Another season

Got a few tiny tomatoes in a tub with a ripening banana. The banana's do cause the peppers and tomatoes to turn red. Hope they don't all taste like bananas. Found a good article about why gardening doesn't really save most people any money.

After a few years of vegetable gardening, next year I might try begonias or something that flowers. Perhaps a few flowers and some cayenne peppers. Flower gardening would be a novelty. Except for cactus, African violets and an aging geranium, I haven't tried it since I was a tot.

The 2009 crop

It's weird at work, I feel like I'm living in this agricultural community instead of New Jersey. Everybody is bringing in their produce from the garden and comparing notes. I've had a good year myself. Maybe it's because of the rain or maybe it's because the squirrels seem to have subsided this year, but I did well with my cayenne and anaheim peppers as well as my cherry tomatoes. The cayenne and cherry tomatoes came from seed (cheepo seeds) and the anaheim peppers came from a co worker. I'm guessing on the anaheim label but that's what they look like. They guy I got the from claims they are "Portuguese hot peppers" but I'm skeptical about that label.

In true agricultural areas people are blase about their gardens. You can tell city folks a mile away.

August 2009

Not too bad. This year I bought "Plantation" seeds for a dollar apiece at Big Lots. I bought cherry tomatoes and cayenne peppers. The cherry tomatoes are fairly large and seem to have done well. The plants are bigger than I imagined, even bigger than the Ramapo tomatoes I grew last year. The peppers didn't fair as well. Still I have already been using my meager yield for cooking. I also got a plant of indeterminate origin from a co-worker.

This year, for whatever reason, I didn't have the squirrel problem I had last year. One squirrel was hanging out in a basil pot but they don't seem to have eaten anything so far. It has been a very rainy year but the hot sun the past few days have been instrumental in ripening the cherry tomatoes. I counted about forty-five fruit so far.

2009 plants

In keeping with the theme of "hard times", I didn't buy heirloom tomatoes this year. I just went to Big Lots and bought two packets of seeds, one cherry tomatoes and one cayenne peppers. I potted them in the window and now I have potted a lucky few on the balcony. One of the tomatoes died (so I thought) so I planted another one next to it. A week later, it came back to life and now there are two rivals in the same pot. Resurrection. Better than Angels and Demons.

2009 seeds available

I just received an e mail from Rutgers. The Ramapo tomatoes are available again this year. I've decided I have too many squirrels and not enough direct sunlight to venture to grow them again this year. I'll probably grow cayenne peppers and maybe cherry tomatoes, or as a Chinese American co-worker called them, "cherry potatoes". You can find my other blogs on my profile. Happy gardening!

A new blog

I've started a new blog, Hard Times. It's getting off to a rocky start but be patient.

My Christmas Cactus

Fifteen years ago I acquired a teeny Christmas cactus from Texas. Today it is still alive and blooms only once a year, at you guessed it... Christmas. Here is my first attempt at using my new toy, a webcam. Perhaps it will figure into future blogs in the future. Season's greetings, Mr. Mustache