Garden Science

Gardening meets science meets adventure in this supercharged blog featuring plants and plant experiments.

[gardenscience]

My succulent propagation station got a major upgrade recently! If you’ll recall, my old system was basically just a plate with dirt in it and this was all around pretty lacking. With the new system, each leaf/pup gets its own little home and it’s a lot easier to manage the watering!

I continue to be ridiculously busy, but there’s a lot more exciting succulent news in the works. Stay tuned!

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Valentine’s Day life hack!

Hello fellow Garden Scientists! I had to bring some greenery and an odd rose home tonight and discovered a pretty fool-proof method of transport. To DIY your own budget, car-proof vase:

Get fast food cup, with lid

Fill just over half way with water

Put lid on

Poke flowers/greenery through the straw hole one at a time

Bonus: Wrap some construction paper or wrapping paper around the cup to brighten things up and make a temporary vase!

Enjoy!

[gardenscience]

Arizona trip

I just returned from a trip to the great state of Arizona, which is an incredible place to do some plant-watching. One of my all-time favorite plants is the mighty Saguaro (a classic hallmark of cartoon depictions of the American southwest) and we spent part of a day deep in Saguaro country. These fascinating cacti have a certain grandiose mystique about them that I never fully understood until I saw them in person. 

I’m not very good at capturing memories (or grandiose mystique) while I’m on the road, so here’s the only picture I took of Saguaros while in Arizona. I was on the freeway at the time. Don’t worry, I’m not driving:

See them?  No?  How about an extreme closeup of the same picture:

Aha, there they are! I promise I’ll do better with the photos next time. It sort of looks like they’re waving at the cars that drive by. 

The place I stayed in Arizona had a bunch of domesticated succulents in pots in the yard. In keeping with my own photographic traditions, I did a terrible job of remembering to take pictures of the actual plants. Here are some fallen leaves/stems that I rescued from the ground:

You can tell they came from the ground because most are already looking a little worse for the wear. Here are the same leaves and stems in my propagation area at home with my other specimens:

I am excited to watch the progress of these leaves! The nodes of the little prickly pear leaf are full of invisible but very uncomfortable spines, which I had to repeatedly learn the hard way. Some light research informs me that I should be able to propagate a prickly pear leaf like normal succulent leaves.

Succulents are admittedly something I’m interested in but still have a lot to learn about. Is anybody able to ID any of the leaves in the above photo?

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5+ years of Cact-Ikea! 

In September 2012, I went to IKEA and bought a little barrel cactus. After many years of looking sad on a dim shelf, this determined succulent has been enjoying its residency on a window sill since April. 

We’ve added a new friend, too!  All the way to the right is Cact-Ikea Jr. As you may have guessed, It is difficult for me to go to IKEA and leave without a cactus.

Pro-tip for fellow rescuers and garden scientists: Be sure to check out the discount area of IKEA for cheap plants that are down on their luck.

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Succulent Sanctuary

Hey friends! Remember me? Garden Science, here, checking back in after another long absence. I continue to be very busy, but I’ve returned today for a limited time only to tell you all about some quasi-successes I’ve had in the realm of succulent growing.

It seems the rest of the world is finally catching up to what we in the houseplant and tumblr gardening community have always known; succulents are awesome and deserve to be everywhere. In true Garden Science fashion, some of my favorite succulents are rescues. Garden Science’s succulent collection can be organized into the following categories:

Succulents from events

Christmas cacti from the ancient past

Sad, pitiful succulents bought and rescued from big box retail stores

Sad, pitiful succulent leaves rescued from the floor (various locations)

Happy IKEA discount cacti

My success with the 4th category listed above was pretty pitiful until I got some great advice from a family member: The first and seemingly most important step to starting a new succulent from a leaf or stem is to let the succulent pieces become dry and callous on their ends. This seems counter-intuitive sometimes, as a withered succulent leaf may look like it’s begging for water. Resist! Let the little dude heal first before administering nourishment. The above photo shows some leaves on my window sill just hanging out and getting dry.

Eventually, after drying, the succulent pieces should start to sprout roots and eventually teeny tiny succulent leaves will grow. At this point, they can be transferred to the surface of some soil. This dish is my extremely low-budget (but seemingly effective) and you can see several succulent pieces growing here and doing their thing.

Here are a couple of successful transplants from the shallow dish. The succulent on the left was a tiny stem that had fallen off of a plant, and it has now grown deep roots and is sporting some tiny new growth. The succulent on the right was grown entirely from a dried out leaf! They’re both so happy!

As with my plants, nearly all of my planters are rescues from thrift stores and garage/estate sales. 

The terracotta donkey is dutifully hauling two succulents that were once wedding place-markers. The donkey is one of my favorite things... I bought it an an estate sale for $2 and it’s an adorable handmade item I’ve never seen a duplicate of.

The kalanchoe luciae “flapjack” succulent is one that I bought on the cheap from somewhere... I think Home Depot. It isn’t particularly happy with me for some reason. I recently moved it closer to the window and I’m hoping that will cheer it up. 

I look forward to continuing my adventures in succulent cultivation through the spring and beyond!

[gardenscience]

As promised, here’s a series of photos depicting the blooming of my lemon tree’s lone flower. All in all, it was over a week from bud to bloom. The petals were thick and waxy, and it had one of the most incredible scents to ever inhabit my nose cave.

An actual lemon never took form, but still... so exciting!!

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There has been an important development.

The largest lemon tree has produced a flower. THE LEMON TREE HAS PRODUCED A FLOWER. In case you were wondering, yes - my greatest dreams have indeed come true and this proves that life is a fairy tale.

It took nearly one week of nervously staring at the tree (nearly nonstop) for the flower to progress from bud to bloom, but it happened. I can now confirm that lemon flowers are some of the sweetest, most irresistible things I have ever smelled. As shown in the above photo, the flower bud was ~1.5cm before bursting open.

So far, the tree has only produced one flower and that flower did not produce a fruit. Scientifically speaking, this is an interesting development because it proves that some varieties of store-bought lemon [seeds] can indeed produce a flowering tree after about 5 years. It remains to be seen whether or not the tree will be fruit-bearing. According to my understanding via various articles I’ve read through the years, it is quite possible that the tree will flower for some time before it will produce fruit. It is also possible that it may never be fruit-bearing.

Un-scientifically, I’d like to think this little flower was a “thank you” for the pruning efforts the tree underwent recently. It has happily grown tens and tens of bright green leaves as well.

Time lapse photos to follow!

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Lemon Tree Haircuts

The lemon trees are approaching their 5th birthdays!  (WOW!) To celebrate, I decided to undertake a project that was much overdue: Haircuts.

Okay, leafcuts. Pruning. Whatever you want to call it, I’m a little embarrassed to admit that my lemon trees have never enjoyed the luxury of diligent landscaping. Part of this stems (pun mostly intended) from my own quasi-scientific curiosity in watching them grow. I wanted to see how tall they would get unimpeded. Impressively, they got so tall that it was no longer reasonable to keep them indoors. This was a problem, because outdoor growing isn’t an all-year option in this part of the world. In addition to preventing the trees from getting too large, I wanted to cut them vertically to encourage branching at the lower levels. Also, they were just looking kind of scrubby and I wanted to fix that. 

The relaxing “lemon tree spa day” started at my parents’ house. My parents have been kind enough to lemon-sit the trees during my recent move. The trees recently endured a windstorm and tipped over, so they were completely askew in their pots.

The above picture shows the upper spire of the tallest plant. It was well over 6 feet tall prior to being cut.

I’ll admit I don’t know a ton about cutting trees and shrubs, so I combined 3 indispensable-but-definitely-not-equal things to inform my pruning:

My dad’s expert advice

The internet’s dubious advice

My own questionable common sense

I cut all parts of the tree on which I did not want to encourage further growth, pruning right up to forks in the branches when possible. I chopped the entire growing top of both lemon trees, which was a tad scary. 

Above you can see the material taken from both trees. The largest tree still had a string tied around it from my efforts to straighten it out last summer.

When the haircuts were done, my mom (the esteemed @tango-mango) and I scrubbed every leaf of both trees with a gentle soap/water solution using a toothbrush. This is a recommended treatment for the pest called “scale”, which has perpetually plagued my poor lemons. Once that rather nasty endeavor was complete, we rinsed the leaves with water from a spray bottle and wiped away the remaining bugs. I imagine I’ll have to do a follow up treatment later, but we really gave them what for!

The spa treatment capped off with some straightening and pot maintenance. I have to say, the results of this entire endeavor are stunning. It turns out there were two beautiful, dainty trees hiding under all those bulky branches!

The lemon trees are now ready to move back to the apartment for the summer looking their absolute best. Mission success!

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I promised “brevity and levity” in a follow up post, so here we go! For those who didn’t read the massive wall of text in the last post, I moved into a new apartment recently and the balcony situation is promising. I actually get some sun here! Scientific fact: Plants need sun to survive. Other scientific fact: Covered, north-facing balconies in the Pacific Northwest (such as the one at my previous apartment) do not receive much sun. AT ALL.

The first order of business after getting truly moved in was to find some cool balcony swag and plant some things. I’ve got several plants growing on the balcony at the moment, but the star attractions are a dwarf rose bush and a couple of tomato plants. They’ll each get their own follow-up post, so I won’t elaborate on them too much now. They’re both new, though, and I’ll be interested to see how both plants do in pots.

I also have a painted chameleon that matches my tile table. This is not gardening related, but it is swag related. LEGIT. 

Stay tuned!

[gardenscience]

The human of Garden Science

After a 10 month hiatus, I finally emerge from the shadows to bring you more Garden, and more Science. A few astute readers may remember that my last post was somewhat of Half Life 2 ep. 2 ending (which is to say, a cliffhanger) of rather superb proportions. For those who do not remember, I basically announced that I was doing another Instant Garden and then -*POOF*- disappeared. A lot of things have happened since then, and this feels like a good moment for reflection. This also seems like a good opportunity to let my dear readers know just a tiny bit more about me, since this may help to explain why the blog has been on-again/off-again for such a long time now.

A boring wall of text awaits. For those who are not interested in boring walls of text, you are unfortunately missing out on some semi-heartfelt sentiments and mildly clever musings. Worry not, however, for I will follow up with some more brevity and levity in an upcoming post. For those who do enjoy boring walls of text, read on!

I tend not to talk about myself much on Garden Science. This is by design. The focus of Garden Science over the years has been (and will continue to be) the plants, and this is not going to change. I believe that in order to be your “Garden Variety Show”, it doesn’t really matter who I am or where I’m from. I’m just a narrator. The way I see it, I’m basically just a disembodied voice who exists to tell a story. 

That said, my circumstances have shaped Garden Science just as they’ve shaped me. Every time the content stops flowing, it’s generally because something has happened to the narrator.

When I started the blog, I was a recent college graduate holding a part-time job. I was living with my parents to make ends meet, but it wasn’t a sad time. It was actually an excellent time for Garden Science, because I had ample hours to write and a great little plot of Earth to plant things in. This was an era of many great experiments. It’s where the lemon trees and the original Instant Garden got their start. I was by no means a gardener... I just had a green thumb, a little bit of time, and a lot of curiosity. 

I don’t remember exactly when, but at some point I was picked up by the Tumblr Spotlight. You, my dear followers, arrived in droves after that. I was thrilled that so many people were interested in what I was doing, and that inspired me to fill the blog with all manner of fun plant things.

A few years after starting Garden Science, I found myself at the beginning of my real-life career with many opportunities ahead of me. These were busy times. I managed to save a bit for a rainy day, and I was even able to move into my own apartment again! There were lots of wonderful life/adulting milestones going on. People were getting married, job things were happening, I wrote and illustrated a book, and I was taking martial arts classes. I spent most of my 20s without a car, and it’s amazing just how much time a person with no car (and lots of hobbies) spends walking or commuting. 

The apartment that I moved into after living with my parents had a covered, north-facing balcony. The plants on that balcony received basically zero light, and at times I felt like I might as well be trying to grow things on the moon. Still, I didn’t give up! The lemon trees continued their upward journey, and I planted everything from beans to sunflowers... typically with less than stellar results.

Over time, I found it difficult to maintain a blog when it seemed like time and my own growing environment were stacked against me. A lot of my plants weren’t surviving on the patio very well (or at all), and it was discouraging to write about failures. I know failures are part of science, but I became attached to my plants and it was hard to watch them falter. It was even harder to write about.

Last year, I tried to do a bit of remote gardening. As it turns out, remote gardening doesn’t work very well. You probably noticed this, since this is what ultimately lead to my 10-month cliffhanger absence. I learned a valuable lesson! Gardening, at least to me, is very much about being present. It’s about walking out the door and into the green space, even if that green space is a tiny balcony or a side yard. It’s about the smell of water on stone. It’s about the feeling of soil warmed by the earth, and about finding the joy of life in tiny green things. I felt less connected to a garden that I couldn’t be with every day, and that eventually lead to my disappearance. I was unable to keep up with the remote garden, let alone write about it regularly.

Garden Science has never left my heart. I’ve received incredible support from my friends, family, and followers over the years and I thank all of you who are here reading this today. I know I haven’t been the most dutiful content creator recently, but times are changing again and I hope to increase my presence more and more as the growing season marches on.

A few weeks ago, I achieved a new adulting milestone and moved to a new apartment flooded with natural light. There is a small deck attached to the apartment, and it is glowing with sun kisses many hours of the day. I have a rose bush, some tomato plants, and an insatiable newfound joy for painted pottery that I cannot wait to share with you all. I should also have more time to write, although I guess we’ll see how that goes. :)

Again, thank you all for your patience and understanding over the years. I hope you are all enjoying this gardening season, and I can’t wait to be part of it!

[gardenscience]

Surprise: Return of the Instant Garden

As suggested in my previous posts, Garden Science has been guarding a secret. I wish I could say I’ve been waiting patiently for exactly the right time for the big reveal, but the truth is I’ve just been really busy. In any event... the secret shall now be revealed!

Behold:  The return of the Instant Garden!! That’s right, my personal favorite Garden Science experiment is back and way, way bigger than ever. I’ll be sprinkling evolutionary photos of the garden throughout this post as I explain. The photos show my work on the garden over a few weeks’ time.

So, what’s up with the instant garden? Where did it come from?  What’s this big reveal all about?

Readers who have been with Garden Science for several years now may remember that the original instant garden was an experiment based on planting a vegetable garden entirely from found seeds and kitchen scraps. It was a tremendous success, but unfortunately I had not been able to repeat the experiment in any meaningful way since that first year because I moved into a tiny apartment with no yard.

My growing situation improved dramatically a few weeks ago, though, because my significant otter just bought a house! The house has a roof, doors, windows, and other house things. This is all fine and good, but my inner Garden Scientist™ was primarily interested in the yard... the enormous, glorious yard.

Much to my absolute delight, the previous owner of this greenery had tilled a spot for a decently-sized garden. They had apparently used it well in previous years, too, because I found it absolutely filled with a volunteer army of tomato plants and wild mystery plants that I have yet to identify. It was also full of weeds. I’m still working on that.

I moved a bunch of the starts from the grow kit experiment over to the house and spent the last few weeks weeding, planting, pruning, watering and handing out high fives to passers-by. HOORAY!

Thanks to my delay, I have a tremendous backlog of garden-related things to post. I imagine the next few days will be eventful ones in Tumblrville, so check back soon for more!

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It’s time for… name that plant!

The last couple of weeks have been bonkers busy! I got sick, the cat got sick, the apartment’s balcony got rebuilt, and… I’ve embarked on a mystery project that is taking up a lot of time and shall be revealed shortly. 

Speaking of mysteries, I need some help figuring out what this plant is. I discovered it growing in an area where vegetables had previously been growing. What is it?

[gardenscience]

UPDATE:  It looks like @camwyn is right;this is most likely Redroot Pigweed. Redroot pigweed is - by all accounts that I can find - a weed. Unfortunate! Also strange, because it is growing in a distinct row.

[gardenscience]

It’s time for... name that plant!

The last couple of weeks have been bonkers busy! I got sick, the cat got sick, the apartment’s balcony got rebuilt, and... I’ve embarked on a mystery project that is taking up a lot of time and shall be revealed shortly. 

Speaking of mysteries, I need some help figuring out what this plant is. I discovered it growing in an area where vegetables had previously been growing. What is it?

[gardenscience]

The grow kits are amazing! Here they are on day 1, day 16, and day 29 (since beginning of initial experiment). There are only a few kits that have not sprouted yet and they are:

Calvin Cucumber

Potman

Tree in a Box

Eggling

Tommy Tomato just broke ground in the last couple of days, so there’s still hope for all of them:

You can do it, grow kits! All of the Buzzy kits and Miracle Gro kits have sprouted. Special shout out to the Zucchini Miracle Gro pod, which is absolutely bonkers.

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An old friend, a new superfood

Today we’re checking in with the avocado tree. For those just joining the science already in progress, I started growing this tree four years ago as a classic pit-in-a-jar-of-water experiment.

It’s grown into quite the tree! This year it decided to stop most of its vertical growth and focus instead on branching. Due to its long reach, it is one of the few plants on my balcony that is now consistently able to grab a few hours of sun every day.

Here is a closeup of the top. The leaves here are fairly new, and I expect this area of the tree to grow a few inches within the next week or two.

Here is the end of a branch. I expect this to grow fairly rapidly as well. As evidenced by the webs in the photo, spiders are quite fond of building homes in this tree.

Here is a photo showcasing several branches, many of which have new growth.

Here’s an artsy leaf closeup.

Of all the plants I own, the avocado tree is probably the most difficult to photograph. I was unable to capture a photo that showcased its scale on the balcony, so I brought it inside where the lighting is terrible. 

Above you can see the tree looking like it is posing for a mugshot, or maybe for a drivers license photo at the DMV. Cat for scale. It is likely that my apartment is now crawling with spiders because of this photo. Hooray!

Next on Garden Science: Checking in with some more old friends and an update on this season’s grow kits.

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Grow Kits: Bonus lightning round

Grow Kits 2016 - Part 6

I was at Home Depot the other day and decided to make an impromptu addition to the original grow kit lineup when I discovered these little “Growables” kits by Miracle-Gro. 

It’s already kind of late in the year to be embarking on a mission of growing veggies from seed, so the store’s selection of these things was pretty limited. I managed to walk away with pods for cucumber, zucchini, parsley, and basil, but apparently there are loads of other kinds as well. Each one was about $1.50.

Although these kits have quite a bit in common with other brands and types of kits that I’ve looked at, they have a few distinct differences. The most obvious difference at a glance is the shape of the “pod”, which is biodegradable and intended to be planted directly into the ground, like a stake. These are also entirely pre-fab kits, meaning no manual planting or peat pellet dissolving (sadly) is involved. 

The label on each pod peels up to reveal directions and detailed information about the kit and the seed therein. At first I thought this info snippet might be generic and shared by all the pods, but it appears that the label is indeed unique for each different type of kit. 

Here is my gardening assistant, always doing her best to help out. She helped me count the kits and put them in order.

"Hey, boss? One of your kits fell over. You should probably fix that.”

Speaking of falling over, the shape of these things does make them a bit unwieldy. I imagine the design is great if planting directly into a garden, but if you’re starting indoors (as is suggested as an option in the directions) or on a balcony (in my case) you’ll need to find something to prop them up in. 

Side note: I discovered after taking the initial set of photographs for this post that egg cartons work really well.

I got this pod to magically stand up on its own. Inside, it looks like generally the same peat material that is in other kits, with possibly some additional Miracle-Gro goodies in there to help the seed along.

Here’s the whole big grow kit happy family! 

Next on Garden Science: Checking in on some old friends...

[gardenscience]

Meow! 

Sneak preview for an upcoming post. Potman makes a cameo!