Week 5: The Heat Came

This week marked the beginning of some good spring weather with degrees reaching the high 80s. (Part of me thinks that the High 80s is typical summer weather, not spring weather. But, since I never really paid attention to the weather before -- outside of "it's hot" or "it's cold" -- the High 80s could be good spring weather). In any event, the plants grew like crazy this week.

The main happenings of the week was marked by the flowering of several plants and the arrival of the Earthbox. I resisted the temptation to purchase three additional Earthboxes. Somehow, I sense dear ol' Suze Orman would disapprove of me spending all my money on "dirt in a box"..... even if I called it an investment.

I don't think I'll be purchasing any other plants for the reminder of the spring season... that is, unless I get obsessed about something else. I'm already thinking about what to grow next year.... and it will definitely involve cantaloupe and watermelon.

The Container Garden as of April 27, 2008.

The totals are:

Tomatoes

• Bush Early Girl Tomato
• Better Bush Tomato
• Bush Goliath Tomato
• Super Sweet 100 Tomato

Squash

• Zucchini Squash (2 plants)
• Crookneck Squash
• Straightneck Squash

Eggplant

• Ichiban Eggplant
• Cloud Nine White Eggplant

Peppers, Sweet

• Lilac Bell Pepper
• Sweet Banana Peppers (5 plants)
• Chocolate Bell Pepper
• Sweet Green Bell Pepper
• Yummy Petite Orange Sweet Pepper (2 plants)

Cucumbers

• Bush Champion Cucumber (3 plants)
• Spacemaster Cucumber (4 plants)
• Picklebush Cucumber (2 plants)
• Lemon Cucumber (1 plant)

Beans

• Bush Blue Lake Snap Beans (numerous plants)
• Bush Contender Snap Beans (numerous plants)

Spices (I still don't know if I want to actually cook with them, but it's nice to know that they are back there).

• Oregano
• Lemon Balm
• Sage
• Rosemary (Dying ever so slowly)
• Tarragon
• Sweet Majoram
• Lavender
• Sweet Basil
• Cinnamon Basil

Fantastic Flowers

The plants are in bloom... well, at least four of them. I guess I'm doing something right. I just hope that I don't kill them before the harvest.

Ichiban Eggplant
Just think, I almost tossed this one in the trash a week ago.

Zucchini Squash

Better Bush Tomato

Bush Early Girl Tomatoes

Earthbox Came Today

My EarthBox finally came today. I decided to plant the cucumbers in it. It now has six plants (2 Bush Champions, 2 Spacemasters, and 2 PickleBush). Hopefully, things will work out.

Now, i want to buy another one for my bell pepper plants.

The Glorious World of Tomatoes

My tomato plants are doing great. Three of the four plants are flowering, and one plant even has unripe tomatoes.

I wish I could get this king of gratification from the bell peppers. Hopefully, when my Earthbox comes in this week, I'll put a crazy amount of pepper plants in it.

Better Bush Tomato

Bush Early Girl Tomato

Super Sweet 100 Tomato Bush Goliath Tomato

Week 4: And Then Came Frost.....

This week was marked by a series of unseasonably cold weather, with nights getting in the high '40s. Despite my best efforts to cover the plants, I ended up losing two of them.

Yummy Petite Sweet Bell Pepper

This always sickly plant finally died

Sweet Banana Plant

One Down, Five More to Go.

Week 3 Pictures

Today is week 3 for many of my plants. (The Phase I plantings). Everything seems to be going well, even despite the whole fertilizer debaucle earlier in the week. However, because of the fertilizer incident, it seems that it will be quite a while before I'll be able to have cucumbers. (I am sowing the seeds for them right now, so hopefully by next week, I'll have some seedlings to transplant).

Oh, sorry for the whitewash of the pictures. I couldn't get my camera to act right today.

The pictures....

Bush Goliath Tomato
One of the new tomatoes to replace the dead Bush Celebrity.

Super Sweet 100 Tomato
After looking at some pictures of how big this plant will get, I repotted the Sweet Basil and Sweet Banana Pepper plants that were sharing pots with it. I also "caged" the plant.

It has about doubled in size in a week.

Zucchini - Plant 1
Gained two extra leaves this week. Also, lost one of its cotyledons because of the Incident.

Zucchini - Plant 2
Gained at least four leaves in a week, and seems to have doubled in size.

Yummy Petite Sweet Pepper
This plant always worries me. As you can see it lost some leaves from The Incident. I worry that it isn't growing quickly enough. It lost about half of its leaves (7) this week. I will likely purchase another transplant and place it in the Earthbox once it comes in a couple of weeks.

Crookneck Squash
The leaves got larger, and the spacing between the plants widened.

Straightneck Squash
Leaves got larger.

Better Bush Tomato
Another new plant this week. It was already flowering when I purchased it.

Bush Early Girl Tomato
Has 2 unripe tomatoes on it.

Ichiban Eggplant
Besides the Yummy Petite Pepper, this plant just drives me nuts. I repotted it and placed it in a sunner location. And, what do I get? A plant with droopy leaves!! Geez.....
Oh wait...droopy leaves mean that I have to water it! So much responsibility!!

White Eggplant
Now this how an eggplant should be. It has the largest leaves of any plant. And, its bringing tons of lady bugs to the garden, which I hear is a good thing.
Chocolate Bell Pepper
Still short and stocky, with a wonderful color.
Sweet Green Bell Pepper
It started flowering this week.
Lilac Bell Pepper

Cinanmon Basil
I have no idea of what to even do with this Basil once its "ready."

Sweet Basil & Sweet Banana Peppers
Repotted from the SuperSweet 100 tomato. They seem to be flourishing without the tomato as its neighbor.

Bush Lake Beans 47

Doing fantastic. The leaves are getting bigger.
Sweet Banana Peppers & Bush Beans
The beans are dying, and I have no idea why. Bush Champion Cucumber
This was the last cucumber left over from the first set of seeds I germinated. It doesn't look like much, but hopefully it'll do something until the next seet of cukes are germinated.

Herb Day Grabs

Today was Herb Day at the Kent House. So, of course I bought something to add to my little garden project. I ended up getting seven new herbs. I doubt I cook anything with them, but at least they'll make things smell nice.

Texas Tarragon - Mexican Marigold

Oregano
Lemon Balm
Sage
Rosemary
Sweet Majoram
Lavender Fernleaf

And Then There Was Life.....

The first tomato of the season showed up today on my Bush Early Girl Tomato.

This all makes up for the disaster that happened with the Bush Celebrity Tomato.





My Sweet Green Bell Pepper also grew a flower today.

From the recommendation of people on GardenWeb, I tossed the dying Bush Celebrity Tomato and repotted the seemingly unhealthy Ichiban Eggplant in its container.

I also repotted the Sweet Basil and Sweet Banana Pepper that were sharing the pot with the SuperSweet 100 Tomato. Now, the SuperSweet has the container to itself.

I also ordered an EarthBox.

Phase III Plantings.....

With the depressing news of the cucumbers and tomatoes, I decided to grow something else. (Actually, I had decided to grow some of these things way before the bad news of the "died" plants).

The Phase III plants are:

• Bush Goliath Tomato: (68 days) June 17 - Determinate (but will grow tomatoes until frost)
• Better Bush Tomato: (68 days) June 17 - Determinate
• Caladium - Pink
• Caladium - Candidum
• Amaranthus -
• Sunflower (Dwarf Border Mix): Yellow and mahogany sunflowers.
• Convolvulus (Blue Enchantment)

I'll post pictures later.

This should just about do it for me with the vegetables. I guess I'll grow a flower or two to see how all of that works. Then, I'll be off to find something else to do.

Ding Dong My Plants Are Dead

Several of my plants seem to have died today.

The Bush Celebrity Tomato seems to have died because I think I overwatered it. The leaves and stems all fell off. I then dig up the plant to see what went wrong. The roots are still good so I decided to keep the plant. Hopefully it will recover. We'll see.

I also killed my Cucumber and Harvest Pepper seedlings. I covered it overnight with another pot...in some attempt to protect it from night winds and cold. The next morning all of the seedlings are leaning over. I planted new seeds in those containers, so in 7 - 10 days new seedling should form.

above: The Spacemaster Cucumber seedling. I think it suffered from wind damage as well. I posted a message on this Gardening site to get an "official" diagnosis for the white leaves.

above: Picklebush seedling....all droopy

above: Harvest Pepper....all droopy too.

Harvest Dates

I didn't realize I had so many plants. I plan to get another tomato plant and some herbs within the next couple of weeks. My main goal at this time is to make sure the cucumbers make it to transplanting.

Here are the expected first harvest dates for the veggies. (Click on the name of the plant to see how it is supposed to look when its mature).

Tomatoes

• Bush Early Girl: (54 days) May 15 (indeterminate)
• Bush Celebrity: (67 days) May 28 (determinate, which means that it will die soon after the first harvest)
• Super Sweet 100: (70 days) May 31 (indeterminate)

Squash

• Zucchini Squash - Plant 1: (48 days) May 9
• Zucchini Squash - Plant 2: (48 days) May 17
• Squash, Crookneck: (52 days) May 21
• Squash, Straightneck: (46-52 days) May 15 - 21

Peppers

• Chocolate Bell Pepper: (65 days) May 26
• Sweet Green Bell Pepper: (75 days) June 5
• Pepper Harvest: (70 days) from date of transplant (hasn't been transplant yet)
• Lilac Bell Pepper: (70 days) June 8
• Yummy Petite Orange Pepper: (73 days) June 3
• Sweet Banana Peppers (6 plants): (75 days) June 5

Cucumbers

• Bush Champion: (55 days) May 19
• Picklebush: (52 days) May 16
• Spacemaster: (56 days) May 20

Eggplant

• Ichiban: (50 - 60 days) May 11 - 21
• Cloud Nine White: (75 days) June 13

Beans

• Bush Blue Lake 47 (First Set): (58 days) May 22
• Bush Blue Lake 47 (Second Set): (58 days) May 27

Basil

• Sweet Basil: When plant is 6 - 8 inches tall
• Cinnamon Basil: When plant is 6 - 8 inches tall

Container Gardening

Last fall, in the midst of my jamming phase, I decided that I would try to grow some vegetables in the spring. I had forgotten about my spring plans until I noticed a display of vegetable transplants at the Home Depot. Looking at the displays of all of the varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and herbs left me excited at the idea of growing my own garden.

One problem: I live in an apartment. I don't have the space to dig up dirt to create bountiful rows of crops. I then read somewhere that vegetables could be grown successfully in containers.

And so started my obsession with growing vegetables in containers.

My container garden - started on March 22, 2008

Cinnamon Basil

Sweet Basil
It's in a pot with a tomato and banana sweet bell peppers. I am thinking about transplanting it because I think it may get too water from my constant watering to the tomato plant.

3 Sweet Banana Pepper Plants and 2 Bush Lake Bean 47 plants.

Harvest Sweet Bell Pepper Plant (Seedling)
It'll be exciting to see if this plant can actually grow into something one day.

Chocolate Sweet Bell Pepper Plant
This bell pepper is supposed to have a dark brown flesh. We'll see.
Sweet Green Bell Pepper Plant
This is my largest Bell pepper plant at the moment.
Lilac Sweet Bell Pepper Plant
Yummy Petite Orange Sweet Pepper
This plant should produce small orange peppers. The leaves were all yellow a week ago. (I think I overwatered it.) The plant seems to be recovering.
Bush Champion Cucumber
I grew this from seeds. I'll be excited if this actually grew into something.

Picklebush Cucumber
I grew this one from seed as well. It should produce small cucumbers that can be pickled. Sounds like another project...pickling.

Spacemaster Cucumber

It's there...somewhere.

Squash - Crookneck

Squash - Straightneck
Zucchini Plant
At the moment, this is one of my favorite plants. I like the leaves.

Zucchini Plant 2

My second Zucchini Plant. Strangely enough, I'm not sure that I even like Zucchini. Oh well....I have about two months to grow to love it.


Bush Early Girl Tomato
This plant is supposed to produce tomatoes in less than two months. (By May 19th according to my calculations). It's already producing flowers.
The plant has produced three stems that come from the ground. I don't know if I am supposed to cut 2 of the stems and leave the one plant or leave them as is. Any ideas??

Super Sweet 100 Tomatoes
I really needs to get a cage or something for this plant. It's an indeterminate variety, which means its supposed to grow alot...all through the season.

Bush Celebrity Plant

This poor plant. I have no idea as to why it isn't getting bigger. It was the biggest plant I had when I purchased it, but I had to bury 80% of it underground. Now, I'm left with 3 wimpy leaves tied to a stake.

Eggplant - Ichiban

Another beautiful plant. I just can't figure out what's going on with the brown leaves.

Cloud Nine White Eggplant
Supposed to produce white eggplants.