Still Growing . . .

The hardest part is the waiting.

Everything is growing and doing splendidly. Nearly all of my seeds have sprouted. I am still waiting to see signs of life from the Wonderberries, the Ground Cherry, the Pink Banana, and Thai Red Papaya. One of the surprising growers of the last couple of days was the cucumbers. I decided to plant a couple of the cucumbers in the seed trays (though they are supposed to be planted directly) just to get them started at the same time as the rest of the veggies. They sprouted almost immediately and are already one of the biggest sprouts.

This one is the Horace Boyette Burpless Cucumber:

And this is the Parisian Cucumber sprouting:

The tomatoes are also doing really well. Both the Carbon and Black Cherry varieties are starting to show progress.

One of the best growers from the first greenhouse tray that I seeded were the flowers. The Jewel Peach Melba Nasturtiums have become downright gangly, and the Camellias are also beginning to get so long that I think I will soon be transplanting them to pots.



The seed trays are beginning to look full of vegetation, so I decided to start working on getting my balcony organized so that it will be ready for when I begin transplanting. I cleaned up all the plant debris and detritus that was laying around, and I pruned the existing plants to get them ready for Spring.

My Ichiban Eggplant already thinks it is Spring. It began flowering like crazy a couple of weeks ago and now I have a plant that is covered with tiny purple eggplants. I finally got a trellis for it. Last year I just let it sprawl everywhere, but this year, as space will be at a premium, I decided it needed to start growing more vertically. Hopefully the upward mobility will help it produce more eggplants as well.





And Marcus Aurelius, my polydamus swallowtail caterpillar is still in his cocoon. I am amazed by how closely his chrysalis resembles a green leaf. I have no idea how long he will remain in the cocoon. That is something I should probably research. So far, he's been ensconced for a week.

Soon I will purchase large quantities of potting soil and begin transplanting the cucumbers, flowers, and herbs and direct plant the beans, onions, and radicchio.

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.