corky is here

I have been waiting for this day when Corky would appear, and I'm glad I was there when she showed up today. She looks ever so pretty - such a pretty yellow!

Her sisters should be arriving the rest of this week. Perhaps I will see them all on Independence Day?

strawberry plants: year 2 June update

Strawberries are a sign of summer. Im pleased to report that our alpine strawberry plants are doing quite well - constantly producing fruit. Unfortunately they're left hanging on the plant because TH doesn't think to pick and eat them. The alpine strawberries are tiny and hidden under the layers of large strawberry plant foliage. I have been eating the white ones, which have an unusual mix of pineapple and strawberry taste.

Some of the alpine strawberry plants are doing very while a few did not and I finally decided to pull them out of the planter. I think I will plant borage in those empty pockets, which are good companion plants. 

The pink galore strawberry plants have not been doing well. I was beginning to worry when I noticed the flowers fading without any berry production. Then towards the end of June, I noticed their signature pink blossoms dotting the top of the planter. A few have already started showing strawberry development. 

July should be a very productive month of fruit production. Hopefully, I'll have more positive updates to report. 

tulips: May update

All 6 bulbs of the white tulips bloomed at the beginning of May. It was a very pretty sight!

The black T. Paul Scherer and black parrot tulips bloomed though with limited success. Only two black TPS tulips bloomed and one black parrot bloomed.

I did not have any issues with the tulips while they developed and grew until it blossomed and I found aphids on the underside of the leaves! I was horrified and dismayed. I only know this because one of the black parrot tulips was drained of color and withered-looking. When I went to inspect, I discovered a colony of aphids sucking the life out of it!

I was fortunate enough to take descent photos of the tulips because as soon as the tulips bloomed, our zone was hit with heavy rain and strong winds. We have a balcony garden so our plants are sheltered from the rain but the winds really beat our plants especially the tulips. All the petals of the white and black tulips were blown off. A couple of the white tulip stems snapped off, too. The black parrot survived the windy abuse. 

Even after the petals were blown off, the tulips were attacked by aphids. The planter with the white tulips were infested. I turned over leaves and saw a colony. It was a gross and upsetting sight. Whatever is left of the foliage looks terrible. I was going to wait for the leave to yellow before digging them up but now that the leaves are ruined, I will dig up the tulips and inspect their condition and store the good ones until autumn for replanting. 

sprouting forth

Something has finally sprouted from one of these two pots that have laid bare while the other planters have sprouted forth green life. I still don't know what is growing. It's either the florentine tulip or coral lilies. Eventually, the mystery will be revealed.

jalapeños

Last week I wrote about the success of one of the other chili pepper plants, the jalapeños. Another jalapeño plant has also produced some fruit as well. It's not a great abundance but we certainly have more than we normally buy. I love how plentiful they look on a single plant, just dangling the way they are.

sunflowers: week 1

The sunflower seeds I planted last weekend have sprouted seedlings. They look pretty good so far. Hopefully, the others will pop our of the dirt too. I planted 7 to 8 seeds. I'll have to be diligent about thinning them out for healthy ones. Maybe I'll even try to transplant them to single pots. For now, I'm just happy they've come through the ground.

orion as seen on our balcony

Orion is a constellation of stars. Orion is also known as a figure in Greek mythology, a giant huntsman. But here on earth, and specially on our balcony, they are a constellation of beautiful flowers with large blooms.

discouraged

I'm not sure what to make of the container I'm growing salad greens and carrots in. The sprouts for the radishes were not successful except for one sprout that remains. The salad greens don't seem to be getting bigger. In fact, I think some kind of pest has eaten some of the lettuces.

I naively thought that growing your own salad greens, carrots, and other under earth vegetables would be rewarding but I am finding it to be contrary. Perhaps I lack patience. In any case, I am growing tired of watching "nothing" happening further in the development of the lettuces and carrots. When I pulled up the radish sprouts, there was no sign that it had developed into radishes.

If I don't see signs of maturing in that next two weeks, I may pull out whatever is there and put to soil to better use like potting up the other tomato plants. I may make a second attempt to grow lettuces using a seed starting tray instead of sowing directly, which is what I did. It seems like plants that I've started in seed starters worked out with greater percentage of success.

I may try to directly sow carrots and radishes again but 'll use empty juice bottles. It may limit the quantity but I think at this time, I want to see if I can be successful.

update: strawberries

The galore pink strawberry plants are doing extremely well after planting them in the strawberry jar planter. They are producing flowers and developing into strawberries! I deliberately did not bother to remove the flowers from these strawberry plants because I wanted to see how greatly this lack of step will affect yield for this harvest and next year's harvest. I'm excited about the potential harvest of these particular berries.

I've also sowed borage seeds about two weeks ago at the tops of each strawberry planter. I sowed blue and white borage seeds. The brown planter has blue borage while the turquoise planter has white borage. It took about two weeks for the seeds to germinate and boy was I excited to see a pair of leaves sprout from the soil! I'm looking forward to seeing how they grow and produce the featured blue (and white) star-like flowers.