Garden Post!
The garden is starting to look less like a patch of sorry seedlings, and more like something resembling something lush and green and leafy. Two of the magic bean plants have really taken off, but the rest sort of look yellow and dwarfed. While I was trying to figure out the mystery behind this, I discovered the poor dears had aphids all over them! I panicked, and had visions of horrid pesticides spoiling our beautiful organic food. So I did what any smart 30-something adult does when faced with a perplexing predicament.... I called my mommy.
Mom came to the rescue. On Saturday she called from the road and exclaimed excitedly, "I got you ladybugs! These girls will do the job, and no pesticides will be necessary."
She arrived at my apartment and handed me a writhing mesh bag of live ladybugs (which admittedly gave me the heebie jeebies). When the sun sunk, we released them in the garden. And BOOM! They were all over those little pesty invaders. By the next day, my greenbean plants were virtually aphid-free... and there were still dozens and dozens of very satisfied, fat and happy little lady bugs in my garden - in fact, they decided to move in to the cushy blossoms on my chive plant. Behold:
Here is one of my darling green bean plants, much happier now and very grateful to their little red heroines:
And on the tomato side of things... we have babies!!!
Here is the garden in all it's lush glory. The day lilly plant on the far right is about to burst into dozens of giant yellow blooms. I expect it to happen in the next week or so. No sign of blooms yet on the canna plant in the background on the far right, but I still have hope. The transplanted orchid from Florida also shows no signs of blooming, but it seems to have survived the transplant. The verdict is still out on the ginger plant, which still seems to be in leaf-curled shock. But I did see some new growth on it yesterday, which I think is a good sign. I can't WAIT to cook with my own home-grown ginger!
And here's a close up of some pansies. Just coz they're so darn pretty:
Mom came to the rescue. On Saturday she called from the road and exclaimed excitedly, "I got you ladybugs! These girls will do the job, and no pesticides will be necessary."
She arrived at my apartment and handed me a writhing mesh bag of live ladybugs (which admittedly gave me the heebie jeebies). When the sun sunk, we released them in the garden. And BOOM! They were all over those little pesty invaders. By the next day, my greenbean plants were virtually aphid-free... and there were still dozens and dozens of very satisfied, fat and happy little lady bugs in my garden - in fact, they decided to move in to the cushy blossoms on my chive plant. Behold:
Here is one of my darling green bean plants, much happier now and very grateful to their little red heroines:
And on the tomato side of things... we have babies!!!
Here is the garden in all it's lush glory. The day lilly plant on the far right is about to burst into dozens of giant yellow blooms. I expect it to happen in the next week or so. No sign of blooms yet on the canna plant in the background on the far right, but I still have hope. The transplanted orchid from Florida also shows no signs of blooming, but it seems to have survived the transplant. The verdict is still out on the ginger plant, which still seems to be in leaf-curled shock. But I did see some new growth on it yesterday, which I think is a good sign. I can't WAIT to cook with my own home-grown ginger!
And here's a close up of some pansies. Just coz they're so darn pretty: