Seedy Saturday - Bit of a Planting Update and a Confession

Just came in from quickly replacing the little shop light with a much bigger shop light in the greenhouse. It's be cloudy and rainy for the past couple of days, so I decided to stop procrastinating and hang the shop light I bought months ago in the outside greenhouse. Give the seedlings a bit more faux-sunshine until the sun actually comes out.

One thing I am really like about the greenhouse outside is I can move my seedlings out there and they are gently hardening off. Of course, for a lot of them it will be another month before they are in the ground...sigh. 

Thursday, while waiting for Foxy to be released from the hospital after her surgery (she is fine and hopefully it will fix a decades long issue which doctors have been ignoring), I ran over and grabbed one of ten 5-in-1 cherry trees. 

I needed a cherry tree because, well, I needed one. And Lady K has requested cherries. The tree has branches for Lapin, Van, Stella, Black Tartarian and Montmorency cherries on a semi-dwarf stock. This tree I will let get bigger than the other trees I have in the 'food forest' because it has 5 different kinds on it. 

And while I was bringing home 'Kayden Cherry', I also picked up 'Beauty' and 'Beast' Honeyberry plants. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale, so how could I resist. With Honeyberries, you definitely need two different plants to get it to set fruit. 

The Honeyberries will be a few years away from fruiting, may get a few cherries next year, fingers crossed. I am hoping for a few peaches and plums this year, along with more figs. 

My fig tree is starting to put out its leaves. I had a few figs last year. And I have a tiny fig tree growing away. When I was pruning the tree this winter, there was a branch which was so low it had rooted. I cut it off and put it in a bucket, trying to decide what to do with it. Since it is putting out growth, I guess I will plant it near the big tree in back along the fence. I'll have a wall of figs!

The asparagus is tall. Since most of it is from crowns, I didn't pick any this year. Next year I am hoping for a small harvest. I do have some which I grew from seed last year. I sowed a few more seeds yesterday and will add to the area. There is a big 'hole' in there I want to fill in. 

'Christine' peony is up and rearing to go. Every day she seems to have grown several inches. I am also seeing 3-4 buds on her already. I have to make a note to myself to get the flower beds rearranged and set-up so I can move her into my peony patch next year. There is another peony, 'Costco' which I want to move also. 

'Olive' is growing inflorescences like crazy. I am so excited I might be harvesting a few olives in the fall! Then the issue will be figuring out how to brine olives for consumption.

The inside greenhouse was 'refilled' with 2 flats of veggies, primarily. Lots of melons, pumpkins and gourds. And a couple of things for an 'experiment'. 

The seedlings in the inside greenhouse were moved under lights in the kitchen. The larger seedlings were moved into the outside greenhouse. I also took things out of the outside greenhouse and rearranged items. 

It's packed! I can go in and have to back out. Incentive to lose weight! This morning I replaced a tiny one-bulb shop light with a big shop light. 

I also made a list of everything I have growing inside and out. I'll talk about that later. I will say 3 flats are for the herb society sale in a month. I have bronze fennel, Mexican Tarragon and borage growing for the sale. So I guess it's really not all that bad. 

There is about 2 flats of dahlias. Those I am going to plant mainly in an area in the back in the veggie garden. A few of the peppers and extra tomatoes may go to the plant sale for the Extension Master Gardeners in May. 

Now for confession time...

Those are dragonfruit babies. From one dragonfruit. Sigh.

Needless to say, MANY of these will be potted up and donated to the EMG sale in May. A few may go to the herb society sale. 

So literally hundreds of seedlings!

And I have a yellow dragonfruit sitting on the kitchen counter waiting for me to do the same thing. There will be red and yellow dragonfruit seedlings. 

I will need bigger pots to grow 4 of each - which is my plan.

Can you tell I like 'unusual' plants?

In the greenhouse there is also a Meyer Lemon tree. A Ylang-Ylang seedling (now about 12 inches tall). Patchoulli. I have Black Sesame seedlings, Goji berry seedlings, cardoon, Scotch Gypsy Broom, Lilac Chasteberry, to name a few. 

Did I mention I have my eye on a Flying Dragon Trifoliate Orange tree?

So if it is unusual, weird, just-to-see-if-I-can-grow-it, I'll give it a try. 

What can I say?