Flowers in a garden - checking new camera options

After almost 6 month as I got a new camera I started to read how to use it :)

Transplanting Oca, Mashua, Ulluco and Potatoes

I am lucky - I have more garden space!
Now I can transplant some of plants.
The spot looks ugly right now, I know. Construction is progress. :)

But anyway I can get 8 small-regular size raised beds!





 


2 week ago I started some of the Andean tubers like  Oca.

2 types of Oca Hopin and Sunset, Ulluco and Mashua. 
This one is mashua, my first. Looks like nasturtium for me. It is a really a member of nasturtium family. Vines climb up to 10 feet

 The plant are doing good but I believe they need more soil.

 This is ulluco -Ullucus tuberosus - Pica de Pulga type. Beautiful yellow tubers with purple-red blotching. Diameter to 3 inches or  more.

 Oca Sunset - tubers are yellow to orange with purple eyes. Green stems and foliage.

 Oca Hopin - is more purple, the stems and leaves.

 This is a final variant of oca sunset, mashua in front and eggplant on the back.

 Ulluco after the first watering!

 Oca

 Mashua

 Oca

Never believe you can grow potatoes in containers!

Or you have the get really LARGE containers, I mean it!

 At first I tried to grow some of  them in pots, 10 inches diameter. I planted my store- bought, accidentally sprouted potatoes in pots.



2 weeks after  - and the roots are covered all the pot space!

I am lucky I got more garden beds to plant them in.

It will be my first time growing potatoes, but I have seen the process the whole my childhood in my grandparents village gardens. The lots there were HUGE and the harvest! 50 sacks easily.
I hope to get one bushel, will see!

Harvest Monday - May 12 2014

The very first alpine strawberry!






I am growing alpines "Golden Alexandria" the first year, I got 25 plants last month, most of them with flowers.



In general - we are starting to eat greens regularly, I mean every day. It is not much yet, leaf here, leaf there, but still counts.

I got 2 first radishes today, and they are so small! I do not have luck growing them, they always bolted.

 An there are some more pictures from May's garden.

I built new trellis for Italian tomatoes last weekend. My beds are on the slope and at the end of the summer my bamboo trellises are usually folding down.

 So I made "something" stronger and taller. Tomatoes here are Roma, Viva Italia and some of the Striped cavern.

 I like how my kale bed is looks like, I sprinkled some of the iron bites this spring to get rig of snails that always make me crazy.

 My oversized tomatoes is doing so-so,
lower leaves are yellow, top leave are good, green and strong.

 Yesterday my mom called me and asked - where is your cuces? and really&
I have only 8 plants.

 Cuces are on the left, borago are on the rights.
So I planted more, CHinahlong, Palace King, Suyo and Spacemaster.

Blueberries are blooming.

 Peppers too! Can you see the little bud? I planted them out last week on the black fabric.





















Strawberries are good, blooming.

 My garden looks more like vertical now.

 I am not happy with my beets, they germinated poorly, I believe I will overseed them this week. I have some in left container here.

Shared at: Daphne’s Dandelions “Harvest Monday” where everyone can share links to their harvest or how they are using their harvests for the week.

Beware! Red lily bug

The first year I am growing fritillaria - Fritillaria imperialis (Crown imperial or Kaiser's crown) and I have visitors!

The red lily leaf beetle (Lilioceris lilii)   is a beetle that eats the leaves, stem, buds, and flower, of lilies, fritillaries and other members of the family Liliaceae. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlet_lily_beetle

There are no registered chemicals for lily leaf beetle control, and no natural predators. :(

Pick them or/and use neem oil.

I picked them twice today into a jar with soapy water. I am glad I have only 4 fritillaries plants and my lily is just starting to grow.