The battle continues

I am actually facing two continuing battles. The first is that random trash continues to show up in my plants - I woke up Saturday morning to at least three beer cans scattered throughout the garden. I am thinking of checking into the price/permit of a taser gun (overreaction, what?). Seriously, though - is this a fun game to drunk people? My plants are not dead, it is obvious that someone is taking time and effort to work on the garden, and their response is to throw things in it? Ergh. /end rant

Who doesn't enjoy waking up to this? And yes, I even recycled the cans - they may be douchebags, but I don't need to be. The good in this picture - basil to the right! My herbs I grew from seeds are thriving!

The second battle is against the container that wouldn't drain, aka the soup container. I was thrilled to wake up the morning after my creative solutions (from my last post) to see that the soil level had dropped and pressing on the top led to a firm bounce back.

Yay! The soil was completely saturated, but solid. And we have no rain in the forecast (in fact, we are supposedly hitting record highs today and tomorrow), so it should have a good chance of drying out.

It was apparent, however, that the strawberries were not going to recover. So on Saturday I drove off to Home Depot to replace them. I already have 3 Quinault plants and one AllStar in the  other strawberry container that are thriving, so I wanted a different variety. I could only find Ozark Beauty (I had also had a fourth whose name escapes me now) in a rather large hanging pot, so I snatched it up. It already had several small white berries on it, so I thought perhaps that would give it a much-needed leg up.

I just planted the strawberries last night, and I was sad to see that the herbs were alarmingly droopy (particularly visible in the sage on the right, below). However, I am hoping that the infusion of new, healthy plants with their own drier soil will help to soak up the moisture and the herbs will begin to perk up again.

New strawberries on the left. Sad herbs on the right. C'mon guys!

Other than the herbs, yesterday was full of encouraging sights on the balcony. The first was that I harvested strawberries - FIVE of them, from three separate plants. Five whole strawberries - I'm going to have to open a stand at the farmer's market!

Yum! They may be weird shaped and wouldn't make it through any sort of inspection, but I grew these bad boys! And they taste good - obviously the most important aspect.

I seem to reveal a new cluster of cherry tomatoes on the Sweet n' Neat every time I lift a leaf, and the Patio tomato plant has at least three wonderfully firm green fruits on it - I was under the impression that this was also a cherry tomato plant, but I am obviously mistaken and hence eager to see how big the tomatoes actually get before they ripen. And to top it all off, I spotted the first blooms on my Heirloom plant! I've read more about this plant, and I should've been pruning it throughout the spring - this serves as both a way to keep it from sprawling across the entire patio (mine is in danger of doing that) and encourages it to put its plant energy into blooming and growing fruits instead of growing more greenery. It's a good thing to be aware of for next year.

Some Sweet 'n Neat.

More Sweet 'n Neat - whaaaaat. I have plans for a fresh bruschetta once these bad boys actually ripen.

Two of the fruits from the Patio. They look just like real tomatoes!

The capper - my first blooms on the Heirloom plant. I am a bit concerned about how to support this branch if they do turn into fruit - it is nowhere near anything I can tie it to.

Finally, my pea plants are completely out of control. They have started to help define "urban sprawl," and I'm not sure what to do about them. They also will not, no matter how hard I try to manipulate them, wrap around the balcony bars - I think they are too thick. My mother suggested the soil may have too much nitrogen, which can make them grow and grow but not blossom. Unfortunately at this point there isn't too much to do about it, but it is definitely something to be aware of for next year (note to self: learn how to say "nitrogen" in Swiss German. Also learn how to say "garden," "plants," and "hello").

If you look carefully, you can see the original lattice I built is bent over with the weight of the plants. And I was worried they wouldn't grow...

Lolli says "Stop writing crazy lady. I am missing my time at the dog park."

Mother Nature steps in...

In one of my first posts, I worried that I would drown my plants. It turns out, Mother Nature is doing her best to do it for me. We've had only four sunny days in the past 2-3 weeks, and most overcast days have had either a drizzle or downpour associated. I've been surprised to see the wide range of responses. The tomato plants seem to love it - all three have overgrown their pots and have dozens of small yellow blossoms. I tied the heirloom plant to the balcony (with a leg from a former pair of tights) just this past weekend for support and hopefully to encourage it to grow away from the other plants instead of over them. The Patio plant shouldn't need staking/support, and I'm keeping my eye on the Sweet 'n Neat (who names these things?), but so far it is holding its own weight. There's really nothing to do with the tomatoes, as they have needed no tending, but I still like to play around with them simply for the way they smell. They smell like earth and green, and just one whiff reminds me why I've been aching for a garden for the past five years.

Two of the tomato plants. The Heirloom is on the left. This was two days before I strapped it to the balcony, as it was starting to take over the other tomato (the Sweet 'n Neat) and the strawberries on the other side. Not sure if you can see the flowers in this shot - I'll get better pictures!

The other plants that seem to enjoy the rain are the sugar pea plants. All three seem to be surviving, although one is definitely the runt of the litter and may end up getting beaten out by its bigger siblings. While the peas can't beat the tomato plants in scent, they are more interactive. I like to take the little green shoots and curl them around the homemade lattice. The next day, the plant will have taken initiative and wrapped around the string several times, where even a fairly strong tug can't disentagle, and be off in a different direction. I still have no idea if I'll actually get any peas from them, but we'll see.

The pea plants have actually recovered nicely from their precarious repotting. We've reached a tentative mutual agreement in which they've agreed not to be angry at me about it.

The strawberries have been a mixed bag. I have managed to snag a few tasty red ones from my container with only strawberry plants, which make me feel quite triumphant. However, I'd had to throw out just as many berries as I've eaten. Unfortunately, all the extra moisture and sitting water in the container makes the berries quick to rot, sometimes before they've turned more than just a light pink. It's sad to have to throw them away, but I am trying to be more vigilant about catching them before they go bad.

My very first strawberry from the balcony. Others have tasted better and been prettier, but this was my first. They say you never forget your first (and now I won't, because I have this blurry, crappy picture to remember it by).

The strawberry plants that have not been as ill affected by all the rain - complete with ripe berries, unripe berries, and even some flowers.

The other planter with strawberries has not been faring as well. Even when we had three straight days of sunshine, the soil never dried out, and it's taking its toll on all the plants in the container. The strawberries - which even when I purchased them were a little sad - were starting to cheer up, but stalled out since the rain started 3 weeks ago, and now the new sprigs are starting to die.

This was actually taken on day three of sunshine, after the second bout of rain and before the current third one we are enduring. You can see that even three days of sunshine isn't enough to get rid of the standing water around the plants.

The pepper plant in the same container is starting to yellow and droop a little, and the herbs have remained static. I'm fairly sure that thyme and rosemary, at least, prefer a drier soil (I'll have to look up sage, but it also doesn't seem to be inclined to grow). I'm deeply regretting not putting rocks or a better drainage system in place, but I had no idea that Boston would have a monsoon season this summer.

I am behind on my posts and have many more updates, including weekend baking frenzies that have led to as many as six recipes in a day as well as my dog deciding that organic fertilizer is pretty tasty stuff. But for now, I'll just hope that Mother Nature decides to give my plants a day off tomorrow (current forecast: no rain, but heavy cloud cover).

Outings and Plantings

I made it to Haymarket this weekend, although I still haven't used the berries and limes purchased there (I had hoped to make a raspberry/blackberry lime tart but ran out of time in the weekend - the berries are surprisingly still good in the fridge, so mayhaps this evening!). However, I still wanted to share some of the pictures. It's a full city block of tents, with most selling fruits and vegetables. There are also at least two seafood tents, as well as some storefronts that face the tents and sell cheese, bread, and various meats. It was a perfect day to be there - cool and sunny. I've never been there when it wasn't shoulder-to-shoulder traffic, and unfortunately the pictures are not able to capture the noise and chaos of the place. I love going not only because it's the cheapest fruits around, but also because in my opinion, it's one of the most wonderful, lively events in Boston.

Strawberries! No more than $1.50/box (prices vary according to vendor, so it's always a good idea to scope out the entire market for quality vs. price before purchasing).

Some booths let you pick out your own, while others select for you. Obviously I prefer the former, so this is something else to check on before buying.

One of my favorite occurrences - the vendors will cut open some of the goods and put them on display, so that you can see how ripe things are. These mangoes were tempting at only $5/box, but I couldn't come up with a use for 10+ mangoes.

My first attempt at capturing some of the vendors unawares. I had quite limited success - I think they are accustomed to watch lurkers closely.

Did I mention stuff is CHEAP here?

One of the meat stores that lines the outer edge of the market. Some of the crabs were crawling around on the ice. Freaked me out, but hard to argue about the freshness.

If I ever need raw sugar cane I know where to go...

My second semi-successful attempt at capturing a vendor portrait. He had the accent of a true Bostonian and the facial hair of Seneca Crane.

Unfortunately I didn't make it back before 4 pm, at which point my plants were in shade and I wasn't sure when it had occurred. However, on Sunday I was able to determine that the first hints of sunshine hit my plants at 8:20 am and by 3 pm the sun has moved to the other side of the building (where it should be hitting my seedlings, now set in the front window). So they are just barely hitting their "minimum" six hours of sunshine, but they are making it! Good news.

I repotted my pea plants last night. As mentioned earlier, they had been growing great guns, but stalled out over the weekend. I needed to make/buy some sort of lattice, so on Friday I grabbed a few tall sticks from decorative pots on the medical campus. They had been there since before Christmas, so I figured they wouldn't miss a few. I had my camera out on Saturday morning when I went into lab to capture what I had stolen from, but the landscapers were there, removing the decorations and putting live plants in the pots. Great timing!

The tools. The colored sticks with some offshoots were much taller than I needed, but were serviceable after cutting. I do wonder what they originally were before being stuck in a pot for winter decorations.

 I was horrified when I pulled up the pea plants to repot them to discover that the roots were dripping wet. So I will be holding off on watering the rest of the tray for a few days to let them dry out. I have no idea how the lattice will work - I definitely don't get any points for presentation, but I wanted to give the plants options on where to grow.

The final product. It's a little sad looking, I know.

I checked the pea pot out on the balcony this morning and nothing has fallen down yet, so that's...good? I'll see how it holds up in the rain the next few days. I also checked the rest of my plants, as it had gotten down to just a few degrees above freezing several nights in the past week (I had read how several farms outside the city had been going to extremes to protect their crops, but luckily I am well within the urban heat island of Boston itself). I was pleased to see a strawberry with a slight pink tint, as well as at least one white berry on each of the other three plants I first bought.

Definitely pinkish. I plan to eat it as soon as possible.

I also found the first flower on one of my tomato plants (the Patio strain), although the angle made taking a picture rather challenging.

It's blurry and hard to see, but in the center there is a spot of yellow - that's a flower! I had to hang out my window at a most precarious angle and hope that I got a shot, so this was the best one.

Finally, I was thrilled to see new growth on the two strawberry plants I bought on my second trip to Home Depot, as they had been rather large question marks. So currently it looks as if all my plants are heading in a positive direction!

My two sadder strawberry plants. On the right there is fresh growth in the middle of the three leaves, while the one on the left has new growth as sprigs underneath two of the current leaves.

Growth!

This weekend I plan to return to Haymarket (this time with a plan and a shopping list) and also hopefully bake (and take pictures of) many successful foods. Also on the "to do" list this weekend - transplant the pea plants. I already had to rig one up, with questionable success.

My pea plants. The tallest had fallen over when I woke up yesterday, so I tied it to a chopstick with a broken hairband. A temporary solution at best. On the far left are two pepper sprouts - I had another emerge within the past three days! Still nothing from the English pea plants, though.

 It's been raining off and on this week, so I haven't felt the need to water the plants. I have started watering the seed trays, and just this morning I did a thinning of some of the cells, so that I have no more than three seedlings per cell (most of them only have two - I couldn't bring myself to pluck out all but one - what happens if that one fails!?). I also moved them from the bathroom to a place where they will get at least a few hours of afternoon sun in my living room. Unfortunately I don't have room on my window ledge leading to my iron patio, where they would probably get more direct sunlight.

My other seed tray, somewhat thinned. The three types of basil are on the right, and I can't remember what I put on the left. I have misplaced my seed diagram, which makes things interesting - good thing I took a picture of it!

My closet kitchen, with the window leading to the iron balcony on the left. Newly purchased (and as yet unused) garden gloves are on the windowsill. What is not visible is the dog food and water bowls that I keep below the window, making access near impossible. I am still looking for an easier way to actually reach the plants than rearranging my entire kitchen every time.

The reason for this post, though, is that when I checked my plants this morning and removed various bits of trees that had blown onto them, I was surprised to move a strawberry leaf and reveal three berries! Because of the view from my kitchen window, I hadn't known they were lurking, so I was super excited to see they all look healthy and in various stages of growth.

Hello, little friends!

I still have to find/create an appropriate lattice for the peas, which I will hopefully put into their new home this evening, so I'll be sure to get pictures of that as well as any food this weekend. The weather is forecast to be quite cold this weekend with a nightly low for both Saturday and Sunday at freezing - so I may bring my plants inside each night. I just hope my dog doesn't try to eat them.

She certainly looks innocent enough.

Whales and watering

Yesterday I went on a whale watch with Anna, who had purchased a Groupon for it several months ago. It was a bit chilly, but amazing. We saw at least four separate humpbacks, and the naturalist on board was able to identify three as Ursa, Venom, and Pixar - each whale has distinctive markings on their tail flukes, as individual as human fingerprints, which allows for naming and identification. Probably the best whale watch I've ever been on (I've only been on three or four ever, but still).

I did not take this picture. I wish I had. There is a photographer on board each ship, and part of the Groupon was a USB stick that had all the photos from the day on it. I would've paid additional for it - it was hard to get decent pictures with so many people on board.

Voyager III, the boat we went out on. I totally took this picture.

We ended up stopping by Haymarket, a fruit and vegetable market that occurs every Saturday, and which I don't get to often enough. The food is cheap and if it's in season, usually good quality. The key is that it is often very ripe and must be used quickly. Hopefully I'll get around to that today - I ended up with blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, and a couple avocadoes.

I had to stop by lab, but I was eager to get home to my plants and check in with how they were doing. I thought I had seen a first pepper plant sprout when I left, and when I came back, I was pleased to see I was right. I am still waiting on the English peas to appear, but I'm starting to lose hope.

My first (and only) bell pepper seedling. We were very happy to see each other. In the foreground is one of my three sugar snap pea seedlings, who are growing great guns and I am starting to wonder when I should be transplanting them, as they are getting quite tall.

My other plants are doing...variably. The good news is that the tomatoes and first set of strawberry plants seem to be doing extremely well. They are definitely expanding and I even have a few small green berries that I am watching eagerly.

Heirloom tomato plant, day 1 after transplanting.

Heirloom tomato plant, day 8 after transplanting. That Miracle Gro is serious stuff. I was worried about the brown on some of the leaves, but I think I didn't mix the fertilizer with the water well, and that area may have gotten a concentrated dose.

That's a berry, yo.

Other plants, however, do not seem to be thriving. The two strawberry plants that somehow ended up in my cart during my second trip to Home Depot are not looking as well. They didn't look as robust even when I chose them, but I was determined to have more varieties, and my other 4 plants were doing so well I thought I could nurse them to health upon potting. So far, I haven't killed them, but their condition hasn't been upgraded from "serious."

Brown-edged leaves! Noooooo! I may or may not have successfully quashed my urge to water them immediately upon seeing this.

My other concern is my dill plant. Its leaves are also starting to brown around the edge. In addition to this, I realized I have no idea when to start harvesting dill. The plant was already pretty large (I think?) when I purchased it. Do I start pruning it already? If so, I have to add that to my list of herbs to use - the plants I bought from Trader Joe's are already entered into supercook.com, and as soon as I find a bread recipe whose first step is NOT "throw everything in the bread maker," I plan to try out a rosemary thyme loaf.

Brown-edged dill. Uh-oh.

Thyme and rosemary in the foreground. A mysterious herb in the background that I haven't gotten around to identifying (there are around eight possibilities listed on the back of the Trader Joe's marker). Can anyone save me ten minutes of google image searching?

Also, not related to anything about whales or gardening, but if anybody is interested in owning a castle, there's one on sale in France for the reasonable price tag of 950,000 euros. This led me to the realization that there is a website that lists dozens of castles for sale throughout Europe (and even one in the US). My favorite is definitely the one in Italy that comes with an automatic countship.

Playing in the potting soil

My triumphant homecoming from Home Depot left me with three tomato plants that I planned to put in individual pots, but I had only purchased two. Great math skills. But it was Saturday night, I was home alone - I decided to go large and at least repot what I had. I ended up with two tomato plants, each in their own large-ish pot, and a rectangular planter with all four of my strawberry plants.  Upon the repotting, I was disappointed to find that I had accidentally picked up only two varieties of strawberries, so I had three Quinaults and one All-Star. Oh well.

In a few short weeks, all of these will be mine! Because my plants are magic.

It seems there's a lot of guesswork that goes into starting a garden. Or at least there is when one is too eager (read: lazy) to take the time to look things up online. I was concerned when I only used about half the bag of potting soil after repotting the tomatoes - according to the bag, it was enough for two 12-inch pots, but I had used significantly less. Then again, the bag also said to fill each pot up only 1/3 of the way before adding the plant, and I had done at least half - otherwise the poor plants would have been completely covered in dirt. The tomato plants did have instructions to bury them 2/3 into soil. I probably did about half, as I was concerned about suffocating them - don't they need their leaves exposed for photosynthesis? But really, one man's half is another man's two-thirds. Fractions are tricky entities. Aside from the number of seeds per cell covered earlier, the other guesswork was how close to put the strawberry plants. The label claimed to put them 18 inches apart. Sounds nice, but when I only have approximately a five by two foot area to play with on the not-really-a-fire-escape, I couldn't afford to put two plants per rectangular planter. Or I could have, but I would've had to return a lot of my seeds and plantlings. I thought they looked nice about six to eight inches apart. This may be another decision that comes back to haunt me later this summer.

Plants on the balcony the morning after. Heirloom tomato on the far left, strawberry plants in the back on the right. Grow, little plants, grow!

By the end of the process, I felt like a real gardener. I had potting soil all over my apartment floor and under my nails that no amount of scrubbing could erase. The first real sign of spring! Before putting the plants out on the balcony, I saturated the soil of all of them, as there had been no instructions. I was grateful that I splurged on the soil that wards against over/underwatering. My husband, knowing my ability to kill houseplants via drowning, had already warned me against the dangers of overwatering. It's an unfortunate illogical cycle that never gives the plants a chance. I fuss over the plants and sometimes see a brown leaf, which could be due to a multitude of reasons. I resolve to water the plant more often. As more brown leaves pop up, I add more and more water, concerned that the plant is drying out when most likely I am rotting the roots. Then the bugs set in and I end up throwing the whole mess in the trash. I plan to set a strict schedule for the garden to avoid this exact end.

The fate I hope to avoid handing my plants this summer.