Attack of the spider mites

So I've been back from our mini-vacation for about a week now, and I'm just now getting around to updating y'all on how my plants fared while I was gone. The answer is: half were just fine, and half died. Yeah. Spider mites.

They took out two pots of marigolds, two romaine lettuce plants, all the dahlias, and the tomatoes. There wasn't much to do but move them away from all the other plants and then pull them up and toss them out. Everything else fared really well, but I was amazed at how much damage was done by those spider mites in just one week. Next time I leave town I will try to isolate the plants more instead of grouping them all together in one location.

In other news, I got some new plants! And they are already teaching me valuable plant lessons. For instance, a plant may look healthy when it actually has huge problems and may not be salvageable. I bought an orchid on clearance - it looked great! I figured it was on sale because it had lost 1/3 of its blossoms and was completely in bloom. Not so - when I got home and pulled the plastic container out of the decorative pot it was sold in, I found about four inches of disgusting, smelly water. And when I took the plant itself out of that container, I found nothing but disgusting, smelly brown roots. I did the best I could to trim off the rotten roots, but they were the majority. The poor plant already looks sad - without healthy roots it can't get enough moisture. See how it's drooping and turning yellow?

Those clearance "green thumb" racks at big home improvement stores can have some great finds on them too, though. I found a really nice spathiphyllum, which is the species of plant that includes the peace lily, for about $2 and it is gorgeous. I also got sanseveria trifasciata - a snake plant. It was kind of sad looking but has completely rebounded and is even shooting up new growth. I got two scheffleras - umbrella trees - and admittedly, the one from the clearance rack has died.

Spathiphyllum - apparently the blossoms turn green when they ripen, at which point you should clip them off (I haven't yet).

Sansevaria trifasciata - this is supposed to be very easy to grow, and I would agree.

Schefflera - I read that these plants are sensitive to being moved around too much. I haven't repotted this little guy yet. It should grow to be much bigger if it survives my care.

I also got two new ferns from the clearance rack. My rabbit's foot fern has done fantastic so I bought it some company. Both the compact boston fern and the lemon drop fern I bought had small sections of dead branches which I trimmed away. The boston fern is looking a little sickly, but the poor lemon drop is infested with - not again! - spider mites. I would have taken pictures to share, but spider mites are too tiny to see and I immediately rinsed the plant as soon as I noticed dry leaves and light webbing.

At least this time I caught it before it was completely infested and could spread. I did some research in the library on my new plant friends (also where I learned their species) and found a pretty good book called The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual by Barbara Pleasant (what a nice name!) She suggests clipping off affected portions, sealing them in a plastic bag, and throwing them away. Next, you should spray them with a mixture of two quarts of lukewarm water, 1 tablespoon dishwashing soap, and 1 tablespoon canola or corn oil. Mrs. Pleasant cautions against using any kind of pesticides because spider mites quickly become resistant. She also recommends just throwing the plant away if it's small (it is) and inexpensive (it was $1), but I feel like I can't let those mites get away with killing another plant. So we'll see how this soap-oil mixture works in the next few weeks, or if it just kills the plant faster.

That's all for now. I'm working on getting together enough bedding to harvest my worm compost and set them up in fresh bedding, so hopefully I'll be able to write about that soon.

Read any good books lately?

Well, I'm sorry to say that I haven't cooked anything this week and generally don't have anything else to say about gardening at the moment. I do a lousy job of cooking for myself while my husband is away, so that's probably why I have felt zero motivation to cook something interesting this past week. Plus, I've been pretty busy doing laundry and packing, getting ready to go on vacation. Am I spending next week lounging on the beach? taking in the sights somewhere? Nope, just headed to good old West Virginia to spend some time with the family.

One very small gardening related thing I suppose I could share with you is the question of what in the heck should I do with all those plants while I'm gone? There is no way I can leave them outside for a week with no water, so I guess I'll move them into the kitchen. They won't really get enough light, but at least they won't be scorched either. This arrangement worked out last time I went away, but that was only for a few days. I'll let you know how it goes!

I also wanted to share that I just finished two really good books - The Magicians by Lev Grossman, and Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger.

I know this has nothing to do with what this blog is supposed to be about, but oh well. The Magicians was pretty funny - kind of the same idea as Harry Potter, except the characters actually act like real people and magic is really difficult and kind of boring. Her Fearful Symmtery was very different and surprising - it's about twins who move into their estranged aunt's London flat when she dies. I don't want to give anything away, but it went where I certainly did not expect it to go. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending yet, since I just finished it this afternoon, but I read it pretty quickly because I needed to know what would happen next! That's always a good quality in a book, right?

One last thing - I have hundreds of books stacked up around my house, and I'd say I've only read about half of them. I think that maybe I want to just pick a shelf and read every book, left to right, and see how that goes. And when that shelf is finished, move on to the next one. Technically, next on my reading list are Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (so I can see the movie) and Marcus Zusak's I am the Messenger, Elie Wiesel's Night, and Neil Smith's Bang Crunch (because they are borrowed). After those though, I think it will be time to try this experiment - I know I will enjoy all those un-read books, and I'll also feel better about my used book shopping sprees.

Any book recommendations to add to my list? There's always room for a few more! Have a great weekend!

Spruce up those old flower pots

Hello! I hope y'all are having a good week so far. I wanted to share two really neat ways to decorate flower pots that I found on my favorite blog, Modish. They both worked really well, and I love the results, so here you go -

Supplies:

For flower pot #1 you need the puffy paint and clear spray coating, plus acrylic paint if you want it. It's pretty simple - you take a terra cotta pot, draw your design on with the puffy paint, add the acrylic if you want to, wait for it to dry, and spray on the clear coating. I'm not much of an artist, but I liked the way it turned out.

I think the idea behind flower pot #2 is a lot more interesting. Someone with greater artistic ability than my own could produce something really beautiful. For this one you need Elmer's gel glue, acrylic paint, and the same clear spray coating. You take your terra cotta pot and this time you draw the design with the gel glue. Let it dry and paint over the whole thing with the acrylic paint. Once that's dry, stick it in the sink or a bucket of water and wash off all the gel glue - which is actually a lot easier than it sounds. Let it dry again and then finish up by coating it with the clear glaze coating.

This is the finished result - I don't love the design I drew, but I do love the look! I definitely want to try this technique again.

I love these projects because they make me feel productive and artistic, plus they're a great way to save money. I always look far longer than my husband would like at any display of flower pots, even though I know I can't afford most them. Terra cotta or plain plastic are always the cheapest options, but then you end up with the same bland colors for everything. I'm so glad I found this simple way to brighten up my little garden space.

Small projects & free plants

I've been doing lots of little projects today, trying to stay busy. I'm anxious for the weekend because, well, it's the weekend. But I also don't particularly care for next week to get here anytime soon. I have to drive to DC in Monday morning traffic for a doctor appointment, and then my husband is going to be gone the rest of the week. When I get anxious or stressed, I tend to just sit around and obsess over whatever is worrisome, which only makes me feel worse and worse. So today I'm trying to keep myself occupied and focus on more pleasant things.

First of all, I re-potted some succulents - the kind my mom always called hens and chickens. I think plants like these are pretty inexpensive. This one was about $2 and they spread quickly and easily. I separated them into a super adorable little hanging planter I found at an antique store (which I will photograph and share when I find a place to actually hang it), and some ceramic geese measuring cups.

Now the goose that holds my air plants will have some company! I took these little plants from a slightly larger one my mom keeps in her window which actually used to belong to my grandmother. I love these little plants and hope maybe I can get them to to make lots of baby air plants - I feel like maybe they are not getting enough moisture.

So another thing I did this morning was make new homes for some strawberry runners. Did you know that's where baby strawberry plants come from??? Forget trying to plant a strawberry seed - baby plants just show up and search for a place to root, much like the succulents and air plants. I have three full grown strawberry plants, so I have triple that many runners. If anybody nearby wants one for free, let me know! Anyone in WV, too, since I'll be over that way in just over a week.

Today is also feeding time for my worms - yes, I keep a rubbermaid container full of worms in my house. They compost my leftover food. I want to do a whole post about them sometime soon, but I thought I'd share a few pictures today. I didn't have much in the way of scraps for them this week, but I did have some frozen leftovers from last time when I didn't want to overload them with too much. It's some moldy bread, mushy banana, a little corn, and some egg shells all blended together.

Super gross, right? Well, they seem to like it okay. Look, one of the little guys came out to say hey. My husband thinks they're pretty gross. He doesn't want to touch them, and he made me move them into the basement stairwell because of a fruit fly infestation that I pretty much had under control.

So that's about all for today - thanks for reading this far. Next week maybe I'll go into more detail about vermicomposting and I plan on sharing a pretty neat way to decorate flower pots. Maybe I'll even make myself cook something - I did put that in the blog title, after all. I'll leave you with some pictures I took of a visitor I found in my garden this morning.

Have a great weekend!

Pretty Pictures

This morning started out very dreary and I really thought it was going to rain. I was in a rush, so I skipped watering my plants, and as a result, the sun came out and turned up the heat. I think the zucchini and tomatoes in particular are really suffering from the high temperatures we've been having lately. Anyway, I was in a hurry because somehow I got it into my head that I needed to leave about a half hour before I actually did. What a great way to start the day, hmm? I've spent the rest of my day feeling overwhelmed by job applications and unhelpful printers, so I am just going to post some really pretty pictures from my garden.

Marigolds

Tomato

Romaine lettuce

Sneaky cat that eats romaine lettuce and then throws it back up on my rug

Onions

Mystery Plant

Sunflower

I planted three sunflowers this summer, kept two of them, and gave one to a friend. I'm pretty sure all three have died, which is a bummer because last summer I remember them blooming for much longer. I could have sworn I planted the same kind as last year, but who knows? I think they still make for a pretty picture.

Welcome!

So it seems I've started a blog - one where I will share what's going on in my garden and kitchen. I chose gardening because it's what I've been interested in lately, and cooking because I'm trying to do it more often. I've decided to do this for three reasons:

1. I was encouraged by the professor of a class I took on integrating technology in the classroom.
2. If my Dad can blog, I ought to be able to as well.
3. I figure it will keep me motivated to try new things.

I live in a townhouse on a Marine base, so I didn't get to pick my house or anything. I had my fingers crossed for a yard, but what I ended up with was a small porch. So my tiny garden is a random collection of flower pots and containers. I have some great plants and some that aren't doing so well -

On the left is a mystery plant left by a neighbor who moved away (I figured out what it is! But more about that another time); to its right is a tomato plant; in the window box on the bottom is romaine lettuce; across the top is a jalapeno pepper plant, some onions, and a green bell pepper plant; on the far right is my not-productive zucchini plant.

Below are my lovely sweet potato vine, some marigolds I planted from seeds, three strawberry plants, a dahlia that when it blooms is the same shade as its pot, and some more little marigolds that I rescued from a flat that had baked in the sun too long.

Tomorrow maybe I'll show off my indoor plants or post some really beautiful up-close shots. Other gardening-related topics I'm interested in exploring include propagating my fern, growing avocado plants, vermicomposting, and figuring out why the heck my zucchini plant isn't producing. Anyway, thanks for checking out my new blog!