Roses and thorns

Sometimes at summer camp, my cabin would do roses and thorns: at night, before going to bed, we'd all go around in a circle and describe the day's roses (good things) and thorns (not so good things). Here are my garden's roses and thorns for the past week and a half or so, starting with the thorns so that we end on a good note! Sadly (?) this post will probably be less about which boys were talking to who and more about which plants are growing.

Thorns:

1. My basil plant is basically squirrel bait.



Just when I think it's looking good... the squirrels dig up at least one of the growths. I don't think they're actually eating anything - maybe they're looking for the rocks they buried in the fall (sigh) - but it's definitely not helping the plant's growth. Now that Robin and I have basil pen pal plants, I really want this little guy to survive and give me lots of good basil!

2. Something is up with my lettuce.



I don't know if it's just the growth of the chard relative to the growth of the lettuce, but... it doesn't look like much has changed on the lettuce front. Quite the opposite, in fact: I think more lettuce has died than has grown. Sad! I am going to try to figure out how to help my little lettuce, and hopefully by the next post it will be on its way towards getting huuuuuuuge.

Middle of the road:

1. My strawberries are growing, but are kinda meh!



Also, there were two growing when I left for Mammoth, and only one remained when I got back. This time, the squirrels went TOO FAR. But I can't blame them, the strawberries are pretty good. I place them in between Ralph's strawberries and farmers market strawberries.

Roses:

1. The green onions are looking less and less like sad grass!

Before:



After:



Ok ok, the first picture is kind of unfair because it's after a squirrel rampage, but still: each little onion is standing up straight and has new growth. I just hope that this pot is deep enough for them to grow in.

2. Things are getting huge out there. Look how big the tomato plant has gotten relative to the bell pepper plant!



It's getting big to the point of me needing to obtain a support system for the plant and I should also figure out how to prune it correctly so that it grows as best it can. I'm looking forward to seeing blossoms!! And my bean plants are freaking loving it out there:



So lush, and so many blossom-y type things, which might actually be new leaves but I'm hoping for blossoms.

3. Squash blossoms!! They're almost here!



It's a little blurry (haven't quite mastered the art of close-ups with the phone camera yet) but the round growths at the base of the plants are fo sho blossom-type things! I am so excited - there are like 20 blossoms if you count the other plant, too! Exclamation points!

4. Just overall... things are a-growin' out there. This picture is from April 12. Please note the huge difference in tomato size and relative bean plant lushness (the bean plants line the left side of the picture).



Seriously the tomato plant, I am just so pleased. Next time: more thoughts on how to care for my plants now that they're planted? Fertilizer? Pruning? WE'LL SEE!!

(Oh, though in adventures in pruning: I decided to de-flower my thyme plant (har har) to see if it helps divert more energy towards actually growing the leaves instead of the flowers. Update on that to come!)

Strawberry, cont'd and major planting

Lots of news to report on the gardening front. But first: the saga of the first strawberry of summer continues!



Maybe it could have waited another day, but I was convinced that I had never seen a prettier or tastier-looking strawberry in my life. I picked it like the internet told me to - pinching the stem above the strawberry and letting it roll into my hand - and I felt proud. This strawberry made it with my help!



Ok, I need to work on my indoor food pictures. But. It was so perfect! There were a few markings at the base of the strawberry, but nothing too major. I sliced it into quarters and brought each of my roommates a piece (after I ate mine, of course). The general consensus was that it definitely tasted like a strawberry, but it wasn't the BEST strawberry ever. But definitely still tasty!

Since today was the first day I had free since turning in the official 1st draft of my final paper yesterday (!!), I spent the early afternoon researching supplies I wanted to get from Armstrong (since I had a groupon for that particular garden store). There was certainly more on my list than I ended up getting, but here is the bounty, pre-planting:



In order from the top down: zucchini, orange bell peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes! Note the bag of potting soil and vermiculite to the left. My garden book recommended a mix of 4:1 potting soil to vermiculite, so I ended up sprinkling a layer of vermiculite every so often when I was filling the pots up. Hopefully it'll help my plants grow! It's supposed to help water-retention, which should be useful for potted plants (since they dry out more quickly than plants in the ground). Here is the rest of the purchase:



Here we have: swiss chard and lettuce in the rectangular planter and bush beans below. Beyond getting a bunch of plants, I also bought a few tools (which I used a TON): a little hand rake and a trowel. I was tempted to grab my backpacking trowel, but I decided I could stand having two. I also ended up with a few little terracotta pots for... we shall see. Maybe planting more onions, but maybe getting a handle on the craziness that my succulent garden has become.

After a few hours of weeding and planting, I have what looks like a garden!



Left to right, top to bottom: swiss chard, lettuce, bush beans, tomatoes (yellow pear), orange bell peppers, bush beans, zucchini, cucumbers (lemon, they'll be little and yellow, aww), and green onions in the bottom row. I replanted a bunch of them 2.5" apart, but still have about a million left and no pots to put them in - I'm considering going door to door trying to hand them out, but I am also interested in finding random places to plant them. In the front yard? In a patch of ground somewhere in a street median? We shall see! But for now, I am just so excited to have all of these in the ground and growing. Tomorrow I won't be gardening, but my next task is to do some succulent control and to figure out where to put my new snake plant!

Strawberry!

It is hard for me to put into words how proud I am of this little strawberry. It got red so quickly! I am also beyond excited to eat it - maybe tomorrow or the day after? And then its little green friends should be ripening up shortly after. The first harvest is so close!

Today is the first day that my groupon can be used, but I'm going to save it for the weekend and will be doing some major gardening on Saturday. I am going to make a list of plants and materials I need - I'm sure it'll make its way onto this blog at some point as a study break.

Goal for today: not to check the strawberry's progress every hour. We'll see how it goes.

Squirrels.

Back in the fall, when I was trying to grow kale, I kept on finding the plants uprooted, but otherwise untouched. I blamed the squirrels, who were surely burying their bounty in the loosely-packed soil around my newly-planted kale. It sucked. Also sucky: when I dug up the kale a few days ago, I found what they had been burying: ROCKS. Lots of rocks. How do these squirrels survive??

But in recent news: they've attacked my basil and my green onions!



Whyyyy squirrels whyyy. I don't know how to stop them. Chicken wire? Moving my plants up to the balcony (where I bet they could still get them)? The basil plant was particularly heart-breaking because it was looking SO happy this morning!

Also, please say hello to my two new additions:



On the left we have my lovely strawberry plant, which was given to me for my birthday along with the variegated thyme plant. New word: variegated! It means that the leaves have green and yellow, oooooh. I am so excited for that first little strawberry to finish ripening - it's got some red showing now... and the rest of the blossoms all have little green strawberries growing!

Watering: got the strawberry and variegated thyme going - the others were all pretty moist still.

Today was hot

These past few days have been way too beautiful for me to get much work done, but I've loved trying to get outside as much as possible while still feeling slightly productive. The sunlight makes me happy! I'm not so sure about the green onions, though. They seem to be losing some green (see above), but I'm not sure if it's a function of the sunlight and heat or the fact that they are planted way too closely together. So! Tomorrow my reward for working is to get some potting soil and re-plant the green onions. Hopefully they'll be happier...

In other exciting news: today's groupon was $25 for $50 worth of gardening supplies from Armstrong Garden Center! What timing! So once my rough draft of my MS work is done (here's looking at you, Monday!), I get to go on a mini shopping spree. I'm compiling a list of materials I need. Update forthcoming!

Watering: everyone got some water today because it was so hot out!

It's time to plant!

In yet another attempt at blogging, I've decided to document my experiences gardening. My overall goals are:
1. Keep track of when plants have been watered
2. Take pictures of progress as things grow
3. Have an awesome garden by the time I find a job

Now, let's talk a little about awesome. Kind of an overused word, no? So here's my definition: my awesome garden will have variety - herbs, vegetables, and flowers. It will used as many found materials as possible and cost as little as possible. I will find a way to take care of it even while working (optimism!! See how I'm talking like I will have a job soon?). And, most importantly, my garden will be awesome because it is mine and I love it already. I put things in the ground and they are green and they are going to grow!! I find this incredibly exciting. So, without further ado, here is my awesome garden!


Hello, little basil plant! I got this guy from the Culver City farmers market two days ago (3/29). I watered it today, and it looks pretty happy. Ideally, I'll be making tons of pesto from this plant!


This mess of plant is oregano! Also purchased from the Culver City farmers market, but I thiiiink it was at least 3 months ago. So it's been doing pretty well, considering I don't do ANYTHING to it. But, I watered it today, and hopefully with some more attention it will start looking happier!


These are green onions and dude they smell SO good! I got these on Tuesday with the basil, and I am definitely going to have to replant them since each little green thingy is another green onion! I bet they'll want more room than what they have, but I figured it was better to get them in the ground than to let them just chill inside. I am really excited to eat these.


One of the wonderful things about the house I live in is that it came with a) all of the pots you see in these pictures and b) some plants of its own! These two are rosemary and thyme (ha), and there used to be some basil in here but it must have been a long time ago. I cleaned out a bunch of weeds and tried to prune the plants a little, but I'm going to wait until I do some more research before I get too prune-happy. So far: these also smell delicious and I am gonna put some thyme in whatever I happen to eat for dinner tonight.

Another thing to think about: the thyme plant has flowers on it. Is this bad? I know other plants go to bolt and then they don't taste good anymore, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen with perennials. More investigation is required!


And this... this is a mystery plant. I found it in the backyard and I was gonna throw it out, but I couldn't! Who knows what it is? What if it gives me delicious things to eat, or pretty flowers? I figure I can take the 10 seconds to water it to find out. Mysterious!

To come: thoughts on...
-fertilizer!
-building planting boxes
-what else to put in all of the other pots that I found around the backyard (including a wheelbarrow!!)

(Also: I got a library card today and a book on gardening. So exciting! It's this book: http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Anywhere-Alys-Fowler/dp/0811868753)