Winter Tomatoes

A tomato that is house grown. It has 3 blooms. I wonder what a house grown tomato tastes like? It has gotten so huge I had to remove a ceiling tile. It is probably around 3 feet tall:

Pumpkin Bloom in January

I planted this pumpkin seed just for fun. It came from my Granddaughter's Halloween Jack-O-Lantern. This bloom was huge:

Growing a Spider Plant from Seed

I was really surprised this summer when my Spider Plant starting producing seeds. Before this I thought the propagation method was using the babies that the plant produces. I am now growing some of these seeds. There is no variegation to the leaves of these plants and I can't find any information on why this happens. Here are some pictures:

Egglings

Starting using eggshell planters just for fun and discovered what a great way to raise seedlings. Apparently the shell is loaded with calcium and makes for a stronger healthier seedling. These are my little people:

Terrariums

Some experimenting with terrariums:

And Whish, Now it is Full!

My New "GROW" Room

I had so many plants I wanted to keep this year we decided to take the old room of one of my grown kids and use it for a "grow" room. It has a southern window and I used it last winter to start my plants.

We cleaned it all out and painted it with a 98% reflectivity white roofing paint which I had read on a "Cannabas" blog was a good paint for a growing room for marijuana, so figured it would work for any plants.

We used metal shelving that I had from last year and put up some white wall shelves.

We put in a small ceiling fan for good circulation and used a three bulb fixture with high wattage fluorescent bulbs. We used 23 watt which is equivelant to 100 watt regular bulbs, so it looks like 300 watts. It is now a very bright room.

This is what it looks like empty:

I Can't Believe Winter is Almost Here

Yesterday we had the first freeze warning of the season, it came in the early afternoon. They had orignally said scattered frost and I was going to leave my green tomatoes on the vine. After hearing the warning, we went ahead and picked all the green ones we could find. We wrapped each one individually and placed on shelves in the basement. Hopefully they will ripen slowly and we will have around for the next month or so.

We bagged up all the container and pepper plants except a few small peppers that were still blooming and were still producing fruit. It was a little sad especially since I had raised them from seed. Watching them come up at the time I would have never dreamed something so small and fragile could go on to be so big and study and produce so much.

After eating and cooking and giving away bunches, I ended up with 60 lbs of tomaoes and 23 lbs of peppers that are frozen and ready to use this winter for cooking. The really big bells and bananas I froze whole to use for stuffed peppers. The small ones are chopped up and in gallon freezer bags to use as pizza topping and flaving for lots of dishes I will make this winter.

I can't believe I got as much as I did since I have no yard whatsoever. My garden consisted of mostly containers and use of the land outside my fence which really belongs to the city but no one ever says anything about using it. It is about a foot wide by 40 foot long. There I had some tomato and pepper plants, along with some lettuce and vines and flowers.

We had enough lettuce for many salads this summer and all the tomatoes and peppers. It is almost unbelievable how much you can grow in such a little space.

Now I can't wait until next year and am already searching through the seed stores for different things I want to try.

Flowers I Have

Ruffled Coleus

This is one of my favorites:

Collecting Cypress Vine Seed

I am trying to collect seed right now and have been all over the internet researching where to collect seed from each plant, most of the time I have found out just by observation. So for anyone trying to collect seed from a Cypress Vine here is what the seed pod looks like:





When it turns brown and dry you can pick the seed pod and it will contain between one to four seeds:



This is what the seed looks like:

Love in a Puff Again

Love in a Puff seed pod:





and why it is called Love in a Puff, the seed has a white heart on it:

Some Flowers from My Garden

Cypress Vine:




Cosmos:




More Cosmos:





Ivy Leaf Morning Glory:










Joan Lorraine Snapdragon:

Sensitive Plant

This is Mimosa Pudica or sensitive plant. When touched the leaves close and then the branches retreat:




This is it's flower:




I started this from seed in March.

Corkscrew Plant

Grown from seed started in March, fast growing plant:

Along My Fence

Along my fence I planted Cypress Vine, Cardinal Climber, Cosmos, Zinnia, Ice Plant and Birdhouse Gourd, there is also more tomato plants and some peppers.

Big Asparagus Fern

This fern was in a 10 inch hanging basket last summer. It is now in a 20 inch planter.

I started this Malabar Spinach the end of January, it really took off and would have been beautiful except I put too many in the pot and it never did look like it should, but again I will know what to do the next time:

And More Seed Plants

More seed plants some started in January and some in March. Includes Ice Plant, Coleus, Ornamental Pepper (which I love with its varigated leaves), Chinese Lantern and Mexican Stipa Grass.

Gourds

Birdhouse Gourds started in March, didn't do as well as I had hoped, probably the trellis planters were too small for their root system:

Slow Growers

A Ming Fern and a Foxtail Fern started from seed in March and now in 3 inch pots. Very slow growers: