Strawberries

What was that weather last night?! Luckily Boston didn't get any of the tornadoes that central Massachusetts saw, but I've never seen lightning like that before. There were the usual big bolts and cracks of thunder - some closer and louder than I've ever heard before, but the freaky part was the sky. It was constantly lit up with between-cloud lightning. Seriously, it was ALWAYS lit up. It felt like something out of a bad SyFy tv movie about weather.

But in other news, it's June! I always associate June with strawberries, so I'm really hoping my plants will give me some fruit. It's only their first year, so I won't be totally surprised if they don't though.

A million years ago (or so it seems) when we went to the greenhouse supply store I saw this container, and it looked like a good one for strawberries.
I've filled all three layers with strawberries, but with lavender in the center on top. So far they seem to like it. There's lots of new growth on the seedlings I bought.
And even a few blooms! I also started some from seed and I put them in the top layer to get some extra sun, but they're still pretty small. For some reason I didn't take any photos of those. I'll have to do that this weekend.I know strawberries are a popular fruit, does anyone have a favorite variety?

Containers

So this is a quick post. I really am going to get my stuff together one of these days and get my posts in a row.

But here are a few photos of some of the containers on the deck. I don't have a very wide variety of containers, but they all seem to be doing well.


These photos were taken about 2 weeks ago and it's amazing to see how small they were then in comparison.

We're scheduled to get some major storms today in Boston, but hopefully the weather west of here is better for my DAD'S BIRTHDAY! :)

Aerogarden Tomato

Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. It was also my birthday this past weekend, so it was nice to have an extra day off. The weather was beautifully sunny, which was much appreciated, but temperatures in the upper 80s with very high humidity made for a very sweaty weekend.

The poor outdoor plants were torn. The tomatoes are taking off and loving this hot weather, but the kale and chard are not happy campers. We actually harvested some of the kale (photos to come) and had it for dinner with our cookout last night. So good!

But today's post is about an indoor plant - my Aerogarden tomatoes.

There's nothing like a homegrown tomato and even these Aerogarden ones taste delicious, but I think the plant may be reaching the end of its life. I'm hesitant to end it, but J wants to rip the whole thing out and get started on something new. His bigger Aerogarden currently has some jalapeno peppers in it, so I think he wants to get the golden cherries going in mine to make some salsa.

You can see that the growth on it is getting a little straggly and it hasn't grown much in a few weeks. The leaves at the bottom are brown and dead, they probably should be snipped.

This photo is from about a week ago. Those tomatoes were great on salads, but the green ones already turned and we had those this past weekend.
I think tomatoes are just so pretty!

So there's the photographic ode to the Aerogarden tomatoes. Something tells me J's going to get his way pretty soon and I'll be washing out an Aerogarden this week. I'm interested to see how the root system looks!

Answers

And now the answers to yesterday's guessing game!



#1 is...summer squash





#2 is... basil





#3 is... strawberry





#4 is... kale




#5 is... swiss chard

Did you get them all?

Are you growing them all too?

Guess the Leaf

Last week I put up a post and had you guess the plant by its flower. In all honesty, they were pretty easy. Last weekend (seriously, where has this week gone!?) I was out in the garden and noticed how pretty the leaves of a lot of my plants are.
So let's try another guessing game. Guess the plant by its leaves! I'll post the answers tomorrow.
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5

The past few days here have been hot. Not just warm, but hot! I don't think my cool weather plants, like yesterday's kale, are loving it. But that just means now I get to eat them before it gets too hot and they bolt. Where did that term come from anyway? It seems so odd.

Lots of plans for the weekend. The place I work closes at 3pm on Fridays in the summer, and that starts this week and we have Monday off for Memorial Day... though I like to think we get the day off to honor my birthday, which is Sunday.

My garden is mostly planted for the year, but I promise to get some good photos of it. It's difficult because the deck is only so big and there's no place to stand and get a photo that isn't covered with a container filled with vegetables, or fruit.

I'll also attempt to get a photo of the garden I created here at work too!

Anyone have fun plans for the holiday weekend?

Kale Forest

My kale started off not looking so good earlier this year, but it finally took off a few weeks ago when the cold, wet weather started. It must like that because now the corner of my balcony is a kale forest!
How do you know when it's ready to harvest and eat? It looks delicious!

Cuttings

Spring is such a great time of year. There's new growth everywhere, things are blooming, baby animals are out and about, and it seems like a great time of year to take some cuttings from my indoor houseplants.
The spider plant my mom gave me when I moved has gone totally insane. I attribute it to the liquid seaweed I gave it, and I haven't given it any since. (I'm afraid it will grow legs and start wandering the apartment.) There's a TON of little babies at the end of shoots, but I took the biggest one and put it in some water, with a little bit of liquid seaweed since the plant seems to love it so much) and set it under the plant light. I'm planning to put this one in the kitchen when it gets bigger.The golden pothos is the other plant I took a cutting of. It's been taking over the mantle, which I love, but the original pot is looking a bit bare, so I'm hoping to put it back in there to fill out the pot a bit.
Besides my african violet (I actually just typed "african violent" by accident, but I'm pretty sure it's a peaceful plant), those are the only two "traditional" house plants I own. If I were to add to my collection, what would you recommend?

Oh, and what I'd really love for my cuttings is one of these. How cool is that?