More Nasty Critters

I am not the only one who wants to eat the food in my garden.

It seems every plant gets some sort of different infestation. The latest one is some weird black dots and tiny caterpillar looking things on the yellow pepper plant.

They have decimated 90% of the leaves and the poor plant is looking pretty pathetic right now. Luckily they haven't gotten to the jalapeno plant yet!

Glacial Progress

Almost three months later now and only in the past 2-3 weeks have we witnessed big changes to the plants.  A very cold and wet May and June did nothing for our friends; the lettuce had an especially hard time of things and leaves a bit to be desired taste wise.  One recently planted nasturtium is showing good signs of life although its friend is really struggling.  Our basil plants suffered a severe aphid infestation and were thrown to the wind.  Although we have good southern exposure from the rear balcony we receive little direct sun in the middle of the day because of the coverage from the balcony above.

New bird feeder; for our friendly finches. 

The tomatoes are finally coming along now but with many nights below 10 degrees earlier on our crop my be greatly diminished.

Tomato flower in full bloom - rather late

Come on Tomato! 

Recently planted are a couple of pole bean plants.  They are looking great and in a few days have soared toward the balcony ceiling. 

 

Gardening at The Court

At the beginning of May, Torill and I moved down the hall to apartment 306. A larger apartment featuring two beadrooms, two baths, and most importantly for the purposes of this blog, two balconies. On the south facing balcony we harbour grand plans of growing our own produce (in minuscule quantities) as well as some ornamental plants. The seeds were sown, water was offered, and we turned to the skies, awaiting warmer temperatures and some sunlight...

Sunflower-Power

The sunflowers are coming out in full force.

After an early season squirrel attack, the future looked rocky for these potent little plants, but the last few weeks of bright sunlight have brought out a new champion for the title of the alpha-sunflower.

His 8 smaller cousins are just starting to bloom and hoping to follow suit.

Things are heating up.

Yup, things are really heating up. Not only has the heat finally shown up in Vancouver, but the hot peppers are coming out too!

We've got a yellow pepper plant and a couple jalapeno plants. Both are doing well basking in the sun and producing what I hope will be delicious spicy treats. Well, right now they only have a single pepper each, but i never had high expectations for these guys in the first place.

I always thought the little ones were the spiciest...

R.I.P. Strawberry Plant

She showed so much promise...

A young strawberry plant just trying to make it in the big bad world of a West End Vancouver balcony. Unfortunately a wily squirrel decided to stomp the crap out her before she could even bear a single berry. At least we got to enjoy two white flowers before her time was through.

And here is all that is left of her now...

Sunset and Smack Garden Update

I have been lagging in the photo department so I just ran outside at what turned out to be a great time for an extreme closeup of our first nasturtium flower.  The sun was setting right behind it as I took this shot.

In garden news I put 2 afternoons of weeding this past weekend on the middle plots which have largely gone unplanted until now, ie: it was densely populated with weeds.  Throughout I found a ton of cilantro which is our latest rogue plant in the garden and I also found 2 parsley plants and marigolds along the border that had seeded themselves.  I couldn't just extract from the garden so when I was done I planted the beets that I had started from seed along with 4 tomato plants.  Throughout the 2 day process I polished off a case of Cariboos so I guess I planted a tree in a round about way too.  I try.

There are still a lot more tomatoes to plant and some Chocolate Mint that is still sitting in a small container.  That stuff smells like it literally sounds it should.  Reminds me of chocolate chip mint ice cream...  Other than that the peas and the strawberries are coming in, any lettuce we moved is growing strong, and our kale is lookin pretty good too.  I will have to post some more photos soon.

Nasturtium up close		More of the same