House Plant Dilema (or a Ghost?)

Soo...I have this plant in my office (I will post a picture at another time...I forgot to take one today while at work...shush...I was busy...with work...I know...WEIRD right!?)...anyway...I had forgotten to water all of the office plants for about the last 2 weeks (I think, I'm not exactly sure how long because I have been VERY busy). Today, I finally remembered and went around with my normal jug but this one plant was literally PLUM FULL of water already.  I'm not just talking wet dirt...I am talking PUDDLE of water...the thing literally splashed water when I went to try to pour more in. (At this point, you are wondering why I would put more water in a full plant...but see, the plant is up high so I just reach up and well...you get the picture.)

ANYWAY...so since all the other plants were relatively dry...where did all this water come from!?

I am strongly considering the possibility of a ghost that has some deep connection to this particular plant but is okay with killing off the others.

My biggest dilemma at the moment is how I am going to get the plant down from its perch, into the kitchen and emptied of its excess water...clearly this is NOT a good thing for this plant to live like this....as far as I know it is not a water plant.

I will keep you posted.

(So it wasn't about MY garden...but I am not good with house plants either...so my clear novice approach on what to do with this will likely come out when I post the update and you learn I have spilled nasty stinky plant water with potting soil onto my office carpet....stay tuned...)

The Dilema of Organic

So I kept my pickling cucumber after installing the new garden bed around it. I had every faith that it would survive the installation of the bed around it and the new soil, in my mind, would only supplement the nutrients needed to make FABULOUS pickling cucumbers. Plus, there were two little cucumbers growing nicely and I wanted to see MORE MORE MORE!!!

Okay...phew...sorry...

Alas...the other day I go out and much to my dismay my pretty little cucumber plant had white powder all over its leaves.

I need to take a moment to explain something...I am from the east coast. I have seen many kinds of mold, mildew, fungus, growths, dying plants of various types and from various illnesses (usually my lack of watering but whatever)...I have never seen white powder.  Sadly, I knew what this was because a plant from my office had the same stuff not more than a month earlier. Seems, here in Oregon, white powdery mildew is quite common in these types of vegetables (cucumbers that is).  The worst part...the only real solution...rip it all out.  My heart sank.  Here, I had saved this precious plant from the compost pile only to have it taken over by mildew.

So here is what you do about white powdery mildew...bag the plant (to prevent the mold from spreading to other plants) after which you will RIP the poor unsuspecting baby from its warm, soft bed.  As you shed tears of remorse and regret and frustration...simply close the bag and throw the whole thing away in the nearest trashcan or dumpster. (If you feel it necessary, you might say a few words for your fallen friend at this point.)

THEN...put together a bicarbonate spray (of course I am going to give you the recipe...sheesh)...

Dissolve 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 drop liquid soap in 2 quarts of water in a spray bottle. Mix well.  (as described in Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening) 

You will use this spray to spray your other plants to ensure they don't get the funk.  DO NOT make a stronger concentration...you will burn the leaves of your plants...TRUST ME! There are evidently some premade products on the market (GreenCure)...but I have the above in my kitchen so I thought it would be better...oh, and cheaper.

Alas...I lost one little soldier...but I learned a lot from this moment. Here is the last photo of my beloved's precious leaves before I bagged her!

Rest in peace my little friend.

OH...in case it wasn't obvious...DO NOT put the remains of your dying little friend in your compost...BAD BAD idea. Just sayin'!

Okay...Okay...The Garden episode

PHEW...talk about a busy few weeks. I should take this moment to inform my followers (all 2 of you) that I am TERRIBLE about keeping up with these things...so my deepest apologies for the lag between posts.  I promised I would tell you about the new garden space...so here it is, without further ado.

So the story goes like this...I have been watching my poor plants struggle in their confined spaces and swore up and down left and right that next growing season I would have a proper space for my babies to grow. I waited about a month before I lost self-control and the battle within and decided I was just going to do it...now. My breaking point?  Well someone told me about fall crops...yep...crops I could plant and grow through the fall and harvest in January! SA-WEET!!! I could grow all year long (in Oregon, spring starts in February in most years). *sigh*  It would be perfect!! Beautiful fall veg growing beautifully even in the rain! Sure...why not...I mean...this is my first attempt at growing ANYTHING...what could possibly go wrong (I guess we will see later this fall/winter)!?

It was VERY simple to build. I drew out the plan months ago, so I knew what I wanted and the space I had available.  I picked a space in the yard (the same space my veggie boxes were already sitting) that got full afternoon sun. Thought about it...looked at other raised gardens and saw how they were built and then put the plan into action.

First I cleared the grass from the area. This process, in retrospect, would've been a lot easier and a lot quicker if I had rented a good rototiller. Alas, I was determined to get a good tan and work my body a bit so...I used a pick-ax. For those thinking of coping this plan...use a rototiller...don't be stupid...it was hard...it hurt and my arms were useless for about a week. That said...I had a FABULOUS tan.  I digress....

After that I bought four 12' lengths of 8" wide 2" thick treated lumber and some wood screws. I had my sweet man help me cut the lengths...I needed 2 of the four 12' lengths cut in half, then I cut the other 2 into 3' lengths then screwed them together in the shape of "L"s.

I put them in their spots inside the fence line (stupid dog)...and filled with BEAUTIFUL organic soil. I decided, due to the horrible condition of the soil in our backyard, to start with the good stuff so I spent the extra funds and bought 24 bags of Miracle Grow Organic soil. It was great for the veg in the boxes so I figured it would do wonders for my new garden.

All in all...I think they turned out perfect. I will be moving the larger, deeper box into the middle and removing the smaller boxes once the tomato season is done and I can empty that soil into the garden for added depth. I will use the smaller box for herbs and the garden will house the rest of my plants through next season. I am in love...it is perfection and EXACTLY how I had planned it.  I love when a plan comes together.

So here are the pictures...here it is...the most perfect garden:

So there you have it...the official garden that I will occasionally discuss on this blog.

The Continuing Saga...

Okay...where were we...oh yes...I was just about to tell you where I am now with my garden. Well...let's see, when we last left off I had just told you about my first cherry tomatoe.  So from there...the cherry tomatoes have done great...they have been great producers although not as good as I had hoped, not bad considering they are stuffed into a fairly shallow flower box. They continue to produce some seriously sweet little tomatoes though and I am very happy with them. The others...well...they have been, less than steller...OH...except for my son's snow peas and the lettuce greens.  It wasn't long ago I actually pulled the lettuce greens out because I couldn't get them to STOP growing...oh yes...this was an actual problem. The snow peas were basically the same. I made 4 jars of pickled snow peas and gave away 2 other batches of them and they were still coming. I have saved some and dried them for next year's crop.

Let's see...my heirloom tomatoes...well...#1 has exploded with smallish fun colored looking tomatoes but they are all still far too small and far to hard to even consider them ready, but their coloring is fun and I am looking foward to seeing them get fully ripe.

#2 has produced 2...yes, that's right 2 tomatoes and they are still green. I am encouraged by these 2 little green tomatoes though...they are perfectly round and growing nicely and I believe they will ultimately be beautiful tomatoes if they ripen before it gets too cold around here. I still have faith in them. They are late comers but I like to think maybe just ugly duckling syndrome.

#3...well..*sigh*...poor sad little #3 has gotten the short end of the stick. It has 1 tiny little green tomato on it and that just showed up in the last week or so. It has beautiful green foliage and is bigger and fuller a plant than the other 2 plants but sadly, just not producing. I am not giving up on him yet though...I can't give up on my babies....so I will wait and see.

Note though...all of these three plants were in the same box. I think...in the future, or maybe just a note to others since I likely won't use these boxes for tomatoes anymore (if you are paying attention you will see I just gave something away there)...it would be a wise idea not to put more than 2 tomato plants in one small/medium sized box with each other. I think #1 stole all the nutrients and stuff from the other two until its tomatoes came out and now the other two are trying to play catch up. Just a thought.

Um...okay...so that's the maters....the peppers...wellllll...they aren't much better than the tomatoes unfortunately. There is the green one, the purple one and the red one and then there is a spicy one of undetermined origin (if you happen to know by looking at it, please let me know). The green one has 1 pepper although it isn't looking too bad. Red has 1 that has grown and is red - it was an early show from the plant and I have come to determine that early showings are not the plant's best of show. It now has 2 new peppers on it and they are very nice, great shape and growing nicely. I expect to see them redden in by the end of the month (rough estimate...made me sound very knowledgeable though didn't it). Alas, the poor purple was one that the dog decided to decapitate in its infancy. It produced it's first of show which was a deformed weird looking thing and that is all it has ever done. I thought it was going to produce a second but the little tiny start of a pepper fell off within a day or so and shriveled up and died. Maybe next year's will be better.



Okay...what else...oh, yes...can't forget the poooooor little cucumber plant that the dog decapitated as well.  Originally I had planned to pull it out of the box all together but I just couldn't bear to do it so I left it...hoping against all hope that it might survive and come back to produce beautiful cucumbers. Much to my dismay it has grown 3 leaves and stayed at a total of 3 inches off the dirt. It had done no more and no less than that all summer........that is...until about 2 weeks ago. Two weeks ago this silly little determined plant decided it was ready to produce so it bloomed the prettiest flower I had seen yet in the garden. It was gorgeous (and of course, my dumbass didn't think to take a picture of it)...albeit...it was larger than the marjority of the rest of the plant.  Today it has what looks like 4 cucumbers starting to take shape from under those 3 lovely little green leaves (currently growing #4 leaf). It is still only 3 inches tall...but they always say never to judge a book by it's cover and that size doesn't matter. Well...I suppose if I get a cucumber from this plant...it will have proven them right. I will also likely keep seeds from it since it is CLEARLY the hardiest thing in my garden at this point.

Okay...so that is how the garden grows. Well...my garden at the moment anyway.  I am going to break this up into two separate posts tonight. I hate when blogs get too long and I do want to show my new garden off...although, I feel like I won't have much to say for a little while....not much to say about watching plants grow. ;o)

In the beginning...

Okay then...here I go! My name is Leah - pronounced however you see fit...people rarely get it right anyway...officially it is pronounced Lee-ahh...unofficially it is pronounced like Princess Leia from Star Wars...that is my preference although I have grown up with Lee-ahh my whole life and therefore that is what I generally get. Also, it obviously isn't spelled Leia so therefore I get Princess Leia references but not the cool name. I digress...this blog is about my gardening, not my name. This first post will be lengthy...but only because I need to catch you up to date. I will start from the beginning and try to quickly bring you to today...well...this past weekend anyway, when I installed my first REAL garden beds.

So here's the deal...I was not a gardener until about a year ago...no...scratch that...I was not a gardener until about 6 months ago...um...yea...we'll go with that.  It all started last Easter. I bought a orchid last Easter from my local Safeway to place in the center of the table. This was to be my first Easter cooking dinner at my boyfriend's house for his family whom I barely knew....it had to be perfect (I'm also a culinary student so it was doubly important it be perfect). Everyone told me that the orchid would likely die rather quickly which meant, for me, it would be dead shortly after everyone left that day...I had a bit of a black thumb issue. I was dubbed the kiss of death for plants. BUT...after dinner was over I placed the pretty little flower in my window in the kitchen...which just happens to be west facing. Since it was so nicely placed next to the kitchen sink...it was relatively easy to water (over water in the case of an orchid) but it seemed happy enough for a while.

After a month of the little flower continuing to thrive and bloom I thought..."Geez, maybe I'm not the kiss of death."  Suddenly...this spring came along and not only was my little orchid still alive...it was creating blooms left and right, 3 then 4 then 6 then well...you get the point...the orchid bloomed uncontrollably in my kitchen window for over a year (and it is still blooming I might add - see picture).

Anywho...so I figured, "Well Shit...if I can keep an orchid alive and THRIVING...I can grow most things...right!?"  So I decided, come spring I would start my own vegetable garden. While waiting for spring though I planted some herbs in the window with the orchid. Very quickly I had basil, parsley and chives.

By spring I was coveting the starts that were showing up in all the stores and I quickly broke down and bought my first planter box, a cherry tomato start, a cucumber start, a purple bell pepper start and a red bell pepper start. I was soooooo excited. I planted, I stared admiringly, I turned away...and the dog promptly capped my purple pepper and cucumber. SON-OF-A...so I ran back to the store and bought some fencing. It was downhill from there. I couldn' stop myself...I bought another box...then converted a box that was in the backyard. I bought 3 heirloom tomato starts, pickling cucumbers, lettuce greens, and a green bell pepper. My son brought home seeds for snow peas...I planted those. I was OUT OF CONTROL!!! By the time summer hit...I had a fairly decent, although modge-podged together, garden.

Now...to watch it grow and reap the bounty of my hard labor.  And grow they did!! :) I just about did back flips when my first cherry tomato appeared!

Almost immediately I started planning a larger garden. I knew I would have to wait for the season to end before I could install it but I was determined to have a larger garden. This gardening thing was fun...and addictive evidently (btw - gardening supply store...very lucrative business considering the addictive quality of gardening).

So there you have it...the beginnings. Ahhh...but now you are wondering...did she get her bigger garden...???  To be continued...tune in next time for more fun adventures in Leah's garden...  ;)