Garden Diary

This  is a diary of my indoor container vegetable & herb garden.

7/7/2011. The parsley is just about tapped out, unfortunately, and I think it’s a bit late to find a new plant or even seeds. The mint and basil continue to thrive (even though I haven’t found many uses for the mint, really), and the tomato plant has responded really well to the Tomato-Tone. Still not sure that the eggplant is going to actually produce any fruit. It’s still flowering but not making any eggplants! 😦  That plant definitely has the biggest insect problem, and it even seems isolated to just that plant. I am trying an every-other-day treatment with an organic insecticide/fungicide spray – the insecticidal soap and homemade stuff weren’t getting the job done. I just hope that neither the bugs, the spray, nor I kill this plant! New photos are up here.

16/06/2011. Not much new going on, still got some tomatoes coming in (if all these flowers actually turn fruit, I will have a ton of tomatoes!), and looks like at least two eggplants will be on that vine in the next couple of weeks. I’m having problems controlling the gnat flies on my tomato plant – they’ve laid eggs in the soil and while I’m using a good lemon-juice-and-habanero-pepper insecticide to keep them off the leaves & fruit on all the plants, I can’t seem to keep them from using my container soil as a breeding ground. Any suggestions (preferably organic) would be greatly appreciated!

Also, I’m moving my garden photos to a Picasa album, instead of adding to an already-huge gallery here. You can see all of my garden photos, plus new ones and a few I didn’t post already, here.

30/05/2011. I’m admittedly inexperienced with the whole gardening thing. And I am also admittedly impatient. But I’m beginning to worry about my two vegetable plants (eggplant & cherry tomato). The tomato plant is growing taller by the day, which is great, but it hasn’t flowered very much, and the few that it’s had haven’t produced any fruit. So I read up on it a little bit and picked up some Tomato-Tone and added it yesterday. I also had to extend the height of the support stake – that’s how tall this thing has gotten in the last month or so. As for the eggplant, the problem there has been insects – namely flies. At least, I think they’re flies. Gnats, maybe? I have no idea but I’m trying to get them under control. Someone recommended insecticidal soap, and I’ve been using that. I’ve gotten the insects on the leaves under control but there must still be some larvae in the soil. I’m trying to keep all these plants organic, so I’m a little perplexed on how to handle the bugs.

The garden (30 May 2011)

Mint (30 May 2011)

Italian parsley (30 May 2011)

15/05/2011. The garden started a while ago, but today I start the garden diary. Here’s what’s been happening so far.

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve re-potted some plants that were growing super-quickly, and added an eggplant seedling, which caused me to have to rearrange all of the containers. This thing is now taking up most of my only two windows, but I couldn’t be happier. Except that I’m a little worried about my shallots – I only planted two little bulbs but haven’t seen any sprouting yet. It’s my only plant I’m growing from seed, so I guess it won’t be a huge loss if it doesn’t work.

As of today, the container garden here at #26 includes:
Eggplant
Cherry tomatoes
Shallot
Italian parsley
Basil
Mint
Rosemary
English thyme
Oregano

As far as what I’ve decided to grow … I’ve decided to focus first on things I will use – hence the abundance of herbs. I’m also crazy enough about all this that yesterday I found myself willing to buy an expensive new food processor so I can actually use even more of all these herbs. I’m thinking a couple different types of pesto (mint? yum), some homemade herb-seasoned breadcrumbs, and more – all with an eye to preserving & enjoying throughout the summer & early fall, and possibly beyond. As for the veggies, nothing’s come up or is ripe enough to use yet (there’s one adorable little green cherry tomato on the vine so far), but with a little luck there’ll be an abundance of those, too.

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