Seeds of Luffa by post

I'm a member of a facebook group for Portuguese speakers on facebook (I'm Portuguese) and one of the ladies is planting Luffa in her garden and she promises to send seeds to people that would send her a letter with a envelope and a stamp for her to send a couple of seeds to us!

I'm going to try it out! 

I hope that she sends me some seeds and I get to plant some vegetable sponges in my garden!

Avocado experience!

I organised a dinner with some friends and we ate some rice paper vegetable raps (or veggie summer rolls as goolge calls it). I chopped many types of vegetables and fruits to include in the raps filling. Two from this mix were avocados.

So... Like the rest of the world I'm doing the avocado seed experience! I'm trying first with one seed and if it doesn't work I try with the other. 

I saw this experience many many times all over the Internet. It looks like is the easiest thing to do. But my avocado seed didn't create any roots yet! And I read that in a day the avocado seed starts rooting when in contact with the water!

Looks like it doesn't!

I searched in Youtube for some more information's and I found this video here:

This guy, my avocado seeding guru, explains in this video how we should do it. 

But is more or less this what you need to know:

1. After the first day in water take the skin from the bottom of the seed, it will help the root to come out.
2. The seed can be in water for 3 months and it doesn't mean is a dead seed. 
3. Don't transfer directly the seed from the water to the soil. Is a huge shock for the plant this brutal change in her environment so what he proposes is adding soil to the water during a period of time. When is full of soil than pass the seed to the container.
4. This plants would not produce fruits (sad) because they need pollinators.

If this works I don't know what I'm doing with one or two avocado plants but is always good for oxygen production and I'm sure they make lovely gifts!

Here is how the avocado plant will look like:

The cats, the garden and my growing hate

Since I realised that it wasn't my imagination and I wasn't forgetting things unfinished around the garden I have to confess I'm starting to grow slowly a hate inside.

First was the fox! Yes... I have a fox that comes to my garden to make her dirty business every single night! So, although I don`t have a dog my garden is full of poop.
But it's ok! ( kind of ok!) I take the "accident" as free fertilizer and she is honoring me with her presence. Some what it makes me feel like a Beatrix Potter... and I feel proud to able to build a garden that attracts wild animals.

Then I started to notice things that I planted taken out from the earth. Specialy Bulbs... after replanting for the fourth time the bulbs for the winter flowers my gardening peace was destroyed with the realisation that I did that before and something or someone was destroying my work!

And who is to be blamed? 

All the gardens know this criminal! 

The CAT!!

And don't take me wrong, I love animals. I even fill a big bowl of water for the animals that visit my garden to have something to drink in this year hot summer that we had in Germany.
But my breaking point was the garlic!

I planted garlic in my garden, already late, in the end of September beginning October.
Is my firt time trying to grow garlic and is not a easy task because they realy need the last warm days of October to be able to start growing. If something goes wrong you can't do anything because you are dependent on the weather.
It takes on average 8 month to grow garlic enough to produce a bulb. So this long time and the weather dependency makes this a high risk culture and can mean that in the end it was a waste of time and money.

When I came to the garden and I saw half of the garlic out of the earth... Ooooohhhhh! I was realy mad!

I replanted them and try to hide them better but it didn't work like expected... the "visitors" thought it was a game, a cognitive research from my part that they were able to achieve at 100% success rate.

My job now is to check all my bulbs and pray for them to gain roots so they aren't so intertaining.

Carl said we need to get a dog, so he can do what dogs do best and kick the cats out. 
But my past expirience tells me that probably he and the cats will become friends and probably I will have more poop and on more criminal being an accomplice in what happens at night in my garden.

Jardim Botânico do Porto - actividades

O jardim Botânico do Porto tem organizado visitas guiadas gratuitas ao Jardim.

A próxima data vai ser a 31 de Outubro e as visitas vao comecar às 15h30. Os interessados têm que se inscrever aqui --> http://goo.gl/forms/EOTXtzSzDU

Lembro-me quando me infiltrava nas aulas de arquitectura paisagistica da FCUP e tive uma visita guiada ao jardim botânico do Porto feita pela Maria Teresa Melo Breyner Andresen a directora do curso na altura.

Ao jardim com 4 hectares junta-se também a casa Andersen, onde também assisti a aulas de biologia clandestinamente. Esta casa pertenceu a familia Andersen. No Jardim do Jota têm a oportunidade de ver as iniciais dos seus antigos donos, Joana e Joao Andresen,  avós dos famoso escritores de literatura portuguesa do século XX, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen e Ruben A.

Quando visitei este jardim posso vos dizer que achei que o bom estado de manutencao se devia aos bons jardineiros que realmente mostravam um interesse supreendente pelo seu trabalho do que gracas aos professores universitários da FCUP.

Eu que na altura coleccionava suculentas senti, com alguma seguranca, que tinha mais especies criados na minha coleccao que as estufas do jardim Botânico. Sonho também por ver uma parte deste jardim dedicada somente a rosas de origem portuguesa. É uma pena que nem a rosa Bela Portuguesa, que foi hibridizada neste jardim, exista hoje em dia.

Bolbos - Época de plantar Bolbos

Estamos na altura de plantar bolbos!

Geralmente faz-se por esta altura, entre setembro e dezembro, mas tem estado tanto calor e eles precisam de apanhar um pouco de frio que se calhar esperar por novembro será uma boa ideia. Se plantarmos com um mês de diferença somos capazes de ter os vasos floridos durante muito tempo na Primavera.

Neste video da Praça da Alegria o Luís Alves, o engenheiro agrónomo  do já muito conhecido Cantinho das Aromáticas fala no assunto e dá óptimas dicas

O mais importante para quem não tem jardim (como eu) é saber que os bolbos também se dão bem em vasos e pode-se misturar espécies por que são bons vizinhos. Só é preciso ter cuidado e não saturar a área toda dando algum espaço às plantas.

Algumas espécies são:

• Crocus
• Anemonas
• Jacintos
• Campainhas-de-Inverno
• Tulipas

Quando as flores todas murcharem é só cortar a planta a nível do solo e desenterrarem-se os bolbos. Esperamos que eles sequem completamente o resto das folhas ao ar livre e podemos guarda-los para o ano seguinte no lugar fresco e escuro.

Ao pesquisar este assunto encontrei uma actividade realizada pela Escola 1º Ciclo e jardim de infância de Coucieiro que achei super fofa!

Os jacintos também crescem quando em contacto com a água, mas tem que ser em recipientes especiais porque a água só pode tocar na ponta do bolbo. Neste blog podem ver um exemplo dos vasos super especiais que podem ser utilizados Pequenos Nadas..... 

No sábado vou comprar os meus primeiros bolbos de jacinto naquela lojinha de sementes perto do Bolhão e experimentar no que dá! Tenho é que conseguir um pedacinho de carvão... Talvez nos senhores das castanhas ;).

Calendário de Sementeira - Legumes

Calendário de Sementeira - Flores