My Lizard Friend and the Amazing Yellow Spider

This is my friend the lizard. We have lots of lizards around here, but this one will always be dear to my heart. Those you spend time on always are.

My daughters found this little guy (or girl) one day on the edge of one of my seedling containers. I was amazed at how close he let us get. Then they found him the next day. I thought he'd just found a nice spot that he liked. On day three, though, I knew something was amiss. I checked and realized he was caught by some duct tape I'd used to secure the container. I had accidentally left some of the tape exposed and his/her fine toes had been caught.

I cut the tape off and, wearing gloves, I carefully used a small knife to extract his body from the tape. It took about a half hour, but at the end, he/she only lost a few scales. I will never carelessly apply duct tape again.


This is a spider I barely noticed. One of my daughters had asked me five minutes before I noticed the spider if she could pick this particular flower. I'm so glad I told her no! Isn't this an amazing camouflage?

Sprouting Potatoes

So, I tried sprouting potatoes this year. I haven't actually found out if they'll produce, but I do have some very healthy looking plants. I tried twice before I finally landed a healthy sprouting technique, and even then I lost some. Oh, and I did this using potatoes from the grocery store.

The first time, I tried taking potatoes whose eyes hadn't yet formed. It didn't work. I found out that many companies/producers spray a chemical on the potatoes to delay or prevent eye formation so the potatoes stay good on their way to the store. Just one more reason to wash your vegetables, 'cause who wants to be eating that!

So, next I let some potatoes sit in the cupboard for a bit (they were from Costco's gourmet blend potato bag). I found some with some great eyes sprouting. (For those who may not know, the eye of the potato is the little growths that sprout out at various spots.) I cut the potato about a 1/2" below the eye, making sure they could sit flat with the eye up. Then I used the rest of the potato. I put the piece with the sprout in an old applesauce cup (dang those things are useful!) with water just up to the bottom of the eyesprout. After a bit, they put out roots. Here are some pictures:


You can see the roots coming from the sprout in the eye. I actually had the hardest time with the white potatoes rotting where they contacted the water. I changed the water every morning at breakfast time, cutting out any rotting spots. After a few weeks, I actually had leaves forming. When the roots were just getting too long for the applesauce cup (wrapping in circles around the bottom), I put them in pots ('cause we still have pretty difficult clayish soil).

From what I've heard, potatoes need to be covered with new dirt every once in a while, so I planted them as low as I could in the pot. Even still, the plants shot up, and I was covering them with dirt every 4-5 days. I finally ran out of pot to fill. Here's a picture of what they look like 2 months after I started:
I'll let you know how it goes!

Easy Inexpensive Gardening Tips

Before I get to the crux of this post, I need to say that I tried to make a faux banana creme brulee oatmeal, and it tasted awful. Just in case you didn't know, an older banana (even small brown spots) should never be cooked for even a few minutes. It feels stringy and disgusting.


So, I started a garden this year. I wanted to share my three favorite successful ideas that I gleaned from other blogs or internet searches. I wish I could take credit, but I just didn't think of these things.

No. 1 Favorite Find - Newspaper Seed Planters!

These are free if you already get the paper, or you can use newspaper quality junkmail (like the grocery store ads we get). Also, they biodegrade, which means you can dig a hole and plunk the whole thing right in the ground, newspaper and all. Another thing I like is that I can tell when the plant needs to transplant: the roots start poking through the bottom of the newpaper. Google "newpaper seed planters" for instructions; there are several different varieties of ways. The only downside is it's not horribly attractive once the newpaper starts to look crisp and you do need some kind of drainage catcher. This is what my patio table has looked like for two months now:



No. 2 Favorite Find - Second Generation Green Onions


Whenever you use green onions, or really any onion, check the roots. Many times their are still one or two viable roots. For green onions, simply cut the white part within a 1/2" or less of the roots, and plant it so the top is covered by 1/4"-1/2" of dirt. In two to three months, you end up with green onions (like the ones to the right here). I'm curious to see exactly how many generations of green onion I can get. For regular onions, plant the root part that you cut off when you prep the onion. You can cut it in a bit of a cone (with the base being the roots) if that's easier. As far as I know (but I'm no expert), the tops of almost any edible onion are edible. I could be wrong, but at this point I simply don't know. If I die from eating an onion top, I'll let you know. :)


Favorite Find No. 3 - Recyclable Pots


These are milk jug planters. I found this idea online, but I can't remember where. You can use milk jugs, pop bottles, whatever. Poke/Cut holes in the bottom, and cut the tops off. They won't last more than a few seasons, but you should still be able to send them to the recycling center after you're done as long as their clean. Perhaps they aren't the prettiest, but I'm hoping to get colored masking tape to put along the top to see if I can make it look like ribbon and maybe paint come acrylic flowers. Or make contact paper stickers to put on. I'm using these for carrots, since my yard has really rocky soil (i.e. not carrot friendly).


For a tip on groing a great basil bush, see this blog page: http://mybyrdhouse.blogspot.com/search/label/Garden%20tips. Pruning has helped revive some of my most defeated Basil plants. A thought on gardening: Plants have survived millenia without people taking care of them. They're a lot stronger than we sometimes think, and often weaken an otherwise strong plant by overpampering.


I hope you enjoy the ideas! Sorry that it's a bit late in the season to share. But, for those of us in SoCal, use the ideas in the fall, when our real growing season starts. Here are a few pictures that mean a lot to me: the oregano I brought back from the almost dead; my first blue shelling pea flower; my first bush bean "fruit." Enjoy!