Monday, June 25, 2012

Tomatoes, Midsummer Rain and Houseplants

Hello all!
So I realize I've been terrible about posting this month. I was waiting for my seeds to germinate in my vegetable garden to do another post, but there's a been a bit of a minor set-back in that department. Turns out the bean seeds that we'd stored in the garage that I planted weren't viable so I had to go out and get some new ones. I planted those only last week, so I'm still waiting for my beans...
But the tomatoes and peppers are doing well and I think the peas are coming along too. We've had LOTS of rain lately so the gardens have been growing like crazy.

                                                               
I also started a little experiment with some red and yellow peppers my mom bought from the store. After she'd cut them up, I collected all the seeds and put them in plastic bags with some soil in them, according to which color pepper the seeds were from, just to see if they'd sprout. They ended up exceeding my expectations and shot up really quickly. I still don't know if they'll grow actual peppers or if their genetics are all messed up from being grown commercially, but we'll see.

I had lots of seeds sprout...

So I put in them in the leftover flats we had from when we got a ton of petunias and pansies for the garden. These are the yellow peppers...

And these are the red peppers.

The flower garden has also been doing really well with all the rain. We have lots of honeysuckle growing up one of the trellises my dad made, and the poppies (which I didn't get any pictures of because they bloomed a while ago) really made the garden pop with their bursts of orange everywhere. We also have roses blooming which just adds to how great smelling the garden is right now.
Honeysuckle.

The trellis it's climbing up.
 
 I also planted a morning glory vine out on the very edge of my vegetable garden because it has a perfect fence for it to climb up.

Pink roses. They smell amazing. :)





My mom's newest hanging basket.

The houseplants are still thriving in the three seasons room. My dad is beginning to develop a thing for houseplants and will often come back from one of his trips to Lowes with not just paint for the garage, but another houseplant or two. 

This bromeliad was from the first trip to Lowes...

And this Sansevieria was from the second, along with a smaller fern-like plant (not pictured).

My house plants have been thriving except for one spider plant that looks like it's being eaten by something. I have no idea what. It looks almost like a slug or caterpillar has been chewing it up but I don't think that's the case because it's not an outside plant.  
 
It's got these crazy bite marks. I have no idea if my cat is just going at it or what. I've moved it up to a higher spot just to see if that is the case and have repotted one of the spider plants into a different pot. I'll keep an eye on it and see how it goes. 

The last thing I did today was pot some pepperomia and goldfish plant that had finally grown roots in my vermiculite rooting basin. 

Hopefully next time I write, my veggie garden will be a little more exciting. But my next post won't be until after the week of the 4th because I'm traveling down to Minneapolis for the holiday and to march in a 4th of July parade with my marching band. I might be rather busy, but if I get any good pictures and have time, I'll definitely try to at least post those. At the least, I'll try to tweet some, so go check out my Twitter account. :)
But if I'm not back before then, Happy 4th of July to all my American readers. :)


 
  


6 comments:

  1. Looks like you've been busy. Everything looks great. Keep me posted on your peppers, I'm interested in knowing if they produce. What type of tomatoes did you plant?

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    1. I have three of them marked so I know we have Tomato Celebrity, Goliath and Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes growing. The two others aren't marked but I think they're something similar to the Goliath variety. One came home from school with me and the tag got lost in the move and the second was given to us by a friend and I can't remember what she said it was. :P

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  2. Starting out chili seeds in plastic bag is quite creative and neat. Hope they will grow well.....

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  3. I love that you sprouted seeds from a grocery store pepper. My son once grew an apple tree from a seed that had germinated inside his apple. All gardening begins with experimentation. It's one of the best parts! :o)

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    1. Agreed. :) That's why I love horticulture so much. So much of it is experimentation and it's really fun to see what you can grow and propagate. We'll have to wait and see if the peppers actually produce, but it'll be fun to watch. :)

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