August First



It is August the First.
The Grandpa Ott's heirloom morning glory has finally begun to bloom - and there is more in the garden, as well.



Have you seen one of these?  It is a Japanese daikon!


I cold-stratified a bag of cantaloupe seeds from a produce market fruit - and put it in one side of this raised bed to see if that would make the difference.  Boy, did it!  I also think being put in the soil 'in the goo' from the fresh fruit is a big marker for success.  I did that with an acorn squash last week and it sprouted and has grown into plants quickly when two successive plantings in that same place had failed.

It might be too late to get real cantaloupes off of this, and it would need thinning anyways.  But, it is one of the many questions I ask myself about the garden, about seeds -- what if?  That is part of what this blog is about.  What is that?  What if I tried this?  Let's find out.

How to cold stratify:

Many seeds require a 'fake winter' period of time, some just a few days some weeks to a month, in order to actually germinate properly.  Take a small amount of the seed and put it in the refrigerator.  Don't forget about it!  Then, after the proper amount of time at about forty degrees Fahrenheit, plant it in the soil as you would otherwise.  Some seeds require being IN the DIRT in the refrigerator - and if that is so, you might get a separate mini-fridge for those plants.  However, we're not quite there yet.

Try it Out!



Want a cool project?  Eat an apple! 
We did this project in 2017, for our homeschool science.

It can be pretty much any kind of apple.  Save a few of the seeds.  Plant a few seeds for 'control', and cold-stratify some others for a week to two weeks, and then plant the seeds.  Compare the results you get between the immediately planted seeds and the cold-stratified set.  Apple leaves are beautiful, it's worth it just for a free houseplant for a few weeks.  Don't expect them to last much more than that.  Unless you want to go a bit further into orchard management, you probably won't get a viable tree on these first trials.  However, you'll learn a lot about this technique and maybe find new things to discover!


Some twenty cent cucumbers I planted in an empty place have exploded and are reaching for the sky over the top of the raised bed next to them.


Do you see why I might have thought yesterday's Evening Primrose discovery was a weed?  It is growing here beside a pole beside the peach orchard, with other things growing up and around it.  But, now that I know I am watching to see what kinds of birds and bugs come to it. 

Already this morning it was 'bouncing' when I came out but I couldn't see what had just been there.  I could hear bees in the squash and birds in the trees chattering - but with a Charlotte dog at my feet and people letting off guns in the woods... nothing came back for the entire time I was out there.  Then I was a little worried Charlotte might go out after the noises in the woods, and we came inside.

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