urban vegetable patch

LED grow light in action

Winter is a time of nothing-ness; there is nothing much to do in the garden. Most of my plants goes into domaincy and there is only so much cleaning and organising I can do in the shed, which is a good thing; This leaves me time to perfect my other gardening techniques, propagation.

I have always wanted to buy a grow light; My window sill just doesn’t cut it. It either gets really sunny and hot or cold and nothing. My seedings usually grows to be quite leggy and is ever slightly slanted towards the sun. Xavier says I am obsed with perfection which I am not denying, but who’s not?

After 2 days of googling, I bought this LED light off eBay. As you can see from the photo, it emits purple light. Apparently this aids growth and flowering (something to do with the light spectrum, frankly too scientific for me). The result so far is more than good. My herbs are growing really well, lush and bushy. Like wise cannot be said for the tomato seedlings. I think it’s just too cold in the garage, nothing to do with light exposure. Infect I think I have found the next thing to buy, a heat mat! Ahh.., woman and shopping.

UPDATE: Really happy with the results but likewise could not be said for the product itself. Very poorly made; Had barely used it and have to start duct taping the wire. Not happy. Maybe is just this model that I bought, just maybe….

Lovely seeds from our friends at "Voted with our forks"

Since my post on ha-ogen melon, I have been contacted by a couple of readers about seed swapping. I am really pumped up about it; I get to swap some of my extra seeds for something new and exciting, like a mystery box! I thought I will continue this effort with this post, and maybe even start a trend. So after sorting through my box of seeds, these are the seeds available for exchange:

• Ha-ogen melon
• Butternut Pumpkin
• Jalapeno
• Edamame (soya bean)
• Tigerella Tomato
• Sweet corn (Honey & cream)
• Sunflower yellow pollenless
• Chinese forget-me-not (blue)

If you are reading this and would like to be part of the action, please leave me a comment and I will get back to you. If you have got no seeds to swap but would still like to join in the fun, do also leave me a comment. Let’s get some seed swapping action happening people!

Round Baby carrot

This particular carrot was plucked prematurely off the ground. I was just curious on what’s happening underneath the soil. It looks so cute! I split it half and shared it with Xavier. Definitely more from where it came from. Bliss!

2 weeks old garlic in foam boxes

It’s Autumn and that means it’s time to pop those garlic into the ground! Well this is my first time growing them so I don’t really know what to expect. I have read that they one of the easiest things to grow, just sow and forget. Instead of popping them into my main patch, I’ve decided to fill up a medium sized foam box with my special potting mix. (Well, as always, I have a little ‘traffic congestion’ on the main patch. So sorry garlic, you will have to settle with a form box). In goes 6 cloves (pointy bit facing up) and after 2 weeks, green shoots!

Apparently, all I need to do now is to keep the water up and feed them occasionally. Hopefully by the end of the year, I will have nice fat bulbs!  Will keep all posted. Go garlic!

Lemon Meyer Tree after 3 months

Not sure if I have mentioned about about my dear lemon meyer tree before, but it has been doing so well that I think its worth a mention. Well, about two years ago when we first moved into our current house, we decided to replace a dead tree on our front lawn with a lemon tree. Sounds like a fantastic idea at first but I failed to investigate why the first tree died in the first place. One thing lead to another, after 2 years, the poor lemon tree is on the verge of dying. It has shed most of its leaves and was looking really distressed.

I was determine not to let the poor fellow go without a fighting chance. I went to our local Bunnings to buy half a wine barrel and filled it up with 50% potting mix, 50% manure/compost and 2 handfuls of water crystals. I am now please to announce, after 3 months of transplant, new shoots, leaves and even flowers are growing & blooming as it should be! There are even tiny lemons growing! I remember reading somewhere that you don’t get much lemon (or sometimes small, low quality lemons) from a lemon tree for the first 3 years as this is the time they matures and develop their root systems. Any how, I am contented that it’s well and alive – anything more is a bonus!

Look at those flower buds!

I though it is about time to write post on our faourite seed sellers! After showing off all our lush, scrumptious looking vegetables it’s only fair to tell our dear readers where we source our seeds from. These seed sellers offer online purchasing and you can pay via credit card or cheque.

• Diggers
• Eden seeds
• Green Harvest

We are in the process of collecting more seed or seedling growers and we need your help! If you are or knows someone who sells seeds and seedlings (via online or Mail order preferable), contact us today!

If you can have only 1 gardening book, this has to be it! This book has been my bible and nightly read for the past 3 months. I like how it’s full of in depth information on almost anything to do with gardening. This book not only tells you about something (say training a grape vine) but it actually shows you with accompanying illustration and really, a picture is worth a thousand words. Although it’s a wee bit expensive but I can asure you its worth every bit of it. And also the fact that it’s from Royal Horticulture Society and DK, we know it cannot go wrong too badly.

RHS Encyclopedia of Gardening

Earwick, also known as Forficula auricularia is a real PEST! I know, I know (*sigh*) there are countless counter argument about how beneficial they are but to me, there are a real pain in the neck. Not to mention they rape my wong bok!

The problem with earwick is that they will destroy your vegetable (especially the leafy ones) in no time. It starts off with bits of holes on the leaves and before you know it, “Houston, we have a problem“.  And the markings (holes) left on the leaves makes it really hard to tell if the damage is caused by caterpillar, slugs or earwick. Frustrating!

The earwicks pulverise my Wong Bok by drilling its way through to the heart of the vegetable and then start eating its way out! Not to mention it invited more friends to party in this earwick’s haven. You can only imagine my horror when I found the mini colony inhabiting within my vegetable. Firstly disgusted then anger! I am going to kill these little bustards!

Found quite a fair bit of post on trapping earwicks in an organic way. Personally I am filling takeaway containers with fish oil or linseed oil and use it as a trap. Result is not quite what I expected; Caught some wondering ones but nothing worth celebrating. If you are like me, plague by earwicks, have a read on these links I found. I would love to hear from anyone who has any solutions that might help.

Generic info about Earwick
Fish oil trap