Moss Rose, Something New For Me, And I Like It

This is the first time ever that I have grown Moss Rose and I really like it. I sort of neglected my Moss Rose seedlings this spring because I was so busy with other plants, but when I finally got around to planting the sprouts in this hanging pot, they really took off. They are so interesting and grow sort like succulents, with all of those little new round leaves.

The plants come in a rainbow of colors. Some of these amazing little blooms come with one row of petals and some come with multiple rows of petals. So many colors and so many petal arrangements.
I have been collecting their seeds for months and plan to make this plant one of my main flowers the next spring. The tiny black seeds are some of the smallest that I have ever seen.

Pine Seedlings EVERYWHERE!

It is really an amazing thing, pine seedlings are everywhere in the spring.  These are some small seedlings that I dug up because they were in the way in a garden bed.  This pic is a few weeks old – they all made it and are several inches taller now.  I can’t help myself, when I turn over the garden beds, I can’t help but dig up nice looking seedlings and replant them in pots and grow them in the greenhouse until this fall or next spring and plant them all over the place.  I currently have a few hundred pine seedlings in the greenhouse.  They have all put on a few inches of nice new, light green growth.

The smaller pine seedlings growing on this red clay bank are a year old.  The taller tree out front is only 2 1/2 years old.  The little sprouts can grow quickly, even in red clay.

I drew a red line next to some pine tree seedlings that had just begun to sprout.  Can hardly take a step in the woods with out stepping on sprouts.

The next foot step – more sprouts.  It is amazing.  They are trying to wiggle out of their seed.  The seed is still attached at the top of these sprouts.

Pine seeds rain down from the pines from about September to February.  Out of a thousand seeds, maybe one might grow to a tree – maybe one.  The sprouts will have to be strong with deep roots to survive the hot dry summer that is coming.

American Sweet Gum Tree Seeds

Fall is the time to collect most tree seeds.  I have admired how massively enormous American Sweet Gum trees can grow.  I have some around here and it is time to collect the seeds and try to start some seedlings.  It can’t be too hard because we have little Sweet Gum sprouts all over the place.  Now, I want to start seedlings in the greenhouse and plant them where I want them to grow.

According to references, these seeds must be chilled for a minimum of one month to satisfy their dormancy requirements.  Then they can be planted.

I have 2 gum balls in this picture.  I picked them up off of the ground when they were green.  I allowed them to sit on the porch until they turned brown and the holes opened up.  While shaking the balls, along with the seeds a bunch of tiny brown flaky things came out.  I discarded the brown sawdust stuff and kept the seeds – which are the larger things at the bottom right.

I enjoy trying to propagate all sorts of plants.  This is the first time that I am going to try Sweet Gum.  To chill the seeds, I think that I’ll just put them in a small plastic zip bag – no perilite or peat moss – for a month.  I’ll leave most of them in the refrigerator and wait for spring, but as soon as they chill for a month, I can’t wait to get some into soil and see what happens.

Brassica Seedlings

Time to get the broccoli and cabbages started and in the ground.  This is usually a difficult thing for me because it is usually so hot until about the end of September and then it can cool down quickly and I just have a hard time trying to get cole crops started when it is so hot.  This is just something that I have to work on, having the discipline to start seedlings when the charts say to.

Today I started planting the largest of my cabbage seedlings.  A few days ago I started planting broccoli in a bed that will be covered with plastic on hoops this winter.  I have found that cabbage is more likely to survive our mildly cold winters, but that broccoli is best sheltered during freezes.  I will also plant cabbage in it once the beans and basil are harvested.  I like to rotate crops, but this can be difficult when I have to scatter crops here and there in my limited raised beds – as one crop finishes the next can go in.  Oh, if I only had plenty of room to plant stuff together in an organized manner!

After a few weeks the tiny seedlings above grew into the larger seedlings below.  These are red and green cabbage seedlings.

Broccoli is on the left and cabbage on the right, below.  Once the seedlings get this big, it is easy to tell them apart.

I fertilize my seedlings with either mild miracle grow or fish fertilizer – one or the other, constantly until I put them in the ground.

More seedlings.  I started several batches of cole seedlings during the course of several weeks.  The seedlings in the back right are vinca flowers.  Vinca is very hard to start during the cool spring – when flowers need to be started for spring planting.  During the hot summer, however, they sprout all over the place as the vinca flowers turn to seed pods that mature and pop all over.  I dug a few up from the base of the larger vincas.  It would be cool if I could keep these tiny seedlings alive during the winter – that would give me a giant head start on the spring flowers – unless they stunt during the low light and cool winter.

I actually start my seedlings in small propagation trays and then transplant them into these larger pots before they finally go into the ground.  I really don’t know if all that work is necessary on my small scale garden.

Johnny-Jump-Up Over Population

This spring I have found dozens and dozens of Johnny Jump Ups all over the place.  They are popping up all thru the grass, under trees, in pots – all over the yard.  Last year I had just a couple of them pop up in a flower pot that I brought from my Father’s place.  I left the couple of plants to grow and some how they obviously scattered their seeds all over my yard.  I have dug up dozens from the middle of the grassy yard – planting them in small pots.  This created pots full of flowers and saved them from being mowed over.

This big green pot just sprouted all of these Johnny Jump Ups.  I was going to plant a much bigger flower in this large pot, but I didn’t want to dig up and transplant all of these Johnnys.  I can hardly believe how prolific this plant is – last year 2 or so plants scattered a hundred seeds all over the place.  I plan to try to collect seeds from these flowers.

Spinach

I planted spinach over a month ago, some 2 months ago. We have had some very cold days, but I really expected my spinach to be further along. For the first almost month after sprouting, the plants barely hung on. Within the past few weeks I can see them visibly growing larger.

This tiny spinach plant has to be at least 6 weeks old. I don’t think I noted the plant date in my garden notebook. (I really need to keep better records.)

These little guys (or girls) are all over the rows where I seeded them. As spring gets nearer, they should grow faster. I need to get busy planting more seeds in the next few weeks. I will have to plant them in between where I think I will be setting pepper and squash plants.