You Grow Girl™

Pink Yarrow

Yikes. Summertime, and the gardening is busy but fun. However, one week without updating here and I'm beyond catching up. So much has happened. Most of the veggies are producing flowers. Some veggies such as the Silver Fir Tree tomato are producing fruit. I've harvested a ton of lettuce, radicchio, mixed greens and arugula. My little strawberry patch has produced some nice, ripe fruit. My deck purple tomatillo and lemon cucumber are turning into monster plants and both have flowers. So far they are the most successful crops. It is safe to say that the deck container garden is kicking the butt of the community plots. The plants at the plots are much smaller and further behind then the deck plants. All that hot sun and heat is highly advantageous as long as I can keep up with the water demands. Last week I bought an awesome 1.5 gallon pump sprayer that I'm using for fertilizing. I'm just mixing some sea kelp into the water tank and spraying it on. Oh the gadgets.

Community Plot (late June)

Last week I finished planting my partial sun plot. The woman who sells plants at the Farmer's Market was getting rid of most things cheap so I took advantage of the sale to get what I needed. I planted some more mixed colours kale and two white scallop paddle squash. I put one in the sunny plot for comparison. I have a feeling that I'll be lucky if the partial sun plants produce much. The soil there is just insanely crap too but I didn't have the time to do much with it. I put some hay on top as mulch and called it done. I also added a few more native flowering plants to the plots to attract beneficials. The basil and dill seeds I threw down are coming up and the existing dill is already set to flower. It looks like something, possibly flea beetles, might be eating some basil but I couldn't find the perpetrator to prove it. However it does look like their damage. I'm not too concerned with it since the basil is still entirely edible with a few holes.

Sundew with bugs

The other day, inspired by a thread on the forums and the new carnivorous plants I bought in Montreal, I put together a little carnivorous bog in a ceramic pot. So far it isn't too thrilling to look at but the sundew has caught loads of little insects. Speaking of CPs I put my Nepenthes (2) outside about a month ago and they are really starting to flourish. Both are successfully pitchering and the oldest Nepenthes is so big I've had to stake it up to maintain balance in the hanging basket. I'm planning to cut it back and try rooting the cuttings when I get the chance.

Remember the staghorn fern? Well despite a tough winter battling the evil scale insect it is also starting to come back thanks to a nice humid environment on the deck. Just yesterday I FINALLY got around to repotting it. There is no doubt in my mind that poor container and soil conditions are at least partly responsible for the scale infestation that just won't quit. The plant was living in a peat and sand mix that had become somewhat compacted around the roots. In fact it was difficult to distinguish what was root and what wasn't. I spent some time easing the old soil off and repotted the plant in a terracotta container rigged up to hang with a contraption made of jute. It's like a macrame hanger but slightly less tacky. I replanted the fern in an orchid mix that I added a bit of sand and peat to. We'll see how it goes.

Oh I almost forgot... The other day I had just come back from the community plot, and since I had my bag of tools on hand, decided to do a bit of pruning and weeding in the side garden. Well, my snooty neighbour walked by and said "Your garden is beautiful this year!" Well I nearly fell over from the shock of it. I was so shocked I over-enthusiastically responded "Thank you!" In the entire time I have had that garden he has never uttered a word. I'm still reeling from the shock of it.