Well, I planted the seeds that were mystery mixes. These went with the insect/pollinator attractors, obviously. Sometimes words are blah, signs should have more fun. There are also cups of seeds that will grow butterfly and hummingbird attractors.
Baby pollinator attractor flowers are coming up.
I'm trying not to be discouraged by the broccoli and cauliflower, but this is pretty discouraging. I'm blaming the Dixie Cups. Nothing I planted in them is doing well.
Walla Walla onions are looking like grass that needs a trim. Good stuff. They don't smell like onions, though. Yes, I sniff them.
Pepperoncinis are finally starting to look decent. I'd almost lost hope for the peppers and tomatoes planted in this round.
Poblanos, finally starting to look presentable. Get your act together, peppers! You should see your cousins, the sweet bell peppers. Why can't you be more like them?
Lettuce clearly needs more light because the ones with the most light are growing like crazy and the rest are withering. But, really, when you consider there are two to three heads of lettuce in each successful newspaper cup, I'll take the loss of the ones in the back that aren't as happy. I'll be lettuce rich still, I'm sure.
Dude, sweet peppers, you are my pride and joy. Love ya! Lookin' good! Keep up the good work.
San Marzano tomatoes are finally poking up and looking like they may want to have a life. They better keep it up. I have big plans for their fruit.
These were late additions. I didn't want to have to trellis anything but when I thought about the veggies I was growing and what I'd still have to buy at the store, I figured I'd give it a go. Because if I have to run to the store just for peas and green beans, Imma be pissed. Thus, they are planted and look to be doing quite well. Next to them are wispy little beginnings of carrots. Having just seen a thing where you can grow carrots in a 2-liter, start to finish, filling the 2-liter with soil, I'm totally going to try that in about 24 hours because 2-liters have yet to fail me.
I simply must tell the story of my romanesco!
One of my all-time favorite veggies is this fascinating version of broccoli, which actually tastes more like cauliflower. I can only get it from two farms at two different farmers markets and I've never seen it in a store. I've asked other sellers if they carry it and why they don't. One farmer said it's not a very prolific producer, sort of temperamental, not something they can count on. Okay, fair enough. So when I saw seeds in the store for them I passed them by the first time. But not the second time.
Thinking they're weak producers, and having read some reviews saying they didn't actually provide edible offspring until the second year in California (in Illinois they're annuals so no hope), I thought I'd start a couple seeds in a container indoors. I put four (FOUR!) seeds into a medium brown pot to see if anything would pop up, then decided to bring the pot to work for my work window, which has awesome light. Then this happened.
I was walking to the office holding a grocery bag with the filled pot, planted with romanesco seeds, my usual book bag, my purse and a large gas-station-pop all on one hand, and my keys to the office in the other. As I was walking, my arm snagged on a display, which caused me to grip my styrofoam drink cup extra tight, plunging my thumb into the bottom of it, and in my panic upon feeling the ice cold Coke Zero pouring down my arm, all over my bags and the floor, I dropped everything and tried to plug the hole. Down went the potted romanesco seeds in the grocery bag. Once everything was cleaned up and I got to my office, I found the contents of the romanesco pot to be outside the pot and in the grocery bag. Well, it was only four (FOUR) seeds, so I just dumped all that dirt back into the pot and put it on the windowsill.
Within days, there were five (FIVE!) romanesco plants coming up in the dirt. The theory has been, shake the living daylights out of the dirt after you plant the seeds and then they will sprout rapidly.
They continue to do well in the window. All five (FIVE!!) of them.
But we had a quandary. The theory was that you must upend the romanesco in the pot after you plant the seed in order for it to sprout, right? There should be a control to this experiment, so I added a row of romanesco to the flat of herbs I started. I did not shake them up and flip them around. They stayed stable and upright. Lo and behold, they are springing up like crazy!
Seems to be a plant that wants to live. Good. Because I want to eat it!
Some guys came out today knocking on doors looking to do home roof, siding, and gutter inspections to see if there was damage from the hailstorm on the 12th...
They say I need a new roof, new siding and new gutters. Based upon hail damage. Not based upon the fact that my roof is old, the shingles are cheap, the house is 80 years old, and it sat empty for 4 years before I bought it. We'll see what the insurance assessor says. But I mention this because they said that they can usually get all the work done within 3 weeks of the green light by the insurance company, that it would likely take only 2 days total. So, do I start planting all around my house if there's a possibility that in 3-4 weeks I might be getting guys stomping around my property? I'm torn. However, I don't think the odds are good I'll end up getting all new siding, roof and gutters, so maybe I'm worrying over nothing. Hmm, I remember hearing the hail coming down, running outside, taking some pictures, and I did think about my car getting damaged, but I never thought about the house. I'm so new to homeownership. And I'm probably getting taken for a ride by these guys and my insurance company anyway. Ah, why can't I just sit around and grow food?
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