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!


 

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!

Strawberries and Broccoli!

So because apparently I can't even go into the grocery store without buying plants, we now have two strawberry plants, a lemon balm, and another Italian parsley. As you can see from the picture, we already have berries, so if we can keep the plant alive and squirrel free we should have fruit in a month or so. Kellie pointed out that the broccoli has a a couple of baby florets, so we actually have crops already starting!

A cumin seedling sprouted up as well, the morning glories are still growing like crazy and the tomato still looks good. The watermelon are suffering, I think they got a little dried out the other day but hopefully they'll pull through. I found a piece of a robin's egg in the broccoli I have no idea where it came from we don't have any nests near by (at least none I could see)

As you can see from some of the photos I also bought a bunch of chili flakes and I put them everywhere, nothing was eaten last night so fingers crossed this will keep the squirrels away. I think I have figured out the solution to keeping the plants in the sun without them falling off the deck as well.
I am going to get long planters and tie them to the deck rails and when the time comes to pot the watermelon and tomatoes into bigger pots they will go in the corners and be tied to the roof supports.

My whole blog isn't going to be all gardening but it will be a large portion of it especially during the growing season, it's my favorite thing to do in the whole world and if everything pans out the way I hope, I'll be making a career of it someday.

Garden Update

Nooooooooo!

Well the repellent didn't do much, the lavender was assaulted again and the verbena is almost eaten up and we lost two more watermelons. The chives weren't touched again (though I wonder if that was the squirrels they purportedly don't like onions)and I am wondering if the safety of the remaining watermelons is down to their position, ie they are hard for the squirrels to get at which means I might move some stuff around. If this keeps up I might no choice put to get some netting. Although doing a bit of research it says castor oil, black pepper, alliums, and marigolds can all deter squirrels as well. I could try smearing garlic all over the place that might help. Ah it looks like red pepper flakes are supposed to work really well so I know what I am getting at the grocery store tonight...cheap, eco friendly, and effective, win!

Now the good news is the morning glories are going gangbusters! I planted them in two stages so the newest ones aren't up yet, but the ones I photographed yesterday? Look at them now, that's a proper plant! I always heard morning glories were hard to sprout, these certainly don't seem that difficult at all, and in the wild they self seed very easily. I'm expecting some of the others to pop up by the time I get home from work tonight.

Not much to see here yet

The last thing I did was plant some temple orange seeds I got from eating some temple oranges, which are a tangerine/orange hybrid. They have a nice flavor which almost reminds me of grapefruit but sweeter. I am probably going to move them inside next to the seed starter on my windowsill but i need a water catchment tray to put under them first.  I honestly doubt I'll get any fruit off of them, this is just to see if I can get them to grow. My avocados did reasonably well despite being to leggy until the cats murdered them, the next time I eat an avocado I'll probably stick the seed in a glass of water and wait for the roots to appear.

Look at these babies it's amazing!

Someday when I am a famous and successful gardener I will have greenhouses devoted to exotics like citrus and avocados (maybe even coconuts!) But first I must defeat the squirrels!

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!