Gardening With Your Garbage and Recycling

Part of this post is old hat. I have been reusing containers for seed starting for years.

Tube holders from a medical lab.

For an Earth Day project 24 years ago, I had my daughter's first grade classmates all bring in a small container to start marigold seeds. In our unscientific study using milk containers, plastic cups, tin cans and detergent caps, the ones started in the detergent caps tended to be deformed. Hmmm?

We crushed egg shells and stirred up coffee grounds to add to the bottom of the pots just to start talking about compost and feeding the earth. It was pretty basic, messy and fun, and yielded at least one flower for each student. Before school let out for the summer, a lovely garden was planted at the school entrance.

So look what has started in my Cracker Barrel "green house". Lupines from the farm garden. I think they are the purple ones, but we will have to wait and see. Usually I have such a hard time starting lupines, but these are at 50% germination so far, and in 10 days. Pretty pleased if I do say so. As soon as the first seedling popped, I moved the container from the warm spot, to the cool window sill, to try and keep them from bolting. Lupines are a childhood memory for me, so I love to see them in the garden.

This time of year I start to horde all the used plastic silverware that shows up at parties and wherever, and clean it to use as plant markers. The Popsicle sticks are okay for starters, but they rot and disintegrate by the time some of the early starts get into the garden.

I do find them handy to help me keep track of the seeds I collect, and have the labeled, flat little stick ready to go with the seeds.

Wisteria Seed 

How many times have I wrapped seeds in a napkin or old envelope, leaving myself a part of the flower or plant as a hint, only to open it up and puzzle over where it came from and what it is. By then the "hint" is a brown, dry crumble. So labeling fast is smart, but I'm still learning that lesson!

So here is something new that I learned and tried, just a week or so ago. Growing Romaine lettuce from the stem or the heart. The article says to leave a couple inches and perhaps a leaf or two. I had already used this lettuce, and this stem was plucked out of my compost after the reading of the article. I figured, "What the heck!" and threw it in my bowl with some water. And just to be clear, this lovely bowl was found in the town's recycling shed.

One week later, and fresh water every day or two, there are four new shoots. I can't wait to see how this goes. The suggestion is that I can put this in the garden when the temperatures are appropriate. That's such a long way off, but I may try a container from my recycled collection.

Pepper seeds from last night's dinner.

I grew up growing carrot tops in water, and bean seeds in cotton balls in egg shells. At my school in Sheffield, England, the class was called "Nature". What a nice way to learn science.

Below is the article that I saw, and if you search "things that grow from garbage" you can have a lot of fun till spring really arrives. Meanwhile my seed order went in last night, so there is more fun to come.

Garden with Garbage: 10 Foods You Can Grow from Scraps

http://earth911.com/home-garden/grow-food-from-scraps/

Arizona This And That

My week in Arizona had special memories, and one of my favorites was being in the Watchtower at Desert View.
Seeing the raven reminds me of my first visit with my daughter and the Junior Ranger badge she earned. It also reminds me of my book club friends and the last book we all hated!

How cool to go out and pick your citrus.

And guess where you find this beauty? The aviary?No - at the library.
Janet?? Where are our exotic birds cleaning up the gardens?And this is a rare Phoenix sight because rain is rare.
Yes! Rain and snow for my visit!

This was a great combination stop. We tried a Horchata drink.
Unique and a must try if you can.

Indian dinner with mom was fun, down to the spicy tea.

In the back of my mind, I though of those who come to these vast, gorgeous parks and die. Its quite sad, but not so rare. These cliffs and drops are not rides. I watched a few reckless souls playing along the edge in the heavy winds, and just wondered if they felt invincible.

Subtle decorations in the Grand Canyon Visitor Center.

Reminders of the farm.

Fun Western yard decorations.

With Sara at Thanksgiving.

Thanks for good friends and hospitality.

Home Improvement

Timbers were rotting, and plants were overgrown. Never mind the poison ivy.

The air conditioner is a bit tipsy too, but first we needed to stabilize the whole area.
After Andrew helped rip out volunteer trees with the tractor over the Fourth week-end, we spent this week-end putting in new timbers, and seeing if any plants were salvageable.

For now this is what is left, with a few bulbs to replant.
The Fall may see new plantings.A significant improvement.

Comfrey - Growing and Using

Its a busy holiday week-end, and so I am going to be lazy, but I hope you'll appreciate the effort!
I'm going to send you to the blog The Garden of Eaden, found on my sidebar. For my British friends, and those in that climate, Mr. Eade is from your side of the Pond. Everyone may want to check out his web site and seed shop. All kinds of information and fun.

Simon Eade's past two posts cover comfrey, and I have my own garden shots for you.

The May 27 post was of great interest to me as it covers

HOW TO MAKE LIQUID FERTILIZER FROM COMFREY

My one plant is big enough for my dog to dig a hole underneath it to cool off in. I think its time for me to put it to use.

For those of you who want to learn how to grow this useful plant, Mr. Eade covers that topic today. Click on the title for more.

HOW TO GROW COMFREY

White Saturday II

Transplanted and Transported

I have plants in my garden from my mother's garden that I have transplanted, and transported, from house to house, and state to state. Now I am passing a piece of this 10 foot cactus to my daughter for her to pot and grow into another giant. It got a couple of broken arms in the move and a couple more injuries in the house, so I decided it was time to start some new plants. A few starts were failures, but two got going. This one is probably off to a taller start then what I started with thirty years ago, but eight inches of it grew in the past few months as I was rooting it.

In the house she grew up in, the cactus, then about six to eight feet of it, stood at the front door, and Kristin had to explain to friends that, yes - it was real. During the last move, this plant along with a couple more, almost put the mover over the edge, but the estimator promised, and I was not leaving this old friend behind.

So Kiddo, now its your turn to grow a giant cactus in your home. I hope it continues to have stories for you to tell.