Cloning Ancient Trees

I few years ago an article was featured on Yahoo discussing a group of botanists, Archangel Project, who made it their life work to clone old growth trees. When I first learned about this project, I was amazed. I really hope others can appreciate the significance of this.

These images shows us 100 percent DNA of a living 2500 year old Giant Sequoia, over 200 feet tall with a circumference of 50 feet.

They have a presence on Facebook. There are other arborists that clone ancient trees. We can find them by conducting a quick google search. Today I learned that it is common practice to dip the cutting into rooting powder. This will stimulate root growth when the stem is planted directly into the dirt. I am very interested in cloning ancient trees.

If there is anything I would like to do before I die, that is clone African Shea Trees and make an orchard in Chihuahua Mexico.

Transplanted my Basil Plants Today

For the first time ever, I rooted Basil cuttings. My interest in rooting basil was peaked after I stumbled upon some online drama. Apparently, some guy claimed that his cutting rooted in one day. I had to find out for myself if that was possible.

This is what my basil looked like
 after a couple weeks

The rooting process is fairly simple.

1. cut off some fresh basil stems from your plant
2. put them in a cup of water
3. change the water once a week

i used two clear, empty jars of baby food to root my basil. After about two and one half weeks my cuttings finally started to root. This morning I planted them in nice, warm soil with the mother plant. This got me to thinking, how many plants are propagated by rooting, using this same process?

How to Root Pineapple

I had no idea how pineapple was planted, grown, or harvested. All I did know was that pineapple grew in Hawaii, and that the plant was engineered to fit into the Dole pineapple machines. They appear red, yellow, green and brown.

So how to propogate a pineapple plant? Go to the grocery store and buy a pineapple with healthy green leaves. Make sure that the leaves look strong and healthy. If the leaves are brown or orange, do not use it.

Grab the leaves and pull it out of the pineapple. Remove any additional flesh that comes out.

Washington State Blackberries Are Coming In

It is late July, for all of you living in Western Washington you know what that means. Blackberry season is coming! I took the boys down to the Marina yesterday with the double stroller. There are many more blackberry bushes in this area than where I lived last year. I say only five ripe berries, the rest of them were green. I would give it a few more weeks and blackberry season is here!

jobes tomato spikes

for spikes in each pot

I purchased some tomato spike fertilizers yesterday at Fred Meyer. They were very cheap. The ingredients are...


• 1.3% Water Insoluble Nitrogen 
• 0.9% Urea Nitrogen
• Available Phosphate 24%
• Soluble Potash 8% 

I can tell that my plants have a huge root system, and I need to repot them. With the babies, I do not have any time to do it. What will happen to my tomato plants if I do not get them into bigger pots? The pots currently have 3 to 4 cherry tomato plants.

Weird things in the garden

Original Material was found in France and cultivated by the Dutch 

One of my Facebook friends reposted an image originally posted by Organic Green Roots. The image was of a white strawberry with red seeds. Pineberry is a South American berry that looks like a strawberry but tastes like a pineapple. Apparently it almost went extinct and was rescued by Dutch farmers.  I never heard of such a thing. How Amazing. Evolution is one of the most wonderful things.

My cherry tomatoes are starting!

I made the mistake of not planing them in a bigger pot. We will see what happens this summer. I am so proud that I grew them from seed.

Time to Harvest the Basil

It is time to make Pesto Everybody! This is one of my favorite treats. I love pesto on shrimp, chicken, pasta and appetizers. I grow my own basil. My kitchen smelt like an Italian restaurant. The best part is that after harvesting the leaves, the plants are thriving on my balcony. I am going to make pesto all summer long.

Cherry Tomatoes

I have two pots of cherry tomatoes growing on my balcony. Each pot contains about three individual plants. This is a picture of me with one of my pots on the 4th of July. 

Two Pots of cherry tomatoes

Several weeks ago I planted some cherry tomato seeds. I put them up on the balcony and forgot about them. One day I checked and I noticed that they grew three inches.


It was a pleasant surprise. I went to Lowes and purchases a five pound bag of organic fertilizer and transplanted the plants into two separate, larger containers. I was very careful not to damage the root system when pulling them out.


In the following weeks, these plants have sprung up even more. I am expecting a very healthy growth of cherry tomatoes this summer. I will probably just use these tomatoes on our salads. If I have any left over, I will make sun dried tomatoes and store them for other dishes.