Death of a Tomato

Everything is growing really well, the aphids are pretty much gone, but so are almost all of the ladybugs! There is one left and it appears to be laying eggs on the eggplant (how appropriate!) so maybe it wasn't a total loss. However we lost the heirloom tomato! It either got blown off the deck or an animal jumped on it and knocked it off so of course I had to replace it. I couldn't find the same kind so I got one called Celebrity and a bush tomato. I also decided to secure the patio tomato and the new Celebrity to the porch railings with twine, I'm not taking any chances.  The bush tomato doesn't fit on the rail, it's supposed to not

need staking so hopefully it will stay short and well, bushy.
The biggest cucumber plant started to put out little tendrils so I rigged up some twine for it to climb. It's amazing watching the tendrils wrap around the twine, you can actually see it happen in real time if you are patient enough. All the cucumbers are flowering, the eggplant put out a beautiful purple flower but it fell off, fortunately it has more buds. The peppers are all putting on buds and two of the habeneros are flowering. The tomato feed I gave all the flowering/fruiting plants is definitely helping!

The orange trees have both sprouted and are healthy, I'm going to sprout some valencia seeds and see how they get on. I sprouted some heavenly blue morning glories and planted them in my remaining peat pots, I'm determined to have a Morning Glory windblock on the the north side of the deck and the two plants I have now are growing too slowly so we will see.

Release the hounds ladybugs!

So using soapy water on the aphids was working fairly well but I decided to get some ladybugs to help keep them under control. The man at the store said to release them after dark and after I wet the area down so that's what I did. There were masses of ladybugs all over the place last night and early this morning but by afternoon a lot of them were either hiding, or flew away. They did eat some of the aphids but not all of them, which I thought was strange but maybe they just need more time to adjust. I will check on them tomorrow and see if at least a few of them are still around, I hope so!

One thing I am noticing now that it is getting warmer is the increase of insect life in the garden. I found this pretty little spider sucking the life out of a fly on one of my planters. I will need to look him up and submit my photos to Project Noah, I haven't updated my sighting list in ages and I have loads to put on there like all of the animals and fungi from Humboldt Park, and even the photos I took at Wellspring last year (the wildlife was only good thing about Wellspring aside from the Guncles!) There was also a fairly large furry spider that I think was trying to hunt the ladybugs but he got all shy when I tried to take a photo of him.

He was cute though he sort of hid behind the planter and would poke his head up over the edge so just his front legs and eyes were showing. Unfortunately he was too shy to allow me to get any closer and I only had my phone with me so he is a little blurry and hard to see. I want to say he was a wolf spider but honestly I'm not sure. Hopefully he will stick around and I will see him again and have my good camera ready!

 I finished five plant hangers and hung them over the railing on the deck. I want to have at least eight hanging down and another 5 or so hanging from above, but I need a taller person to help me hang the ones up top as I am too short and we have no ladder. I think it looks nice plus it will give me room to but the rest of the plants out in the sun, a lot of the seedlings are growing fast and will soon need full sized pots and while the table gets full sun in the morning, it doesn't get it for as long and I want the fruit, herbs, and veg in as much sun as possible. Everything does seem to be growing very well so far, I got an organic tomato feed that I used on the tomatoes but will probably also use on all the fruiting plants. Speaking of which,  the oranges seeds I planted are actually growing! I thought they weren't going to do anything and I used their dirt to plant the thyme but I noticed two of them had sprouted and had roots and one has almost got leaves!

So I pulled them out of the thyme pot and carefully replanted them into peat pots. I have some Valencia orange seeds that I want to try next but I think I am going to soak them first in damp paper towels until they sprout so I don't accidentally nearly throw them away!