#huerto urbano
02/Jun/2017
This pretty lilium bloomed today, its color is so deep that seems black to the eye (last picture), I had to use the HDR to show it’s true color.
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19/Jan/2017
The amaryllis opened the 5th flower! Sadly the other ones are beginning to wrinkle, but it still looks super pretty. Most of the autumnal bulbs I planted around the 1st of November sprouted already and are doing fine, I changed their place in the greenhouse so they get more sunlight.
Today there was a sale of small flowers and bulbs in a nearby market, I bought african violets, pink chrisanthemums (I gave one to mum for her office), a pink kalanchoe, blue and pink hyacints and narcissus.
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07/Jan/2017
4 out of 5 flowers of the amaryllis are open already, it’s so beautiful! In just 3 months it changed from looking like a small onion to this cutie, plants are awesome!
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20/Aug/2016
Can you help me identify the plant on the 1st row? Grandpa’s sister gave it to me, she said that her granddaughter brought some seeds from Italy, but not speaking much Italian, she only understood that were edible or used in cooking somehow.
I returned home yesterday, and most of my plants were dry, despite having the jellyfied water the high temperatures of the city were too much for them. I feel pity for them.
I’m glad that I took the adenium and the lemon/mandarin tree with me, I really like them and it would be so sad to lose them too. But while I was away, I got some new plants from friends.
Grandpa’s sister introduced me to a herbalist that lives near her place, he has a nice garden with lots of trees, herbs and vegetables, and told me about some remedies that he use to prepare for a friend who has a shop. He gave me lemon balm both fresh for drying and potted to keep at home, lavenderandthyme. He had many kinds of these plants, so I’m not sure which variety I have at home.
Dad bought me a ficus bonsai, I found it very cute, small and chubby. The garden was full of seeds, I picked seeds from lunaria,poppy andlinden. Looking around the peony I found a bulb, I wish it’s from the peony since it had impressive flowers in Spring and I’d like to have a plant like it. But grandpa had also narcissus and tulips, so it could be one of those. I found it on the soil, it wasn’t dug at all, I was lucky!
There were four kinds of succulents so I picked some of their leaves to reproduce them. I also picked some cuttings of the linden and apple tree, the peony and a rose bush, if they develope some roots as the coleus did, next time I’ll pick more from the other fruit trees he has, pear, fig, red apples, plum and cherry trees.
I have some flower seeds to plant in early September, I’m eager to have some sprouts growing again.
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01/Aug/2016
I was very worried about what to do with my plants on vacations, but this seems like a good solution. It’s jellified water, you just have to water your plant generously, and then dig the jelly in the soil. It says it waters the plant for 30 days, I hope it takes good care of them for me. I bought 20 of these… when did I get so many plants?? It costs around 2,5€ each, and has 400ml.
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26/Jul/2016
I germinated a cherry and a chinese pine seed in less than a month! I just have a picture of them and it’s super bad, but here it is (cherry seed on the left, chinese pine seed on the right -it is slightly open but can’t be appreciated here-)
- For the cherry tree, I cracked carefully the shell with a hammer (if you are going to try it, put the seed inside a paper towel so it doesn’t fly out when you hit it). I read that if you don’t open the shell it takes about 8 months to get it ready, I left some unopened too just in case. Both kinds were stored in a tupperware in wet toilet paper wrapped in transparent cooking film. After a month, the ones with the shell all have black dots, I think it’s a fungus. Some of the ones without shell got too soft, but most are ok. The one that germinated seems to have done so a while ago since it’s like 1,5 cm long from the base. I put it into soil today.
- For the pine tree, I used the toilet paper method too, instead of using the substrate like on the 1st post. I have put it into a bigger pot this time so I don’t have to transplant it too soon.
Mom brought a cutting of coleusandChrist thorn from her work. After a week in water the coleus developed some roots so I planted it yesterday, I’ll take pics of them next time. Also, despite the bugs, the dahlias’ buds are still growing, I can’t wait to see their flowers.
20/Jun/2016
The nasturtiums have grown a lot, there are some white spots on some leaves, I have to check if it’s a disease. Speaking of which, the aphids are totally gone thanks to the hand soap method! The rose has started opening two rosebuds, and there are two new closed buds, I’m so happy, it’s as if it’s saying “Thanks for taking care! I’m healty again, look at these flowers!”
Some days ago I planted some tagetes andstatice, I found seeds in a shop and even though it said they had to be planted a couple months ago, I tried and just two days after that there were some seedlings growing! Tagetes is the national flower of México, a friend that lives there gave me the idea.
There are some pics of the sweet willams (the tiny ones are the seeds that I sprinkled the day I put the bigger ones in that pot) and poppies, and the last one are the dahlias on their new pot. I divided them in two pots, I’m thinking about giving the small ones to someone since I don’t have that much space! About transplantation, the yellow callas that grew together in that single pot were in reality growing from just one tubercle, so I just put it in their original spot, there were 10 stems growing together, in the other callas I transplanted the biggest one had just 3…
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11/Jun/2016
The clematis opened it’s first flower two days ago, isn’t it pretty?
The bulbs that looked like the callas started opening their leaves, but as you can see they aren’t from the same variety, these leaves have white dots. I don’t remember mom having any other calla besides the white one… Searching on Google I have found these leaves on colored callas.
The rose and hydrangea have been affected by aphids, @rooted-and-reaching suggested spraying soapy water and it looks like it’s working! Since the ones in the rose were less and bigger (green ones) I could take them off manually before spraying, but in the hydrangea was impossible since they were so small and so many (tiny white ones). None of the other plants have symptoms of infection, today there were just a few on the hydrangea, I hope they are gone soon. On Monday I’ll buy some pesticide just in case, but the soapy water is working fine. Thanks for the tip!
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07/Jun/2016
I bought a campanula and a chrysanthemum on my way home, they had some beautiful flowers, I wanted to buy more!
Here are some pics of the adenium, nasturtium and the lemon/mandarin which I’m calling “mandalimon” until I know what is it. I added a picture of the biggest leaf (my phone can’t take macro pictures) I hope you can help me identify it. It‘s rugous and the edge is serrated, so I’m inclined to think it’s a lemon tree based on some pictures I have seen…
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31/May/2016
Just 5 days after being planted the sunflowers have sprouted! On the pic, 3 from white seeds still with the seed as hat, but another 3 from black seeds have sprouted. A coupled of days after that I planted another from striped seeds so a friend and me can grow them at the same time. They look cute!
The adenium is getting fattier and developed new leaves, I also find it cute. I’m telling my parents all day “look at my babies, how cute and how much they have grown!” hahaha. The lemon/mandarin’s leaves are growing too, I hope I can tell soon which kind of tree is it by looking at them. I have looked at some forums but I’m still not sure.
Nasturtiums grew some leaves in just two days, pansies are taking their time, tomorrow I will move them a bit so they can get more sunlight.
Both batches of snapdragons are doing well, mom keeps saying that the big ones look like tomato plants to her, but in fact my tomato plants are tinier than the small ones!
The last 3 pics are from the balcony on this sunny afternoon. The callas are opening their leaves, and the dahlias are now 6cm tall. It makes me happy looking at all of them everyday, I wish I could show them to grandpa, he would like to talk about it and giving me tips. I want to take some of the flowers that hopely will bloom to the cemetery next time, grandma loved flowers so he always had the garden full of them for her.
Have I shown you this one? They started to grow on it’s own, the only bulbous plant they have near is mom’s calla, but they don’t look like the sprouts I transplanted the other day, I wonder what are they? The tips are open to the sides, not together like the callas were, and are growing way slowlier. I want to know what they are!
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