes can grow new root systems, but the biggest hurdle to clear was keeping the plant hydrated enough to avoid vascular collapse long enough for rooting to occur. Think of it like cut flowers in a vase; the stem alone can draw water for a few days, but eventually the flowers wilt.

As you can see, the plant is alive and healthy today! It’s still quite small as all its available energy has had to go toward growth below the soil, but it should take off soon. Meanwhile my father-in-law’s plant is fully 2 feet tall 😅

May 13, 2018 Disaster! A runaway tomato cage …

Posted on by Plants: An Experiment Posted in backyard farm, container garden, deck garden, garden, garden blog, garden disaster, garden update, gardening, gardening problems, home grown, plant experiment, plantblr, planting, rip this tomato seedling, tomatoes, urban garden, urban gardening

May 13, 2018

Disaster! A runaway tomato cage decapitated one of my tomato seedlings today as I was preparing to plant mine in it’s final home.

The victim wasn’t the seedling I had planned to keep for myself, but ‘you break it, you buy it’. So, now we have a two-part science experiment.

Hypothesis A: the root ball and remaining stem will send out new shoot(s) and continue to grow

Hypothesis B: the rootless stem will produce a new root system and continue to grow

It’s maybe not as hopeless as it seems; tomatoes can grow roots nearly anywhere along the stem and particularly from leaf nodes. This is why you should bury tomato seedlings up to the top few sets of leaves when you plant them. The deciding factor will be if the planted stem can hang on long enough to grow new roots.

I might be buying a seedling for myself next weekend!

Anemones are blooming! This one’s called ‘Sylp…

Posted on by Plants: An Experiment Posted in anemone, container garden, container gardening, deck garden, flower blog, flower garden, flower photography, flower photoset, flowers, garden, garden blog, garden inspo, gardening, pink flowers, plant blog, plant photography, plantblr, plants, small space gardening, spring flowers, tulips, urban garden, urban gardening

Anemones are blooming! This one’s called ‘Sylphide’ and is a very dramatic magenta against the deep merlot of the ‘Black Hero’ tulips. Zoom in to see all the cool details!

‘Black Hero’ tulips Sunday – Tuesday – today

Posted on by Plants: An Experiment Posted in burgundy, burgundy flowers, container garden, container gardening, deck garden, flower blog, flower garden, flower photoset, flowers, garden, garden blog, garden inspo, gardening, goth flowers, plant blog, plant photography, plantblr, plants, small space gardening, tulips, urban garden, urban gardening

‘Black Hero’ tulips

Sunday – Tuesday – today

This ‘Perfect Lady’ narcissus greeted me on th…

Posted on by Plants: An Experiment Posted in container garden, container gardening, continuous as the stars that shine, daffodils, daffodils aren’t only yellow, flower garden, flower photography, flowers, garden, garden blog, gardening, narcissus, plantblr, plants, small space gardening, spring flowers, urban garden, urban gardening

This ‘Perfect Lady’ narcissus greeted me on the way out the door this morning. It’s lovely to see the bulbs I planted last fall starting to bloom after a dreary spring.

April 23, 2018 Added these beauties to my dec…

Posted on by Plants: An Experiment Posted in blue flowers, calibrachoa, container garden, container gardening, deck garden, flower garden, flowers, flowers of tumblr, garden, garden blog, garden update, gardening, orange flowers, plantblr, senetti, spring flowers, urban garden, urban gardening

April 23, 2018

Added these beauties to my deck garden today, Baby Senetti ‘True Blue’ and calibrachoa ‘Creamsicle’.

Not too many flowers come in really blue blues like this, and I had to stop myself from posting four hundred photos of the same flower from infinitesimally different angles.

Enjoy!

April 17 Just a quick update on my tomato see…

Posted on by Plants: An Experiment Posted in backyard farm, cherry tomatoes, deck garden, garden, garden blog, garden tips, gardening, grow your own, home grown, indoor greenhouse, plantblr, seed starting, spring planting, tomatoes, urban garden, urban gardening

April 17

Just a quick update on my tomato seedlings – they’re coming along nicely, most with two sets of true leaves after just over 2 weeks. Three of the original set didn’t sprout so I replanted those – that’s why a couple seedlings are behind the others.

The sprouts are maybe getting a little leggy; the setup I have doesn’t let me put the light as close to the pots as I’d like. I’m not too concerned about it, though. When I plant my tomatoes I always bury them up to the top few sets of leaves anyway, because tomatoes will grow roots from the buried stem and leaf nodes. This actually improves the root structure of the plant!

April 5, 2018 First batch sprouting, second b…

Posted on by Plants: An Experiment Posted in backyard farm, container garden, container gardening, deck garden, garden, garden blog, garden update, gardenblr, gardening, grow your own food, home grown, mesclun, patch planters, plantblr, radishes, spring planting, urban garden, urban gardening

April 5, 2018

First batch sprouting, second batch sown.