Green Things from the Basement

The basement light garden is growing well. The annuals, perennials, orchids and other stuff are aphid and gnat-free so far. The only problem was some mildew that developed while I was away and resident-lawnmower-man was watering the plants. I resolved this by removing the yellowed, withered leaves and directing an oscillating fan to blow over the plants. This restores good airflow, but means I've got to stay vigilant to prevent overdrying of the little plants.

I am currently soaking some morning glory seeds ("Star of Yelta"). The package picture looks attractive, yet up until now I had felt too lazy to do the required chipping of the seed coat and soaking of the seed required for successful germination. Just like lupines and sweet peas, they have a tough seed coat and need some help to germinate. I use an exacto knife to chip off a little piece of the seed coat, leaving a bare spot that shows the green core the the seed. We'll see how it goes!

This flat of Aladdin Cherry petunias looks quite good. Although the seeds and seedlings of petunias are extremely small, growing them seems to be quite easy!

I have just 3 grape tomato plants started, but they quickly grew too tall for the basement light garden so they are sitting with the orchids in the living room. I started my seeds around March 1, so hopefully I can get some mid-summer fruits.

I find it intriguing that the species name for the tomato (Lycopersicon) means "wolf peach". Lykos is Greek for wolf, Lupinum is Latin for wolflike. The wolfish origins of the name don't seem too apparent to me. Some googling revealed the sordid history of the vegetable hailing from South America. It was thought to be poisonous by the Europeans, though the Aztecs had been eating tomato salsa on their chalupas and gorditas for thousands of years (or at least, the Aztecs that went to Taco Bell). Tomatoes are a member of the nightshade family, along with eggplants and peppers, but only the green parts of the plant contain the toxic alkaloids.

According to the climactic data for La Ronge on the northscaping website (http://www.northscaping.com/Tools/ClimaticDataMap.shtml), we have annual precipitation of 19 in. (489 mm), last spring frost May 17, first fall frost Sept 22, for a typical growing season of 128 days. Check out the northscaping website, it has climactic data for North America north of 37 degrees latitude. Anyhow, most tomatoes seem to take much longer than 128 days to do anything, so hopefully this year we have success.

Travelling Tractor Sprinklers - Do I Need One?

These tiny tractors appeal to my childhood obsession with miniatures, AND claim to be a useful garening tool. I was keen on buying one a few years ago, especially the eye-catching John Deere version. Resident-lawnmower-man attempted to destroy this dream, saying that these contraptions probably wouldn't work on our lawn. Our lawn is has some gentle slopes, no jutting rocks (anymore), and a few trees here and there. I can't see any major problems.

These ingenious contraptions can water a large area by motoring along the length of your hose over a few hours, saving you from having to move your sprinkler multiple times. A good article explaining how these tractors work is found here: http://home.howstuffworks.com/traveling-sprinkler1.htm

The yellow one is the Nelson Travelling Tractor Sprinkler, as advertised on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Sprinkler-Nelson-Traveling-Tractor/dp/B0001LF7LU). Several people wrote reviews, saying that this particular model has problematic plastic gears that were stripped when the tractor got hung-up on something, or that other parts malfunctioned. I guess I'd stay away from this model, despite the sale price advertised on Amazon ($105 USD).

The green tractor is the John Deere model. It seems to have the most visual appeal, in my opinion. I hate to say it about a tractor, but "isn't it cute?". Well, perhaps you can guess why my purchase of a new piece of machinery was vetoed by resident-lawnmower-man. I promised to do more research into this before purchasing anything...or wait a minute...did he realize mother's day is coming up soon? Someone send him an email!!!

Craftsman (from Sears) also has a tractor sprinkler. I see that some guy is selling a 1950's cast iron one on ebay. One benefit of buying one from Sears is that they seem to have a good service and returns policy.
Does anyone out there have one of these? Send a comment my way -- it's easy to put comments on my blog. You don't need to give your email address and you can even be anonymous.

Solitary Snowdrop: 3 Years in the Making

I went out into the garden today to see if the balmy warm (+18 C) weather brought out any new flowers or green shoots. Sure enough, more bulbs were pushing their spiky green leaves into the air. Then, behind the leafless lilac I spotted something that I did not plant last fall, or even the fall before that. I could not believe my eyes. There it was -- a solitary single-flowered snowdrop -- planted in the fall of 2004 before I had learned from a wizened old garden sage that snowdrops "don't grow around here". So here we are 3 years later, with the bulb marker long since removed. Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) are supposed to be hardy to zones 3-9 and planted in shady areas. Clearly, they don't thrive here, but I am impressed with the bulb's ability to be a recluse for so long only to make an appearance 3 years later! I don't know much about snowdrops other than seeing carpets of them in Vancouver. However, a quick search of the internet reveals that there are people calling themselves galanthophiles -- there really is a fan club for everything!