Urban farming

[Jayna]

Your yard sounds glorious, Bluenose!

[Aggie]

I wish I could swap seeds and plants across the border with y'all.

Not much for urban gardening here, although many of my houseplants have been grown from fruit seeds and pits (but won't likely reach maturity indoors).  The only real edibles I have on the go are some Korean perilla, a cherry pepper, and a "chuck it all in" planter with two basil plants, a couple of beets that were sprouting anyways (going to eat the leaves) and a chunk of horseradish root that I hope will start to grow.  I think I might have put some squash seeds in there as well, and there are definitely some tamarind seeds which are likely to sprout sooner or later. 

I need to get after the bugs; the whiteflies are a constant presence on the basil plants, but what's really bugging me are how fast the aphids (which I didn't know I had) overran the pepper plant.  I hosed it down with the shower head a week ago and got most of them, but the parthenogenic little creeps are starting to come back.  Neem oil spray seems to keep the white flies knocked back to a reasonable level but doesn't do squat for the aphids.  Time for Safer's soap, I guess.

[Bluenose]

Aggie, have you ever tried garlic spray on the aphids?  Has a good reputation over here.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Then some rainbow lorikeets come in to feeed and the wattle bird goes bererk - which the lorikeets totally ignore - eventually giving up and sits in the tree sulking making little "brrp" noises to himslef as if to say "rotten lorikeets, don't they know who owns this tree...  ratta fratter..."

Are lories bigger, more aggressive or simply something wattlebirds don't mess around with? The lories I've seen are as big as my Cockatiels.

Edit: my wife just showed me my basil plant, it just flowered! Its usually in the window (in the balcony with the 'tiels it wouldn't last a day) and the top where the flowers are was behind the blinds.

[Opsa]

Usually I run around and pop off my basil flowers on a daily basis, as their presence usually commences a sharp change of flavor in the leaves. But at a certain point, I let the flowers go. That point was about a week ago, here. Aside from seed production, the basil is still useful. Put the flowers in flower arrangements. The basil scent makes the house smell wonderful.

[Jayna]

My basil was (is) spectacular this year... I absolutely could not keep up with it, which delighted me! I'm probably going to chop it up and freeze it, to keep the flavor closer to fresh.

There's a man in my back yard taking measurements for a fence... they're getting ready to build townhouses in the lot behind me. Not sure how I feel about that, but at least I'll have a new fence...

[Bluenose]

Then some rainbow lorikeets come in to feeed and the wattle bird goes bererk - which the lorikeets totally ignore - eventually giving up and sits in the tree sulking making little "brrp" noises to himslef as if to say "rotten lorikeets, don't they know who owns this tree...  ratta fratter..."

Are lories bigger, more aggressive or simply something wattlebirds don't mess around with? The lories I've seen are as big as my Cockatiels.

Edit: my wife just showed me my basil plant, it just flowered! Its usually in the window (in the balcony with the 'tiels it wouldn't last a day) and the top where the flowers are was behind the blinds.

No, the wattlebirds and the lorikeets are about the same size (they're both a little larger than cockatiels).  It's just that the lorries are pretty much bomb proof and take no notice of the wattlebirds.     It drives the wattlebirds crazy.

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You know, I really should put some basil in, it's so good with so many things!  I think I might grow some in a pot.

[Aggie]

I've mentioned it before, but basil roots out beautifully in water from cuttings in a matter of days.  Just buy a little basil, strip all the large leaves (leave the small ones and buds) for dinner, plunk the stems in a glass of water, and plant them once the roots appear.  Ridiculously easy and much faster than trying from seeds.  The last few times I bought basil it had roots attached, but now that it's in a larger planter I will be making cuttings as it gets growing and filling the pot with plants.

[Opsa]

Got some cold weather veggies sprouted out in the garden- lettuces and radishes. It does my heart good to see them.

I tried to start peppers on the windowsill greenhouse, but they haven't sprouted in over two weeks. Do you think the seeds are duds, or maybe I didn't make things right for them?

[Darlica]

Our 3 year old "purple hazel" Habanero Chillies are full of buds and flowers!
-Our Chillies doesn't know they are annual plants, and I won't tell them. I mean, it's like telling a bumble bee that it shouldn't be able to fly, theoretically... 

I did cut the plants down pretty harsh this winter which seemed to be the right thing to do...
The Roccoto chilli seems to be inspired by the others but I think it needs more sunlight to get in the mood,    

[Opsa]

Did you start them from seed? Do the seeds need cool weather to germinate?

[Darlica]

They are all started from seeds, they might have been germinated when I bought them but I don't think so since I've been growing Habanero chillies from seeds of store bought fruits before without germination.

This plants have never been outside or in a greenhouse, not even on a balcony since we don't have one (I still miss the one I had in my old flat)... they have lived their whole life in our living room so they have never been cold. However they do get affected by the having more sun hours now than in the winter as we don't have any extra daylight lamps for them.

[Opsa]

Hmmm. They sound happy. I wonder if my windowsill was too cool for them.

[Lindorm]

The chilies are happily flowering away, and we are helping them to pollinate with a paintbrush. Looking forward to a nice harvest come autumn! 

In other news, the regional council of Skarpnäck, a suburb of Stockholm, recently approved a grant to a "urban farming association", a group of local citizens who wants to use some brownfield areas and other marginal plots to grow garden plants, both flowers and vegetables. This is a local neighbourhood idea, so anyone in the area is welcome to participate. Nice!

[Opsa]

That's such a wonderful use of land. Smart people!

We're having fresh lettuce every night here, now. I'm growing 'Salad Bowl', 'Grand Rapids', 'Black Seeded' and 'Great Lakes', along with some Bib that has re-seeded every year since I first planted it two or three years ago.

I also have sprouts for Swiss Chard, cucumber, peppers and tomatoes.