HOW TO TELL WHEN YOUR VEGGIE PLANT IS PRODUCING SEED!

Organically Grown Lacinato *Dinosaur* Kale

    I have had so many people ask me how can they tell when their plant is producing seed, more importantly WHEN to harvest these seeds and how to properly store said seed. Well as you can see with the picture above, this specific Lacinato (Dinosaur) Kale is in flower and has buds forming above said flowers. Those buds at the top are the seeds one should be harvesting. Each time you grow a plant in your specific climate, that plants genetics adopt to grow in your area more effectively. So, my opinion for you is to continually harvesting your own seeds and replanting them so that after a while your seeds will grow more abundantly in your region.

Organically Grown Lacinato *Dinosaur* Kale

    Now for me, I have a rule, I DO NOT harvest any seeds from a plant that has not started flowering. After continual trial and error I found that seeds harvested from a flowering plant have a higher germination rate than harvesting seeds from a plant that has yet to produce a flower. So if you are going to start harvesting and cultivating your own seeds from your plants, I encourage you to wait till at least one flower blossoms. It will increase your odds of another successful season of seeds that will truly germinate.

    I hope this helps you fine folk figure out how to find your seeds and more importantly, I hope it helps you harvest seeds that will indeed germinate at a rate higher than seventy percent. Until next time....


¤ Keep it GREEN and Keep it GROWING!

HyperSmash

USING WATER SMART IN DESERT CLIMATES

    To me having a yard with grass in a desert climate is a complete and utter waste of time. More importantly it is a complete waste of WATER. I never understood anyone in Las Vegas who decides to keep a yard with grass. You could be saving that water and much more money by just having a garden, in my opinion. Take this for instance, my neighbor puts their water on for about 9 minutes roughly 4 times a day. Where our yards meet, my side is filled with rocks and it usually is drenched with the water from their sprinkler system. I watch everyday as the gutter fills with overly used water from my whole street. It saddens me so that these people are so ignorant to the fact that they could be growing crops and actually using those crops for a purpose.

    Everyone I see with grass in Las Vegas in their yard, usually ends up only being green for about 2 months because of the vicious desert sun. Then you'll see the same people complain about wasting time and their water to feed their dead grass, yet they still continue each year with the same cycle. I believe we should break that cycle in Las Vegas and maybe REQUIRE people to have a garden of their own. Since the majority of all veggie crop and fruit crop are imported into this city.

    I whole heartily believe if the city of Las Vegas does push some requirement like that out, we'll see more healthier people out here. Let me know what you think and if you see the same problem where you live. Keep the gardening passion growing and grow something green! Until next time....

¤ Keep it GREEN and Keep it GROWING!

HyperSmash

Soil, Soil, Soil!!

    Another Spring Season has come! Which means, for us gardeners, that it is time to break into the previous Winter Season's compost dirt pile and enrich it further with some steer manure! After dumping my compost dirt pile and cleaning through the various rubbish that did not fully decompose, your compost should look like this. For me, and other avid gardeners, compost is as good as gold. Without a great compost, your crop won't be as plentiful or as mature as it could be. You do not necessarily have to use a kiddie pool like I did, you can also use a tarp or a garbage bag that has been fully opened and flattened out.

    Compost is always going to be on any organic gardeners list of things they have to continually upkeep. I cannot express how important it is to have compost on hand. You never know how your crop is going to take to your prepared soil, especially if you mix up cultivars like I do (i.e. two tomato plants but one a beefsteak and the other a roma). I usually add more compost to my plants roughly around two to three months into growth so that when I harvest the plants crop for the first run I will have a great probability of the plant to reproduce an equally or greater crop with the second run.

    It's always a fun thing to dirty your hands and get in touch with nature through gardening. Until next time folks....


¤ Keep it GREEN and Keep it GROWING!!

HyperSmash

Onions: Thinning out the Old, Spreading out the New

    Spring has sprung for Las Vegas and that means I had to go out to the garden and figure out which plants need to go and which need to still grow! I absolutely love it when spring comes around, it's such an addicting feeling. Once I started harvesting several different alliums, I just could not stop! I saw a couple of onions that did not get the chance to fully grow through the previous Winter months, so I took the liberty of freeing them from their claustrophobic growing space.

    Once I pulled the clustered onions to safety, I put them into a cup of water in order to make certain the roots will not dry out. After making sure every single onion had enough space to fully mature and grow into a nice sized crop, I worked the soil of my onion patch yet again to add some manure into it.

    I'm telling you, there is an incredible feeling when you work with your hands in a garden. I really can't put it into words other than, zen. So why not go and make a little bit of space in your backyard or front yard for your very own therapeutic slice of heaven. Until next time...

¤ Keep it GREEN and Keep it GROWING

HyperSmash

TIME TO START YOUR OUTDOOR GARDEN, INDOORS!

Organic Indoor Tomatoes and Peppers

    That is right folks! It is time to start getting everything ready for gardening outdoors! If you have been following my blog posts and various tweets I have put throughout the Winter Season, you will know I have already had some organic vegetable plants started indoors for my Outdoor Garden Spring run.

    But you guys are in luck! You still have time to start your outdoor crop, indoors. I would recommend doing this by the end of the week so your plants will be big enough and healthy enough to transplant into your outdoor garden beds or pots. I have been using only one hundred watt growing lights to propagate my seeds, which truly does the job quite well I must say.

Organic Flamingo Pink Swiss Chard

    I also use a mixture of manure, compost, plant matter and dirt to germinate my seeds so I don't have to add any rubbish to promote growth. But you can always use whatever soil medium you have on hand and just add manure or compost or both even down the road. If you start your seeds next week or the week after, don't freak out! Just wait the extra week or two and keep your plants indoors until they are healthy enough to transplant. You do not want to waste all that time just to aggravate yourself in the end.

    Well I hope you all are getting busy and warming your green thumbs up from the winter season. I wish you luck and hope all your plants are healthy and vibrant. Until next time folks....


¤ Keep it GREEN and Keep it GROWING!

HyperSmash

Organic Indoor Salad Greens: End of Week 6

Organic Indoor Eros Escarole

   What a wonderful sight! I cannot hold a smile back when I see anything growing in a garden. Salad Greens are no exception, to me certain leafy greens just grow incredibly beautifully. My Organic Eros Escarole, in the picture above, took on a whole new journey. Some of the leaves as you can see started drying up, so I gave the plant a little extra manure. After doing that, it seemed to have gotten back into the healthy growing spirit. As you can see in the middle of the plant, the new leaves that are sprouting are growing at an amazing rate. This growth seemed to have happened over a series of three nights. Which I am totally grateful for!

Organic Indoor Gourmet European Mesclun Salad Mix

   After already using the "cut and come again" technique all of my salad greens seem to reproducing quite well. These Gourmet Mesclun Greens are thriving off of just compost, manure and water. Nothing special is needed to grow a full pot of salad greens, especially since these greens are fully mature under a month. I cannot stress how easy and how rewarding growing your own greens can be. I mean I seriously stopped buying salad greens from the market all together because of my indoor organic salad greens I am growing. After a while of constantly going to the market and buying fresh salad, only to have to throw away the last portion that usually ends up getting soggy from packaging it is in.

   There is no limit to what we can grow indoors, as long as you have the right equipment that is! Thanks again for following my grow-log, it means so much for me. Leave me a comment if you have any questions or inquiries. Until next time friends....


¤ Keep it GREEN and Keep it GROWING

HyperSmash