Om's Journal

Well, from my instincts, my bad joints and my nose I decided I wanted to get the plants inside by this weekend. Since we moved to this house in December, I have no indoor plant accomodations to speak of. So I spent today putting up a lot of mollied bolts in the ceiling in front of windows. Last night I had to run to the hardware store for toilet parts, so I picked up a bunch of chain too. I definitely over estimated on the lengths I needed, but long is better than short.

I have frought all the plants in, and will give myself a few days to settle out where they go. The most frustraing thing is I have a back porch with hooks in front of each window, and a place for 10 skylights. But, it is not heated or insulated. And it doesn’t even have a wood door, just a screen door with one pane of glass. So I feel like it is maybe only 5 to 10 degrees warmer out there than outside.

I still have lots more garden chores to get on. I had most of my veggie garden dug up two weeks ago when we had to have new gas lines put in. So I am trying to be positive and think about all the loose soil I now have for next year. I am still harvesting tomatoes, about 3 pounds a day at this point. I have been canning lots of salsa and pasta sauce. Two things we use regularly. I think we have enough to last us well into spring. The herb spiral out in front is doing well. I am going to make some basil wine here in a few days. I have been harvesting and drying daily for most everything else.

I still have the strawberries and asparagus to mulch. With the impending upturning of the Chimeria garden they were in, I moved them out front and built several new planters.

I also got all my crocus and daffodils (about 200 bulbs) in the ground yesterday in newly built flower beds.

I haven’t been on here much, but I have been busy gardening away. My mom brought me some purple heart the same day I bought some! She also brought more jade plants and some begonias. I have those along with some new succulents for a community pot and a beauty bush yet to plant. Inside I have lots of pac choi, lettuce, garlic, and spinach in various containers. They are doing pretty well. However, the same plants outside are going nuts! I think we will be moving a lot of the leafy veggies upstairs under florescent lights for the cold season. I find it difficult to keep up with all the data entry on folia and seem to be keeping track in my hand written journal better, since it goes out to the garden with me.

I have been harvesting lots and lots of seeds. I have four varieties of morning glories that are seeding right now. Two I planted, and the others were here when we bought the house. I am also gathering seeds from my four o’clocks and celosia. The tomatoes that I really like I have occasionally been fermenting some seeds. I am sure I will have tons of volunteers though, since when a tomato isn’t perfect I toss it towards the compost pile, or just leave it for the birds and bugs.

Had to pot this up to move out of the back garden. The gas company is digging up my entire backyard, and since the current gas meter they are moving is in my garden, I am saving all the perenials.

I am not sure what is wrong here. I can see ants busily at work up and down the stems, and they are going into holes right at the stems. I squished them and hopefully any aphids, but I couldn’t see any aphids like I have before on my roses and other plants.

We have been getting a lot of rain, so I am not sure if it is just too wet for the poor plant. But you can see what it looked like a couple weeks ago, and what it looks like now. I haven’t seen any signs of flowering at all. Anyone know what is going on here? And if I need to do anything?

Thanks much.

One of the two is sprouting today. The planter with the cotton liner I crocheted is showing its sprout. The other is the coco planter and it seems more moist.

I can see two little plants out the the 16 planted just poking up this afternoon. I bet they will all be up tomorrow.

We didn’t have a real bad storm, but we did get some very heavy, very fast rain. It beat down this garden that is the most exposed. Also, since it gets so much sun, the plants seem to be rather tall. Right now the garden looks bare, because the four o’clocks are only in their first year, and I know they will get huge over here. The soil is warm enough that they will most likely survive the winter.

The celosia I thought was hurt rather badly, but instead it burst out in bloom along the entire length of the stem that was laying over. So I went ahead and left it laying down. More flowers =more seeds = a thicker plot of the celosias next year!