She blinded me with science!

An overcast sky all day has resulted in the use of an old picture. New pictures tomorrow.

“Have you heard about the flooding?” she asked me over IMs earlier today as I was enjoying my leisurely morning in bed. I have a laptop, you see.

“No. What flooding?” I inquired, fearing that my second story apartment was now surrounded by a moat and being glad I was on the second story.

“The flooding in Raleigh. The creek overflowed its boundaries. They have shut down the following streets …” which she then proceeded to list, and despite the sixteen good years I spent living in Raleigh, NC, I still have no clue what location in the city she was making a reference to.

“Why is there flooding in Raleigh?” I asked, wrapped in my coccoon of being thirty miles away where, at least as far as I could tell from a quick glance out of my window, there wasn’t even a cloud in the sky. “There are no rain clouds.”

I got a one word answer: Alberto.

This prompted me to ask who, exactly, Alberto was. Whether this was a first or last name. And if it was possible that they were flushing the water delivery grid.

It turns out that Alberto is the remnants of the first hurricane of the season and it had dumped its full fury on Raleigh. Oh, Chapel Hill, my beloved town, had gotten its fair share of rain earlier in the day (a full 1.19″ according to weatherbug), but somehow I’d missed the sounds of rain pattering against my bedroom window. I’d been up since 7 am, lounging in bed, and playing Animal Crossing: Wild World on my new DS Lite, so I should have heard the storm.

Still, at 11 am, when I looked out the window, I saw nothing but blue skies. However, a half an hour later, when I decided that I’d been awake long enough to be active, the sky was dark gray and the rain was pattering down again.

The good news is that this is now the fourth day in a row that nature’s own sprinkler system has saved me from actually having to water the plants. The bad news, however, is that my greens box which was holding the newly transplanted swiss chard, might not make it. It got too flooded for its poor drainage system to handle. Also, my kidney beans (there is one flower on it) were dislodged from the stake that they’d would themselves about and were hanging over. I tried to rewind them onto the stake, but the plant wouldn’t hold. So I resorted to using lab labeling tape. Hopefully that will hold without damaging the plant.

Also, the borage that I broke and then used the pinch/poke method of replanting in hopes that the stem would put out some more roots, was practically pummled. I had to pull it up and rebury it. On the plus side, it was putting out more roots.

The purple ruffles basil that I’d given up on decided to sprout. It survived the rainstorm without being the least bit phased.

But, since I live on a covered balcony, and time is of the essence, I had to do some gardening. So I potted up two starter pots of pumpkin seeds that were saved from last year’s jack-o-lantern pumpkin. We shall see how they do. According to the viability test (float vs sink), these are viable seeds. I didn’t saran wrap the top of these cups, but I might tomorrow.

Finally, as I was turning in to go inside, gardening done, I noticed a worm casually regarding me from the top of the black cast-iron shepherd’s hook. Apparently, one of the worm “egg capsules” had survived my not-so-rigorous sifting process when I potted the hyacinth beans up in full castings, had hatched, and the worm had grown to juvenile status in that pot. Then, finding itself in a downpour of rain thanks to Alberto, it did as it is programmed to do and went to the “surface” to mate. However, that surface involved a climb up the hanging basket sling, and then up the shepherd’s hook, until it was at the tallest height possible.

I went over, scooped the poor fella up, and placed it in the gray pot (with the beans and carrot) because it is a decomposer worm, and there is a large amount of shreaded paper mixed in to that pot, and I could use some help to remove it. I hope it finds a mate.

The Kidney Beans have little bitty bean buds that will soon be flowers.

Today, after watching my Canes win it for the third time, I decided to have a deck-nick. A deck-nick is when we bring the food out to the patio and sit on the deck and eat. We had greenbeans (storebought because I don’t have any yet), cheese, chips and salsa, and chocolate creme pie. We also had orange juice to drink. I slammed home a considerable amount of OJ which is probably good because I must have been craving some Vit. C.

Well, there is nothing like eating among your plants to make you do some gardening. So after dinner I moved the Aloe to a 1 gal pot from the 5″ pot it was in previously. Then, since the kideny beans had roots that were coming through the holes in its pot, it went in to the recently vacated 5″ aloe pot. Then the swiss chard got moved into the kidney beans pot. Well, one swiss chard set did. The other one was placed in the salad-greens box.

Which reminds me, I have another salad greens box sitting in my room and very much unsalad-greensed. I should fill it with soil and prep it for duty. And then I should find someone to give it to.

Discovery of the Day:
The aloe is about to have another pup. Since momma-aloe is getting a bit unwieldy, I think I may give momma away and keep the pup (in momma’s old pot) to continue on as my aloe of choice. That pot is about the upper limit of what can fit on my window sill during the winter. On the other hand, I do have a plant shelf with a plant light. I suppose it all depends on whether or not momma can remain upright.

A minor other discovery was the slug I found on my swiss chard pot. I live on the second floor. How did I get a slug on my level? On a concrete balcony. In a brick building.

Question of the Day:
Do aloe plants get top-heavy? And if they do, what can I do about it.

To Be Done Tomorrow:
1. Replant the lemon grass.
2. Put dead plant stuffs in the worm bin.
3. Photograph the developing Barbie Girl tomatoes.

I got a volunteer Avocado plant in one of my large planter-pots. Of course, I have a feeling I know where this came from. Since I live in an apartment and am a graduate student surviving off of student loans, I can’t really afford much (which is why I try to grow my own food). One of the things I did to fill my scavenged planter pots, was to take some compost from my mother’s compost pile.

It should be noted that until just this year, she didn’t realize that she could use her compost a soil in pots and the like.

Anyway, she’s a huge fan of avocados, so it should be a surprise to me that there are tons of pits in her compost. In fact, I should have sifted the compost before using it. But, nah. And so, one of the pits sprouted once the winter freezes were gone, and has put up a nice mini avocado tree that will doubtless die at the first killing frost this coming year, since I don’t actually care about avocado trees, and thus am not going to tote the planter inside to save it.

My squash is really taking off. I already have my first flower buds. I didn’t expect to be able to grow squash in a pot, but here is the proof of it. I successfully started six different squash starts. Four of them got FreeCycled. Of the remaining two, once went to take up residence at my mother’s house, on her deck. And the remainder got planted in the black pot with the avocado.

Anyway, what thrills me the most is the fact that this squash has flower buds on it. After extensive reading, I’m sure this means that it is going to produce male flowers, since these are the first buds, but any flowers are flowers, right! Not that I mind the amazing amount of green on my deck, but some flowers to mix it up would be nice.

Oh, one final note is that this might not be squash. It may, in fact, be zucchini. You see, I tossed summer and winter yellow squash and zucchini seed together in the sprouting bag and didn’t label them appropriately. So, really, it is anyone’s guess what I’ve got growing here. But since I like both, I’m up for the surprise.

Today I finally transplanted the catnip start from its little individualized 1″ pot that was sitting on the bottom-watering mat, into the cat planter to take up its residence alongside the catmint. This is going to be a present for Jordan, my inside-only cat, once the weather gets cool. Tequila, my indoor/outdoor cat disdains members of the mint family, but prefers lemon grass. Jordan disdains lemon grass. There are fewer fights that way.

Finally, it is confirmed that Barbie Girl has set its first fruit. The second flower has faded as well. We shall see what this will produce. There are at least two other bundles of flower buds on the drooping branch of the plant. The upright branch has a set too, I believe. Mmmmmmm, tomatoes for me. I do so love tomatoes.

I totally stole the title of this post from In My Kitchen Garden which I read religiously. So I hope she views it as a tribute to her writing, from a lurker in love with her prose, that I’d steal her titles to use as my own.

The first thing to sprout in my garden this year, were my amazon jeweled nasturtiums. I’m looking forward to consuming this pest-trap. I planted it because I heard that I’d get a lovely, lush vine that would be not only edible, but would attract all the nasty garden pests. Apparently the deal is that once all the pests in habit leaves of my nasturtium, I just snip off the leaves that are affected and we move on with life.

So far I have a handful of leaves. On one of them, as on quite a vareity of my plants, I have a spider who has set up shop in the folds of the leaves. The nasturtium continues to grow, but the leaves do not look nearly as big as they do on other people’s images of theirs. And I have no flowers. Is it early? Late? Am I expecting miracles too soon?

My Hyacinth Runner Beans seem to have been the most voracious growers of the lot. All of the seeds that I planted and pre-sprouted turned into plants. I had to thin them. I hate thinning plants. I always feel that I’ve picked the wrong one to survive.

At any rate, their purple stems are beautiful and the green leaves look like that of any other bean. They’ve taken to twining around the hanging plant sling that is holding their pot of soil, as I’d hoped. I already see flower buds on the tops of both of them.

I’m hoping that they’ll vine up the entire hanging plant sling, back over the shepherd’s hook, and then possibly vine along the remainder of my railing.

I am trying so hard this year to grow vines, because I have a balcony and so bushy plants just won’t do. Which leads us to …

I’m also growing my absolute favorite tomato to grow, thus far. I don’t know the particular variety, but based on how it came to be, I’m guessing it is something like F3.389205.a or somesuch. It was a volunteer tomato that grew in the sifted compost that my mother used as a bed for her mesculun mix over the winter. My plant came from a sucker of her plant. Hers has been transplanted outside.

I fully intend to save seeds from the first tomato that I get, in hopes that future offspring will grow true from seed. I’ve decided to, in her honor, dub this tomato variety “Barbie Girl” after a cross between her name (Barbara) and Early Girl since these tomatoes are early producers. In fact, at her house with the momma-plant, the tomatoes have already come in and are DELICIOUS. They are nice medium-to-large, round, slicing tomatoes that are not too juicy but also not too pasty. It is an indeterminate plant that puts out suckers like there is no tomorrow, which is good. It also has done what I’ve wanted of tomatoes in the past, which is to cascade down out of the hanging basket. And dear lord is it not only prolific with fruits, but it also grows in all sorts of unimaginable conditions. In short, this is your wonder tomato.

Mmmmmmm. And I have flowers. One on its way in. One on its way out. I’m hoping that the one on its way out has set fruit, but it will take about a week to start to see the ovary swell.

As for pests, her plant got hit relatively hard, but since I companion plant, mine hasn’t. Hers also appeared to have contracted TMV, but mine has not.

So, who’s up for field testing Barbie Girl tomatoes next year? I’ll probably have two extra seed packets to share.