So Many Bugs!!

Yes, there are tons of bugs in my garden, some good, some bad. I've noticed a bunch of small praying mantises hanging around. I know these are good bugs, since they eat bad bugs, but they are sooooo freaky looking! They totally freak me out. One molted in one of my okra containers, and the exoskeleton is even weird to look at. I hope they don't get too big, because then they'll be even freakier.

I noticed some bugs clmbing out of my compost the other day. At first I thought to myself "wow, I need to get rid of this compost if these weird bugs are climbing out of them". I did some reserch, and discovered that these bugs were really soldier fly larvae. It turns out that these are actually GOOD for the compost, as they help decompose the food waste. The soldier fly lays eggs near a food source (the compost) and when the lave hatch they munch on the food source. Then, when they are ready to become pupae and become adult flies, they climb out of the compost bin. In the evenings, when I can remember, I remove the lid of the compose so they can go be free to become adult flies.

The bad bugs include these little white flies hanging around my kale. I'm going to try spraying this organic pesticide, but I don't want to hurt the praying mantises. Tiny flies are also infesting the corn.

Summer is Here!

So it's getting pretty hot here in Phoenix AZ, and the planting season is long over. My garden has experienced a few setbacks. First, caerpillars have been eating my gorgeous pea plants. I tried using some organic spray on them, but I'm not sure it worked. I think they are gone now though. They were also in my parsley and kale, which was really annoying. Next time I notice caterpillar activity, I'm going to get a fungus that kills them and sprinkle it on the plants.

My pea plants are kinda recovering. I don't think I'll use hanging baskets for peas in the future, I think instead I'll plant in a 4-5 gallon pot with some polls for them to climb.

The corn plants are making corn! I didn't think it would happen, but I see two ears growing! I'm not sure I'll do corn again, but I'm glad I'm getting something from my current plants.

My tomato plants are getting really big! I can't believe they were started as seeds. For awhile they were dropping all their flowers which was very frustrating. I moved them to be more in the shad and started shaking their cages to help with pollination. Now I see at least three baby tomatoes growing! I'm really excited, I hope I get lots of tomatoes.

I planted some kale maybe 8 weeks ago, and it seems to be doing OK despite the hot weather. These plants are in full shade.

I bought a jalapeno plant and kept it in the shade and watered it everyday, and it's growing but it dropped the flowers it had made. I thought maybe it was getting over watered or it needed more sun. I put it in the sun for a day, and it was SO droopy by the end. I watered it and moved it to partial shade. I hope I can get it to produce, I buy jalapenos from the store quite often and would love to get them from my garden instead.

Since it's getting too hot for most vegetable plants, I've decided to try focusing on planting herbs for the rest of the summer. I planted some basil and I bought a parsley plant. I figure it will be easy to move them inside if they get too hot. I'll probably start some more herb seeds indoors.

Tomato Plants Getting Big!

My tomato plants are growing really fast! And little yellow flowers are starting to appear! I'm really excited about the progress of these plants. I need to move them into bigger containers. I read that a 5 gallon container is the minimum size for tomatoes. I went to Home Depot to find some 5 gallon nursery pots, but they only had 7 gallon and they cost around $8 a piece. I thought that was way too expensive since I need six of them. I ended up ordering some containers online. I hope my tomato plants won't mind their tight quarters for a few more days.

Corn, Beans, and Spinach Update Plus Okra!

The beans and corn plants that I plated 7 weeks ago seem to be doing great. They are getting tall! As I mentioned in a previous post, my dog destroyed one of my bean/corn containers, so I replanted and the new sprouts look very healthy. I'll probably have to thin out these new plants a bit by removing some, so they don't get too crowded. For the new plants, I used Miracle Grow Moisture Control Potting Soil. I think it's working out.

Check out this spinach I planted about 7 weeks ago. I expected it to grow a lot faster. I suspect the slow growth has to do with me using the wrong type of soil. I used "Garden Soil" instead of "Potting Mix" and mixed some of the local dirt in with it. I'm considering getting a second box container and planting new spinach seeds using proper potting mix.

I have given up on the orange seeds. There is no life at all coming from those seeds. I really would like some citrus trees though. This is the time of year when orange trees blossom and smell so wonderful! I want that on my patio! So I'm considering buying some trees from WalMart because they have them for only 15 bucks!

I also planted some okra seeds about a week and a half ago and they are just beginning to sprout. I love okra in gumbo, so I think it would be awesome if I can get some produce out of these plants. It's going to be an interesting experiment.

Pea Plants!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my little sister Jessi asked me to plant some peas. The reason for this is because we have fond childhood memories of picking pea pods straight from my grandparent's garden, cracking open the pods and devoured the little morsels inside. My grandparents have always had a huge garden with several rows of pea plants.

My 12 pea plants are doing well. The roots were outgrowing the little jiffy pellets I started them in, and I don't yet have their final containers. So I decided to plant them in small peat pots for now, so their roots can continue to grow. I will be planting them in their final containers early next week (I hope).

Trial and Error

My tomato plants are not doing very well. I put my little tomato plants in those peat pots, and they totally dried out. I watered them, but not enough, and I did not notice that the dirt in the pots became hard and dry. Out of the Jiffy pellets I planted with tomatoes, I have maybe three sprouts that still look healthy. I think the peat pots make the soil dry out fairly quick, and putting them in the sunniest place I could find may not have been a good idea either.

In an attempt to recover these poor plants, I soaked the peat pots with water to be sure all the soil is moist. I moved the plants to a place that gets less direct sunlight, but is still really warm and sunny. I think I'll plant new seeds in the peat pots that have no more growth, I would really like some home grown tomatoes. I'll be watering generously from now on!

On a happier note, I read an article that suggested planting peas in hanging planters. I ordered three hanging wicker planter baskets from amazon and will be planting my peas when they arrive. The article also suggested planting sweet peas in the same containers for aesthetic purposes. So I've planted some sweet pea seeds in little peat pots and will plant them along with the regular peas. Hopefully these pea baskets will turn out really cool.

From sprouts to small plants!

The beans are growing like mad! I'll probably try finding them a more permanent place to grow this weekend. Same with the corn, which is also looking great. I did a little research on corn, and it turns out one stalk ususally ony grows one to two (maybe three if your lucky) ears of corn. So if all six of my corn plants do well, the most I can hope for is 12 ears. I was sort of hoping that corn plants would produce more than that, but I'll take what I can get. I might not plant them again if I don't get a good crop.

I found some large plastic tubs in the garden center at Walmart. They are quite big and are only $5 each. I bough two for now, but will probably get more as I need them. I like how colorful they are.

No signs of life from my orange seeds, but I read that it could take up to six or seven weeks for these seeds to germinate. So there's still a good chance they'll grow.

A note about my patio feng shui... I've studied the principals of feng shui and I kind of subscribe to that kind of thing. It just so happens that my patio falls into the wealth and prosperity area of my living space (do a google search for bagua to find out more). This is really fortunate, because plants can really help increase the good energy of any area, so therefore, we can conclude that plants on my patio will help increase my wealth and prosperity. Also, the color red is really good to increase wealth and prosperity energy, and you'll notice that I'll be using a lot of red planters. Water fountains are also really good for feng shui, but I don't have any of those yet. I'll get one soon though.

I want to grow food!

Hi All,

A couple weeks ago, I decided that I want to make a garden. The problem is that I live in a town house that does not have a backyard. The solution to this problem is to create a container garden!

I've already started and I'm really excited. I live in Arizona and the weather right now is BEAUTIFUL, so I've decided to start this garden perhaps a little earlier than most people would. I think there is no more frost danger and if there is, I can bring my plants indoors.

I've decided to blog about this little project because I figure some people would be interested. Also, I've seen a bunch of pictures and you tube videos about starting a container garden, but they mainly just show how to start a container garden. I have not seen a lot of photos/videos of the plants actually producing food.

Oh yeah, I'm planting mostly vegetables because I want to harvest food. I think it would be awesome to preserve the veggies if I have extra by canning or freezing. We'll see if I get that far.

So this is my introduction. I'm going to see if I can take a few pics of my project's current status and will make a second post here in a bit about what I have going on right now. Hope you enjoy!