This is a quick and dirty post to get the ball rolling on this. I apologize for the poor photos — I need more practice with the phone, or I need to pull out my old camera with an actual view finder and actual focus that works.
This will be the first post in the Gardening section. As we are in the height of summer with weeks of 100 degree weather, the garden is in a woeful state. However, there are still signs of life and I would like to keep a record here as things evolve.
If you’re hoping for some professional garden advice, this isn’t the place for it. This is just the adventures of a novice that other novices might appreciate.
Excuse the weeds. They’re hard to keep up with.
An overview of the main area (state as of August) –>
Below — I planted a patch of pumpkins about a month ago that all came up (first photo) and were doing great (they looked huge like squash plants, but don’t have a photo of it), but I believe a combination of the dire heat and a relentless assault by ants (they were everywhere) looking for water — and well … it doesn’t look good. But I never give up on my plants.
The first rule of gardening — in my opinion — is love. I’ve seen almost dead plants recover. We’ll see if they can hang on.
Over a month ago I planted left over tomatoes like this –>
And they came up! –>
This is the first time I’ve put tomatoes in hanging pots, but also the first time I’ve grown them from seeds. Let’s see where they are in another month, yeah?
The first photo below is my poor swiss chard that has been decimated by bugs (the white stuff is food-grade demetrius earth, not poison), but it is a strong plant and I think it will recover. The second photo and third photos are plants from the hardware store that are still hanging on — the 2nd is a tomato plant and the 3rd is an ancho pepper plant.
Again, sorry for the weeds / poor photos — I’ll take a little more time on the next report.
And here is my jalapeno plant — I mean — tree, who doesn’t seem to give a damn about the heat and keeps getting bigger / keeps producing –>
Alright, that will do it for now. I’ll talk a little bit about my simple DIY irrigation system next time. I’m planning on re-planting the pumpkins amongst some other things. I’m exploring planting things in some shaded areas to see if we can get more things going off-season.
I’m out.