Saturday, June 12, 2010

Little update, Tomato Attacked!

I'll start with the bad news first. It seems like every year, I lose one of the tomato plants early, or at least it gets severely damaged, and thus stunted. Also, it's always in the same pot. I'll call this the bad luck pot from now on.... This year, it seems like a hungry pigeon decided it wanted to chomp the tips of each branch off. =( This will mean even later tomatoes from this plant.
Luckily, I still have 2 healthy tomato plants. I have no clue which variety each is any more. Good job documenting, Laura...
Strange things grow in the garden when you let them. This looks like some kind of squash or nightshade plant. It already has flowers growing from the center. There is another one of these growing in another pot and I don't know where they came from. I figure I'll let them grow and see if they make any tasty fruits.
The squash seeds I planted last week have sprouted.
Watermelon seed is juuuust starting to sprout.
And, the lilies are blooming =)

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Note to self: June 5 is TOO LATE for setting up the water system

I had a visitor with me today, the first time on the roof since April 24th, and because there was a witness to the devastation in the garden, I feel it would be dishonest not to blog about it, too. My laziness caused this!! A pot of very dead raspberries.
There were a lot more casualties than that and some more that are on the fence and may still pull through. But as always, there are surprising survivors. A few of those peas I planted back in April grew all by themselves and had some peas the perfect size for picking =)
One of my blueberry bushes could be a goner... One suffered some damage, but is still alive. This one is still healthy with a few berries growing, but they're not blue yet =)
More small pea plants. Maybe with water and some more time they'll grow, but I'm not sure. We'll see. I also planted some swiss chard seeds in here, which should be grown and ready to pick by the time the pea plants are definitely expired.
This pot of had some pea plants and another plant, which could be a weed or perhaps a volunteer squash plant? I'm not sure, so I left it. We'll see what it grows into.
My visitor helped me clean up the dead and get new things planted. The empty buckets near the front are planted with zucchini, yellow squash, and watermelons. I planted some yellow and hot pink swiss chard. I'll be excited to eat those =)
I snipped the lower leaves and branches from my tomato seedlings and planted them low in the buckets with some egg shells and good compost that's been collecting in a bucket on my fire escape =) All 3 seedlings look pretty happy now, even if planted late. I'm optimistic I'll have some tasty tomatoes in August. I planted some basil seeds along with the tomatoes, too.
It seems like I let my garden fall into a disastrous state every year, but it's always ok to plant more and keep going! Starting over on some things isn't the end of the world =)

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Welcome Apartment Therapy Readers!!

I've followed Apartment Therapy off and on for a while now, mostly for inspiration on how to redecorate my apartment =) Imagine my shock when I found a comment from a reader who said they found this blog through Apartment Therapy! At first I thought it must be a mistake, but here I am #10 on a top #10 NY Gardening Blogs list! Admittedly, they've chided me for not posting of late... Eek! Duly noted and repentant. I'm quite proud to be the only one listed in Manhattan, though =)
I haven't been on the roof in a while, but that's the plan this weekend. I'm preparing for disaster, though, as it's been quite hot and I haven't watered at all. We'll see what survives and what doesn't! I'll leave you with an update on my tomato seedlings, though. They've been growing happily on my window sill, but desperately need to be planted out! They're already developing flower buds.
Thanks for visiting! Please do come again!