First Rose Blooms

A quick update on the blog before today's post - I am really working on making my blog better, more professional looking, while still trying to maintain a "personal" blog here. I enjoy what I blog about, it is really a documentation of my life, as I live it. But, it seems a little... outdated. I am trying my best to update it to today's standards. I have added a new page, where I am offering up SVG files that I have created for myself, thinking others might enjoy them as well. I have changed the comment system from Blogger's commenting to a system called Disqus (I am working on importing the old comments to the new system, though). Looks to be more popular. Maybe I'll get more people commenting. Lastly, I also changed the theme of the blog. If any problems pop up because of these new changes, please let me know! 

I have blogged about my rose bush several times since I got it. Last post I made, I was excited that it was beginning to have a flower bud. A few days ago, I walked out onto my patio, and saw this little surprise!

It was so close to opening, and gave me a little taste of what kind of coloring it was going to have. I got even more anxious to see what the full bloom was going to be like! All day long, I kept popping my head outside the door to see if it had opened any bigger. Completely illogical, I know. But I could not help it.

This morning, I went to my patio, and she finally opened up to greet me! My first ever rose bloom, and it is absolutely gorgeous! It is totally worth the wait, to see it in all it's spectacular glory. I counted a total of 7 other buds on the bush, just waiting to bloom like this one. I am very excited to see this flower with the other three buds in full bloom next to it. I think it will be even more beautiful.

Rose Bush Update

It has been a little while since I posted an update on my rose bushes. I think one is dying, very slowly, but the other looks like it's really flourishing! I added a few plants since my last update, and they are growing steadily, however it is the rose bushes that have been making progress. The other plants will really take off once it starts to warm up I think.

I am finding that plants really do well on my patio, I get full afternoon sun, part shade, and a portion of it gets no sun at all. I think I have officially lost my basil after a infestation of aphids, I got some pesticide too late, and now I think it is not going to recover. It is scraggly, dropping leaves and very wilty. I will have to stop by and pick up another basil plant from the nursery, as I can not imagine a summer without the smell of basil any more!

This is the dying bush, but it has a couple buds on it! They have been like this for a couple weeks now, and at this point I'm not sure if they are going to bloom. The branches are slowly turning black, one by one. It started with one branch, then just kept spreading, shriveling up leaves as it goes along. I feel like I have kind of given up on it at this point, I am just hoping that I could get at least one or two blooms off of it before it goes. I at least want to see what the flowers look like! Not sure that I will buy another bare root rose again.

The double delight rose bush, I blogged about (and again!) a couple of weeks ago, and it was just starting to have little nubs starting off of the branches. Now, it has turned into a beautiful little bush. The leaves look wonderful, healthy and green. The only problem I have found with this is that in the afternoon sun, the leaves will wilt a little. After Googling, I found that it probably does not have enough feeder roots to get water. The listed solution was to move the plant to part shade for a little while. I had been keeping it in part shade now for a couple weeks, and just now got the courage to put it back into full sun. I will be keeping an eye on it for several days, to see if it handles sun better now.

Gasteria Propagation

I have had this particular plant for at least a year. The plant came with a tag, saying it was an aloe vera. Turns out, I recently found out that it was not an aloe, but a succulent called a Gasteria. I have been trying to propagate it by leaves that had been broken off by the cat, and have been having a little success!

I had checked for roots periodically, and you can imagine my glee when I saw a small little green nub at the end of the leaf one day. I went running through the house to show my husband, who did not understand my excitement... at all. Shortly after, it had gotten a foothold in the soil, and it would not lift up easily. The other night, I took out the soil to see how the roots look, and if there was any progress on the next step of propagation coming along.

I was shocked at how awesome the roots have gotten! They are a far cry from the little green nub I saw weeks ago. Apparently, it will take a long time to actually grow leaves, however. Now that I have been looking at the proper name for the plant, and what to expect, it could be several years before I have a large enough plant that would need to be repotted.

So, we will see. Currently, it is in a tiny used Keurig cup that I had on hand at the time, covered by a mason jar to keep humidity up. It is not taking up much space as it is right now, so I will just keep doing what I have been doing with it... waiting.

More Persian Shields

Towards the end of last month, I purchased a Persian Shield plant from a nursery online. It looked okay when I received it, but for some reason, I wanted a couple more. I have been at my local nurseries, and have had no luck in finding it. I had asked the employees even if they could order it for me. They would not. So, I decided to get a couple more. At the very least - so that I could stop obsessively hunting them locally.

I went with a different nursery this time. I have heard good things about Select Seeds, so I decided to try them out. They had a really good price for the plants, and one of the cheapest places I have found for shipping. I ended up paying just under $21 for the two. It kind of does sound like a lot, but when you factor in how much gas we have wasted in trying to find this plant every weekend, and the cost relative to other online nurseries, this price was phenomenal.

VERY pleased with these plants. The leaves are not dried out like the last place I ordered from, and these were packaged gorgeously. They each had their own little specially made cardboard box, the soil is still damp, and they came in their own pots. The leaves need to do a little relaxing from the journey they took to get to me, but they look to be in fantastic shape. I will, without a doubt, be back to order more from them!

Their pot and potting soil has been waiting for them for a week, so I am very excited to pot them up into their new home!

Clearance Aloes

It is a known fact in this house that I have a soft spot for aloe vera plants. Last summer, we had went to an event that was all outside in the middle of the summer, and we were out there all day. Of course, I came home with the worst sunburn I ever had in my life. It was so bad that my face had swelled up. The only thing that made it feel better was some aloe vera gel that we had purchased. Ever since then, I had been wanting to grow my own aloe, in case I need it again. Now I find myself with a total of seven aloe vera plants, in three different species.

When I was browsing through my local Lowes, I came across two very sad looking aloes, on clearance for $1 a piece. They each had several dead, shriveled, brown leaves, as well as several leaves that were broken towards the top, but other than that, they didn't look "sickly." They each had new growth, and it looked healthy.

I repotted them, took off the bad leaves, and all the dead ones. I left some bent and broken leaves on though, thinking that the plant can still get nourishment from them, and not wanting to give it too much of a shock.

Here's hoping that they will continue to thrive, now that they are in a new home, and all it's dead leaves pruned off of it!

Update on Patio Plants

Let's talk more plants! I posted a little while ago, progress on my first bare root rose. Not much has changed really, but I have noticed the growth on it getting larger, and new growths are showing up. Exciting, for me who has never had a rose bush before!

I am kind of disappointed that it isn't growing faster, as people are already seeing blooms on their roses. I need to learn to be patient! Hopefully, when it does bloom, it will be spectacular and totally worth the wait. It has been a bit of a pain, the apartment managers has been telling people to clear off their patios, because they are power washing. My husband, every morning, had been lugging the huge, heavy pot in the house in the morning, and back outside when we decided they were not going to get to us that day. I imagine that all the moving around of it might have hindered the growth progress of it. (In the end, we never got our patio power washed, and I have given up on moving the plants around. At this point, if they want to power wash, they can work around my potted plants.)

I had purchased daffodil bulbs during last fall, and for some reason, I never got around to planting. I had put the bulbs in the refrigerator, and forgot about them. Cleaning out the fridge, I found them again. They were trying to sprout in the bag, so a few weeks before spring started, I decided to plant them in a small pot, not expecting anything to happen with them. All the information I could gather, said that they need fall weather to grow roots, to get ready to flower in spring. I read that I might get leaves, but that is it. I am amazed to see at least one looks like it is thinking of doing something! It looks like it's wanting to flower! Exciting!

Here's the current status of my "patio garden." I have strawberries in the medium red pot, that I had bare root plants for. Not sure how well they will grow, considering the ones I see in the stores are already much better off than what I currently have. I recently added a lavender, and a sweet mint plant. Just got them over the weekend, and promptly planted them. (Don't mind the mess of potting soil on the concrete, I do need to get my butt out there and sweep it up)

Trial and error is how it goes with my gardening experiences! I am still doing a lot of Googling with my plants, making a serious attempt to do things right! Maybe soon I will need to do a post on my indoor plants, including my crazy, overflowing, windowsill.

Persian Shield Plant

For the longest time, I have been wanting a Persian Shield plant. Ever since I saw this gorgeous photo appear on Pinterest, I have been drooling over it. I have tried to find it in any possible store I went into around me, could never find it. Last week, I decided that I was going to finally just, order it online.

I looked, and searched. The disappointing part of wanting to order it in March, is that places won't ship until after the last frost. Which, apparently, in my case, is the middle of May. Sorry, but I am a impatient person, and I want instant gratification. Besides, I fully intend to keep it as a houseplant, and not as an outside annual, as many online nursery's assume. So, I looked and looked, and eventually found a nursery that will ship it in March, at a decent price. I placed my order.

I essentially paid a little under $13 for my Persian Shield, but in the end, I am glad I went with Morris Nursery, because they even sent a little bonus plant, too!

The Persian Shield is the bigger one, and the bonus is the small one. Apparently, the bonus is a succulent, called "Mother of Million, Alligator Plant", or so said the informational paper they sent. I can not find any other information on the succulent. All the pictures that come up does not look anything like the plant I received. Anyway, They both came wrapped in paper towels, then plastic wrap, and then the whole thing was wrapped in newspaper.

My Persian Shield seems to have several crispy leaves toward the bottom, but I'm thinking that may have been from transport, perhaps? And it's leaning quite a bit, so here's to hoping it can get it's bearings again now that it's back in a pot. The top of the plant looks beautiful, and from what I have read, it roots easily from cuttings. Once it grows up a little bit more, I'm planning on taking a few cuttings so that the pot it is in, can look a little fuller.

A side note: I am really going to have to start looking for alternatives in my apartment for my plants, I have so many now, I do not have any space on my windowsill for any more! I told my husband that we need to move into a two bedroom, so I could have a second windowsill. He was not amused.

Double Delight Rose Bush

Spring is coming, and I am excited! Last year, I made a small attempt at trying to do some container gardening on my patio, but I failed miserably. This year, I'm going to try my hardest to get it right! I grow a variety of things on my windowsill year round (mainly aloe vera plants), but I'm going to try to get going with beautiful, blooming plants outside.

I decided upon getting roses. I have been frequenting the nursery, Home Depot, Lowes, and various big box stores, looking for rose bushes. I've been spending a lot of time researching them, looking at ways to propagate, different varieties. I came across one that I liked, it was beautiful and had good reviews about living in containers. I ordered it, for almost $18, but it will come to me as "bare root", which to my understanding, is a dormant plant. But that's okay! I went out, purchased a huge pot, potting mix. I was ready to receive it.

However, by some fluke, I went to a hardware store that I hadn't been to in a while, since it's kind of out of the way. Imagine my surprise when I find an ENTIRE BOX full of bare root roses. I dug around in them, found a gorgeous bloom called "Double Delight." Upon talking to someone in the store, they told me that they were better off in the ground, that they would only last so long in containers. I didn't care, I wanted something to plant... now.

And here she is, my bare root Double Delight rose bush! It's not much to look at now, but I'm hoping it grows really well, and survives for a couple of years, at least.

I also made sure that I picked one out that had a little bit of new growth on it. While frankly, I have no idea what this new growth is, I'm taking it as a good sign that the plant is still alive, and ready to live!

A lot of my gardening is just trial, error, and a ton of Googling. As for the rose I ordered... I still have a pot for it (although this one is a bit smaller), potting mix is ready, and it was supposed to have shipped yesterday. It didn't, and I have already contacted the place I bought it from, who told me they are waiting for the weather. Well, thanks for keeping me informed? Sheesh.

Bedroom Violets

In addition to the African Violets in the sunroom, that I posted about a couple days ago, I also have a few in my bedroom. Our air conditioner does not cool off the house, at all in the summer. We have a portable air conditioner, that we would roll into the main living area in the morning, and roll it to the bedroom at night. Every day. It didn't cool off the main living areas in the apartment, so after a while of suffering in the heat (it would get up to 98 degrees, in the apartment), I got tired of it all. We moved the television, air conditioner, and everything I needed into the bedroom. For 3 solid months, this is where we lived. We never came out of the bedroom, because that is the only room that the air conditioner actually kept cool. We ate, slept, watched movies, and everything in there. Only recently, did we bring the TV back out to the living room, and use the bedroom for sleeping again.

Since we moved into the bedroom during this time, I was unable to see my  African Violets all the time, like I wanted. So, Tyler went out and bought me a cheap desk lamp, and a compact florescent light bulb for it, so that I can keep a few in the bedroom with me. I originally wanted to keep only one or 2, but the light covered a lot more space than I thought. I picked out 4 of my favorite violets, and put them in the bedroom with me.

My camera is kind of a drama queen with lighting. This photo was actually taken mid-day, with the light on, but somehow it makes it look like it was taken in the middle of the night in a dark room. Whatever, camera. Anyway, here are my 4 favorites. To those who are familiar with African Violets, they are (in clockwise direction): Ma's Ching Dynasty, Ma's Fuzzy Slippers, Ma's Hot Flash, and  Ma's Easter Parade.

Ma's Ching Dynasty even is sprouting a flower bud! It feels like this blossom is never going to open. I've been watching it for days and it's like agony. I want to see what you look like, little flower! Open open!

As for these 4 plants though, I think it's time to find them another place. Now that it's fall, I'm flinging open the bedroom windows at night, and it's been in the 30s and lower lately. I love sleeping in the cold I love the feeling of curling up in my comforter and blankets. Last winter, I would even keep the windows wide open while it snowed, and got into the negative degree temperatures. That said, the bedroom is now too cold for them. There's a bookshelf in the dining room which I think is going to be perfect for them during the fall and winter. I usually keep the radiators on when I need them in the front room and dining room, so it should stay quite warm for them out there.

Update on African Violets

It's been a while since I updated my blog on my precious African Violets, huh? Well, a lot has changed since my last (and only?) post on them. Shortly after that post, the fiance allowed me to go on a shopping spree and buy some more for a slightly early birthday gift. I headed over to The Violet Barn and ordered..... 11 more plants. yes, 11. And this does not include the ones I picked up from our local Lowes.



I've moved them from the windowsills, into the sunroom, under my florescent lighting. The large, full ones are from Lowes, the smaller ones are the babies that I received from The Violet Barn. They were so small then, and they've grown by leaps and bounds in the almost 2 months I've had them.



The ones I got from Lowes, are starting to flower! This was one of my first violets, of the Optimara variety. I'm not sure exactly what it's name is, but it's pretty. I fell in love with the ruffled edges, and hey, it's pink!



Another unknown Optimara variety from Lowes. This one isn't as attractive as the first one to me, but it's still special. When I was mad at the fiance one night, he came home with this for me. It's the thought that he went out and picked one for me is what makes it special. And yes, he was forgiven on the spot. Hah.



This Optimara is about to bloom. I'd forgotten which one this is, I can't wait until they open and I can see!



Even the ones I purchased from The Violet Barn are preparing to bloom as well. This one is Rob's Ooh Lala, a semiminiature variety. They will be gorgeous when they open, I can tell. It's really exciting, because almost all of the ones I purchased from The Violet Barn in August, are producing flower stalks. Yay!

Let me just say that, I've never been good with propagating these. But I keep trying. When I repotted all the Violet Barn violets (way back in August), I broke off two leaves from some semiminiature varieties. They were just too small to pot in their little containers, and my fingers are clearly too fat. The violets lost the battle between finger and container, and I cringed when I heard the little leaves go SNAP. I took a chance and attempted to propagate them anyway. I stuck them in some soil and just waited to see what happened.



They have been in this little pot for almost 2 months. As the fiance was playing his latest Playstation 3 game, I was tending to my violets, and literally shrieked when I seen that I had little baby plantlets poking up from the soil. I was screaming at him to come check it out. He did, but he didn't share my glee. Hmph. The smaller leaf in the photo has the baby plantlets (if you look closely at the base of the stem, you can see them), the bigger one is just now growing roots. It should hopefully sprout babies in a couple weeks.



This little yellow tray, is what I call my nursery. Mainly for leaves that I somehow manage to break off, or suckers that I'm hoping will root and make more plants.

No Children, But I Have Coleus Plants

This is going to be a partial post about birth control, and a experience I had with them recently. So, if you aren't one to want to read about them... stop now. I was put on the pill over 2 and a half years ago, and have been on them since. When my insurance from California ran out, I went in to the local clinic for some more. Well, I have high blood pressure. I know this, and no matter what I do, it won't go down. There was a period in my life where I ate really healthy, cut out sugars, salts, and everything I loved from my diet. I ran every other night. but yet, the blood pressure never went down. As a person with no health insurance, seeing a doctor about it is not in the question at all. After seeing that my efforts were not going anywhere, I resumed my original diet. My philosophy now is: Life is too short to eat foods I don't like. Anyway, when I went into the clinic for birth control, I told them about my problem with blood pressure, and after she took it, she was baffled why I was given them in the first place. Then refused to give me anything with estrogen. My only option was either, the depo provera injection, or a pill form of it.

I had researched the depo shot. Weight gain, mood swings, not being able to have kids until years after stopping it, this was NOT what I wanted. I can deal with the weight gain, mood swings, but... not being able to have children when I want them? That's the hardest for me. The sad thing, was that the night before this happened, the fiance and I had talked about having children. We decided on the month we were going to start trying for a child, and talked about our near future. Now, however, we have to look at the possibility that it won't happen in the next few years. He was upset about this when I told him in the car, I came home and cried in bed for hours. I was heartbroken, and still to an extent, I still am.

So now, after sobbing about it probably much more than was necessary, I plan to put my nurturing need into something else. Fiance and I have decided to get a plot at the local community garden. Well, actually... I decided, he's just going along with it. My windowsill plants have pretty much been my life since I came here to live in Iowa, so I'm excited to actaully be able to plant real fruit bearing plants in the ground. And being able to cook with something that I've grown myself. Hopefully, this is what I need until I get over the depo ordeal. I plan to throw myself completely into gardening for the fall season. Then I'll decide what to do from there.

That said, today, I woke up early and gathered all the seeds I have, and I found several that I can plant for this fall. I have already started some carrot seeds, as well as some basil indoors, under my grow lights. Once they sprout, I should have my garden plot, weeded it, and should be able to plant them in the ground.  After I plant them, I'll start growing lettuce, and other cool season vegetables under my lights to transplant later in the season. So, it should be good.



As for the indoor plants, I have some really beautiful coleus plants lately! The seeds came in a mix of everything, so I really wasn't sure what color leaves I was going to get. I keep getting surprised! The leaves on most of them are absolutely gorgeous, I love them. They are definitely grown for their foliage, that's for sure.



I'm not sure what kind of coleus they are, if I go through my seed catalog again, I can probably figure it out. But I don't really mind what kind they are, they look pretty, and that's all that matters to me.



Dear coleus plants, why must you make me love you so much? When I bought them, I honestly wasn't sure I was going to like them. I don't like buying mixes of plants, because I like to know what I'm planting and what it's going to look like. But I have to admit, I'm really loving the surprise I get when I see the leaves pop with a different color than I was expecting. I only planted about 10 of the seeds (I think I have over 50), so now I'm contemplating just planting them all. I love surrounding myself with beautiful plants.

Rooted Cuttings

Remember my pink polka dot cuttings I blogged about last time? They have been on a roller coaster the past 2 weeks. They perk up, then wilt a little. My life has been obsessing about these little cuttings, spritzing them with water several times a day to stop them from wilting, checking on them, and seeing if they have rooted yet. A few days ago - I was gently tugging on them to check for roots, and finally... I noticed some resistance in them! Which means: they started to root! I was so excited, that all my work babying these little guys, finally was paying off. Today, I finally took them out of their little toilet paper roll pots, to check out what's going on under the soil.



Woo! Check out that little root ball! There really is no better feeling than seeing something you worked hard for actually be a success. I'm sure it's easy for some people, but hey, I've never done this before, and had no idea what I was doing half the time... so this was hard work for me! That said, I re-potted three of the four cuttings that I took into terracotta pots (that I picked up at Menards for only 58 cents!). They are kind of wilting again now though, so I'll just keep on spritzing them until they get established again. The fourth cutting I took, still hasn't rooted yet - I think it's not going to root, but I'm probably going to just leave it for a little while and see what happens.

The downside is... most of my plants are on windowsills throughout the apartment, and I'm running out of windowsill space. I've started stacking boxes up in front of windows to expand my space a bit more. Hah.

Pink Polka Dot Cuttings

I have this really beautiful houseplant called a Pink Polka Dot Plant. It's one of my favorite plants I own. I thought about buying another one, but don't really have the money. They are like $5 up at the local nursery, and I haven't been able to find them anywhere else. That said, I got the brilliant idea to take a cutting from it, a couple weeks ago. I had no idea what I was doing, so I snipped off a stem from it, and dunked it in a container full of soil. The funny thing, is that it hasn't even wilted, and it's not sprouting any new roots like I thought it would. It's been several weeks since, and the mother plant is just flourishing and growing like crazy. So, I thought I'd try again, this time - doing a little research.

Apparently, there is a special root hormone mixture that you are supposed to use for plant cuttings. I did not know this. A trip to check out how much this root hormone cost, proved disappointing. The hormone cost more than what I'd pay to buy a new plant, so that idea was out. A little more research later, I found a free alternative to root hormones - willow tea! You make this by taking leaves and branches from a willow tree, chopping them up and brewing them as you would normal tea to drink.

One problem with this: I don't have a willow tree. My intention was to walk around a park down the street, which had a small lake area and find a willow, cut a few branches off, and run away. Tyler and I walked ALL the way around the lake, which was definitely more than a few miles (probably?), and couldn't find a single willow. Disappointed, and driving home, we spotted a willow tree in someone's backyard... only a couple blocks away. The awesome thing was that this willow was drooping over their fence, and out past the sidewalk. Hey, it's over the property line, it's free taking, right? Well, we waited until the middle of the night, walked the couple blocks with scissors in hand, and snipped off several branches.



I came home, coarsely chopped the leaves, and some of the branches, boiled water, and made my willow tea (yes, those are sour cream containers, and a pasta sauce jar - we are too cheap to buy plastic-ware, so we reuse containers food comes in). It's suggested to steep them for 24 hours, so that's what I did. I put the lids on after the 24 hours were up, and put them in the fridge. Good thing is that the tea will be good for 2 months in the refrigerator, so I won't have to worry about stealing more willow for the next couple months.

This morning, I got up early, and started to get things ready for taking cuttings. I put some of the tea in a little measuring cup I have, and intended to only cut one piece off the plant. But once I really looked at it, I thought I'd trim it up a little bit more. It's been growing really well, and was in need of a little trimming, anyway.



I ended up with 4 cuttings. I dropped them in the tea, with the intent to leave them soaking for 24 hours, as my research suggested. I went off and watched TV for a few hours, and came back to check on them. They were already starting to wilt! I made a mad dash to make up a couple seedling pots out of toilet paper rolls, and planted them. A little spritz of water with the spray bottle seemed to help them perk back up once potted. I'm hoping that they root, and I'll have 4 more little polka dot plants!

Gardening Indoors

This morning, I woke up early, intending on playing a little bit of Aion before the fiance woke up. However, that didn't happen. I got the idea in my head to finally fix my RSS feed for the blog. It has apparently been broken for a little while, I'm not sure what is wrong with it. It's still not entirely fixed, but at least it works on RSS readers. I spent all morning, and into the afternoon working on it. It's almost 9pm now, and I still have not even opened up Aion.

Spring is here, and I love flowers, plants, veggies, and herbs. However, I have no garden, patio, deck or balcony. Instead, I have a small room filled with west facing windows. When I first came here, we went out and purchased a lighting system, so I could grow some plants. I started out with planting a lot of seeds in little newspaper pots. I planted broccoli, herbs, roma tomato, peppers, and much more. But sadly, quite a few contracted something called downy mildew, and were slowly dying. I pruned infected leaves, as much as I could, but in the end, I had to toss out several, because they had died. I did save a few though, some asparagus ferns, lavender, chamomile, and a sage. Now, my lighting system has two levels, the top for seedlings, and the lower level for large plants, such as an Easter Lily the fiance bought for me a few days ago. I've never kept a lily indoors under artificial lighting, so hopefully it works out. Yet another plant experiment I have going.



Growing up, I never really lived with anyone who really gardened. The most gardening experience I had, was watching family members bring in houseplants, then watching them slowly wither away from neglect. So, my knowledge of plants and gardening is very limited. But I am learning by the day. I have had some success though. Shortly after Christmas, I planted a few basil seeds, and a few weeks ago, I got to harvest some leaves off of the basil plant. And now, I am harvesting at least 30 leaves off of it every Sunday. It's fantastic having fresh basil, from my own plant when I need it.



That said, I will not give up! I'm starting to plant seeds once again, with new strategies. Instead of using newspaper pots, I'm trying out toilet paper rolls, which is much easier to control where the water goes, smaller, and it seems to be easier, in general. Here in this photo, I'm growing some Yolo Wonder bell peppers, and some dimorphotheca flowers. I had dimorphotheca sprouting before, but it was yet another seedling to fall victim to the downy mildew plague that swept through my apartment. Hopefully this one will be better, I think I eliminated the problems that caused it.



I also planted more basil. I couldn't help it. I love my basil plant, I want a continuous stream of herbs coming through to my kitchen. I have taken a liking to freezing my basil leaves. After I harvest from my plant, I rinse off the leaves, and pat them dry. Then, I fill up an ice cube tray halfway, drop about 5 leaves into each ice cup, and put in the freezer. When those are completely frozen, I fill up the ice cube try completely and freeze again. Then, I take the cubes out, and put them in a ziploc bag. To put in spaghetti, or any other pasta dish, I just drop the ice cube in the pan with my pasta sauce, the ice will melt in it, and the excess water will evaporate, leaving me with the basil. I'd imagine this will work with any herb as well. I'm going to try it. The taller seedling is cilantro - I lost my last cilantro to spider mites (I had no idea they even existed until I googled them. By then it was too late for the plant). This one will do better, I have a counter measure in place when those evil spider mites come back.



In addition to my little sunroom container garden, I also have plants scattered throughout the windowsills in the apartment. I have these 4 behind the couch. The first one is apparently a polka dot plant. It was a mystery plant I fell in love with at the nursery (hey, I can't pass up a pink plant!), I asked a worker what kind of plant it was, and she told me... but by the time I walked out of the door with it, I had forgotten. So I googled, and google told me what it was. It's a little unruly with the flower spikes, and I think it needs a trimming... really soon. The second plant is my lemon balm that I nursed from seeds. I LOVE this plant. I don't know why. I think the leaves are gorgeous and I love the shape of them. When you rub a leaf and smell it, it smells just like lemons. And, people make teas out of lemon balm as well. The last two... planted in a Panera and a McDonald's cup, are Asparagus ferns. They aren't the most attractive plants I've seen, but they add greenery and pretty into the apartment.

I seem to have knitted washclothes under every plant. It's funny because while I was on Amtrack, moving here, I made tons and I had no idea what I was going to do with 8 washcloths. Now, I have at least 20, and am constantly running out. I always have to rummage through my yarn to find more cotton to knit up some more.