Plant Happy

This warm, sunny was perfect for hanging laundry on the line strung between the posts on the porch, and potting up little plants in between washer loads. What a happy day for me. Mysteriously, I really enjoy laundry day (every Monday), especially on warm days so things dry quickly on the line. And this was a stellar laundry day, as everything is folded and put away already.

I potted up some of the eggplants and peppers that had stalled out at about an inch tall. I'm hoping that this little disturbance of changing their pots will stimulate growth. Saturday and Sunday mornings the temperature fell into the 30s F., with patchy frost predicted for Sunday morning. I pulled all the porch plants closer to the wall and threw a sheet over the most tender ones on Friday evening, then brought the tender ones inside Saturday night.

They should have come in on Friday, because the leaves of some of the really tender ones -- namely the baby cukes and bitter melons -- got burned just by the chilly breeze that blew. I'm sure they'll come out of it, but they'd be happier if I had taken better care. 

Had to show off this year's strawberry patch.

Today I checked the little radishes in the garden for enlarging roots. Nothing yet. Sigh. 

However, the lettuces on the porch are looking almost ready to eat. This batch grows in the bottom eight inches of a plastic garbage can. I cut it off a long time ago so I could use the upper portion as a bottomless container for something. Then this part was used for various other things until I decided last summer to drill holes in the bottom and use it as a planter. It's worked wonderfully. 

These lettuce plants were purchased at a nursery so I could have pretty plants for the Master Gardeners Garden show last month. These are a butterhead lettuce that forms loose heads, so they're not quite there yet. But we have plenty of  grocery store lettuce to last us a few days. Maybe they'll be ready by the time that's gone. 

The plants that I put out in the garden look more likely to head, but they're much smaller. Plus, several of them got taken out by cutworms. From now on, any transplants that go into the garden will be accessorized with cutworm collars. That is, sections of toilet paper inner rolls buried an inch deep with at least an inch above ground. This has successfully thwarted the cutworms in the past. 

The little lettuce seedlings in front of the bigger lettuces in this photo are a variety called Tom Thumb, a mini-romaine. I'm eager to see them grow.

And now the cabbage white butterfly caterpillars are hatching. They've chewed on my tub broccolis. So tomorrow I bring out the sprayer and the Bt. Along with the broccoli, I'll spray the bok choy and Chinese cabbage seedlings, as well as the kale and collards. 

Tomorrow promises to be another beautiful day, so I'll be out playing with plants again.