Wednesday, June 24, 2015

More Pota-tosity (???? if that's a word) and Second Tries

The potato is actually doing just fine, completely negating my fears that it would get damp and all of the leaves would get moldy, rot, and kill off the plant. The weather has been all about the summer thunderstorms, and always in late afternoon or evening, which could have potentially exacerbated the problem.
Nope. It's fine.
A quick peak under the earth just shows the leaves yellowing like anything that isn't exposed to light anymore. Apparently there's plenty of drainage and the potato vine is incredibly happy to have dirt to wiggle around in. So all is well.
On a sad note, my betta fish died the other night. He'd been suffering from bloat and no treatment was working, so I knew it was coming. It didn't feel right to just flush him because he was so pretty and because he'd been around long enough that even the baby asked to see him when I fed him. I took a spade and put him down deep in the potato pot to help fertilize it. Weird? Maybe. But it was done with other plants by aboriginal tribes, and they didn't even use pet fish. So I felt it was appropriate to bury one thing my daughter had liked to help perpetuate something else she brought in to my life. We'll see if there's a sudden jump in growth in a week or two.
I decided to start over with a different tactic on all of the other projects that had seemed to fail, since I HATE not being able to get something to grow. Especially when internet articles and uncharismatic YouTube bloggers insist that it's super easy and stuff. So I began with the sweet potatos, this time trying the "shove it in a jar of water" method. This was decided on based on a photo a friend sent of her potato she upended in to a jar and just left for a week, which is now growing vines that would make a kudzu plant jealous.
Very artfully set up and whatnot.
I don't think this leaves me enough time for them to develop slips, get potted and produce actual sweet potatoes this season, but maybe I can rig something so that they can continue to grow indoors, then start the process early next year.
I also decided to try again with another piece of ginger, this time doing the soaking it overnight trick that I avoided last time because it was supposedly organic ginger and therefore wouldn't have any growth inhibitor on it. And I purposefully bought a very wide, deep colored container that would catch and warm the soil and allow lots of space for roots and rhizomes to spread out. But since I was starting to run out of dirt, I decided to use the peat mix from the old pot with the ginger that seemed to never prosper.
As I knocked the soil out of the small pot, though, I noticed that it was clinging to the bottom of the pot strangely. And then I saw roots. And after I carefully extracted the roots, I saw..... a small green shoot coming out of the end down lowest in the pot! !!!!!!! Excitement!!
I quickly moved it and the soil in with the last of my regular potting soil and some coffee and cocoa bean grounds (it said ginger loves compost, so....... maybe it won't kill these guys.), mixed thoroughly, added in the newer ginger rhizome, and patted the soil in to place. I moved it out to the picnic table where I knew it would be kept warm in the sun all day today, and the rain from the crazy storm would keep the soil moist but not sopping. All in all, an excellent tropical start!
I walked out today to see that the shoot had poked it's way above the soil line by about half an inch and was a brighter green than it had been last night. So maybe I'm not a murderer of ginger after all? Nothing would make me happier than to discover all was well with it and it went on to provide us with years of fresh and lovely ginger!
Look at that lovely green bud!
 We (Girlchild and myself) also took the time to grab two new Opal Basil plants from Home Depot to replace the ones slowly withering in the Italian Herb Bowl out on the picnic table. The heat and humidity served to wreck the previous plants and grow fungus on the top of the soil, causing the plants to drop leaves. I'm going to take the old ones down to the raised garden beds, plant them and wish them well. Then I'm digging out all of the water logged earth and obvious fungus patches and putting in better draining soil. It is annoying and unheard of to me to not have basil in my garden, so I'm FIXING it, damnit. And having widened drainage, it should be a lot dryer this time.
We spent this afternoon repotting all of the pumpkin and watermelon starts, as well, as we had meant to give them to people attending Summerween at our place this past Saturday as party favors. Alas, mega sickness canceled the event, one of my favorite non-holidays (a fabulous excuse to celebrate Halloween in the summer, courtesy of my beloved cartoon Gravity Falls). But the seedlings didn't get the memo and went crazy, so today they got moved to their own individual pots. I'll be distributing them like some gourd-wielding crazy lady on Thursday and Friday as I see my friends. We also took the opportunity to repot the rosemary snagged from Trader Joe's in to a container twice as large so it would have a happy home over the winter. There were also big pots snagged to move the baby apple tree that has survived and let it spread out a bit, and smaller pots to replace the broken ones, as I intend to start some new apple trees from seed again falling the strange death of all but one.
Coming up on the list of Gardening To-Do's:
~pot new fuji apple seeds to get starts
~transplant leftover pumpkin and watermelon starts in to much bigger pots for their summer lifetime on the deck at the new apartment.
~get the Savage Garden Terrarium's base gravel and fast-drain soil mix set up
~order plants for Savage Garden Terrarium
~repot Teddy Bear Sunflowers in to their own, much bigger pots.
~start peach trees from seed
~start pomegranate trees from seed
~start a second avocado
~bury potato vines up to lip of the pot
~trim dying secondary leaves off Swiss Cheese Plant
~get everything safely moved to new apartment and happily situated.

After that, we have Everyting Else To Do:
~treat betta tank with Melafix to finish off whatever disease is in it
~pack up kitchen, art room, garage, closets and storage spaces
~get pink washi tape to mark items going to storage for movers
~find a new betta as pretty as Momotaro was
~take extra food and bulk items to food pantry
~take donation items to Good Will.

So there's a lot to do between now and the 7th when we move, but now that I think I've finally kicked the crappy dragging illness that was long suffered, stuff should fall in to place quickly. Especially the gardening stuff, because my little helper enjoys coming outside with me just to touch the soil.
And as a final note, today we did the anatomy ultrasound for the baby inside of me, and this one's a boy. I'm happy to get to experience being mom to both a boy and a girl, and look forward to finding out what kind of cool things he'll be in to, too.


Friday, June 19, 2015

Pet Potato Project Part ???

I've been horrendously sick with back to back Martian flu bugs the last few weeks, so I haven't been able to do as much around the house as I had wanted. After being laid up for a week and a half I couldn't take it anymore!!! I absolutely HAD to get one of my outdoor projects done, fever and leaking nose or not! Thankfully my fever, my Girlchild and the unrelenting heat and humidity cooperated. 
I had been taking pictures of the potato vine to keep track of how much it had grown. About 3-4 weeks ago it was only an inch above the dirt. Then suddenly.... ZIIIPPP!! It was a LOT, LOT more.
This thing has been transplanted more than an Army brat, so I was hoping to make this the last time this summer I touched it, letting it grow until it was harvested later on.
We bought a pot at Target that was sufficiently attractive but also heavy duty plastic so I wouldn't have to worry about it potentially shattering in the winter cold the way a clay pot might, and also probably shelled out $80 less. Seen here, you can see the difference in height. It was also wider by several inches, allowing for outward root expansion and tuber room.
And you can see what a monster the potato vine turned in to.
I had initially been thinking my way through several scenarios where I planted the vine and it couldn't get sunlight, so was envisioning setting it up at an angle to catch sunlight, starting the potato on top of Styrofoam that I dug out slowly from the bottom to lower it in.... but that really wasn't a problem by the time I compared the two.
Yeah. It's almost to the top already.
It'll be able to get sunshine juuuuuust fine. It's about an inch below the rim of the pot already, which now has me concerned it'll run out of room almost immediately.
The Dirt Princess was on hand to make sure that the soil was properly aerated, stealing dirt from the "master pot" I had filled to put around the potato vine once it was in the pot.
Don't mind me, Momma, I'm over here being adorbz.
So the first problem to address was the complete lack of drainage in the pot. The sheer amount of rain and humidity had already killed off my basil plants in a pot that HAD drainage and several of my herb seedlings, so keeping it from being waterlogged was a priority.

 Easily dealt with, we have a very handy drill set. I chose the 1/4 drill bit. The worst part of it was apparently the noise, but once I showed the Dirt Princess what I was doing, she was fascinated, watching the annoying little curls of plastic rise up out of the base and snap off. The entire thing was done in 2 minutes, tops.
Behold, the wonder I have wrought with power tools.
Now, had this been pottery I would've tried the same thing but using water and at a muuuuuuuch slower speed. I've heard people say "Use a masonry bit". Well... I don't have one of those, but I HAVE drilled excruciatingly slowly through a glazed pot with only a few small flakes around the hole to show for it. So I know it can be done. Just a handy tip. And don't press down too hard or you'll crack it in half. Just generally BE DELICATE WITH THE THING!
At that point we got rid of the drill and its accompanying bag o' bits before it could become a potting soil receptacle, the fate of any open receptacle on the porch when my precocious daughter decides to spread it around and share with the plants. Or the citronella candles.
I followed up with an extra two or three inches of soil at the base, oh-so-carefully tipped the plant out of its previous post, and set it in the bottom. It was shored up at the side with more potting soil, then I began the complete guesswork of filling the dirt in around the potato vine, using it to hold up and separate the now two arms of it and give them space to grow outward.
Dirt Princess shown here working on her own private and intensive project with wiry potato vine next door.
The problem is, most tutorials online assume you haven't waited while your vine bolted and you've been diligent covering it every two inches or so. AKA - you know what the hell you're doing and you're properly prepared. HAH. I managed to find one article that said once you had seven inches, bury it and keep on top of things until it reached the top of your container courtesy of Gardening Know How, Article found (here). All other references to potato vines involved sweet potatoes. Those are another devil I want to tackle, once I get a potato that creates slips and doesn't just rot instead.
It took several trips to get soil in the pot I could carry up and down the deck stairs (I will not miss those deck stairs, seriously) but eventually we had a mostly potted potato vine, looking pretty dandy.
Shown for scale on its side, the large blue pot I filled with potting soil three times to go around the potato plant.
I'm glad to get this off of my checklist of things, as we are moving on the 7th and I need everything to be transplanted by then so the plants can be moved in to their mostly permanent summer/fall homes at our new place.
I moved it in to its location where it'll get morning and early afternoon sun without an issue, and I know I have a spot at our next place that will allow for the same. And because I had been so gently placing soil in around the plant, the Dirt Princess promptly volunteered with her own soil she had been diligently spreading around and aerating, adding the last inch to the top of the soil. It was really neat to have her helping!
Look at my cool little helper!
Am I doing this wrong? Probably. But the guides I read online are very hazy about exactly what happens with the vine when you put it in dirt so I don't know for sure if it's going to be a glorious success or it's going to rot and die horribly in the next few weeks. But given how much it's fought through to get to where it is now and how gentle we were about transplanting it this time, I think in the very least I may get a next generation potato to use for next year. Barring that, I have experience and this will be more fun to try again later.
I did see a video where a man just placed wire mesh around the potato plant and literally dumped a bucket of dirt over top of it without preamble or care, explaining that it would grow up through all of that and continue to do so with each successive bucket. That has me thinking that I may be treating it TOO delicately, if anything. If this thing starts to go monster on me again, I may add a mesh cage and more dirt to get a few more inches and a few more potatoes out of it. I just have this crazy dream of making a potato dynasty out of something my daughter swiped from the grocery store, you know?? I'm looking forward to seeing potato blossoms for the first time in my life come August/September.
It felt good to be outside, although it left me very winded and dizzy after all of the carrying and hefting. An incoming cloudburst was the only thing that sent us inside afterward, otherwise I would be trying to transplant the pumpkins and watermelon seedlings that are already getting leggy on me.
There's just something about getting my hands in soil and helping living things get larger that makes me happy and content, and I needed that in the midst of growing pregnancy pains and battling illness. If I'm feeling better tomorrow, I may use the very last of my potting soil to transplant a few things and move some teddy-bear sunflowers to a more permanent home.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Savage Garden Preparation

I hinted at a future for the glass case I brought home over a month ago, and over the last few days I was afforded a chance to get in to prepping it for its future as the home of my carnivorous plant garden!
The first thing, learned from a beautiful glass-and-basemetal dodecahedron purchased at Urban Outfitters, was to coat EVERY seam and between the glass edges with silicone. Otherwise the moisture will creep in and cause rust and leaching. I had a BEAUTIFUL D&D themed terrarium complete with miniatures in aheated battle, mindflayer and minion vs. undaunted adventurers.... Like seriously, there was a halfling in there. But because of the rust and leaching, every plant died a horrible death and the metal became VERY rusty. I want to try to clean it up and redo it, but that'll have to wait until after the move.
To that end, silicone went down EVERYWHERE. I mean it. Including places that were not glass or metal in the case.

I squeezed the silicone tube so much and so often I actually bruised my fingertip. But the expenditure of time and energy was worth it, as I am 99% sure there will be no rusting or leaching this time and my plants will liiiiiive!
I left that to dry and cure overnight, then tackled the next issue... The base was just base metal and there was no way I was spreading silicone over that much open space. We already had on hand some spray paint for outdoor metal, so that was drafted to help waterproof the base.
 First paper was taped to the glass to keep the spray paint from coating it. I used washi tape to fix it to the glass so there wouldn't be residue to have to wipe off the glass afterward.
This really has nothing to do with the project, it's just really adorable and I love using it for washi tape instead of regular.
Office supply snail is ready for your washi tape needs!
Then there was nothing to do but do the painting. I took it outside and sprayed away! It was dark so the pictures aren't great, but you get the idea.
It'll be drying outside overnight. And in the morning if there aren't any fumes, I can start prepping the soil mix and drainage field for the terrarium. I'm really excited that this is coming together so fast!

Friday, June 5, 2015

Gardening Update

Things are coming up green! All of the seeds we planted are starting to poke their heads up above the soil, save for the Munstead lavender and the rosemary(which we knew was a long shot anyway).
Behold the current (partial) lineup!
You will note there are 3 new pots. That's because we went back to Target for some beach gear and I noticed some different, cute pots in the dollar section. I grabbed them, hoping perhaps there would be rosemary seeds in THIS Target, as there's 2 in the area about equal distance away.
Turns out the great rosemary seed search is in vain, as there was not a single packet to be found. I feel more responsible for plants I've grown from seed for some reason, so that was kind of a bummer. HOWEVER! We also found some cilantro seeds this time, and some watermelon and pumpkin seeds. I thought those would be fun to try out. I have actually grown watermelon in the past and had a nice sized one growing on my upper deck before a bastard squirrel chewed a cavern in to it. Grrr... So I'm pretty sure we can duplicate the success.
I've also decided that even though we'll be in an apartment for the rest of the summer and a chunk of winter, I was growing most of my stuff on the deck anyway. There's plenty of room and sunshine for all of that so I'm just going ahead with plans to grow starts and keep my seedlings and treelings growing strong.
To that end, I decided to start some sweet potato slips, thusly-

And once those are ready to go, I'll get a tall pot for them like I'm doing with the Pet Potato and grow me a stack of deliciousness on the back porch.
I made a trip to Trader Joe's to get snacks for Girlchild and noted they were selling herb starts. There was a singular pot of rosemary left, thus answering my question about the missing rosemary. It is just THAT popular! It and a pot of lemon verbena came home and are perched on our neglected grill out back.
In the meantime I'm hoping that we find a permanent place to move in to with lots of light, great soil, and room for a greenhouse somewhere out back. We'll need it for all the veggies and fruits I've got going!

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Altered Couture - Maternity Edition

Now that we've sold the place and inspectors are done tromping through, I'm free to break out my crafting goodies and get back to work!
Maternity clothes ate boring, unless you want to shell out serious money. As a result, my first pregnancy I spent a lot of time not only feeling like a swelling alien mothership, but also not able to dress as I did usually. It was doubly alienating. I felt like my identity was lost somewhere in the black hole of my uterus. I'm sure there's a while world of psychological fun in those sentiments, but we're here to focus on slapping some personality back in to boring stuff!
I ended up with a LOT of solid, boring colored tank tops and shirts and skirts. I put up with it because I worked at a conservative business and that was required. But now that we're freelance and homesteading, the creativity dam is opened!
The first item of clothing I wanted to work on was a rather bland, but comfy, navy blue jersey skirt I usually save for the beach. We're going to the beach this weekend to celebrate, so it seemed perfect timing to try some bleach painting.
I gathered my supplies: a bleach pen, a cardboard box to prevent the bleach from soaking through (unless you want the design on both sides of the garment) and the garment to be decorated! Note -While we highly enjoy Cinnamon Toast Crunch in this household, we do not solely advocate the use of its box for crafting. Any flattened cereal box or long cardboard will suffice.

Next, shake the heck out of the gel pen, uncap it, and get to work! I googled
some paisley designs and made the decision to put them across the hip so it was asymmetrical. Shown here, my sorta funky free-handed attempt.
Then I decided to add some elements around the outside to expand it. I would have done more but the bleach pen was only half full when I started using it, so I quickly ran out. Either way, it was looking pretty swanky!
I let it sit for a few minutes, noting the reddish tinge starting to show up around the edges of the bleach, then promptly ran the design under cold water, washing the bleach off.
After employing some soap to make sure the bleach didn't seep in to other parts of the skirt thanks to the water bath, I also gave it a splash of vinegar to try and kill the reaction, since it seemed to still be brightening even as I washed it. It seemed to work, but various forums online say that's a super bad idea, so don't follow my lead. Just wash the snot out of it with water and soap!
I loved the results. There was a purple-pinkish design across the hip that reminded me immediately of blueberries that had been smashed. In my head it has become my Blueberry Skirt.
Isn't it pretty??
This was very easy to do, the hardest parts being keeping the Girlchild from getting curious and pulling it down, letting the bleach sit too long that it might burn through, and not letting it seep through the clothing. Cardboard and care can safeguard against all of those things if you decide to try it. I'll be breaking out the new bleach gel pen to do other designs on two tank tops I have that are in need of sprucing up, as I love how this turned out! I'm excited for my new, more "me" maternity wardrobe! The other modifications I make will be shared here as well, so stay tuned!