More from the patio...er...garden
Update on the patio garden:
--My tiny mint plant gave up the ghost and shriveled away. And I haven't been able to find another one yet, so no homegrown mint mojitos are in my future at the moment. Nice to know I can still kill even the hardiest of "omg you cannot mess these up they will grow ANYWHERE" plants.
--Yesterday I went to Lowe's and got two more 5-gallon buckets to make another self-watering container. I have seven little poblano pepper plants in one container and I think they're getting crowded. So, borrowed Jon's drill, grabbed a leftover plastic cup from under the sink, some string, my electric green cutting knife and voila! New swc. I transplanted three of the pepper plants in there today--just hoping I didn't shock any of them too badly. It may still be too crowded for them when (if) they get bigger, but we'll see.
--Strawberries are kind of sitting still. One of my six plants died, but hey, more room for the rest, right? And there's some little new growths on a couple of the plants. It's been six weeks since I put them in the container, so I no longer have to pinch off flowers and runners because the plants should be strong enough to support them now. I hope. If they don't take in the swc, I may invest in a hanging basket down the line to take up less space.
--Cilantro...is hanging in there. I've already harvested some for cooking, and it's not bouncing back really quickly so I probably shouldn't have done that until it gets bigger.
--Basil caught some kind of leaf fungus, this gray splotchy stuff on all the leaves, so I had to prune all the leaves off and leave it a sad little green shoot. Luckily, it has already started growing new leaves, so it doesn't look quite so pathetic. I hope not to find any more gray splotches.
--Finally, I was seduced at Lowe's yesterday by a red bell pepper. It just looked so big and leafy and healthy! None of my other plants are big or leafy. So I brought it home and planted it in a bucket, and we shall see.
I am too impatient for plants. I want my peppers and strawberries already! Grow, bitches, grow!
The compost is going well. There are a ton of little gnatty bugs when I open the lid to put something in, so I try to do it only at night, when they seem to be sleeping. But at night I can't really see the progress/state of the compost, so I'm still fine-tuning. Will probably have to look up compost pests and how to get rid of them. But it's not smelling up the patio or anything and I think I've significantly cut down on the vegetable matter going into my garbage and disposal, so I say win!
I am a little curious whether all of the exhaust fumes from the nearby freeway float on over and hurt the plants. I tried to wipe off all their leaves today so they are able to absorb maximum sunlight, for the brief interval that the sun shines on my patio. I really need a new place if I'm going to be a patio gardener. A dark cave is not so good for the growing...but it does cut down on the AC bill.
I keep stumbling across more things I want to grow! More! But I have no room! And I'd like to see that I don't kill what I already have first. I wanted to make another swc to grow lettuce, but that so far has been cost-prohibitive. I'm on a new budget, and I haven't saved up enough to go buy six or seven different lettuce/greens types to plant in there. I also would like some aloe vera. And I will admit, pretty flowers turn my head, even though the mantra for patio gardening is, "You have a small space--nothing that doesn't pull its weight!"
That is all. My life is plant gossip.
--My tiny mint plant gave up the ghost and shriveled away. And I haven't been able to find another one yet, so no homegrown mint mojitos are in my future at the moment. Nice to know I can still kill even the hardiest of "omg you cannot mess these up they will grow ANYWHERE" plants.
--Yesterday I went to Lowe's and got two more 5-gallon buckets to make another self-watering container. I have seven little poblano pepper plants in one container and I think they're getting crowded. So, borrowed Jon's drill, grabbed a leftover plastic cup from under the sink, some string, my electric green cutting knife and voila! New swc. I transplanted three of the pepper plants in there today--just hoping I didn't shock any of them too badly. It may still be too crowded for them when (if) they get bigger, but we'll see.
--Strawberries are kind of sitting still. One of my six plants died, but hey, more room for the rest, right? And there's some little new growths on a couple of the plants. It's been six weeks since I put them in the container, so I no longer have to pinch off flowers and runners because the plants should be strong enough to support them now. I hope. If they don't take in the swc, I may invest in a hanging basket down the line to take up less space.
--Cilantro...is hanging in there. I've already harvested some for cooking, and it's not bouncing back really quickly so I probably shouldn't have done that until it gets bigger.
--Basil caught some kind of leaf fungus, this gray splotchy stuff on all the leaves, so I had to prune all the leaves off and leave it a sad little green shoot. Luckily, it has already started growing new leaves, so it doesn't look quite so pathetic. I hope not to find any more gray splotches.
--Finally, I was seduced at Lowe's yesterday by a red bell pepper. It just looked so big and leafy and healthy! None of my other plants are big or leafy. So I brought it home and planted it in a bucket, and we shall see.
I am too impatient for plants. I want my peppers and strawberries already! Grow, bitches, grow!
The compost is going well. There are a ton of little gnatty bugs when I open the lid to put something in, so I try to do it only at night, when they seem to be sleeping. But at night I can't really see the progress/state of the compost, so I'm still fine-tuning. Will probably have to look up compost pests and how to get rid of them. But it's not smelling up the patio or anything and I think I've significantly cut down on the vegetable matter going into my garbage and disposal, so I say win!
I am a little curious whether all of the exhaust fumes from the nearby freeway float on over and hurt the plants. I tried to wipe off all their leaves today so they are able to absorb maximum sunlight, for the brief interval that the sun shines on my patio. I really need a new place if I'm going to be a patio gardener. A dark cave is not so good for the growing...but it does cut down on the AC bill.
I keep stumbling across more things I want to grow! More! But I have no room! And I'd like to see that I don't kill what I already have first. I wanted to make another swc to grow lettuce, but that so far has been cost-prohibitive. I'm on a new budget, and I haven't saved up enough to go buy six or seven different lettuce/greens types to plant in there. I also would like some aloe vera. And I will admit, pretty flowers turn my head, even though the mantra for patio gardening is, "You have a small space--nothing that doesn't pull its weight!"
That is all. My life is plant gossip.