Tags
aubergine, butternut squash, cilantro, dill, gardening, herb, plant, rainy day, rosemary, tomato
It rained cats and dogs this past weekend, Sunday being the worst day! When we woke up, it was raining pretty hard, and Patella was unsure if she wanted to go out to potty in it, since she is a bit terrified of rain. Yeah. I know. She is a special puppy and she has some odd fears, like Paul Anka the dog (of course), and she is also afraid of linoleum! It’s true!
see the trellis?
At any rate, later that afternoon, it began to rain hard enough to make me think we were in the middle of a tropical storm! The rain pulled up all the moss that was growing between the bricks in our driveway! It was a rough day for Patella, she waited for breaks in the rain to go potty and play outside, which didn’t happen hardly as often as she would have liked. So she spent her day, laying right in front of the sliding glass door to the backyard, nose pressed up the glass, staring. Mei spent her time looking like she was going to cry when she could hear the thunder and rain coming down, so she begged to be sitting right next to me or in my lap and playing with her toys.
Doyle's home
One of the breaks in the rain happened to coincide with one of Mei’s naps, so Patella and I decided to play soccer outside for a while after she had pottied and once we wore her out with that, I decided that was the exact moment I had been waiting for to trellis my tomatoes. The vine that Doyle is growing on is growing quite out of control. It’s bordering on three feet tall two feet wide and has just lonely Doyle on it. There are many other beautiful yellow blossoms on it, but nothing has turned into tiny tomatoes – they just keep going brown and falling off and new flowers blossom elsewhere on the plant. So between that one and the plum-cherry tomato plant that has four little tomatoes growing on it, we have a grand total of five tomatoes!!
side view of Doyle's home, see how big it is?!
While I’m hoping for more tomatoes, I’m happy to have gotten these to grow and keep growing! Although we did nearly have a tomato fatality! A friend of mine’s five-year old noticed the tomatoes growing and almost plucked one off the vine! But we avoided that brush with death, so they are all still happily growing away on the vine.
the plum-cherry plant
I wound up using the canes, which I hope didnt damage any of the roots on any of the three plants, and I used some kitchen twine to tether some of the larger parts of the plants to the closest string on the trellis. the plant was leaning towards the fence and more branches were growing out of the base of the plant, so I’m sure this will help to support the plant and train them to grow upwards instead of to the side.
the yellow tomato plant
The cayenne pepper plant is slowly growing upwards but holds no signs of producing actual peppers. The eggplant and butternut squash leaves are eaten and holed through but new leaves are growing out of the center of the plant and making each of them larger as well, even though there are still no signs of vegetables growing from it. The Habanero pepper plant ont he other hand is flowering all over, even though each junction of the stems has turned black. I am holding out the excitement, but it is exciting to see that the plants are actually growing pretty decently!
Doyle!
But there is a dark side to this story. The window herb planter has died. I went to put more water in it, as I was doing on a fairly, once a week, regular basis and noticed there was mold growing on top of the compost, just under the plants and noticed that the plants were really drooping. By the following week, they weren’t growing anymore. I know that they weren’t being over watered, but they haven’t had much sun lately, so I’m not sure if that is the case or not, but I have considered buying some starter plants to put in there instead to see how they fare. I think it might be easier for me to keep starter plants alive rather than grow them from seed, but it does take the fun out of growing my own cilantro and tomatoes and peppers to make the homemade salsa. But I did buy a little terracotta pot to try the cilantro from seed again, so we are going to mix some quality topsoil with the compost this time and see if that makes a difference. I think the nutrients included in the compost were starting to decompose and the bag did say that when that happens more compost should be added. But I haven’t the slightest clue how one goes about doing that. So we will have to try this again.
fresh raindrops!
At another break in the rain, Mei and I went to take Patella on a short walk, before the rain picked out again and took out some time for some photo ops! Even though it was a lazy, rainy sunday, it was filled with some excitement! And I loved cleaning up my tomato plants and trellising their blooms, it made my hands and arms smell like the most fresh tomatoes I have ever smelled and it’s just so refreshing! Especially with fresh raindrops.
Mei in her aviator hat ready for a walk!
Mei keeps an eye on Patella
What’s growing in your garden?
