Emotional Lettuce

So, in the last post I mentioned that I re-potted the lettuce plants because they didn't need as much sun as the rest of the plants AND I also mentioned the weather was supposed to be pretty hot this week. So, I moved the newly potted plants to the corner of the driveway where it gets the shade from our tree and a little bit of sun in the afternoon.

Well, yesterday when Max came home he told me that my lettuce plants were all wilted. The leaves were laying flat on the soil. I took them inside to the air conditioning and gave them some cold water. After about an hour or so, they were mostly perked up. I kept them inside overnight and today I put them in the window sill.

I have no idea how much sun they should get or what temperature they grow best at. I didn't have high hopes for them in the beginning when I threw a couple little seeds in the ground but now that they are 4 inches tall, I kinda want to save them.

Any advice would be helpful!

Happy Update

Look how tall and pretty they are!!!

4 out of the 5 tomato plants have little yellow flowers on them. They seem to be doing really well. The guy I got the tomato plants from didn't know what kind they were so I'm excited for them to fruit so I can try to figure it out.

The peppers are also doing well. The leaves are huge! I found a small yellow flower in the center of one of the pepper plants. There really isn't much more to say about them.

Also, my two little lettuce seedlings are doing great! I moved them from the plot to a couple of pots. I didn't want them to have as much sun as the tomato and pepper plants; plus the weather this week is going to be super hot. I hope they will be okay despite the high temps.

We bought a hose and reel so I don't have to make 5 trips to the spigot with my small watering can. :)

Adding to the Family

I received three pepper plants the other day. Max helped me dig up some more sod. Haha, now he knows my pain! Now my garden is about 3x5 or so. We planted the pepper plants and placed some cages around the tomato plants. Also, I didn't notice this at the time but one of my tomato plants was actually 3 in a cluster. I separated them and now I have 5 tomato plants and 3 pepper plants.

Also, just for fun I threw some lettuce seeds in the dirt before the pepper plants came around and I have 2 little seedlings now! How cool?!

It's been raining so much lately, I haven't had to water them. I hope they are getting enough!

On a side note, the peonies have not bloomed again even though there are little buds. I guess it takes awhile? The little pink roses are adorable but I wish I had a big bush of deep red roses too. The orange lilies are hardy and a neighboring bush is getting ready to bloom. These near-blooming lilies look like they might be a different color. We'll see. I'm hoping all these bloom soon so that they can be admired at the Housewarming Party this weekend.

New Beginnings

Now that Max and I have moved into our first house, I am excited to begin a real garden. I have a decent sized area that gets tons of sun in my backyard behind the garage. Yesterday I got 3 tomato plants and I was really anxious to get them in the ground.

Yeah, that was a lot of work! I bought a spade/shovel thing and hacked my lawn away to yield a 3x4 foot square. Sod is not easy to tear up! (Also, I just wanted to say that I picked out the earthworms and put them back in the ground). I have no idea if that's large enough for the 3 tomatoes. I guess we'll see. I raked the plot and patted it down. Then I roughly divided the area into sixths. I thought I would put the tomatoes in a checkerboard pattern. Then I transplanted the 3 baby plants into the ground and watered them. That was the fun part.

I was sweating profusely and very very dirty... hehe :D I had used a ton of bug spray on myself because the mosquitoes are insane back there. Then I showered. Sigh.

Max's brother has a tiller. I may be expanding this garden to a 4x8 foot garden this weekend. Who knows!

Any suggestions of what to do with this leftover sod? Can I somehow compost it?

Update

Apparently my plants got an attack from fungus flies. I tried everything to get rid of them but in the end I had to get rid of the soil--plants and all.

:(

My first attempt at container gardening failed. Maybe I will be successful someday with an outdoor garden.

R.I.P. Lettuce Seedling

Oh so sad... My poor lettuce seedling crumpled up and dried (died). :( I have replaced it with one of the spinach seedlings that I hope will fair better.

Also, I threw out the strawberry plant. It had stopped fruiting and grown mold all over its soil...

Day 21

The tomato plants are growing quickly. :) I have removed the netting from around the pot. It seems the cats are more interested in the netting itself than the little tomato plants. In fact, I think Mable is asleep in the netting right now. Also, there has been a surge of small flies around the plants that I am attempting to exterminate with a vegetable plant safe pesticide. It is killing them slowly. There are just so many! One good thing is that they are dumb and slow and so we are able to smack them dead. Yeah!


I have moved the pepper seedlings into their own pot. They are doing well too! The cats don't seem to have any interest in the pepper seedlings so far. Again, I'm not sure if I've planted too many seedlings in the same pot, but we shall see.

The same day I planted the only lettuce seedling that germinated. See the little guy?