Thursday, May 26, 2011

Stepford Plants Report

I'm not feeling very well about my plants this week. I think I'm messing up. I need to get on the ball and deal with the problems of the plants... I need to get back to watering them regularly. And I have a little terror of the plants that I put outside. I think they will die, but then I remember last year, and... Argh. Ok, let's start at the top, right?

Dramatic Plum Stick

The plum stick is surviving nicely, but is beginning to look a little droopy. Again, watering issues. The biggest problem is that it keep raining, and it's really hard for me to judge how much rain is enough. If I had an automatic system like almost every neighbor around here, they would just get watered. But since I have to do it manually, I keep second-guessing myself. Well, judging by this picture compared to last week's, I need to water more, rather than less.

Leafy Grafted Plum

Not much change in the grafted plum. It really just has slightly bigger leaves. Nothing really big.

Tiny Tims Silhouette

The Tiny Tims are steadily growing, still on the windowsill. I need to get a couple of items from ACE before I plant these outside. Either more "staples" for the birdnet to discourage the cats, or a couple of small tomato cages. I haven't decided which yet. I'm not sure when I will. I think they can survive another week or two on the windowsill, but not much more than that.

Yolo Wonder Peppers

The Yolo Wonder Peppers are growing steadily, but still not ready to go outside. I'm always stunned looking at the two plants, as the tiny one is the one that sprouted first. But they are growing very nicely, and I really hope to have them outside in a couple more weeks as well.

And now we get to the embarrassing bits. I transplanted the moneymaker tomato plant and the zucchini plant outside on Monday. They have not done well outside. I suppose I should have hardened them first, but I thought the time they spent in the windowsill with the window open was enough. I may have been wrong.

Moneymaker Tomato Outside

The tomato looks wilted and sad. The milk jug watering isn't working very well either, so I'm going to have to set up a sprinkler for them too. When all the plants are outside, I think I will need two of my sprinklers to do the trick. I think I can manage it with what I have, moving the sprinklers between sessions. It's really just a matter of setting it up. Anyway, the stem of the tomato seems fine, so I'm not giving up hope yet. Besides, I recall that plant last year that seemed dead and revived very nicely. So hope is not gone yet.

Wilty Zucchini

The zucchini looks WAY worse, but there are a couple of strong stems in there, and a new blossom working its way out. So despite the feeling on my part that I'm not doing great, I suspect I'm doing just as well as I did last year. And last year I had literally buckets of tomatoes that I didn't need. So maybe I'll get lots of zucchini to freeze and turn into zucchini bread later on.

I think the goals for this week should be to set up a regular watering schedule, probably two waterings daily with a bit of time between them. I think the trees could use some saturation watering, and I'm going to have to experiment with the plants. Sometime in there, I'm also going to have to mow the yard again. Probably this weekend. If I'm smart, I may need to do it tomorrow morning before the next storm comes in. *sigh*

I do have a problem which I'd love advice on. Cats. Cats using the garden plot for a litterbox. If you have any more suggestions, let me know.

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