Alpine Strawberries - Growing Seedlings

The winter this year in Boston was not as brutal as the one we had the previous year, but in fear that my alpine strawberries would not return - I started a new batch from scratch.

Garden Update May 6, 2014

It's been a busy weekend in the garden. I tilled the tomato row and covered it with a new black cloth as well as planter the first four tomato plants. I got these as a steal for $2 each at home depot. Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that I did not plant these out too early. 

I also had a nice daffodil "harvest" and was particularly excited that the Tahiti Daffodils came back this year. They are my faves! I also planted some Thai basil in the community plot as well as four little pots on my patio.

Thai Basil (community plot) 5.5.14

Oriental Lily Bulb (planted 4/27/14)

Newly planted Tristan  (pink flower) Strawberries 5/5/14.

Peas on Patio 5.5.14

Patio Thai Basil

Chives on Patio

Home Depot Tomato Plants 5.5.14

Patio Update 6.23.13

Alpine Strawberries

Peas

Little baby pea-pod

Raspberries

Alpine strawberries harvest

We have had a lot of alpine strawberries this year. Last years bushes that we started have been giving about a handful of a week. However I noticed that the taste of the early summer berry is was much more poignant  then the late summer ones.

Biggest Harvest Yet

We had quite a big harvest today with carrots, lettuce, some green tomatoes and a handful of cucumbers. We decided to pick the tomatoes while they were greenish/yellow to prevent someone else from stealing them. We were very sad to find that someone had broken in to our garden last week and while they did not steal anything (that we could notice) the perpetrator did break half of our fence.

Odd Shaped Cucumbers and Big Green Tomato

Strawberry's flowering for the Second Harvest

Over-ripe Peas

Green Ox-heart tomato (bizzare looking)

Lettuce, carrots, green tomatoes

Small Strawberry Harvest

I have not done much work (aka weeding) in the garden due to the current heat wave. However, from the hour that I did spend there this week, I noted that my fence is doing well in keeping away the bunnies and we were able to harvest some strawberries. Also, on my patio garden, I have plenty of peas hanging and more strawberries. The strawberries are very small and not very sweet.



Small Strawberry Harvest



First Cucumbers

Garden Update 6/10/12

It was too hot to work in the garden this weekend, but I did go by to see how things are progressing. The biggest surprise was that one of the tomato plants (only 5 inches tall itself) had a tomato hanging from it. I planted more peas and carrots to replace those eaten by the rabbits, had a small carrot harvest, and found the very first alpine strawberry berry.

Bush Bean Plant Flower

Small Carrot Harvest

Growing Romaine Lettuce

Strawberry Plants with Green Berries

An Interloper amoung the Berries

In anticipation of today's thunderstorm I went outside to pick the alpine strawberries. I noticed that they are a bit bigger in size than the one's from Monday's harvest. I also noticed that in the middle of my bushes there was a mushroom! This is most unexpected. I am particularly surprised because I am gardening in a container on the second floor of a building. Where could it have come from?

Mushroom in the Strawberry patch



Aug 29 - 15 berry harvest



Garden Update 7/9/11

Botanical Interests
Sugar Sweetie Flower

My little garden seems to be making progress overall.  The first flowers have appeared on the botanical interests Sugar Sweetie tomato plants. The Renee's Garden superbush plant has grown significantly but has not had any open flowers.  My blueberry bush has a few green blueberries. The raspberry bush has grown and become more green, but no fruit thus far.



Alpine Strawberries - first
Renee's Garden

 Alpine strawberries - I can now see many tiny little berries (still green) developing from the little white flowers. The planter from last year has also sprouted its first flowers.

Two weeks ago I planted some Zinnia Cut and Come Again flowers by Botanical Interests and these are growing at a surprisingly fast pace.



First Blueberries (very few)

 Today I also planted some Romaine Lettuce. I ordered the seeds from Amazon and while it was supposed to be by Botanical Interests, the package said Todd's Seeds. I thought this was odd and planted the seeds regardless.

The Seeds

Last year I had the fortune of buying a wild strawberry plant at Christmas Tree Shop plant store in late July and to my surprise this little plant produced super sweet 1/2 inch berries through all of August and September. The taste of wild strawberries really is unlike any other berry. The best way to describe it is a cross between a very sweet strawberry and raspberry.

This year I have decided to try growing this delicious fruit from seed. I purchased Alpine Mignonette Heirloom seeds from Renee's Garden on Amazon. I've read that these berries take some time to germinate so I planted them in seed starter (composed of 40% Composted Bark and 60% Peat Moss by Miracle Gro) well in early March (about a week ago). I am hoping that these guys pop up and I can transplant them into larger pots in late April. However, there is about a 50% chance of a frost after April 7th.