Cardiff Garden Blog

Just a few shots of my juvenile tomatillo plants.  Above is what the tiny tomatillo starts out like. It will quickly grow and expand out. It's good to have some kind of netting, fencing or string because the stalks of the tomatillos tend to weaken with the rising weight of ripening tomatillos. I used some clothesline to help guide my young plant towards my fence in hopes that I can weave branches for structure. I think the smaller plant may be a purple tomatillo plant.  It would be a welcomed color change from all the greens and yellows.

I planted this Atlantic Giant pumpkin vine back when I built the skateboard deck raised bed box. It just had two small green leaves. Now it's stretching it's limbs out of the box and looking very healthy. Here's hoping I get a bunch of giant pumpkins growing this year. The two little green vines towards the bottom of the picture are watermelon vines that I planted at the same time. They are starting to grow larger as well and will hopefully soon extend their reach outside of the box.

My sunflower jungle is almost complete. As you can see Sal the Sunflower is about to show his face. I can't wait til he brings the bees.  I still can't believe how thick the stalks grow on these sunflowers. They look like tree stalks. And just to show you that I am not biased I have other flowers planted in the garden. Like this hibiscus which brings in the hummingbirds.  Also smells great too. Sadly though the boyseberry vine is taking over it's territory.

I've learned it's better to pick them a little early and then let them ripen off the vine. They taste the best when they are a deep purple but that is also when they are the least firm. All the deep purple ones I end up eating straight from the vine instead of saving.  It quite a task to keep searching daily for new berries that are ripe. They hide pretty well and my vine is well over 20ft long climbing up a staircase. No complaints by me though.

These are the first two tomatillos I've picked so far.. Actually picked one the other one was already on the ground.. Tomatillos tend to fall off the plant when they are ready. A great tool when your plant is very bushy and you can't see all the fruit.  The green one I picked was rather dense and heavy.. The paler looking fruit was the one that fell to the ground. The leafy outside tends to dry out and break open when ripe. Tomatillos basically grow bigger than the leafy outside and bulge out a little bit. They have also known to be a bit sticky when you peal off the leafy outside. Tomatillos are mostly commonly found in green salsa or salsa verde. I am looking forward to making lots of salsa both with my tomatilllos and spicy peppers growing in the garden.

 Well I picked a rare boysenberry here and there in the past two weeks but it seems that the season has begun. All over my long boysenberry vine I see white turning to pinks and reds. The berries pictured here aren't ready just yet. They need to turn a darker shade of purple. But the ones I have tasted were delicious.

T his are leaves from my pumpkin vine. As you can see I have white spots or powdery mildew growing on them. In the past I thought this was just due to me watering the leaves (I don't water the leaves anymore either) but after doing some research I've learned its powdery mildew. This happens on lots of different plants. It's usually due to more than one condition happening. It happens in shady areas, over watered areas, and areas of poor air circulation.  There are many ways to combat powdery mildew. One of which is to use a fungicide. They make both chemical and organic versions. I am currently using an organic Copper fungicide. It's mainly a soapy solution. You spray on the leaves to combat the disease. If left unchecked PM will make your leaves turn yellow and gray and they will eventually die.  It does also hinder plant growth. Last year I didn't know much about PM and it basically killed off my pumpkins. The pumpkins themselves survived but the vine wasn't...

Anything this tall deserves a name. So I am naming my 6ft+ sunflower Sal.  He's now taller than me and still growing. I did a rough count and I think I have over 50 Mammoth sunflowers growing in my garden. I strategically placed them in the edges and corners of boxes not to take up vital space and sunlight but still offer some beauty and color to the garden. The Mammoth sunflower can grow up 8-10ft and by the looks of it this one might reach it.  The stalk looks like a furry green churro.  I can't wait until he flowers.  I swear it grows a few inches a day.   And when he's dead I'll feed Sal to the birds.. hehehe

Seems like every year something pops up that I didn't plant, in an area where I've never planted. In this case under my deck under some surfboard bags. This ambitious tomato plant grew from under a pile of surfboards and bags to reach for the sun. I've now decided to give it a little support in reaching for the sun. It's already producing what look to be cherry tomatoes. In a weird stroke of luck I think the surfboard bag is helping the plant grow better.  If you notice the board bag has a reflective cover on it that helps reflect sunlight that wouldn't normally reach this plant because of the deck.. I can't imagine it hurts the plants growth. I'd say another week and I'll be picking tomatoes. Thanks nature.

Was picking weeds and noticed that I have a nice juicy Anaheim pepper coming in. They are spicy peppers that are great in just about everything. Bought this one at the store (Armstrongs Garden) about 2 weeks ago and it's progressing nicely. I think I'll pick in another week.

Above is a picture  of one of my pumpkins growing larger. Below is a picture of what the pumpkin looks like when it's flowering. They don't always make it though. Many turn yellow like the picture below. This is perfectly normal.  Pumpkins grow pretty fast and very cool to watch their progress improve almost daily.  I have about 3-4 growing larger with new ones flowering everyday.

Seen so many of these great sunsets from the backyard. Figured I'd share with you some I just shot the other day.

When to pull the plug on your plants. This is always a tough decision to make for me. I have a real hard time determining when my plant is officially dead and devoid of hope.  Take for example these pictures of my snow pea plant. This plant grew on its own outside of my raised box.  I'm guessing from a fallen pea from last year's crop.  Now I've reaped quite a bit from this bastard plant. Then I went on vacation for a week and it was left unpicked but watered. I'm guessing that the plant has a shut off mechanism for producing new veggies when there are too many peas still on the plant. But you can also clearly see new growth on the very tips of the plant. There are new green out spurts of healthy plant. It's even producing more peas.  But when do I throw in the towel and rip it up.  In this case it's not even growing in a raised bed so it's not taking up valuable space.   I also have pepper plants from last year that barely survived the winter and seem ...

So last week (5/24) I blogged about planted a bunch of starters in jiffy-like pots. I'm happy to report that they have already started to pop up.  In the above picture they are cucumber plants starting and in the picture below they look to be tomatoes. One week in a window isn't bad for nothing more than soil water and sunlight.  Now they aren't exactly ready to go in the ground. I'll probably give them another week or two. I know with peppers you should wait until the second set of leaves start to grow in. I'll update the blog when I finally get to planting them.