Trimming up a sad plant.

Start small, grow tall.. not DOWN!

This is a tag-along post with my entry about things I learned while gardening.  One very good lesson is to always stake your tomatoes. I put those metal cages around both of the plants but the cages only went about 3 ft tall and the tomato plants grew to about 8 ft tall. Next year I will use gardening twine and keep training the tomato plants up the railings.  

So, how to deal with this problem....

What I Learned

I've learned a great deal from my first year of gardening. Some of these lessons are specific to gardening in Maryland, others are universal.

Lesson 1: Furry Leaves make for Furry Fungus

The biggest gardening foe I faced was fungus. My pumpkins, zucchini, and cucumber all suffered moldy fungal growths that halted growth and shriveled produce. Maryland gets irregular and sometimes heavy rains and high humidity- the perfect growing conditions for fungus on the backs of leaves. I doubt I'll grow any more furry leaf veggies.

Lesson 2: Some Plants Need Lots of Space

I really should have done a bit more research on pumpkins before growing them. If I had, I would have learned that pumpkin vines will take over your entire yard and make it really hard to mow the grass. My tomato plants also grew far too big. Next year I will only be planting one tomato plant instead of two.

Lesson 3: Don't Let Plants Outgrow Pots

This no-brainer is brought to you by my bell peppers. I bought several plants mid-May . The gardener recommended they hit the soil within a week. It took me a while to build the raised bed garden, so the plants didn't hit the ground until mid-June. As a result, only the super hardy cayenne pepper flourished.

Hopefully these tips help. I'm planning out next year's garden now with some exciting new plants as well as some garden staples. I'll start sprouting the first seeds in March, though there will be a few posts before then regarding garden prep and a surprising herb that is currently toughing it out in the garden.

Keep on growing,

Christine

Caprese Salad!

This caprese salad brought to you by:

• 1 garden-fresh tomato, 
• 1 handful of sweet basil leaves, 
• 1 wedge of fresh mozzarella from Giant Food, 
• 1 sprinkle of sea salt, 
• 1 drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Instructions:

1. Cut up and combine.
2. Try not to eat the entire plate in 3 bites.

If you've got balsamic vinegar it can be nice to add a little to the mozzarella for a kick.  I love how fresh tomatoes are so rich inside that they're practically purple.  If I get a few more tomatoes I'll post a goat cheese bruchetta recipe.  

Happy October!

Christine

When will they stop growing?

The tomato plant on the left got a bit blighty and decided to become a vine and grow in a more downward direction.  It is somehow still producing fruit and still photosynthesizing, despite the fact that it is headed right for the basement door. 

The tomato plant on the right has about 6 tomatoes and stands at about 8 ft tall.  Tomato plants die off after the frosts roll through, so who knows how much longer it will last.  It's 70-80 degrees these days in Maryland, but any day we could have a frost overnight. Or snow.  You never really know in Maryland.  All that said, I think I'll be able to make bruchetta at least a few more times.  Recipe and pictures as soon as the next tomatoes ripen!

Stay sunny,

Christine

RIP Aconcagua Pepper

Oh well.

I came back from our honeymoon and all the peppers on the plant were dead and the leaves were droopy and falling off/nibbled to bits.  I'm thinking bugs, based on all the nibbles.  Aconcagua peppers are not really common in Maryland- I doubt I'd try them again. 

See you all in 2 days,

Christine

Back in the Garden

After a hectic-fabulous wedding and 2 week honeymoon in paradise, I'm back to the garden!  While I was gone with my husband, my father stayed at our house and promised to water the plants.  That's right, the same dad who ran over all of my tomato plants each year with his lawn mower, despite the fact that they were in cages.

It was a leap of faith.

I came back with most of the plants intact.  Unfortunately, a storm raged through our area and snapped two branches off of my cayenne peppers.  These branches were laden with fully grown but unripe peppers- all of which are still green.  Thankfully I was able to salvage every last one and pick a few red ones while at it.

Hot hot hot

When cayenne peppers are green, they aren't as spicy.  I'll be using the green (and mostly green) peppers for salsa and all of the red peppers for crushed red pepper flakes.  We just got a food processor for our wedding, so I'll be able to crush up the dried red peppers.

Since this plant has been so fantastic and they die every year, I'm going to save the seeds of 2-3 peppers and try to replant next year.  If this variety is this successful when I put the plant in the ground 2 months late.. well.. next year I'll be swimming in peppers.

Stay spicy,

Christine

Honeymoon

Sorry for the lack of recent posts! I got married Saturday and I'm taking off on a 2.5 week honeymoon tonight.  My father will be stopping by the house to water the plants, so we'll see how that goes... ;)

Have a wonderful September! See you all soon,

Christine

Spiky Cucumber

Either this is a weird variety of cucumber, or it will grow out of the worst of the spiky bits.  I had no idea the plant was growing anything- I nearly pulled it up because it looked so sad.  Only time will tell!

Stay sweet,

Christine

Green Pepper Failure

Turns out that the sickly little California Wonder pepper plant didn't have enough leaves to produce a healthy vegetable.  This sad little vegetable fell off the plant half-way to its transition to red.  It never got bigger than a clementine.  Oh well...

Better luck next time =)

Christine

Great Heights

Uh so.. maybe I need to learn to be less awesome at growing tomatoes.  As you can see from this photo, the tallest bits of tomato plant are well over 6 ft tall.  Thankfully all of the fruit is currently growing in the areas under 6 ft... for now.  Already the topmost bows are flowering which means that fruit is not long off.  If you look carefully, you can see a green tomato hanging out in the top right-hand corner of the door frame in the picture.  That's about 4 ft off the ground. 

My fiance says that I'm taking my blog's name too literally. 

Start small, grow tall!

Christine

PUMPKIN

I PLANTED A PUMPKIN PLANT WELL TWO PLANTS AND LOOK WHAT I HAVE NOW YES IT IS A PUMPKIN. 

AHHH.

There's a fungus among us.

See that white powdery nonsense on the sad leaves?  That would be a moldy, nasty fungus.  I'll be spraying it with a vegetable-friendly fungicide, but I already had to pull up one of my zucchinis because it had such a bad fungal infection.

This kind of fungus can occur when it rains a lot and the leaves get wet in a humid environment.  The humidity prevents the leaves from drying out and hairy leaves like pumpkin, zucchini, and cucumber get moldy and then die.   Heavy rains followed by humidity?  Why, you just described Maryland's climate to the T.

Stay dry,

Christine

The Peppers of Leggett Farms

California Wonder bell pepper from the craigslist sale in May.

After making me feel like a terrible gardener for months, my pepper plants finally decided it was time to make some peppers.  As you can see above, that bell pepper is well on its way to being on my plate.  The healthy bell pepper plant has 3 peppers growing on it right now, the other two being much smaller than the one pictured above.

Click for more peppers!

Humbled by Cilantro

I probably should have read up on how to grow cilantro.  Apparently cilantro flowers pretty young in its life and, once it flowers, the leaves lose their flavor and it stops growing.

I love flowers.. normally.

There are all sorts of techniques for delaying flowering.  If I'm honest, I don't even really like cilantro that much.  It's not really worth it to me to grow something so short lived and fussy.  Apparently the dried seeds from the flower are delicious as well, so I'll probably harvest the seeds and then call it quits on cilantro for good.

Fun fact: Cilantro is the same as coriander.  Two names, same plant.

Re-Re-Re-Roses

Time for a break from regular vegetable posts.  About a month ago, the last rose on my rose bush dropped to the ground and the tips of the plant turned purplish read.  "Oh no!" I exclaimed.  "What is wrong with my one and only rosebush? Is it a blight? Is the soil too acidic? Is it too much nitrogen, is it not enough nitrogen?

Well, if plants could talk, mine would have said..

Woohoo!

Awesome.

Seeing Even More Red

Four. Four cayenne peppers.  So, what do you do when you have 4 freshly picked cayenne peppers?  You string them up and dry them!  Once they're all dried up I'll chop them up super finely and they will be red pepper flakes.  Stringing up the peppers is kind of a no-brainer.  All you need is a needle, thread, clear tape, a sun-facing window, and, well, the peppers. 

Seeing Red

!!!

The first tomatoes are almost ready!  They're very nearly perfect.  You may notice that the one on the left has some brown cracks near the stem.  That can happen when you over-prune the plant and cut back the leaves that protect the fruit from sunlight.  Oops.  It's harmless, just ugly.

I've already decided what I'm going to use the fruit for-  caprese salad!

Giant Leaves

I had no idea that zucchini leaves got this big!  Seriously, the leaves are bigger than a personal pizza, many of them are over a foot from base to tip.  By comparison, the cucumber leaves in the top left corner are about 3-4 inches from base to tip. 

So much for planting parsley next to the zucchini...

And the lilac said, "Finally!"

We FINALLY got the lilac in the ground.  Here's the short version on how to plant a lilac shrub:

1. Buy a lilac shrub. 
2. Call your local utilities company to find out where power/electric lines lay in your yard.
3. Ask your fiancé to dig you a big hole.
4. Reevaluate.  Ask your fiancé to dig you a bigger hole.
5. Procrastinate 2 weeks.
6. Cover the bottom of the hole with a layer of garden soil mixed with peat moss/compost.
7. Gently tease out the roots of your lilac plant. 
8. Place the lilac in the hole so that 1-2 inches of the plant peak above the earth.
9. Surround the plant with the same garden soil/compost/peat moss mixture.
10. Build up the area around the plant with more good soil.
11. Cover everything in mulch.
12. Water heavily with plant food immediately after.  

 There you have it. How to plant lilac.  

New plants take 2-5 years to flower, so hopefully we see them closer to 2 years.  I won't be pruning the plant until it gets to be 6-8 ft tall.  Right now, it's about 4 ft tall.  The rule of thumb with pruning a lilac shrub is to cut to the base any stems 2 inches in diameter, and never cut more than 1/3 of the stems.  It will be quite some time before I have to worry about that!


Stay lovely,


Christine

How you feeling? HOT HOT HOT

One of these things is not like the others...

My cayenne peppers have started to turn colors, beginning with the very first pepper!

I have but one word to say today:

Yum.

Pumpkin Paradise

I'll say it once and I'll say it again- pumpkin flowers are beautiful. Also, they're enormous.  This is yet another male flower from the pumpkin plant on the right.  No lady flowers yet, but it's only a matter of time.  Pumpkin, zucchini, and other squash typically produce male flowers for a few weeks before producing a lady flower, perhaps to alert local pollinators that there are lovely flowers blooming in the area.  The male flowers don't last nearly as long as the female ones, simply because the female flowers later become pumpkins and the male flowers do not.

I may have underestimated this hybrid

The above photo was taken last week.  I am 5'11.  The tomato plant, for all its zigzagging within the wire cage, is now taller than me.  Today I measured and it's about 4 inches taller than me.  This is with me pruning back 90% of the suckers, bottom leaves, and burying the plant a total of 8 inches underground from its original root system. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I highly recommend Burpee brand Big Boy Hybrid, available at Giant Food and other fine retailers.  Especially if you're looking for a shade tree...

Stay fruity,

Christine

Exceeding Expectations

Look familiar? This is my garden immediately after mulching.  The tomato plants were huge! The pumpkins were finding their soil nice, and I planned to put some herbs in front of the zucchini on the left.  Well, I don't think I can do that anymore...

Blossom End Rot

Today's lesson is going to be on Blossom End Rot (BER), a disorder that can affect peppers, eggplant, and, sadly, tomatoes. BER is mainly caused by a shortage of calcium in the soil during a fruit-growing period, and irregular watering. BER is characterized by big brown or black flat, mushy spots on the bottom of the tomato.

The deformity is NOT contagious. It cannot spread from fruit to fruit or plant to plant. You can cut the deformity off of the fruit and eat the rest, though BER makes the fruit susceptible to other infections.

Only two of my tomatoes have BER- they were the first two to grow, before I mulched the garden. Oops. Now you know and can learn from my mistakes.

Grow, baby, grow!

Christine

Perspective

Some of my plants grow better than others.  I bought the cucumber maybe a month and a half ago and, although it flowers and I assist in pollinating it, it doesn't seem to grow at all.  I planted the pumpkin maybe 2-3 weeks ago and it was the same size as the cucumber.  Maybe the cucumber needs a little more shade? I hope so, because it's about to get it!

Pumpkins have Enormous Flowers

I never thought pumpkins would have big yellow flowers the size of lilies.

The first pumpkin plant flowered! I haven't yet seen the inside of the flowers, since they only bloom for a few hours a day, usually in the morning.  I've checked as early as 6:30 am with no luck.  Unfortunately, the bottom flower got pulverized.  Thankfully, it was a male flower, which is way more common on the plant (and in life, am I right ladies? just kidding).  Here's a picture to help identify male and female flowers on pumpkin plants brought to us by the Missouri Botanical Garden:

Source: Missouri Botanical Garden

The flower on the left is a male flower, the flower on the right is a female flower.  The more you know, right?  There are usually fewer female flowers than male flowers, since only the female flowers will bear fruit.  I am going to wake up super early tomorrow and see if I can catch a flower opening.  Fingers crossed.

Have a wonderful day!

Christine

A New Addition to the Raised Bed Garden

As I've probably mentioned a few times, we live down the street from a sort of permanent farmer's market.  They grow corn and loads of petunias, which they sell in giant hanging baskets.  I was drawn into their store the other day because of a giant 30% OFF LILACS AND AZALEAS! sign (woohoo for my lovely lilac).  While wandering around the store, I noticed a table with a little sign that said, FREE.  The table was covered in some sickly looking plants, mainly tomatoes of the roma variety.  When I say sickly looking, I mean practically dead, leaves shriveled, mostly-brown plants.  Call me an optimist (or unrealistic), but I decided to take home a California wonder sweet bell pepper plant.  I already have one California wonder, but it hasn't done much except get big.  No flowers, no nothing.  So, when I saw this California wonder with two wee flowers, I thought, "Why not?"

Most of the leaves had been cut off, but the flowers still grew.

Sweeter Tomatoes?

My tomatoes are bigger than your tomatoes! Photo from July 2nd, Zone 6.5-7

Follow my awesome tomato tips and you could have tomatoes like these! The single most important thing I am doing now that I have fruit is regularly watering the plants.  As I learned in high school, irregular watering makes for irregular growth.  My high school tomatoes were lop-sided and covered in weird nodules of fleshy tomato.  I have also heard that regular but lighter watering when the plants are producing fruit results in sweeter tomatoes.  This does not mean let the plants wilt!  Just.. give a little less long a drink with the usual frequency.

Good growing!

Christine

Lovely Lilac

Spray paint really can do anything.

You may be wondering what lilac has to do with red and orange lines sprayed on a sad looking lawn.  Well, in Maryland, if you're planning on doing any digging, you have to notify Miss Utility before you dig.  In Maryland, it's the law to verify where all power lines, pipes, gas lines, etc are in your yard before you dig them up.  Digging up utility lines and pipes can result in downed service for yourself and others, or even death if you electrocute yourself. 

All of the lines that go through our yard are in the front, well in front of the landscaped areas.  However, they may be problematic down the line when we edge our trees with stone.

So what's this about lilacs?

Mulch: Ugly but Effective

I really don't like mulch. It reminds me of childhood playgrounds and I really didn't want to use it in my vegetable garden.  So if I hate mulch so much, why does my garden look like this now?

Noooooo!

I ultimately gave in because, despite creating a raised bed garden on top of barren soil, I've been getting loads of weeds.  Weed control isn't the only reason to mulch, though.

Why You Should Mulch Your Garden

• Reduces weeds.  It is much easier for a weed to break through a layer of soil than a layer of wood chips
• Insulates against temperature extremes
• Moderates moisture levels.  Water that doesn't absorb into the roots can evaporate off of the top of the soil
• Topsoil retention.  The topmost layer of soil is less likely to blow away or get washed away when covered in mulch
•  When it decomposes, it releases nutrients
• Fallen fruit is less likely to bruise on a bed of cushy mulch vs water-compacted soil
• Some people think it looks nice.  They're wrong, of course. 

So there you have it. The benefits of mulch outweigh its ugliness.  I have conceded. Go forth and mulch your gardens.  Just, for the love of gardening, don't use the red mulch.  It's ugly enough as it is- no need to make it also look like the garden grandma built in 1957. 

Stay weed-free!

Christine

Let there be fruit!

They're going to grow to be the size of a small fist.

Look what I grew! The tomato plants I sprouted from seeds all those months ago have their first fruit. Spotted on Leftie, these wee tomatoes are probably 1-2 days old. I'm do glad I have some progress to fuss over on something other than the giant cayenne peppers.

Parsley from Seeds

About a month ago I was in Target's $1 section when I happened upon the cutest little gardening kit.

Product info available at http://www.buzzyseeds.com/

The kit comes with seeds, dehydrated soil, and a little plastic cup.  Instructions are on the back of the cardboard packaging.  All you do is wet the soil, allow it to expand, and then just barely plant the seeds underneath the soil.  I planted 8 of the seeds (about 1/3 of the total seeds) and 100% of them sprouted.  Not too shabby.

It's a parsley victory for this gardener.

The only problem with the kit is that the pot has absolutely no drainage.  This meant that I got a little mold at one point and had to let the soil dry out and the parsley got a bit wilty.  Perhaps poke some holes in the bottom of the plastic pot before planting the seeds in the first place.

From Egg Carton to Pot

Ready to re-pot as of a week ago, to be honest.

Remember my fantastic tutorial on egg carton gardening?  Well, all three types of seeds sprouted.  The cilantro grew fast and furiously, overcrowding and killing off several stalks, despite the fact that I only put one seed per segment.  Two of the three basil seeds sprouted healthy plants, although one took off for absolutely no reason.  Two of the three serrano chilies sprouted, one section sprouting three plants. 

You can tell it's time to re-pot your plants when any of the following occur:

• Your plant reaches a height that is wider than its container
• The roots of your plant attempt to get out of the bottom of the container either by cracking it or finding a hole to crawl out of
• Your plant, after happily growing for a few weeks stops growing abruptly
• Leaves from one plant begin to cover leaves from another plant
• Your plant suddenly wilts over, depressed with his current living situation

All of the above happened for me (sorry, plants) and it was high time to re-pot.

Magic Beans? I Mean Peppers...

I remember being a child and feeling wonder at the small bulb of a burgeoning tomato that, mere days before, was but a flower.   Well, my cayenne peppers are giving all tomatoes ever a run for their money.  Yesterday, I took a picture of the largest of the cayenne peppers.  Voila:

Aww look at the flower aka future pepper in the background.

As you can see from the scale of my fingers since I have no rulers, the pepper is approximately 1.5 fingers wide.  That was yesterday morning.  This afternoon, 28 hours later...

What? I don't even...

Uhhh... it is now approximately 2-2.5 fingers long and beefier in every way.  Go, pepper, go!  There are now 4 peppers on the plant in addition to this one that are the size this pepper was yesterday, so this baby is producin'.  I'm sure that I'm not mixing up peppers because this one is at the very top of the plant and the next pepper down is quite a ways down. 

Between the tomatoes I'm growing, cilantro, and cayenne peppers, I'm going to have the summer of the salsa, it seems.

Stay spicy,

Christine

Gardening Noob

I've never really gardened.  Growing up, I sprouted beans and tomatoes in various grade school classes.  I remember my dad mowing over my tomato plant on three separate occasions.  I remember sprouting carnations and getting them about 2 inches high before my dad mistook them for weeds and applied industrial strength weed-killer to my flower bed.  I never really gardened because I never had a safe place to garden.

In college, I learned the joy of container gardening.  My windowsill garden contained African violets, bamboo, the saddest bonsai tree I have ever seen, and cacti.  Everyone grew cacti in college.  College had its own problems for an aspiring green thumb.  Weekend trips to the beach, study abroad, and school breaks meant transporting my portable garden frequently,  and sometimes leaving it with friends and family.  This was not terribly conducive to any of the plants, except the cacti.  They just wouldn't die.

So, finally, I have a yard.  And gardens. And vegetables.  I keep getting ahead of myself.  I want to plant lilac and hydrangeas and some ferns and butternut squash and carnations and and and I have to remember that I live here now. I'm not going anywhere and neither are my plants (so long as I take care of them, of course).

I have a little piece of Earth to call my own, and so I'll cover it in flowers and fruits.  

Old Faithful: Tomato!

Tomato flowers = tomatoes on the way!

 So I finally got my tomato plants, Lefty and Righty, into the ground. They immediately took off with the growing and the flowering and the actual possibility that they will produce tomatoes later. 

Many gardeners and 2nd grade teachers love growing tomatoes because even 2nd graders can grow them from seed.  The simplicity of tomatoes makes many a gardener depressed when the ever-so-simple tomato does not grow according to plan.  I've grown many a plant in my day and have learned quite a few tricks along the way. So, without further ado...

How to Grow Epic Tomatoes

• When you transplant your plant, bury the stem and it will become a really strong root system.
• Pull off "suckers." Best described as the leaves that grow in the "armpit" of the plant, between the arms and the stem.  They risk blocking other leaves and force the plant to focus on leaf-production instead of fruit-production.  Death to suckers!
• Pull off leaves and branches at the base that touch the ground.  Leaf rot makes a happy tomato plant a brownish, droopy plant. 
• Water regularly.  If the plant gets irregular water, the fruit will come out deformed and rotty looking. 
• Keep bunnies away.  They like the leaves. Keep deer away. They like the fruit. 
• Stake the plant before planting it.  If you stick a giant pole right next to the plant, you risk destroying the roots.   If you already have the plant in the ground, use the circular-style wire steaks.  At least then you can put them as far away from the stem as possible. 
• If you notice all insects are avoiding your plant, feel free to cross-pollinate with a Q-tip and some patience. 
• Don't forget the fertilizer.  You can use fertilizer specific to vegetables, or just all purpose plant food. Follow the directions carefully- too much and you'll kill the plant. 

Good luck and good growing!
Christine

I can grow other things too, you know.

It smells to heaven of roses!

So, my gardening (in)expertise is not limited to vegetables and herbs.  I am also attempting to grow roses.  I don't know how much of their growth is related to my awesomely green thumb and how much is due to a generous helping of Miracle Grow the day I put this little lady in the ground.  Regardless, I will be taking credit for their growth from here on out.

Unlike my vegetable garden which has awesome soil, all plants in the front yard are settling into ground that is rich in clay and rocks.  Mmm.. rocks. Nothing a plant likes more.  So we'll see how successful my rock garden grows.  Next year we'll probably scrape off the very thin layer of topsoil and mulch, edge the whole thing with stones, and dump bags of good soil in.  There's a reason the previous owners didn't grow any flowers. 

Leggett Farms

Tiny success.

We've had our first success here at Leggett Farms (which is what I have decided to call my wee vegetable garden. Suck it, spellcheck. No, I do not mean Legged Farms).  Above, you can see my very first cayenne pepper.  The first pepper started popping not too long after I put the plant into the garden bed.  I probably would have had the first growth 2 weeks ago if I had moved the plant sooner.

Protip: big plants don't like living in little Styrofoam cups.

The cayenne plant is about 1.5 ft tall and has a plethora of flowers and buds, all of which have the potential to become chilies like this little guy.  Right now, I'm watering the garden once a day and adding a little Miracle Grow all purpose plant food every 14 days.

Have a spicy day!

Christine

Upgraded Gardening

Look what I made!

It was about time for this blog to go from the "starting small" to the "growing tall."  We bought a house and, after two weeks of being too busy, too tired, and too everything, I finally put together a raised garden.  I used Bonnie brand Raised Bed Kit, which was about $39 and 5 bags of Scott's brand garden soil.  I really should mix in some compost and mulch, but I did this the stupid way, so I ran out of time. 
I had read all sorts of blogs and instructables and Home Depot's weekend projects and everyone said to kill the grass by covering it with newspapers and weights (bricks, stones, etc).  That way you can just rake up the dead grass instead of laboriously pulling it up.  Guess which I did?  Then I broke one of the corner stakes because I decided to be smart and hammer it down before leveling the area. Again, because I'm awesome.  Add to that the fact that I may have waited wayyy too long to plant the zuchinni and cucumber and they both developed Sad Leaf Syndrome (SLS) which is the umbrella term I use for all plant illnesses.
All in all, I'd say that this project was a difficulty level 4 on a scale of 1= I could do this drunk and 10= calling Home Depot crying.  I made it into difficulty level 7 with stupidity, but what can I say- I like a challenge.. that I create for myself.

Have a great week, my fellow brown-thumbed bloggers!

Christine

Houston.. we have sprouts!

Whoaaa

Against all odds, the cilantro, basil, AND serrano chilis have sprouted (far right column).  That packet of seeds traveled all over the world, lived on a bookcase for 2 years, then the bottom of a box for 2, and finally... sprouted.  In fact, they've actually sprouted more little shoots than the basil has. 

In other news, I am sad to say RIP to my original basil, parsley, and rosemary plants.  Some sort of bacteria/fungus took them over.  I'm in the middle of moving, so I kind of didn't treat them until it was too late.  Plus side: I've got new basil on the way!

Progress Report

Tomatoes!

Everything's growing here in Apartment 434! The tomatoes are shooting off like crazy, although one is growing a bit more than the other (who knows why).  I just plucked off the lowest leaves today to reduce the risk of leaf fungus.

Cukes!

Of the craigslist plants, the cucumbers have grown the most in the past week.  It's a good thing we're moving soon or else all these plants would outgrow their plants and need to be repotted.

Baby Basil!

Look what's growing now! The winner of the basil-cilantro-chili race is basil, with a lead of 1 plant.  It looks like the cilantro will be coming up next.  No sign of the chilies (color me unsurprised), but it's too early to say whether or not they'll ever grow. 

Hope you are all growing well!

Christine

Craigslist Gardening

I was looking for nearby yard sales on craigslist when I happened upon a gardener's dream come true: herbs! fruit! veggies! $1 per plant already sprouted with soil in a little Styrofoam cup! I just had to stop by and I ended up picking up 5 plants.  They are all grown at home by this guy: http://www.therustedgarden.blogspot.com/  Apparently he does the sprout sale once a year.  Not too shabby at all.  I ended up picking out these bad boys:

Cucumbers

Bell pepper- California Wonder variety

Cayenne pepper for my spice-loving fiance

Green zucchini! Two plants that should really spread out.

Aconcagua! Which is.. apparently a type of sweet pepper that's long and narrow

All and all, I'm terribly excited.  I might need to briefly re-pot them before I plant them since we're moving in a few weeks and it will take some time to build and secure the raised bed garden of my dreams.  That is, if a raised bed is even possible.  I might have to plant the garden on the sloping side of the house due to the sun- the house faces exactly South-East and I doubt my future husband wants tomatoes on the front lawn.

Total money spent gardening today: $5.00

Grow grow grow,

Christine