What's new...

Today I decided I needed to update as there have been some good changes along with the ones I posted yesterday. The first thing to update on is...

Doug found a pepper yesterday! It's just a small one, but it surprised me because it's on a plant I grew from Costco mini peppers, and we've been growing it since February or so. It started blooming when we put it out in May (wouldn't hold its blossoms before that) but even when it blossomed, they would just fall off, even if pollinated. So I decided to use it as a trap crop, to lure the pests and things away from the other, more productive plants. Seemed to work, I pretty much neglected the pepper, but it continued to live! Huh... now we've got fruit. So I decided the poor thing needed a little TLC, and I pinched off all the nasty looking leaves (leafminer, blotches, aphids, etc., etc.). There were a bunch of them, but as I was going through, I discovered we have a rather nice size pepper growing in the midst of all the leaves. Very cool. Never thought that plant would do anything.



Besides that, there are some new flowers in my wildflower/butterfly windowbox. I like these ones. They kinda look like the blanketflower that grows down in S. Utah by the sides of the road. This is good, because I have been trying to get some to grow by seed and haven't been successful so far. (Maybe these are them, though, and I just am not seeing the light, here!). They are one of my favorite flowers because they are native and so that makes them even more beautiful to me. I'm not a fan of fancy non-natives like roses, no offense to any one who loves them.



Also, the new beans are vining up nicely in place of the deceased sugar snap peas. I still don't know the name of the second one that I planted, but the first are soybeans (for edamame or however you spell it).



The oranges are going to be transplanted today into larger homes. I discovered roots growing out of the bottom of one of the containers- I think it's about time. =)



The basil/pepper concoction has finally taken off, but I think the basil more-so than the peppers in this container. These are peppers from real seed, not from the peppers I bought at Costco. Not that those are not real seed. Obviously.

I tasted the basil yesterday and yummm... it's lemon and lime basil and it really did have a hint of that lime (that's the one I took a leaf from). Very nice!



Today I discovered that I will never use Miracle Gro Organic brand soil again. I kinda knew it right after I bought it- I bought it out of desperation because it was late at night and Home Depot was the only thing open. It is WAY too heavy. Most of my plants have suffered the consequences of being repotted in it. I have read some horror story reviews about it as well... people finding metal, plastic and other trash in it. So I guess it's not really organic at all! I think I will be replanting most of the plants I put in that stuff in something I found at Western Gardens that I really like- Gardener's Gold. It drains really nicely and the plants seem to love it. It has worm castings and other great stuff right in it. It's a bit more pricey, but the pay off is worth it- healthy plants that don't need as much attention from me (which doesn't mean they don't still get it, ha ha!).

This fall, though, I think we are gonna try composting ourselves. Or maybe earlier. I've been reading alllll about it from library books. Seems easy enough.

Anyway, the desert windowboxes are looking good!! Mostly. Some plants are having a hard time, but I think it was because they were mislabeled somewhat as 'drought tolerant'. Anyway, the grasses (alkali socotum or something) has really taken off lately, super bushy and green. Nice for a desert box! The Indian Rice grass, something that if I had enough of, I could grind into a great bread flour, has set seed, so I am collecting that for next year. The yarrows are growing great, and one of them has even started showing blossoms. It attracts a lot of beneficial insects, so I am looking forward to that (still no sign of the dive bomber mantis from yesterday).



One of the avocados is growing great, the other, in the same pot, has been really struggling. The leaves are light green and just today I noticed that they were turning brown in spots. I am going to replant in separate pots today (and larger, as well). The other one is great, though. It's so fun to have some "tropicals" here in Utah. Reminds me of home.



The watermelon vines have really taken off lately in their new home and location. I tied up some cord on the staircase railing to make a trellis for them, and they are climbing right up.



They've had a lot of flowers lately, but no fruit... except these (which are so little, will they really ever be big watermelons?):



And no surprise, but my mint is really loving life right now. I mean, it's mint, so really, that's a given, but I'm happy about it. There are three kinds there: Mint-the-best (okay, that's a dumb name), Spearmint and Pineapple Mint. So far, Mint-the-best has lived up to it's name. The Pineapple mint smells like pineapple, but doesn't taste too much like it. Maybe as it gets more used to its home and spreads, the younger leaves will taste more like it. We'll see. I just really like it's bushy dense green foliage. It's so cooling looking, if that makes sense. It looks like it would be right at home under a forest canopy up in BC or something. Ahhh, BC.



So many things have finally started to set fruit. I have begun researching fertilization more closely, and have decided that some of these things I am growing need more phosphorus to set fruit, so I'll give that a go (fish emulsion and seaweed extract).

Things to Remember for Next Year

A list that will be updated as things come up:

1. Get sugar snap peas out earlier.
2. Fertilize the sugar snap peas more.
3. Get soil from Western Gardens, and look for composted materials in soil
4. When transplanting seedlings in peat moss starters, plant them DEEP! (soil constantly washed off starters, so they stuck up through the top of soil level of the containers).
5. Don't start cilantro and watermelon so early.
6. Don't start sugar snap peas inside
7. Try row covers for insects
8. Plant flowers sooner to get beneficial insects in
9. Start chives and onions right out in the containers and in more sun
10. Get mulch.
11. Don't put so much soil in the window boxes
12. Put more soil in the other containers.
13. Add a wick to the bottom of large containers and set them up on blocks so the wick can drain the container.
14. Try planting peppers with half a book of matches under the plant and crushed, dried eggshells for sulfur and calcium, respectively.

Newest news, problems and insects

Hooray for this guy! I am excited to find them in my little garden. There were two, but I think one ate the other. Another downfall (ha! actually quite literally) is that D was moving the peach this morning, which is next to the railing. In an unfortunate event, D saw the mantis dive bomb off the peach and our third floor balcony. I think I heard all the "bad guys" enthusiastically cheer when that occurred.




Zorak would be proud of that dive bomb.


(Space Ghost's evil co-host on his Coast-to-Coast show).

Here are some insects I am not sure about:




So this guy I wrote about earlier is not good, I saw it listed in a book I got from the library, but I can't remember what it was called.



Pretty cool webbing, though. I still took him off. I don't care how cool his house is.

And my apple and raspberry are not doing so hot- just showing a few small signs of stress (raspberry obviously showing more signs than the apple). The apple is not really putting out many new leaves, but is still green (water problems?) and the raspberry is just sad. The fruit all have mites or something in them when I pull them off the plant. Uggh. Who wants to eat that? I tried floating them off, but never saw them rise to the surface. I think they just burrowed into the fruit instead. I cut a LOT of the raspberry back today. I cut off all the fruit. I know you are not supposed to prune in the middle of the growing season, but I was really concerned about it making it at all. I cleared out all the lettuce growing underneath; hopefully all this will help it have more circulation and sunlight reaching it.

Apple-



Raspberry-







The peas are all gone now and I've cleared out the vines to make way for the beans (soy and some Christmas-colored bean) that have already gotten pretty large. I had planted some a while back when I saw the beans were going, but I think many of them didn't make it while I was in Canada. (Many things were dying when I came back.) So I replanted, and they seem to be doing fine now. Watermelons JUST started to show up on their vines, wow... that's a long time coming. Still no sign of cucumbers, and tomatoes are still green. A couple had blossom-end rot (Speckled Siberian, or whatever it is called), so I cut off the worst ones, which was hard to do as they were large. Wonder if it's lack of calcium or the uneven watering while I was away? Hopefully I can avoid that from future ones. Harvested my first batch of marjoram, wow- it's full of flavor. A little goes a LONG way. I loved it! I cooked it with sweet potatoes.

Marjoram drying-



The cucumbers have tiny yellow spots all over them, the marigolds are COVERED with them, but they all seem to still be growing. Saw a couple of leaf-hoppers, so this may be the problem. Also, there are tiny thrips all over the undersides of the cucumbers leaves. I tried to remove as many as possible, but it's hard. Ended up spraying with organic spray. I still don't like using it. The lemon cucumber also has a nice sized split in its stem, but for the life of me, I can't find any info anywhere about why it did that. It's not a grub (that was the most common answer). Not sure what I should do about it, but the plant seems to be growing fine even with it.

The beans have some leaves that are being scrunched together, almost like aphids, but there are none to be seen. Must be some other juice-sucking varmint. Perhaps leaf-hoppers or thrips as well?

Everything else is looking great, mostly. That's the update for now!

Oh, little banana... =(

I was outside watering my plants when all of a sudden, my banana fell over, broken cleanly in two at the soil level. There was no wind (isn't windy where I am) and no cold snap. I have no idea why this happened. It seemed healthy otherwise, it has been recovering nicely since I had it indoors for the winter.

As has been chronicled in this blog (I believe) I have been nursing this thing back to health after it was indoors all winter. I got it used to the sun outdoors very slowly and it seemed to love it, no browning of large areas on the leaves and no drooping; only nice healthy leaves coming out...




Sad, sad day.