the-garden-in-the-briar-patch

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

I highly recommend letting your friends name your plants at 3 in the morning. It's fun, and then you get a bunch of strawberries named for various Knights of Camelot and you also get to inflict psychic damage by saying things like "Lancelot is in flower" and "Mordred lies rotting on the ground".

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

I think I might have an American Persimmon sprout!

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

masks and helmets that hides someone's face in such a way that they become the face themselves my beloved

these are all creatures to me

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

Has anyone here ever canned whole persimmons in syrup? I'm finding a lot of indications that this used to be a method of preservation (W. F. Fletcher's The Native Persimmon, USDA 1915 is one source, there's also a reference to that in Southern Provisions by David S. Shields), but I haven't seen any modern recipes and some stuff that I'm reading says that it would need to be either pressure canned or preserved with lemon juice to increase the acidity? American Persimmons have a pH of around 6.10, which is possibly hazardous for canning. Does anyone know more?

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

May 31, 2023

The pea plants have three flowers on them. That is simply ridiculous. It's Too Hot for new flowers, and yet.

I was seriously considering just ripping up the vines up until a few days ago when they started putting off new leaves. I did go through and clear out the dead leaves (which, to be clear, was three quarters of the leaves), and now there's flowers.

I think the peas are confused.

That said, I always love pea flowers. The ones for the variety of sugar snap peas I have this year are particularly lovely, a pale yellow that reminds me of buttermints. And they smell so good!

Here's hoping they grow into something, although I do think it's too hot to actually get pods. We shall see.

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

May 30, 2023

Hey! It's been a while since the last garden update. I'll probably do something a little more comprehensive later, but for now, I'm very excited about the batch of heirloom basils I just got seeds for. There's two more varieties that I haven't planted yet, we'll have to see what grows.

I'm especially excited about the holy basil, I've never had that before, and it's a different species than the rest. Very exciting possibilities there.

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

Basil is an absolutely cat sort of plant. So melodramatic. "Mother does not water me? Oh! Wilting! Wilted basil for mother for 10000 years!" And then you water it, and it puffs up like a magical transformation into a floofy Cinderella dress immediately.

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

USA Native Plant Resource Masterlist

Because Google is totally useless and won't help you with ANYTHING

iNaturalist: Take photos of living things you see, post them, and the community will identify them for you. Data from iNaturalist is used in scientific research.

Wildflower.org Plant Database: Enter search criteria and find some plants. Very useful if you're looking for plants with specific qualities or know what you have in mind.

Native Plant Finder: This website is still in beta and is a work in progress, but it will show you plants for your area ranked by the number of butterflies that use them for their caterpillars.

WildflowerSearch: AMAZING resource for identification and for learning about new plants. Shows you where plants are native/not native, TONS of search filters.

Native Plant Trust: A New England organization, but probably useful to anyone.

Northern Forest Atlas: Great images and identification resources for trees; has good pictures of bark, seeds, buds, leaves.

FloraFinder: Another plant database site that's being slowly built up by a passionate nerd.

MonarchWatch milkweed by USA ecoregion: Tells you what milkweed species you should plant for monarch butterflies.

Native Beeology: Not plants, but a closely related subject.

I will add more and post an updated list as I find more.

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

Hey gardenblr, what's the smallest size of compost bin you can get away with? Can I use one-gallon containers? Is that too small? Would love advice for starting compost while living in an apartment.

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

Another of the acorns sprouted! I have two tiny oak trees now, this is very exciting

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

Oak tree update! This little guy grew a *lot* in four days, it's about four inches tall now.

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

Tiiiiiiiiny tree

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

Tiiiiiiiiny tree

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

Pros of replanting the second bath of pea seedlings: I have my egg cartons seed trays back. Cons: I ran out of dirt.

None of the first batch of either kind of peppers grew, so I'm trying again in the cartons that have been doing well with the peas. We shall see where it goes from here!

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

January 27, 2023

The peas are getting bigger. No new sprouts yet, or any noticeable leaves.

The herbs got to be outside today, which is good, because they probably won't get that again for a week, with how the weather is looking.

See y'all tomorrow.

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

January 26, 2023

Two new sprouts! Hooray!

Things are going well in the windowsill. It's kinda hard to see, but yesterday's sprout is definitely getting bigger, and today we have two new sprouts (they are very small, and may be difficult to see).

Still nothing from the milkweed or the acorns, and the succulents are just lying in their dirt. The sage looks fine, but there's no roots yet. I'm going to give them about two more weeks to decide if they're gonna root or not, and if they don't, I'll be just using it as herbs rather than trying to get new plants from them.

Maybe by this time next week we'll have some activity from the pepper.

We've been having a lot of cloud cover recently, and while we might get some sun tomorrow, I think that there's gonna be a similar lack of direct sunlight for most of a week. I'm hoping that all my little guys survive.

See y'all tomorrow.

[the-garden-in-the-briar-patch]

January 25, 2023

Sprout!!!!!

Sprout!!!!!1!

Day 12 on the peas, and we have one sprout. Hooray!

Everything else is still dormant. I'm just really excited! Yay!

Gotta admit I was worried, it gets rather cold by the windows. Very excited to see where this goes in the next few days.