Tomato buds!

Well, it's been quite some time. Since my last post, I re potted my aloe plant that my grandmother gave me at Christmas on April 6. I've also been gathering TONS of petunia seeds. If anyone wants any in a trade, just let me know in the fall when I know how many I have. They're quite viable as they've been sowing themselves quite frequently in the pots underneath them.

And of course, the most exciting thing has to do with that upside down tomato plant.


You can probably see in this picture the buds that are on here. Now I did notice a couple days after this photo that the other plants are starting to form their first cluster but this is actually two separate clusters of buds. I didn't quite catch them when they first formed so who knows how long they've been there.

Also just as exciting, my jalapeño plants are forming buds as well!


I know, kinda fuzzy but you can make out the shape of some of those buds, right?

All sorts of birds

Well, I've just been having all sorts of luck with birds today. First, the crazy finches that were trying to peck into the siding on the apartment.

Later after that incident, I was outside repotting a plant on the balcony, when I heard a low drone like a bumble bee or wasp or something except it sounded MUCH bigger. We had some carpenter bees move into the area (in fact, into a wind chime on the balcony) a couple weeks ago so it startled me. I looked up to catch a glimpse of a humming bird zip off.

Later, he came back and I got a good look at him. Looked like he was a ruby throated humming bird. He seemed quite interested in the petunias. I'm becoming more and more glad that my wife convinced me to get those.

What the...

Well, today is my day off and my wife is out of town so I'm not doing much of anything. I was just now sitting on the couch minding my own business when I heard noises out on the balcony. I look and see all this fluttering. See that red circle? Those are tail feathers of a bird (looked like it was a finch) sitting above my door pecking on the vinyl siding. In all, there were two of them.

Daisies are coming!

Well, this is my third year with my gerbera daisies and they're doing better than ever! There are quite a few buds growing right now and even a few getting ready to bloom. Lookie!

More transplants

Well, as I promised, I planted some tomatoes upside down yesterday. Here's a photo of the finished product.

As you can see, the plant is already starting to turn back up but I expect it to eventually give into the weight as it starts to grow longer and bear fruit. Well, that's one less plant that will have to be staked and tied.

I also planted some basil in the top of this pot partly to keep bugs and stuff away but also because I just love the stuff. Unfortunately, we had quite a bit of wind last night and it appears that one of the plants may have snapped under such conditions.

We'll see what happens to it although I doubt it will be very good.

I also planted my jalapeño plants in their pots but I forgot to take pictures of those. I'll have to post some of those in a few days.

Pictures!

Well, as I said before, I have replanted most of my tomato plants but didn’t get a chance to take some pictures. Well, here’s pictures of the tomatoes as well as some other plants out on my balcony at the moment. I apologize for the quality of some of these. I just got this camera yesterday and I haven’t quite learned how to use it well yet.

Like I said, the tomato plants that are doing well. They’ve already gotten so much bigger since I put them in these pots.

These ought to be pretty once they start to bloom. It’s a little hard to see in this picture (sorry, I know it’s blurry) but there are two flower buds right there.

Mmm…I can already taste the fresh bruschetta.

Replanted Tomatoes

I replanted some of my roma tomato plants into pots Sunday night. I left one alone since I’m going to try planting it upside down like this. I’ll probably plant some of my basil plants in the top of the hanging pot partly to make use of the soil but also to try to keep bugs away without using chemicals.

I’ll try to post pictures of this when I get it done. You’ve always got to be creative when you live in an apartment with a small balcony.