A Lot Has Happened In a Month!

I can't believe that it has been a month since my last post. I intended to post several times over the lat 30 days, but I kept getting distracted. I was not distracted from the actual act of gardening, however. Everything has grown like weeds!

The only plants that have not sprouted are the pink bananas and the Thai red papayas. I still have hope for them though. The weather is getting much warmer (it's been highs of 80 degrees all weekend here in South Florida), and I hope that the balmy temps will trigger sprouting in my bashful seeds.

Marcus Aurelius (my polydamus butterfly) finally emerged from his chrysalis on Valentines day. I missed it because I was at work, but my roommate called me to give me the good news. He looked spectacular, and had an affinity for my mint plant.

 

I released him as soon as the wind died down so that he could go find better eats than my flowering eggplant and roses.

On one of my many trips to Lowes, I discovered Georgia Sweet onion seedlings and some Heirloom Beefsteak tomato plants that I could not pass up. (Yes, I do realize I need better impulse control.) I planted the onions and tomatoes in one of my recycled cat litter container earth buckets.

A NOTE ON EARTH BUCKETS: Earth buckets (aka global buckets) are a great way to reuse containers by creating a self-watering plant container. I am collecting my cat litter containers to use as earth buckets, but 5 gallon buckets are the more common option. I cover the tops of my earth buckets with plastic shopping bags that have holes cut in them for the plants to grow out of. The plastic cover helps to keep the soil from losing moisture. I won't go into how to make one here because there are many fantastic how-to videos on Youtube. 

Last weekend I got the new beefsteak tomatoes, onions, Swiss chard, mustard, cucumbers, melons, beans, and some of the peppers planted in their respective containers.  At this point, I began to worry about floor space on my balcony.

Beefsteak Tomatoes

 Swiss Chard

Mustard Greens

Cucumbers & Onions

Sleeping Beauty & Banana Melon Sprouts

Beans & Assorted Peppers

But I still had tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant seedlings to transplant into pots from the seed starter trays.



This weekend I returned to Lowes and purchased two 64 quart bags of MiracleGro Moisture Control potting soil, some peat pots, and some regular 8-12 inch clay pots. My seedlings were getting too big and too crowded in their starter tray, and I needed to get them planted quickly. However, I was shocked to see how many individual plants I actually had! Apparently, I accidentally planted more seeds than I realized, because I had a TON of tomato and pepper plants that I have absolutely no room for. Now, this is an astounding number, and I do realize how crazy it is, and no, I don't know how it happened, but after 6 hours of transplanting the seedlings to peat pots, I had 47 pots of EXTRA plants! 47 EXTRA!



One tray of my extra plants -- mostly tomato and pepper plants



Tray of extra tomato plants



Overwhelmed by the crazy amount of plants I had,  I immediately started making calls to give away mass quantities of tomato and pepper plants. I am becoming the Johnny Appleseed of tomato plants.

So, now my garden is all planted and pretty much all that is left is the growing. One of my favorite things to do after work is to go out on my balcony to see what has grown in the 24 hrs since the last time I have looked. There is always some minute but inspiring growth.



Beans and Peppers Growing

Black Cherry & Carbon Tomato Plants in an Earth Bucket

Wonderberry Plants

 Pots of  Black Cherry & Carbon Tomatoes

Tiny Ground Cherry Plants

Eggplant is Fruiting

Mint and Catnip is Overtaking the Shelves

So, that is the latest on my garden's progress. My next posts will be about a resource I've recently discovered on wild Florida plants, and some reviews on the canning and preserving books I've books I've reading.



Transformations Are Beginning

Marcus Aurelius, my Polydamas Swallowtail caterpillar has been acting strangely. I thought he might be dying on me. When I purchased him, I was told that he likely wouldn't form his chrysalis for several weeks. The first two days I had him, he ate voraciously and defecated copiously. I was thrilled. I had a very active caterpillar.

But then, for two days he did hardly anything. He seemed to be moping around the top of his plexi glass cube. I put a new stick and some fresh leaves in with him and he ignored them. I wondered if the stress of several car rides had just been too much for him.

Yesterday he did nothing at all. I was convinced he was dead. He was just hanging from the top of the cube by a few webby threads. I checked on him again this morning before heading to work and he definitely appeared dead. I felt awful. Somehow, I had killed him.

I came home from work at lunch, however and discovered that over the course of the morning, Marcus Aurelius had transformed! He had entered his chrysalis phase. Currently, he is a beautiful Spring green chrysalis, and I am so happy that I have not yet killed him.

But the transformations did not stop at Marcus. My Carbon tomatoes have also just begun to sprout! So far I have sprouts emerging from three of the four soil pods I had sown. It is getting near freezing tonight and tomorrow night, so I moved the seed tray into the house for the nights. I am hoping that the Black Cherry tomatoes will soon be sprouting as well.

I had some herb seeds that do not transplant well, so I scrounged up some aged pots and used the last of my bag of potting soil to get them started. I now have Thyme, Dill, and Cilantro seeds sown in these pots. I also have small plants of Rosemary, Mint, and Catnip growing in pots as well.

This weekend I plan to clean up the balcony and get the layout set. I am not sure it will be a good time to plant the zucchini, melons, beans, or onions yet. It's still pretty early in the year, and I don't want a surprise freeze to destroy the growing plants.  But I will at least purchase the window boxes, tomato cages, and soil that I am going to need. And of course I will post pictures of my progress.

Seed Starting Round Two and a Homework Assignment

When I got home from work today a fat package from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds was waiting for me in my mailbox. I have been impatiently waiting for the three days it took for Baker Creek to send me the seeds. One of the packets I ordered was for Pink Bananas! I understand that they can be difficult to germinate, but the thought of having my own small pink banana tree is just too tempting.

I immediately divided the seeds into thirds so that I could send portions to my mom and to my best friend. This took some time as I had really ordered WAY too many seeds.

Then I got out my second 72 cup seed tray (I'm using Jiffy) and planted the few seeds that required seed starting.

My first tray of seeds is already doing me proud. I have fully sprouted mustard greens and mesclun, and I can see the very beginning of sprouts happening with my herbs and peppers. I'm still wait to see signs of life from the tomato plants though. Here's a photo of the progress only 4 days after sowing the seeds.

Most of what I purchased for this second round (beans, zucchini, melons, radicchio, herbs) did not require seed starting, so I put those seeds aside for when I am ready to sow them into pots. I need to make sure the worst of the cold weather is done and my balcony is transformed into a garden space before I plant them.

And speaking of transforming my balcony into a garden space, that needs to happen ASAP. Since the cold snap that killed half of my plants in December, my balcony has been a plant wasteland and garden prep station. It is thoroughly trashed, but I have a plan. As embarrassing as it is, I am posting the before pictures here, so that when it is cleaned up it will seem all the more of an accomplishment.

Another spur of the moment garden decision I made was to purchase a caterpillar. I was at the Winter Park Farmer's Market on Saturday and came across an entomologist who sold various kinds of caterpillars so that people could watch the transformation process from caterpillar to butterfly. My caterpillar (who I named Marcus Aurelius to both inspire him to greatness and annoy my mother) is a Polydamas Swallowtail and will eventually turn into a brilliant swallowtailed butterfly. I'll post some pictures of him along the way to document his process. Right now he is simply busy eating and pooping. I had no idea how much poop a caterpillar could make!

Lastly, I stopped by the library today and picked up a stack of books on canning and preserving. I know that I have months to go before I need to worry about saving some produce, but I want to have some knowledge under my belt well before that time. I also want to pick out some favorite recipes to keep me motivated.

Up next, seed sprouting updates, balcony transformation, and some book reviews. . .