Ornamental grass from seed

More pillaging of other people's gardens -- this time their ornamental grasses. This approach actually has the seeds out over winter. We'll see what happens when they're planted in (a strangely warm) Spring.

Source

• Take a whole packet of seeds and sow them into a container made from the bottom third of a cardboard beverage carton. To make the container wash out a 1/2 gallon sized cardboard juice or milk carton. Cut it down to about a third of its height. Use a sharp paring knife and stab the sides (close to the base) several times to make slits for drainage.
• Fill the container with soil to about an inch from the top. Water the soil very well and let it drain.
• Sprinkle the seeds onto the moist soil and give them a bit of a rubbing in...and that's it. They are not deeply sown at all, maybe 1/16th of an inch under the soil surface or they are mostly laying on the soil surface itself.
• Slip the container into a baggie, and close it either with a knot or a twist tie. Use the paring knife and stab some slits into the top of the baggie and into the bottom of it too. This is for air transpiration and drainage. Now it is ready to go outside for the Winter.
• Grass seeds do require some warmth to germinate, so you can expect them to sprout sometime around the middle of Spring (give or take a week or two) but once they germinate they grow very fast. Start hardening them off when the bulk of the seedlings are about an inch high. To harden them off simply open the holes in the top of the baggie a little bit wider each week for the next two or three weeks. Keep an eye on the moisture while you're hardening them off.
• Once they're hardened off you can transplant them quickly. To transplant the grass just remove the plastic baggie and tear away the cardboard juice carton and plant the whole thing as a "plug". Ornamental grasses grow well in either full sun or part shade, they grow well in "plain dirt" or you can mix a shovelful of compost into the hole before you plant the plug.
• Most perennial grasses will start to set seeds in their second year. Don't feed them frequently, if at all, because the food will produce huge green leaves, but very few seed stalks. I give my grasses a few bucketfuls of compost as a topdressing/mulch in the spring and that's seems to be all they need to keep growing well and still produce their seed stalks.

Purple Beautyberry

Approaching Olga's bakery in Providence, I noticed they had a small bush with tiny bright purple berries on it. I pocketed a few of the berries for seeding this year. More info:

The American beautyberry bush (Callicarpa Americana), sometimes known as purple beauty bush, is a highly ornamental deciduous shrub. Growing to a height of 6 to 8 feet, the beautyberry bush produces incredibly charming light purple to violet berries in the fall. A drought-tolerant plant, beautyberry is adaptable to many types of soil within U.S. Department of Agriculture hardiness zones 6 through 10. The purple beauty bush readily propagates by seed, planted in the spring.

Turns out, propagating by seed is apparently really easy (but slow):

1. Fill a nursery flat with equal parts of sand and potting soil. Water the mixture, stirring, until the excess water drains from the bottom of the flat. Level the surface of the planting medium and allow it to drain completely.
2. Sprinkle the beautybush seeds over the surface of the soil and cover them with a 1/4-inch layer of sand.
3. Place the flat in a shady area and keep the soil moist by spraying it with water from a misting bottle. Germination times are variable, so don't give up if the seeds don't germinate quickly. It can take up to four months.
4. Pull out and discard weak seedlings when they have their third set of leaves. Fertilize the rest with fish emulsion, diluted to half the strength recommended on the label. Apply the fertilizer to wet soil and water again after applying.
5. Transplant the beautybush seedlings into the garden when they're 6 inches tall. Plant them in a partially shady area, at the same depth they grew in the flat. Keep the soil moist until you see new growth.

Astilbe from seed

Source

1. Fill up 4-inch pots, trays or a seeding flat with a good quality seeding mix.
2. Firm the seeding mix down using a spoon. The mix should be firm enough that the seeding mix will hold together and not crumble apart when transplanting.
3. Set the pots or tray into a basin, bucket or irrigation tray that contains about an inch of water. Once the pots or tray have absorbed the water and the seeding mix is visibly moist, remove them. Set the pots or tray aside and let drain before you continue.
4. Sprinkle the astilbe seeds onto the surface of the seeding mix. If using a seeding tray, plant a small pinch of seeds (about three or four) 1 to 2 inches apart.
5. Press the seeds firmly into the soil using the back of the spoon. Do not cover the seeds; they won't germinate if they're buried.
6. Set the tray or pots into a warm location that will stay around 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
7. Mist the surface of the seeding mix with water to keep it moist but avoid waterlogging it, which will rot the seeds. Germination typically takes between one and three months. Transplant the astilbe seedlings into 1 gallon pots when they are about 2 inches tall.
8. Locate a partially shaded location for planting the astilbe seedlings. Weed the area using a garden hoe. Eliminate all weeds and their roots.
9. Dig planting holes in the weeded area, keeping each of the holes about 12 inches apart. Each hole should be wide enough and deep enough to accommodate an astilbe seedling's entire root system.
10. Scoop out an astilbe seedling from the seeding tray using a spoon. If using 4-inch pots, lay the pot on its side. Gently hold the seedling at the base of its stem while you wiggle the pot free from the root system.
11. Plant an astilbe seedling into one of the planting holes. Scoop soil into the holes, filling them full. Then water each astilbe seedling thoroughly.
12. Water the astilbe regularly throughout the growing season. They should be kept evenly moist, especially during dry periods.

Coral bells & stratification of seeds

So, half of our property is in pretty deep shade, so coral bells are starting to look appealing (they handle shade just fine).

I harvested some seeds last year and will try my hand at propagating them this year, based on the following instructions:

1. Collect coral bells seeds after blooming is completed. Allow the seed pods--located at the base of the blossoms--to dry on the plant, and then remove them and collect the seeds.
2. Cold-stratify the seeds by placing them in a brown paper bag with moist vermiculite and storing them in the refrigerator for 6 weeks, a process that ensures more effective germination.
3. Start the seeds indoor two months ahead of when you want to plant them outside--normally, after danger of last frost has passed. Sow the coral bells seeds over potting mix in a seed tray. Do not cover the seeds with mix; simply scatter them on top of the soil. Spray well with a mister to moisten the soil without disturbing the seeds.
4. Place the seed tray in a clear plastic bag, and put it in bright, indirect light. You may want to use an undertray heating pad to keep soil temperature at 65 to 75 degrees; a draft-free corner of your house can work just as well.
5. Remove the plastic when the seeds germinate, usually within 3 weeks. Place the tray in a sunny windowsill or under a grow light. Keep the soil evenly moist, but don't allow it to become water-logged or soggy.
6. Transplant the coral bells seedlings into small clay flowerpots filled with potting soil when each seedling has two sets of true leaves. Water thoroughly, and return to the windowsill. Keep the soil moist.
7. Plant the seedlings outdoors, after the last frost date, in a location with sun to partial shade and with well-drained, moist soil with a pH 6.1 to 7.8. Space the seedlings 9 to 12 inches apart. Water well, and water thereafter to keep soil moist as the seedlings are establishing themselves.
8. Add a 1-inch layer of organic mulch after transplanting to conserve moisture, protect the roots and provide a barrier against fungal diseases.
9. Fertilize the seedlings a week after transplanting with a water-soluble, all-purpose fertilizer, and repeat every four months in the growing season. Keep watered and weeded for the rest of the summer. If your coral bells don't bloom the first year, they probably will by the second.

You can also propagate them from cuttings:

Cut off a healthy leaf and a couple inches of the petiole, the stalk that is between the leaf and the stem. Do this in the fall, according Michigan State University Extension. Then, dip the end of the petiole in rooting hormone which may help it root better. Place the petiole in moist vermiculite or sand. In a couple weeks, roots should start to form. Tug on the leaf cutting and if you feel some resistance, it's working. Replant outdoors in the spring after the last frost.

... and from division:

Coral bells are easily propagated through division in the spring. You should divide your coral bells once every three to four years. Dig around clumps of coral bells about 6 to 8 inches deep and gently lift the clump out of the ground. Brush off the soil and examine their roots. Separate the plants by tugging on the roots to divide them. You can also use a sharp knife to divide the roots. Each section should have healthy roots and a healthy section of the plant. The center, woody part of the clump should be discarded. Replant immediately.

This "stratification" business needs a little clarification:

place the seeds in a sealed plastic bag with moistened vermiculite (or sand or even a moistened paper towel) and refrigerate it. Use three times the amount of vermiculite as seeds. It is important to only slightly dampen the vermiculite, as excessive moisture can cause the seeds to grow mouldy in the bag.

Oxalis over winter

From here:

Oxalis that are grown from bulbs require lots of water; they wilt if the soil is allowed to dry out. They will sometimes wilt during the hottest part of a hot summer day and it’s therefore best to protect them from strong midday sun. They are also heavy feeders and should be planted in a well-drained planting medium to which some soil or compost has been added. During the growing season they require regular applications of fertilizer or their foliage will etiolate.

In the fall, if the plant is not being overwintered in a bright indoor location, pots of oxalis bulbs can be allowed to dry off by withholding water. The pots should be moved inside before there is a danger that the bulbs will freeze, although the foliage can be exposed to frost as that will hasten its drying off. The pots with their bulbs can then be stored in a cool, dark location for the winter.

In early March the pots can be brought out of storage and watered. New growth will soon appear at which time the plants should be placed in strong direct light. By mid-May, when they are put outside, they will already be in bud. If the bulbs have been potted for a couple of years, they should be dumped out of their pots in the spring and the bulbs collected. They can be replanted, about three cm apart in new potting mix, and given water and good direct light to encourage growth.

Patio ideas

source

Bucket drip irrigation

A pet idea of mine -- using an elevated 5 gallon bucket to feed a drip irrigation system -- turns out to have occurred to a lot of people a while ago; so much so that not only is there is a kit available, somebody's written a thesis on it.

So, apart from the kit, a variety of home-brew systems have also been suggested. Here are some links to resources:

• The kit is called Chapin Living Waters and can be bought here ($22.50)
  A presentation showing how it's used
• An alternative espoused elsewhere uses pipes with screws drilled through. Drive the screw right through as far as it can go, then pull it back a bit to let some water drip through
• Here's a page that uses 1/4" vinyl tubing
• Home Depot has a bunch of drip irrigation stuff
• Here's a simple how-to using drip irrigation kit
• Here's a fascinating exchange between some very patient people trying (ultimately successfully) to start a small-scale veggie farm in Africa using a bucket-drip system. The expert on this project did a good overview of a bunch of implementations of the bucket-drip system