~Soon as my tax return posts in my account, I need to re-pot a pair of BANANA trees that are barely hanging on for the winter in what I put them in. They need better soil too.

They are about four or five foot tall just now, and between them and an orange tree - I mean to tell ya my living room is a tad bit crowded...

 

The Daffy-dills are coming up around here, and that is an old tyme tell that planting time is here!

When you see the Daffies come out of the ground, look at the tips of branches on other plants, trees, and shrubs. What you will find is that new growth is forming, as the sap rises from the roots for the next season of growth. If you let the wildlife around you provide clues - using them as your measure of the seasons changing - you will never be wrong about planting time!!!

 

I have found , over the years , not to plant untill after my old Walnut tree budds out .I have lived here since 79 . It never lies . My dad was born on this farm in 1920 . He rememberd the tree from when he was young . Heck , the power company went around the tree and put a pole beside my barn when they extended the power lines . That was about 87 . They did not want to cut it down .And we would not let them . So ... as Wolf says , watch nature .It will lead you !

 

I've got news - it seems we have a whole new ice storm to deal with - came right out of nowhere.

I have a ton of white nasty stuff outdoors right now - in places six inches deep.

Memphis seem to never have a white christmas - but we sure have our share of white springtimes lately!

And Al Gore thinks the planet is warming up - what a dipstick!


I HOPE HE CAN'T PAY HIS LIGHT BILL!!!

 

I have had Winter Aconite blooming for about a week now, and the Crocus and Bachelor Buttons started blooming this weekend. All the flowers are coming up but those are the only ones on the estate that have actually bloomed.

Going to have to bring my onions in again when I get home.....

 

Well - I can hardly plant anything in snow, so I'm tending my indoor plants for now.

On the plus side it looks like the coleus was an excellent choice. I need to gather up some more pots or something, they're really doing good.

 

My seedlings have sprouted....about a 90% success rate in total. Not too shabby.

I do have one major problem----by bean "sprouts" are now over a foot tall and need to be PLANTED with strings.....seems a tad too early for that though. All in all, not a bad conundrum to have.

 

It sounds like you might want to re-pot a few of them into 2 liter soda bottles with the tops cut off. Soda bottles with the lables peeled off are good temporary planters for things because you can SEE when the roots make it out to the sides of the container. You can also hang them up with three pieces of string threaded through equidistant holes around the top edges, and let the vines dangle down from them.

~Makes a fine display hung from a curtain rod in a front window where they can also get good light!

Put gravel or wood chips in the bottom two or three inches to form a water well in them - that helps too. If you can see the water, you know they're in good shape.

~You can't beat the price, and it doesn't matter if you have to cut them up to get the plants out later. Usually they just slide right out though.

ANOTHER trick I've tried was to cut off the BOTTOMS of soda bottles, so they would drain. I figured out that I could then stand them at the tops of one inch water pipe sections driven into the ground ( the pipes need to have a drain hole drilled a few inches under where the bottles plug in) and they would stand up out in the garden in areas where I wanted just that one or two extra couple of vines to grow

* Which also keeps them out of reach of many bugs

Check it out! The threaded tops screw or jam right into the flared ends of the water line!



They will hang down to a point - and then climb right back up their own vines!

If you hang them up indoors - you screw the caps onto the threaded part so they won't leak on the carpet.

Then when they go outside - well... Cut the strings off of the other end.





Strange - yes. Wierd maybe, check!
But it's a heck of a space saver too, you can put a line of them close together making them easy to water.

They can also be set in the ground in the middle of where other LOW growing plants are planned to be...

 

Interesting....I like it. I might try it.

I'm more inclined though to just plant the beans in the garden and cover them up if it gets too cold. Haven't decided yet.

I will say, having a wife (who must grant approval for most things) makes hanging plastic bottles full of bean plants in our living room a little less likely....

 

You do what you want to...

I just dragged home some BIG OL' planters to re-pot my BANANA trees....

(I'm not kidding)

 

Excellent. I did plant those seedlings (over a foot tall) and it looks like I'll be covering them Wednesday and Thursday nights.....I can handle a couple nights a week, I think.

My Shasta Daisies have blossomed along with the apricot and peach trees....even saw some honey bees flying around the apricot blossoms. Now that would be some sweet honey if it could be harvested....

 

Follow them! They are sure to lead you to the hive, which you should also be aware of for safeties sake. (many people are highly allergic to bee stings)

I transplanted my poor banana trees to much larger pots today. I gave them better soil than the "KEEP ALIVE" situation that I first put them in. The pots they were in didn't hold water well anyway and often leaked onto the carpet of my living room.

Now they have space to root - and much better growing media

I give it a few weeks, and then they can go out on the porch with my citrus trees.

*The Orange has a blossom forming

 

I wish I had more indoor space for citrus trees. My grandmother used to have a small lemon and a small orange tree in her house that would produce a few of each every year. The fruit wasn't the best thing about them though----they have a wonder smell and were great air deodorizers. Hope your transplants get healthy soon.

I will have to re-pot a "Mother-In-Laws Tongue" and my mama Aloe plant soon. Both have become very productive over the winter months.

 

This year my focus is on:
Poblano's
Habernero's (NO MORE funky ones - classic Habbies only!)
Better Tomatoes
Spices (I grabbed every packet of Cilantro seed the store had)
Color plants, both for the landscape and to sell.

Mac? I may be sending you some extras - I have a lot of seed packs, and Cilantro is a thing that is versatile. Used in Mexican and Thai cuisine...

I want to make sure I have plenty here first.

~ a long time ago, I had a Thai Cookbook that I bought at a NAVY Exchange. One of the recipes was;
STUFFED CHICKEN WINGS

You make a mixture of chicken broth, shrimp (or crawfish), various spices - of which cilantro figures highly, hot peppers, and et C...

The hard part is boning the chicken wings, without breaking the skin. You sort of peel them down, and snap off the very tip of the wing bone.

* I did not realise that only the middle part should be stuffed when I first tried this - so I boned the entire wing

When they are stuffed - they get huge and fat!

They can be oven cooked, or grilled

~ but the traditional way is deep fried:
"PEEK KAI YAT SOON GONG"

 

Thanks, Wolf! I am always happy to receive seeds. They WILL get used.

I believe I'm going to mow the yard today----all except the area that I planted the grass seed from Wolfie....that will stay un-mowed for awhile.

I also believe that I am also going to start doing some planting in the garden over the next two weeks. Beans are already in----I'll put the cucumbers in next, then the peppers and various spices I've started from seed, and last will be the tomato plants I will buy from Ace Hardware in the next couple of weeks. I have yet to find a good way to start tomatoes from seed---it is a skill I do not yet possess.