Baby loves savory.

Summon Polka Dot army!

This is the my last resort.  We’ve tried home made remedies, store bought all natural remedies, and straight up scraping them off. If this fails, the aphids will have officially ruined my life.

Finding ladybugs was not the easiest thing, but thankfully Sage Garden Herbs had a few left.  My wonderful parents, not bound to the regular work day, made the trek down there to pick me up a bag before their 6pm close.  Enter my last line of defense, my darling dolled up ladies.  Natures defense to the bane of my existence. 

Following the instructions, we waited until evening, watered the plants, then released them to the feast.  I hope I have a bunch of stuffed  ladybugs by morning.

The Aphid War - Debrief

We won the war, but took some damage.  The solution that destroyed the aphids also took a toll on the plants.  They are bruised and battered, but will survive.

After talking with some green thumbs, their suggestion is to remove the oil from the armory.  Oil will destroy your plants…fact (blast you eHow…you own me some peppers).   Apparently, using a soap and water solution should do the trick, although it might take a couple applications. 

My hate for aphids still burns, even in their absence.

Those aren't sesame seeds...

Aphids!  Flipping APHIDS!!!  They’ve set up camp on my habanero plants and I hate them.

According to eHow, a combination of lady bugs and a vegetable oil, dish soap, and water mixture should do the trick.  

Now, I shall go to war and I have a feeling that I will slaughter.  Farewell aphid family, I hope I never see you again.

Success!!!

One of the pea plants has had a baby!  Once it grows up, I am going to eat it…and it will be delicious.  That’s how it works, right?  Vegetables are plant babies?

In all seriousness, I am elated.  I did a lot of reading on container gardening before starting this project and not all of what I read was promising.  A lot of people wrote about how hard it is and how your set up has to be just so to yield any produce.  I’m not sure that I agree with them.  I’m more of an act now because it’s fun and read up about it later kind of gal and that didn’t work against me this time.  Getting to this point seemed relatively easy.  It’s still early, but this is a great sign of things to come.

A new addition.

A few days ago I gave my good friend Ron some bush beans in a container.  After planting the bush beans in her garden, she gave back the container, filled with dirt and couple zucchini seeds.  She’s a thoughtful one.  The seeds quickly sprouted and seem to be growing with a fury.

It's been kind of windy out.

Winnipeg has been windy for the past couple days.  That, along with the us being up on the 7th floor has created a less than ideal balcony environment.  So the plants have taken over our entire living room.  I’m sure it will be small price to pay for what’s to come.

Another casualty...Kory (not that I'm playing the blame game).

One of the jalapeno plants died…Kory.  

Today’s diagnosis is death by dehydration.

The lesson learned is when a plant is in a small container, it needs to be watered especially if it is taken out onto the balcony in 26ºC weather for the entire day…Kory (I hope you’re reading this).

We have flowers!

The bush beans and peas have flowers!  I’m starting to think that this may actually work.  I have noticed a couple fruit flies and a beetle or two around the plants and I am considering them good luck rather then a nuisance.  

 

The Routine.

I figured I should tell you a bit about the daily routine.  

Our apartment has a balcony, which is wonderful.  It faces South, so for the majority of the day the sun floods the entire area creating the best case scenario for an apartment garden.  The seedlings are still too fragile to stay out over night, so we bring the plants outside first thing in the morning and bring them in around 5pm or so.  We also had an old lighting hub from our lizard’s terrarium.  It has a UVA/UVB reptile bulb, so I figured why not put it to use.  I propped the lighting hub on either side with two bar stools and for a few hours each evening (once the sun has set)  I put the seedlings under the light.  They seem to be reaching up the light, so I assume it’s doing some good.  

The store bought plants are much bigger, so I’m less worried about them staying out over night.  I usually do a quick temperature check each evening and if it’s warm enough, I leave the eggplant and peppers out.

Zombie Tarragon!

The tarragon plants have reanimated.  Nature is definitely a crazy mother.

Progress.

The plants are starting to look like proper plants!

The peas have grabbed ahold of the lattice and are making their climb upwards.  

The bush beans really are starting to look like a bush.  

The broccoli look the same.  I’ve never grown broccoli before, so I’m not sure what it’s supposed to look like, but they look like the broccoli sprouts that you would by at the grocery store.  I’m assuming thats a good sign.

The dill looks weird.  Long and gangly, but it does look like dill.

The jalapenos have their second set of leaves.  I had to stake them because they copped a huge gangsta lean.  I’ve been rotating the plants as often as I can to make sure their stalks are good and strong.

Jalapenos - Large container vs. Styrofoam cup

Definitely a difference.  The jalapeno seedlings that went directly from the seed tray to the large containers are not doing as great as the ones that went into the smaller cup.  There is a huge difference in size and general healthiness.  My suggestion is not to skip the middle step.

Casualties.

It happens.  The oregano and tarragon have passed on.  My diagnosis is either heat stroke or drowning. 

Let the transplanting begin!

Some of the plants have outgrown the seed tray, so it’s time for the first round of transplanting.

I made a lattice for the peas with some old sticks I used for an art project and some yarn bits.  I staggered the pea plants along the side of one of the larger containers along with the lattice.  Their little feelers are out, so I’m hoping they grab hold and giver ‘er.

The broccoli also went right into a large container.  I realized that I really should have been more careful when seeding the broccoli.  The seeds were pretty small so I just pilled a bunch into each puck of dirt.  A wasteful mistake.  Most of the broccoli seeds sprouted, so each puck had a bunch of broccoli sprouts all tangled together.  My Mom, a huge green thumb, figures that the strongest of the bunch will most likely take over and the weaker ones will just die off.

The ground cherries, jalapenos, dill, and thai basil are ready too.  The majority of these went into some styrofoam cups that I inherited from somewhere.  I hate to use styrofoam, but I figured I should make use of what I have on hand.  I poked some holes in the bottom with a pen, labeled them,  and filled them up with a dirt-manure mixture. 

I put six of the jalapeno plants straight into a large container.  I figured if they fair out the same, then next year I’ll skip the first transplant and go right from the seed tray into large containers.

Setting up the containers.

In preparation for my plants, it’s time to set up the containers.  I have a few varieties all set up in the same way.  

I bought a couple outdoor garden pots.  They are about 12" tall with holes punched out in the bottom.  I also bought a few large plastic bins (the kind you use for storage).  I drilled out a few holes in the bottom and used the lid as the tray.

I bought some yard stones (for lack of a better descriptor), you can use any type of rock or pebbles.  Just make sure that the rocks aren’t that much smaller then the holes at the bottom of the container.  If you are moving the containers a lot, the trickle of gravel becomes a pain. I also bought some dirt (make sure you get the kind that can be used in containers), odorless manure, and organic fertilizer spikes (Jobes Organics brand).  Once the pants are ready to go, I'lI placed about 2" of stones at the bottom of each container and filled the rest up with a manure/dirt mixture.  

Kory the hipster gardener - at Sage Garden Herbs

Mom filling her cart at Lacoste.

Adding some store bought plants to the mix.

In addition to my home grown beauties, I also bought some plants from a couple green houses in the city.  Lacoste and Sage Garden Herbs.  For those of you living in Winnipeg, Sage Garden is really a treasure.  They have an amazing variety of organic vegetables.  Varieties of things that I have never even heard of.  So, I adding to farm are 2 habaneros, 2 Better Belle green peppers, 2 Dusky eggplants, 1 Iciban eggplant, 1 purple tomatillo, 1 Chocolate Beauty pepper, and one tomato plant (a gift from my boss - grown from seed).

Picking out the seeds.

I went to the store and parked myself in front of the seed wall. What an overwhelming variety.  A lot of the seed packages made mention if they were good for container gardening, so that made things a little easier.  A good samaritan warned me that it’s not all instant gratification (well as instant as growing vegetables can get).  Asparagus for example will not produce in its first season…super lack luster.  I’m not patient, so that got skipped even though I do love asparagus.  The lot this year is made up of bush beans, peas, thai basil, dill, tarragon, oregano, broccoli, jalapenos, and ground cherries.

As soon as I got home I planted the seeds in a seed tray, gave them some water, labeled the top and set in a sunny spot. Let the gardening begin!