Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

Oy, so I discovered the other day that Red Robin will give you a free burger on your birthday completely gratis, so the boyfriend and I went in to gorge ourselves. As a result I am feeling quite ponderous. I probably eat two or three burgers a year, so just half of one hit me quite hard.

But I took pictures today and feel that the blog must go on! I'll start with something horrifying, then progress to the happy from there.

As mentioned a couple days ago, Choccy got attacked by caterpillars. He has new growth now, but you pretty much get the point:

Bastards.

I am not entirely sure what this thing is, but he was sunning himself on one of my Insuk's. I decided to let him be.


Just when I thought that picking off one aphid or leaf hopper at a time was bad, I discovered this guy:

Talk about a trap crop. This is one of three weeds about five feet away from the garden. I'm almost afraid to remove these guys because then the aphids might move along to the garden proper. It's a pretty chilling sight, though. *shudder*

But now for the happy! My pole beans are really climbing along.



A hand of ginger was starting to sprout in my kitchen, so into a pot he went! I hope something nice comes of it.


Two of the tomato plants that I pruned thoroughly:



And two that I did not. It's a race to see which one does better!



Unexpectedly, the first tomato to flower was one that was ravaged by insect damage. It seems to have bounced back, and while it seems a bit too small to be producing I'm going to let it try to set fruit.


Borage! I put two seeds in the ground maybe two months ago and one is finally starting to pop out of the ground.


Marigolds! I'm not entirely sure what kind, but they're bright and happy for sure. The second one is so yellow that my camera had trouble taking a good picture of it.



It's supposed to rain again tomorrow, which is great, but holy cow the temperature is supposed to skyrocket to the mid-90s by Thursday. This does not excite me as that means the mosquitoes will be out in force. Long sleeves for me in the heat, woohoo.

Ah, but something very sweet from fellow blogger, Vanilla Lotus (Priscilla) in sunny San Antonio:

She likes my blog :3 I now feel that, for both you, my dear readers, and for my own benefit, I'll update more often and with better content. In the meantime, be sure to visit her wonderful gardening blog, New Sprout. Cheer her on as she totally rocks her final exams!

My Monthly Update?

Man, I am no good at documenting progress. Apparently I was nominated for a weird little blog award for having a blog that could elicit mirth both from my knee-slappingly witty writing and from my fruitless foibles. This is a catastrophe, after all, and not everything goes as planned.

I indeed have dirt mounds in the backyard, but next to them (where the dirt used to be but now is replaced by compost, organic matter, and, er, other stuff) are my two little beds, connected in an L-shape (let's not think of too many negative things that start with L quite yet!) with veggie plants in them.

I wasn't totally lying when I said that "Today is planting day!" I should have actually said "Today starts planting week" as the weather kind of hampered progress a bit. I did manage to put in tomatoes with cute little marigolds and basils around them and construct two bean teepees with trellis netting strung between them. Of course, because it was planting week and not planting day I allowed for such catastrophes as the entire teepee/trellis complex getting flattened by strong winds--which they did that very night-- and luckily waited to test the structural integrity of the thing before planting anything around it. I didn't push the poles into the ground far enough the first time, but with the aid of the boyfriend (who is almost a foot taller than I am and therefore taller than the poles) we got them into a nice, steady position and they have survived high winds and thunderstorms with ease so far. I'm strangely happy about the teepees because I went online to search for the proper way to lash together tripods and was able to follow the instructions without a problem. Of course there were straight-forward instructions and illustrations, but I was happy nonetheless at my cleverness.

Oh, you want photographic proof! I didn't take any when I first sunk the things into the ground. After all, it was sort of depressing-looking, what with 5"-tall tomato seedlings, sad-looking squash transplants, and most of the seeds for the trellis and the teepees underground. In all honesty I felt a bit embarrassed because I look at other people's ideas of "seedlings" and they have foot and a half-tall monsters growing fruit already. So in a way, I kind of avoided the blog because it was sort of like illustrating my defeat.

BUUUT. A couple weeks ago I realized that things were starting to look up. A couple rain storms had kept me out of the garden since the only reason I found myself outdoors at the time was to water the thing. Miraculously, after a week or so of neglect, I noticed that my tomatoes were orders of magnitude larger (I have found this was a trend-- as soon as I started ignoring my seedlings in cups they did better. What the heck!). Without my "help" (other than picking off aphids) they were flourishing, and it made me ever so happy.

But, I will emphasize again, this is a catastrophe, and my first real nemeses appeared last week, just when I was reveling in the progress of the garden.

1. Those little green caterpillar-on-a-string things
You all remember my lovely, lush, fragrant chocolate mint plant that I loved so much? Two days, two different caterpillars, and the entire thing is completely stripped of leaves. Completely. Stripped. Of leaves. I really ought to take a picture because it is so amazing, but the carnage is more than even I can handle. I have found them on almost every species of plant I have, including tomatoes, beans, and curcubits. I really hate them, but I'm just thankful that they are easily extracted without stinging me.

2. Aphids
Okay, these guys aren't so bad because they've only appeared in numbers that I can easily pick off by hand, but they have been slowly eroding away the leaves on everything. They're quite satisfying to squish, though.

3. Leaf-hopper nymphs
OKAY it's a little difficult for me to express how incredibly upsetting these little things are without going on a curse-laden tirade. I even have pictures if you do not know what I'm talking about:

A little family of these guys came through and literally devastated my tomato plants. How they work their evil little voodoo is by sticking their hideous little mouthparts into the stem of the plant and kill by sucking out its vital juices. One alone will make a nice hickey-looking bruise that weakens the stem at that point (usually at ground-level). But I found up to 6 of them at a time surrounding the stems of my tomatoes one morning, and they had so weakened the stems that a couple of my plants nearly died and had to be re-buried in order for more roots to form.

This is one such victim. You will notice the drinking straw collar that is now around its base. I had originally put them on when they first went into the ground to protect the skinny, tender stems from cutworm damage. After a couple weeks I removed them because I didn't want the stems to rot, just in case the collars were holding in too much moisture. After the hopper nymph attack, I had to put them right back on. The logic is this: the collar will protect them against cutworm as well as these leaf-hoppers, which prefer to feed next to the ground where they are camouflaged, and if the hoppers do end up feeding, then they will be higher up the stem and easier to spot.

This plant got pretty damaged in the attack and is also in recovery. I should have taken pictures, but there was a gash that went through almost clean to the other side by the time I got to it.

Hardcore collaring. This guy has a pretty beefy stem, so I had to employ a regular straw AND a boba tea straw.

But not everything has been catastrophic. The rest of my tomatoes have taken off, and I think I see some buds beginning to form. I may get some fruit yet! (You can really tell which tomato plants got hacked up, though. Really sad):

A different, more flattering angle:

The squashes I transplanted in don't look too hot, but I have read innumerable times that squash doesn't care to be transplanted. I ignored all warnings, but at least I have a couple making blossoms:

And the whole trellis complex doesn't look terribly bad:

I bought a little pepper plant from HEB called "Paul Grande" (whatever that means) and while nobody has been able to tell me what I should be expecting, I was able to get a neat picture of its blossom:

Of course I had to plant beans around the teepees, and I already have ones that found the poles are are starting to wind around. I find pole beans to be incredibly cute:

I planted some cucumbers and squashes on the opposite end of the net from the transplants. They will probably be crowded at first, but I intend to thin them out as they get bigger:

I recently began corresponding with a kindly older gentleman from the Seattle area who grows an heirloom Chinese runner bean that gardening friends of his have called Insuk's Wang Kong runner bean, in honor of his Korean wife, Insuk. He actually sent these to me after I requested some squash seeds that he had been keen to share on the site, but I'll get to those later. The beans are quite enormous and lovely, but the plant is so fast-growing that I'm amazed. I planted some in the garden, but the ones I am looking forward to seeing are the ones I planted next to trees in the back yard:

Jim (the kindly older gentleman) also sent me some seeds from a squash that originates in Adapazari, Turkey. It's apparently quite large and sweet like a pumpkin, and I couldn't resist the offer to try out some of the seeds. The thing popped out of the ground amazingly fast, and the leaves are astonishingly large. I am not sure what took over my camera when I snapped this picture, but it came out such a wonderfully alien green color and looks quite artsy (compared to everything else I photograph):

So overall, things are going fairly well. Things that got damaged are making a recovery, and things that are new in the ground are coming up strong and fast. I enjoy the serenity that comes with a peaceful day of gardening, and I also enjoy the feeling of triumph when I'm able to bring a seemingly dead plant back to life.

I hope that this blog doesn't turn into something depressing. Right now my garden is a happy place, as it should be.

Cheating

This weekend, I bought some garden stuff, like mulch and bonemeal and whatnot. I also bought a chocolate mint plant because they are simply fabulous.


This, of course, made me find one of my favorite stupid repetitive Weebl flash videos~
Who looooves the chocolate? Everyone loves the chocolate! Nobody hates the chocolate 'cos everyone loves the chocolate!

Oh man, people who like juvenile things like Weebl's Toons need help. Anyway, that pot will be the mint's permanent home-- no mints are allowed to be in the ground in the garden because of previous past bad behavior by mints around the world.

But that was Saturday. Today is Monday. I have done nothing between the time I got and repotted the CHOCCYmint and today. SOOoo today I:
-Planted some new seeds that I bought over the weekend
-Repotted some plants that needed repotting
-Killed one of my sunflowers :(

Starting from the top~ I got Lavender Lady lavender because I really really want to grow lavender and one variety seems inadequate, especially since it has not sprouted yet. I also got chervil, four o'clocks, and a couple more kinds of squash and cucumber. I also got a couple mesclun mixes and a mixed lettuce mix. I am very much looking forward to cut and come again salads. Mmm :9 I also planted some of the mystery beans, peppers, and random seeds that my neighbor gave to me.

I repotted the parsley that finally sprouted and repotted some lettuce. The latter was probably a mistake, but that is okay-- I have plenty of lettuce to make up for it. The lemon basil in the egg carton was starting to die, so I moved it into a cup. I should have moved it sooner, but I was sort of waiting for more to sprout before moving it to a bigger container. Whoops?

Aaand the sunflower. I accidentally popped into his stem with my thumbnail. I felt so bad because he was the tallest one of the lot. It honestly feels like I murdered a child.

Oh, but I do have pictures of happier things :D


Parsley in a box and corn babies! The corn is just for kicks-- I sort of don't expect it to survive the transplant into the garden.


Mystery nightshades! I am pretty sure that the 3-cotyledoned guy is a pepper of some sort since all of my tomatoes have 2.


Nasturtiums and marigolds are growing, and you might be able to see tiiiiiny petunias.


Flowers, salad mixes, mystery melons, and okra.



Radish sprouts are beautiful-- I had to take a bunch of pictures of them. I love their slender pinkish stalks and fat green leaves. It makes me happy.

It rained like whoa today and while all the water eventually sunk into the ground I noticed that it tends to pool right next to the patio. Because of this I designed my garden border to avoid the patio, but I am wondering how much distance I really need to put between the garden and the patio so that it won't flood during the rains.

Anyway, I don't have anything else meaningful to add today.

Photo Phriday

Friday. Gorgeous, gorgeous Friday. It's a bit windy, but the sun is shining, the sky has cute little white puffs rolling about, and the temperature is cool but not cold. What a day to be outside and not indoors updating the blog! I never said that I play by the rules.

Today's work will be dedicated to clearing the evil black walnut bits that are strewn about the yard. Luckily they're nowhere near where my garden will be, but they still need to be taken care of. That, and the porch is a mess. My mom had commented on it being sort of kitanai when she saw it. She always says that word with such disdain, clipping the first syllable and dragging out the naaaaai. Japanese hate dirt.

Anyway, my mom also commented that cucumbers, okra, and beans are fun to grow. "Bean plants," she said, "make lots of flowers, and every flower becomes beans." And she said that she loves growing okra because "the more you pick it, the more that comes back." And then cucumbers she just adores, but she told me that she had a bad experience when she first tried to grow them in America. She lived in Panama Beach, Florida and she assumed that since stuff just grows in any old Tokyo soils if dropped on the ground and watered that it would work the same at her trailer in Florida. "The cucumbers grew an inch tall, sprouted flowers, and died. I was so sad." She urged me not to grow things that are cheap at the supermarket but to instead focus on tomatoes, basils, beans, etc. I assured her that I had plenty, although I didn't mention that I currently have some 15 Gardener's Delight, 33 large red cherry, and unknown numbers of beefsteak and random heirlooms that I just seeded last weekend. I did say that I was growing 5 different kinds of basil. She told me that she had tons of basil last year but since my dad is always working or is away on business that she has nobody to cook it for, so she just let it grow, flower, and die in the cold Ohio winter. I told her to get some shiso, which I think is called perilla or beefsteak plant, since that is her favorite Japanese herb. I also told her to freeze her herbs, but I guess that wouldn't solve the problem of nobody eating them.

Even though she is in Florida today, she told me that back home in Dayton there is something like 6 inches of snow on the ground. She's not looking forward to going back.

Anyway, to the photos! I have a little progress evident. The Gardener's Delight tomatoes are starting to grow their first set of real leaves, the large red cherries are starting to bud theirs. Beans are also growing their first set of leaves. I have some marigolds on the way while the nasturtiums and petunias are barely peeking above the soil.


Tomatoes! w00t.



Genovese, sweet, and cinnamon basil on the way. They're doing pretty well-- you can just see their first real leaves starting to bud.



Beans! The cotyledons seem to be drying at the edges and dying, but the real leaves that are sprouting seem fine. I won't worry unless the real leaves look bad, too.



Radishes! Growing like weeds. I may have to thin them out soon.



These are French marigolds of some sort I think-- too lazy to run down and check. They also seem to be doing well and will need thinning out soon.



Dill and mystery plants on a roll still!



Sunflowers grow amazingly fast. I'm surprised. This picture reminds me that I need to move them to a different window.

And now for the outside guys--




Peas! They seem happy. Happy peas. Peas and happiness? Love and peas!



Buckets of basils, spinach, and mustard. I should thin the mustards.



Boxes 'o brassicas. I have cauliflower, broccoli, and turnips there. They probably don't enjoy the small boxes but they will do until I can find something deeper to house them all. I doubt that I will keep this many to grow to full size, but I know that their shoots are good eatin'.



Boxes 'o beets! They are not happy to be there! They didn't do so well on the move, as is evidenced in this next photo.



Mowr. Lying down on the job, poor things. I just hope I can sort of keep them alive-- I love beets. If anything else I'll just eat the shoots.

Daydreamin'

Today I haven't felt like doing anything. Somehow both ennui and disinterest have hit me, which is a little odd considering that it's absolutely gorgeous outside at the moment.

Part of this malaise is the fact that everything that I want to start seeding that is currently in my collection is in a container of some sort. I have an itching to go out and buy more seeds, but considering that I haven't gotten a final garden layout drawn yet that seems a bit silly.

I do really want to get some more companion flowers, like lovage, borage, and four-o-clocks. I really want strawberries, but I wonder if they would totally die in the upcoming heat. There are a couple of veggies that I absolutely NEED to grow-- kyuri of any kind (Japanese cucumbers) and red noodle yard long beans.


Kyuri are the BEST BEST BEST cucumbers known to man. Every other cucumber is worse than inferior compared to these guys. 3/$1 in Japan, 5/$1 on a good day. I seriously should have smuggled seeds out of the country.


ARE THESE NOT THE COOLEST LOOKING BEANS EVER. I MEAN SERIOUSLY. I love snap and long beans of all kinds, and the red noodle yard longs look so incredibly GORGEOUS. I just want to cover the entire side of the house and fence with these guys. I can just see the kids coming off the bus and picking the beans for the hell of it and I wouldn't blame them.

Sigh. Back to reality-- I just hope that my seedlings survive the next couple weeks. That is my goal.

Whoops?

So things were looking up! up! up! since my last post. And oh my, life was amazing if you were a tiny seedling in my garden. Oh my yes-- mama put all her toddlers out on the back patio a few days ago and they were all as happy as could be, basking in the radiant (but not too intense!) sunshine at temperatures in the mid-70s. Quite amazing.

And then last night the thunderstorm rolled in. Of course I knew it was coming, so I hid my babies on a fairly sheltered part of the patio. Temperatures dropped into the 40s, which wasn't too horrible (except maybe for the peppers-- eek) but it was the wind that got around and grabbed one of my beans and broke his arm.


He was my biggest one. I guess it doesn't always pay off to be the tallest of the pack. Luckily, he was the only one to sustain any apparent injuries.

All the tomato babies are doing great, I have some peppers sprouting, the peas have almost all popped up, and I FINALLY have a couple chives poking through. Still no sign of lavender, kohlrabi, Swiss chard, or parsley. I wonder if they have died-- I'm debating tossing them out and starting over.

I've also got some mystery shoots going. Some cups I didn't label since I would label only the first of each row, leaving the other 2 or 3 to be implicitly assumed, but with the tumult of moving sprouters away from non-sprouters and, er, dropping the carrying boxes, I have some things popping up that I have no idea what the heck they are.



I hope hope hope that these two are peppers. I don't want any more cherry tomatoes.


These? No frigging clue. At all. They got lost in my dirt pile when I did some re-potting, and I found them sprouting on their own. We'll see what they become.

I did a bunch of repotting today. The peas got put into colanders and thrown outside where it is cool and they will be happy. I crammed the large beans into a tub because I need their cups to house newly sprouting beans AND the large ones need a heavier anchor against the wind, should they get attacked again-- although none got felled last night I don't want to have to deal with it later. Anyway, the ones in the tub will be repotted into larger individual pots very soon. Some might remain as patio plants and some will be put into the ground when the garden comes around. Let's hope that they all survive that long. The dill got upgraded from egg carton cells to a festive $2 Target holiday tin. Random radishes that spontaneously appeared in random pots got housed next to the flat of lettuce and spinach.


Happy dill in a cute green snowflake tin.


Baby marigolds! Huzzah!


CHIVES. FINALLY.


A couple of my sunflowers still like their little hats. I personally think they look silly-- lefty agrees.


Radishes that will eventually be allowed to turn into radishes, and not just baby greens salad.


Tomatoes and basils looking good! Oregano has a lot of catching up to do.


Okra, melons, squashes, tomatoes, peppers, basils, and random flower friends for the veggies.


I left my cilantro and Brassicas outside because I figured they'd like the cold. At least that is what I keep reading about them. Spinach, lettuce, beets, and some random basils accompany.


And finally, my peas. Don't they look happy?

I should also mention that my neighbor gave me a crapton of seeds from her own garden, including bitter melon, cilantro, beans, okra, and random squashes. I don't exactly know what squashes she gave me, except for the bitter melon, but the seeds are awesome-looking.


They are all planted in my "Mystery melons" carton. I am excited to see what pops up.

The day is cold and yucky and it would seem that the rest of the week will be pretty much the same. I am just glad that I have lots of windows in the house on all sides to stash the indoor lurkers.