Odds and ends

That's what I wrote about this week - a little whining about the weather, broken peppers, and being a lazy gardener. Good news - I borrowed a camera, so I have pictures this week! This one shows the tomato vines that are two feet taller than me:



I forgot to link to last week's update, when I made pesto out of my own basil and parsley. I have officially cooked with my own produce. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the vegetables, assuming they don't all fall down.

Customer service

I'm really not a demanding customer. I almost always like to find things for myself and fly under the salespeople's radar. But when I have a question, I go in expecting that someone will greect me and ask if I need any help. Particularly at a privately-owned business. It's a bit of a shock to be completely ignored.

Mini mantis

I found this little guy on one of my tomato plants today.



This makes me happy, even if my camera makes me slightly furious. It was such a tiny perfect little bug that's actually GOOD for my plants. After a week of setbacks and
attitude problems, it was nice to see this little creature on my poor plant, which has suffered at the evil little paws of the neighborhood squirrels.

Setback

You can read about it here. Sigh.

Well, that was fast

I planted the radishes on Monday, and they sprouted on Wednesday. Now it's Friday and they have visibly grown. I am pleased. There is a lot less waiting around with radishes than with carrots, and it's kind of satisfying. Now if they can just stay cool enough, we're all set.

In other news, I re-staked the tomatoes on Monday night, because I watered and they all fell down. My largest plant was the height of the stake on Monday. This is that same plant today:



Is that not insane? It grows VISIBLY from day to day. It's almost as tall as me. I grant that that's not very tall for a person, but for a tomato plant, I'm impressed.

This week's column

Is viewable here. I finally planted radishes, bought bigger stakes, and picked up an organic bug-killer. And it's hot.

Bugs

I suppose it was only a matter of time.



I think some of them are aphids, although I haven't found a good picture yet. The majority of them are the exact same shade of green as the tomato plants. I think there are some whiteflies, too, but when I went out to take pictures they were gone.

Now I need to decide what to do. I'd like to avoid chemicals if possible, so if there's an organic suggestion I'll go with that first. I'll also go over the plants and hand-squash as many as possible. Spraying with water is supposed to help with whiteflies, so I'll try that too.

It seems only the tomato plants are affected. I looked over the peppers and didn't see anything amiss. I already needed to go to the garden store to get taller stakes; pest control is one more item on the list.