Aphids of Doom

WARNING!  This post contains some gross bug pictures so if you are squeamish, scroll past them really quickly.


Last week was kind of a bad week for my garden.  Seemingly overnight my pepper and tomato plants became totally infested with aphids.

I tried a bunch of different things to get rid of them starting with a homemade garlic and dish soap spray I found online.  After that didn't work, I actually broke down and bought commercial pesticide even though I don't like to use it.  Nothing worked and my plants were getting totally destroyed.  


Finally, they were so damaged that I had to pull them out.  This was beyond frustrating because before the aphid attack they actually seemed like they were doing pretty well.


I rallied quickly though and bought some new plants to take their place.  This time I decided on more herbs.  One of the things I was trying to accomplish in my garden this summer was to experiment with what types of plants I could actually grow in the conditions I have (part shade, limited space).  Now that its already late June, I decided to focus my energy on growing plants that I knew would do well.  The herbs I already have growing are doing really well so I bought a few more varieties.  I added rosemary and two more types of basil.

Spicy Globe Basil and Cinnamon Basil

I've never tried either of these types of basil before.  I usually just grow the standard Genovese basil which is what you would use for pesto or caprese salad.  My boyfriend experimented with the spicy globe basil and made this pasta dish.

Sorry no exact recipe because it was kind of an experiment, but it has chipotle pasta that we got at the farmer's market, alfredo sauce, lots of garlic and red pepper flakes, parsley and spicy basil from my garden and shrimp.  Very spicy, but very delicious!

Flower Shopping with the Fam

It's amazing the clarity that comes with psychotic jealousy.

~My Best Friend’s Wedding

Last weekend I went flower shopping with my mom and sister.  As we wandered around the garden section I got more and more jealous of the selection they had to choose from since both of them have plenty of sun in their gardens.  Although I’m getting quite an education about cool shade plants this year it is hard not to be jealous of all the beautiful sun-loving plants that other people get to plant.  I’ll admit I was pouting a bit, but then I found something to snap me out of my bad mood.

It’s a New Guinea Impatiens.  I was so excited when I saw a whole display of these.  I’ve already learned to make friends with impatiens since they do so well in the shade, but sometimes they seem a little plain for me.  I tend to gravitate towards the more exotic looking plants that almost always seem to need full sun.  This variety is the perfect combination of shade tolerant and flashy.  I love the really dark, almost black, foliage.

I was even more excited when I found coleus with similar shades of hot pink.  I’ve really come around on coleus.  I had always thought it was the kind of boring plant that everyone settles on when they need something to fill a shady area.  No matter how pretty, a bunch of leaves never seemed like an acceptable substitute for big, gorgeous flowers.  But now I realize how nice it is to be basically guaranteed color and texture in the garden all summer from the coleus leaves.  I don’t have to worry about how my plant will look once all the flowers have bloomed because coleus always looks nice.  It’s like I’ve been chasing the high school quarterback when really what I wanted was the class treasurer.  So now I’m “Team Coleus” all the way and I love how it looks with my new impatiens.

Garden Friends and Pests

On every stem, on every leaf,... and at the root of everything that grew, was a professional specialist in the shape of grub, caterpillar, aphis, or other expert, whose business it was to devour that particular part. 
~Oliver Wendell Holmes

My garden has been visited by pests!  Specifically in the form of aphids.  So far they aren't too bad.  For some reason they really like the dill so they are mostly leaving the other plants alone.  I don't use any pesticide on my plants so I've been researching non-chemical ways of dealing with them.  Most of the advice I've found is to blast them off with a strong spray of water.  I don't have a hose or anything so I'm on the hunt for a spray bottle that seems powerful.  In the meantime I'm picking them off by hand and squishing them.  Its kind of gross, but it seems to be working.

But the aphids aren't the only unwanted visitors I've had.  The other morning I heard some light thumping outside.  I looked out the window and saw birds eating my strawberries!  They got the berries and all the flowers.  The strawberries weren't doing that well anyway so this wasn't a huge loss, but I was frustrated to lose the couple berries that seemed to actually be growing.  There is one bright spot to all this though.  Since my strawberry plants were pretty much destroyed, I pulled them out and now I have room for more flowers.  And the best part is that the strawberries were planted in a sunny spot so I'm not limited to shade plants for once.

I walked around the garden section of the Home Depot for at least half an hour trying to figure out the most exciting flowers I could get for a relatively small spot.  Eventually I settled on this pretty Dahlia.  I love the bright vibrant colors.

I've already professed a weakness for garden accessories so I thought I would share a few pictures of my garden 'friends'.

First up is Hootie...

Hootie seemed a little lonely so I had to get him a friend.  My Dad bought me this little fish.  Now I have Hootie and the Blowfish!  Cheesy I know, but it makes me smile.

And finally, what garden would be complete without a gnome?  So here is mine.  His name is Gnome Chomsky...

Spinach and Lettuce Part 2

I had to pull out my spinach and lettuce today.  I'm kind of bummed that they didn't do better and I've been speculating about the reasons why.  I recently read an article about Thomas Jefferson's gardens at his Monticello plantation and it mentions that Jefferson talked and wrote extensively about both his successes and failures in the garden.  Its a good reminder for me that we can learn as much from our garden failures as from our success (although the successes are much more fun).

So I have a few theories about why the spinach and lettuce didn't thrive.  I think they both suffered from a combination of the weird weather we have had in northern Illinois this year (a hot couple weeks in March and then a cold April) and the general lack of direct sun on my balcony.

The lettuce plants had always been a little bit wimpy.  Even after I thinned them a couple weeks ago (which did help some) they still had very thin, weak stems that wanted to flop over all the time.  I think the problem was that I don't get any overhead sun on my balcony.  It only comes from one direction so the seedlings would always grow in the direction of the sun.  I would turn the container everyday to try to even them out, but they still didn't want to grow straight up.  I think because the seedlings were always stretching to try to get to sun they grew very thin and stretched out so eventually they weren't able to support the weight of the leaves. 

The spinach seemed to be doing better than the lettuce initially.  It grew bigger and stronger stems and was actually able to hold itself upright.  But this weekend I noticed that it had started to bolt.   What that means is that it started to go to seed.  After that happens the leaves can get very bitter and not good to eat.  May is pretty early for a plant to bolt, but I have a theory as to why this happened.  Like lettuce, spinach does better when it is cooler.  I think because I was so focused on letting the spinach get as much sun as possible (to grow upright), the container overheated and the soil got too hot.  This is a problem in general with container gardening.  The soil gets warm and dried out really quickly.  Since the weather turned warm last week I've had to water all my plants everyday to keep the soil moist enough.

Bolted Spinach

All is not lost however in my quest to grow greens.  I'm attempting lettuce again, but this time I'm starting with plants rather than trying to start from seeds. I think that will help with my sunlight stretching problem.  There is still a chance that it is too warm now for the lettuce and it might bolt like the spinach, but I've put it in a bigger container and I'm keeping it a little further back and out of the direct sun so hopefully the soil will stay cooler.

I've also planted kale a couple weeks ago since I wanted some sort of dark green for cooking to replace the spinach.  I've never tried to grow it so I don't quite know what to expect.  It seems to be doing well so far.

Garden Update...flowers

April showers bring May flowers

When I first decided to start a garden on my balcony, I envisioned it mostly containing herbs and maybe an occasional veggie plant.  Flowers were much lower on my list of priorities.  Plus it seemed like too much effort to try to find pretty flowers that do well in full shade.   I’m really glad that I decided to make the effort though because the flowers add so much color and life to my balcony.  They make me smile every time I come home. 

What’s blooming now: Early May

I’m happy to report that my hydrangea is still alive.  Not only is it still alive, but it is actually starting to get new flowers.  I’m crossing my fingers that my good luck continues with this.

This bacopa  is a relatively new addition to the garden.  It was a gift from my parents because they knew I was looking for shade plants.  When I first got this one it was a little bit battered from being outside in the garden center and part of it actually broke off when I touched it.  But I replanted it in a bigger container with good soil and it is doing great now.  So don’t be afraid if your flowers are a little windblown or tired looking when you buy them.  Most likely they will come back with some TLC.

The lavender is continuing to grow well.  I had read online that lavender can be kind of tricky to grow, but so far I’ve had no problems with it.  It’s got tons of buds now and some of them are already developing flowers.

This last container started out as a bit of a garden fail.  I planted seeds (impatiens and coleus) weeks ago and have been waiting for them to sprout.  And waiting.  And waiting.  I’m not the most patient person when it comes to this kind of stuff, but it really seemed like nothing was going to happen with these.  So I told the seeds that if they didn’t sprout by the time I can back from my New York trip last week I was going to replace them with new plants.  Still nothing.  So this past weekend I planted these fully grown impatiens and coleus plants.  I can be a pretty tender hearted gardener sometimes, but I don’t feel bad about this decision at all.  I don’t think those seeds were ever going to do anything.  Plus, it’s not like I didn’t warn them…

Space Saving

Well, now that he's finished one building, he'll go write four books about it.
~Frank Lloyd Wright

I’m having a minor space problem on my balcony.  The problem is that I want to keep buying plants, but I only have so much space to put them.  Only the very front edge of the balcony gets any sun so all my herbs and vegetables have to stay there.  And I share it with my neighbors so they get half of the only sunny spot I can plant in.  And while they have commented that my plants look nice, I doubt they enjoy them enough to want to give up any of their space to feed my plant addiction!

However, I have come up with a solution to cram more plants into a small space.  And as a bonus, its super easy.  Can you guess what it is?

Before

After

Stacked planters!  So simple, I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier.  All I did was take 2 planters of different sizes, fill the bottom planter with dirt, and then stack the smaller one on top.

Here is a combo thyme, lavender and dill (another new garden addition) planter…

And this one looks empty, but it is actually planted with flower seeds that haven’t come up yet.

The really cool thing about this project is that it can be customized to match any décor or taste.  I kept it simple with the same planters I used everywhere else, but there are so many other possibilities.  You could keep it classic with basic terra cotta pots.  Or go modern with sleek black or dark gray square planters.  Or look for mismatched or vintage pots if you are into the shabby chic look. 

You can also customize the number of pots you use to work with whatever your needs are.  If you did 3 or more stacked pots, you could probably fit an entire herb garden in the space of one planter.  I wouldn’t use real terra cotta for that one though because it would get super heavy!

P.S. If you are looking for vintage stuff check out my friend Audrey at The Hepburn House.  She specialized in vintage items and 'found treasures'
http://hepburnhouseblog.blogspot.com/

New addition to the garden...Lavender

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green,

When I am king, dilly dilly, you shall be queen

~English Folk Song

One of the advantages of finally having my own garden is that I can plant some more unusual plants that never seem to make the cut to be included in my parent's garden.  Lavender is one of those plants.  I've always wanted to try growing it, but my dad can't stand any 'stinky stuff' in the garden so I've never been able to.

Here is what it looks like now:

So mostly leaves at this point, but I found a few tiny buds already.

Even though it isn't flowering yet it still smells amazing.  I didn't realize that the entire plant is fragrant and not just the flowers so that was a very nice surprise!

I'm really looking forward to the recipes and crafts I can create using this lavender.  I hope my friends like lavender sachets...

New addition to the garden...Spinach and Lettuce!

I'm strong to the finich
Cause I eats me spinach.
~Popeye the Sailor Man

About a week and a half ago I planted spinach and lettuce seeds and I just noticed today that they have begun to come up.  We have had some cold days lately and I wasn't sure if it would be warm enough for them to sprout so I was happy to see them doing ok.  I've never grown either of these from seeds before so I don't quite know what to expect.  I only planted in half of the planter because my plan is to plant in the other half in another week or so to try to stagger them a bit.  I like salad, but I'm not sure how much I could eat if it was all ready to pick at once. 

2 tiny spinach plants

Lettuce.  I might have gotten a bit carried away with how many seeds I planted, but they are so tiny and hard to see!