a plumeria of my very own

paintcan pinhole camera, paper negative, 66 second exposure, developed in homemade "Caffenol C", colorized in Photoshop

While in Hawaii some 25-ish years ago, I fell in love with the plumerias there. Their simple elegance and lovely tropical scent has haunted me ever since, especially because I hadn't seen a plumeria blossom in-the-flesh since the '80s....

But all that changed about a month ago, when the kids and I, ducking out of the rain in the Lowe's garden center, landed ourselves right in front of a display of little plumeria trees! They were all blooming! Be still my beating heart! Naturally, this tree came home with us. It turns out that one *can* grow tropical plumerias in the desert, given some special modifications!

I made this image the other day with the homemade paint can pinhole camera, and colorized it in Photoshop.

Image made July 27, 2012

The Pumpkin Diaries Day 14: We have pumpkin-age!

Happy Birthday, pumpkin plant!

4 pumpkin plants have come up!  So now 25 % have germinated.  I thought of buying more seeds, and putting them in the ground for better plant survival-odds, and then thought of how much room just 4 pumpkin plants can take up!  I'll think on that a bit more, and in the meantime, allow the protective plants (the icicle radish and nasturtium) grow bigger, so they can do their jobs.

Above is another pumpkin, in the center of a ring of icicle radishes

 

and the nasturtiums are now looking like this- tiny leaves that resemble their adult-shape.

I have several times dug up the seed that had the grubs around it to check for more, and I haven't seen any more .  I think I might have disturbed that seed too much though- it may not come up at all.

Pumpkin Hills on May 2nd...so radishy!  (-:

The Pumpkin Diaries: Day 9: A foreboding grub???

I'd rather start this post with the picture above, of one of the new nasturtiums coming out of the ground today.  There are several coming up right where they were planted!

Now I'll move on to another picture from today...

 

I found this little guy, and about 15 of it's mates, wiggling in the dirt around a pumpkin seed today.  It really is tiny- about 1/2 cm long, and about 1 mm wide.   This picture was taken of a "grublet" under our microscope at 30X.

I had grown impatient for a sign of germination from the pumpkin seeds, and decided to gently unearth one to see if it had started.  That's when I found these little grublets. 

Just for the full effect of my disgust, here is a video of the grub under the microscope today:

Under the microscope, they look like mini squash borer grubs that I cut out of the stems of my pumpkin plants last year.  Yikes!  A grub looks like any grub, however, and perhaps they aren't squash borers.  I don't want to take chances though- out they went!!

It compelled me to unearth the other seeds to see if I could find any more.  I didn't find any.  Some of the pumpkin seeds are indeed germinating, though, and I gently covered them back up again.

Could pumpkin seeds somehow harbor borer eggs, that come to life and hatch with the planting of the seed? 

The pumpkin Diaries, 2012: day 8: a circle of sprouts

The icicle radishes are sprouting in circles around the pumpkin seeds on all of the hills.  They came up very quickly!  The package stated that they germinate in 4-7 days, and they are right on schedule!

I hope to see some pumpkin sprouts right in the middle of these radish circles soon! 

I think all the sprouts of the previous post were icicle radish.  (now that the leaves have developed further) I haven't seen any nasturtiums yet......

Go, Pumpkin Hills!

The Pumpkin Diaries 2012, day 4: Sprouts!

We're getting some germination already!  Here is an icicle radish sprout, with the telltale seed pod still atop...

and another icicle radish........

Here come the nasturtiums, too!  Woo hoo!


No pumpkins have sprouted their heads, yet.  They take awhile longer to germinate...the package says up to ten days.

 

Pumpkin Hillcam, from the hanging petunia's perspective.

I planted a few marigolds the other day, for good measure.  Many bugs don't like to be near these, as well.

Grow pumpkin patch system, grow!

The Pumpkin Diaries, 2012, day 1

a pumpkin in Cavemomma's garden from a past successful year

(in my best caveman voice)
Cavemomma **love** pumpkins!

I really do!  (-:  I love pumpkin pie, I love making jack-o-lanterns at Halloween, and I love making pumpkin pinhole cameras.  I love growing pumpkins, with all the anticipation, and little science lessons we have gleaned over the years.  (pollinating pumpkins is the most fun!)  I love stepping around the vines, and I love watching those vines climb into the trees, where pumpkins grow all summer long.

But, for the past 3 years in a row, our young pumpkin plants have fallen prey to squash borers, nipping our pumpkin fun in the bud, usually before the summer ever really gets started!

This year, I want it to be different.

This year, squash borer warfare is on!!!!!!!

I found a great post over at Little House In The Suburbs recently, about the squash borers war going on over there:

Source: littlehouseinthesuburbs.com via Cavemomma on Pinterest

It's a funny, inspiring read!  Go get fired up, like I did!

Anyway, one of the responders in the comments had a tactical plan all worked out, using companion-planting and bug-repulsion-planting techniques!  I'm game, so I have adopted it as my plan for raising pumpkins among the squash borers.

Here's how it works:

 

Here are the players of the Cavemomma pumpkin game.  I chose white Casper pumpkins this year, because I can get them in the ground earlier, and perhaps have bigger, stronger plants around the time the bugs come out.

These are companion-planted with icicle radish, to make the pumpkins as strong and healthy as possible.

Then, a defense zone of nasturtiums (well-known for repelling bugs, including borers) is planted around each pumpkin hill, and around the pumpkin patch perimeter.

There is one more ally not picture above: tobacco ash, planted in the hole with the pumpkin seeds.  Tobacco repels bugs of all sorts, and the idea is that the nicotine is taken up by the pumpkin plant as it grows, keeping the borers from wanting to lay eggs, and the larva from wanting to bore into the stem.   

I went online, and checked with my local Friendly ACE Hardware expert,  and both sources don't recall organic (or not!) tobacco ash, produced for the garden.  So I went to my neighbor for help, and she saved a few days'-worth of used smokes to lend to my cause.  She brought over a beautiful (if you can call it that!) clean pile of tobacco ash for me.  Thanks so much, B!  (-:

Here's a little schematic of how I planted the pumpkin seeds, and their friends:

Here is the planting plan:

I made 4 2-ft long, 1-ft high soil hills, and planted 4 pumpkin seeds each hill.  I put in about 1 tsp tobacco ash in with each pumpkin seed.

Next, icicle radish seeds were planted within 2 inches of the pumpkin seed.  (these radishes are left in the ground, allowed to go to seed after growth)

Finally, nasturtium seeds were planted around each hill of seeds, and around the perimeter of the pumpkin patch.   Nasturtiums have edible flowers and leaves, which have a watercress taste.  I am looking forward to putting some blooms in our salads this summer!

Can you imagine a radishy, flowery pumpkin patch?  I sure can!  I hope it works out!

Here's a picture, from day 1: pumpkin patchcam:

Pumpkin Hills Forever!!!!

Stay tuned!  If you try this plan yourself, please let me know how you are getting on!

Growing fast, college classes, gymnastic meets, and nose to the grindstone

Boy howdy, did we ever hit the 2012 pavement running! Not that we weren't dragging ourselves to the finish line of 2011- we've been ragged for awhile. We are all full on activities. No more new stuff for awhile!

Son turned 16 right after New Years. He towers over me now, and is within an inch of Dad's height. I'm still the boss of him, though. (-:   As excited as I am to see he and his sister grow up, I feel the aches of empty nesting on the horizon. It will still be years before it happens, but I feel it just the same. Son got his driving permit a few weeks ago, and we are off parking and three-point-turning in the empty parking lots. On top of that, he started his first course at our local community college a few weeks ago, too. It's a video production class, 3 credit hours, twice a week. He is interested in media production as a career, so I hope this gives him a little taste of the possibilities.   Son also continues to work as a gymnastics coach at our gym, which rounds out his activities. 

Daughter competed in her very first USAG gymnastics meet last weekend, up in two-big-cities-to-the-north. She has wanted to be on the team and compete for quite a long time now, and we are thrilled for her! She did well, and we all had a good time at this fancy, very large meet. We also got to watch an exhibition of the really good gymnasts the night before Daughter's session, and were wowed! (it was the highest-scoring level 7-10 optional teams of the meet, for those who know what I'm talking about)  It was a fun, humorous event, to boot, and saw some very amazing gymnastics.  My parents and aunt came out to watch Daughter compete, so that made it special, too.

If you want to see Daughter's floor routine from the meet, you can find it here.

Being brand-new to the meet experience, and not quite sure as to what we might expect,  I am happy to report that it was very good- the atmosphere was relaxed and low key, even for such a big meet.  The gymnasts relaxed with their coaches between events, and teamates openly supported each other.  In the years working up to this experience,  one thing I had wondered about is if the negative behavior that can be found in other youth sports would be found at our meets.  I am glad to say there was none of it, in my experience, that day.  I'm sure it happens, but am glad we didn't see it.  The parents, coaches, gymnasts, and spectators all acted admirably, from what I saw.     Two Olympic gymnasts were on hand to talk to and write autographs, as well as give out awards at the end.  (one of these gymnasts was actually the meet director)  Every gymnast got an all-around medal, and a custom leotard.

As fun as it was, it was a lot of activity for me and my introverted family.  After 4 hours of all the people and happenings and noise, we were ready for a battery recharge.   Lots of carbs and chocolate sounded good to us- Olive Garden was the last stop before hitting the interstate for home.  (-:

Daughter's next meet is this coming weekend, one One-City-to-the-north.  We're getting geared up for another meet week!

In other news, we got the winter/spring garden started this weekend.  I don't always have a garden in the spring, but we opted out of our summer garden last year, because of the drought conditions.  We had pulled all the garden beds out back then, and tilled the dirt to be exposed to the elements and "rest".

We have two new beds rebuilt now, and have put in the peas, bok choy, and roquette/arugula.  Next month, we can put in spinach, soy beans (edamame) and green onions.  I March, we'll put in carrots, parsnips, and try some casper pumpkins.  My regular pumpkins have not made it the past few seasons, getting infected with borer beetle larvae.  They made for good science experiments, but not for pumpkins!  This casper variety is a white-skinned squash, and it can be planted earlier than regular pumpkins.  I hope to avoid the beetle problem with the different variety and planting time.  If they work, and we want orange jack-o-lanterns this year (or any other color!) perhaps we can spray paint a few.  (-:


Happy Asian New Year!  It begins tomorrow, and it is the beginning of the Year Of The Dragon.  Husband and Daughter are both dragons, so they are very excited.  We are making spring rolls tonight, and hope to make other Asian dishes as the week progresses, as we fit dinner into our hectic schedule.  Off to shred the napa cabbage for the spring rolls.....