Flowers and Pests

So I decided that we needed more flowers in the garden and I happened to be browsing the flowers outside the grocery store, so inevitably I brought some more flowers. The first thing that caught my eye was a Coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides "Black Dragon".) How could I resist a plant whose foliage looks like dark purple velvet? So I grabbed the last one they had and looked for something to go with it. I saw some stocks (Matthiola incana) and thought they would be great for scent and they would tolerate the shade that the Coleus likes, so into the cart they went. I then spotted some "brain" Celosia (Celosia argentea var. cristata) which is one of my favorites, when I was a kid my parents always got some for me to plant in the garden. At first I wanted them to go with the Coleus because I thought that would look really cool but Celosia like full sun so I stuck with the Stocks and looked for something to go with the Celosia.

Now I had always planned to get some Marigolds (Tagetes patula) for the garden as they repel pests like white fly on the tomatoes (and because of their associations with Dias de los Muertos) so when I saw them I knew they were what I was going to put with the Celosia. I love the color combination of magenta, orange and yellow, it's unusual but it works and really flowers never clash anyway. So we will see how my foray into garden design goes as the plants mature, see if the combinations are still pleasing and see if the plants are compatible with each other. The last plant I bought was a sage, all I need now is a Thyme or two and we will have all the herbs we need for cooking! 

Speaking of flowers, all the buds on the roses have bloomed and it seems to be doing okay, except I noticed some strange oil like substance on the leaves. I didn't put it on there, it didn't seem to be coming from the patio roof or anything, it doesn't smell like anything, it's yellowish in color and I don't think the rose likes it because some of the leaves had black spots in them (which of course could be a touch of black spot and have nothing to do with the oil.) I couldn't find anything on the Internet about it so I wiped the leaves off the best I could and i will keep an eye on it. I thought maybe it could be from an animal but it doesn't smell like anything, thankfully! The last thing I need is animal markings all over the patio!

The wildflowers are starting to sprout despite my heavy handed watering technique,hopefully enough of them will come up to make a nice container wildflower garden, I have no idea what flowers are in the mix but I would like something to attract bees.

Unfortunately the Morning Glories aren't doing to well, I'm not sure why. A few of them the stems just withered and the rest look a little peaky, the larger ones seem to be doing better but only time will tell. They might have had too much trauma to their roots during re-potting, if I lose all of them I will start over and sow them in plantable pots like the peat pots but using a peat free alternative like coir which is made from waste coconut shells. I realized I was using products made out of peat and I need to stop which means I also will need to change my potting soil, which kind of sucks because the stuff I was using was good and inexpensive, but not destroying the peat bogs and their habitats is more important than me getting cheap soil! 

Now that the garden is growing both in amount of plants and in plant growth, the chance of pests and problems grows with it. I was checking over the plants last night when I made a horrible discovery! Aphids on the Habaneros! I immediately googled and saw my best bet to combat the little critters without chemicals was a soap spray to kill them and just hand picking them off. I wanted to use a mild soap so it wouldn't damage the plants so I used my homemade soap and sprayed and picked. I got just about every aphid I could find off the plants, they had favored one in particular for some reason, and this morning there were almost no aphids.  I repeated the soap spray and I also noticed that the Chocolate peppers had a few on them so they got the same treatment. They don't seem to have gone for any other plants yet but I am keeping an eye out as this is war and it is a war I will win! 

The good news is that despite the bugs, the weather, and cloudy days this week, everything seems to be doing really well. The dill is putting on adult dill leaves, the fennel has exploded with new growth, the patio tomatoes is full of fruit and the heirloom tomato is full of blossoms. The Jalapeño and Cilantro seedlings are all still doing well but hopefully they won't get leggy looking for the sun, they look like they are reaching a bit. But even the heat and sun loving herbs like the basil and rosemary seem to be patiently waiting for the sun to come back out. Everything will be going back in place either tonight or tomorrow, as soon as the cold North wind dies down, I don't want to lose anything else to it. It looks like most of the cucumbers are going to live but another bout with that wind would finish them off, the same with the morning glories. Until then the rest of today will be spent finishing the plant hangers so they can all start living in the sun again and hopefully this will be the last really cold snap until Autumn!

The Garden Begins

Adam and Sons aka my new crackhouse

So now that I have some outdoor space to make a garden, a garden is being made. My roommate Kellie got some plants from work and her and I headed to our neighborhood garden center Adam and Sons to buy more plants and supplies. I already know this is going to be a dangerous place for me as I have already spent obscene (for me) amounts of money here! The only thing that stops me from buying *ALL THE PLANTS* is space and sun constraints (that and that whole pesky rent and food thing), I was tempted by roses, clematis, gardenias, basil, thyme, hot peppers, a ton of veg....things I didn't even know what they were but I knew I wanted! I know I will probably add some of the herbs to the garden at least but I want to see how the things we have are going to get on, we have already had a few problems which I will get into in a minute.

pre-squirrel garden

To start us off Kellie brought home broccoli, cauliflower, lavender, red sorrel, Brussels sprouts, chives, lemon verbena, French tarragon, fennel, Italian parsley, dill, and cucumbers. The dill and the cucumbers were both in bad shape when she brought them home and we lost the cukes and I'm pretty sure the dill has had it as well but everything else survived. At the garden center we picked up Sangria watermelons and a Brandywine Red heirloom tomato, they are Amish, date back to 1865 and are said to be the world best tasting tomato (We'll see.)

greenhouse seed starter

 I also bought a seed starter kit with a greenhouse top and some cumin, cilantro, jalapeno, and morning glory seeds. Most of the garden will be veg and herbs but I wanted to throw in some flowers and when I saw the Picotee Blue morning glories I knew those were the flowers I wanted. I was advised to nick the morning glory seeds and soaked them over night, and I am glad I did because they sprouted in the water and have actually started to poke above the soil! When the plants are big enough I plan to give a few to the guncles for their garden.

baby morning glories

So everything was going tickety boo until I went outside this morning and found disaster had struck! The parsley was a few green nubs where the leaves used to be, the lavender and chives looked chewed on and one of the watermelons was missing! As Matthew my other roommate had predicted, the squirrels found our garden and helped themselves! Well I couldn't let this go on so I headed back to the garden center to see what my options were. I was thinking netting but I found a natural repellent so hopefully that will do the trick, I don't want to get all Mr McGregor on their asses ;) And of course while I was there I needed to pick up some mint for my mojito flavored infused water. So I get to the mint section and I can't decide which mint I want, so I buy four of them, chocolate, apple, pineapple, and peppermint. I put them all in one pot that I am calling my mint garden.

Mint garden with four types of mint

I thought mint likes shade but all of them said partial to full sun so I hope they get enough sun on the deck. That's the other problem I think we will run into, lack of sun. I know they get quite a bit of morning sun, provided they are on the deck railings or the window boxes a former resident left behind, but I'm worried it won't be enough. The plants on the northeast side of the deck get some afternoon sun so I might migrate the whole lot to that side, my next step is to get those window box holder things that go on deck railings and then set the pots into that until they all need to be repotted. Not sure what I will do when they get bigger though, I'm already imagining rigging them up to hang down from the roof  and maybe tie the bigger ones onto the deck rail like some sort of horticultural shibari. It's all sort of an experiment, any failures will just be lessons learned, but it would be nice to get a crop of something for our efforts!