Day 72/47/37 ~ It’s a Plant Extravaganza!

Everything’s growing like crazy. I can’t believe that I’m actually managing three seperate gardens of different kinds of plants. I’d almost think that my black thumb has been cured…maybe.

First off, Yin’s flowers are growing like mad. The Twinkle Phlox is blossoming all over the place. I clipped a few off to put in a vase and they look so pretty! And there are still a bunch that have just bloomed or are getting ready to. Plus the dianthus is about tohave it’s first bloom as well!

The tomatoes are trucking along. No blossoms yet, but I’ve been pruning almost daily to keep them compact.

And the herbs are doing great.

I’ve been having lots of fun finding recipes to use them in. I actually put my Herb ‘n’ Serve to good use and made a creamy dressing for the cucumbers and tomatoes I got at the farmers market. Just poured in some rice vinegar, then the herbs, chopped them up, then added mayonaise. Yum yum! It turned out great.

I also chopped up a good harvest of herbs and froze them in the ice tray. It’ll be interesting to see how they taste later on.

What’s going to be really interesting is that I’m moving this weekend. I hope my gardens will do okay on the trip. It’s only a 20-30 min drive, so I’m sure they’ll be okay. I’d hate it if they died after doing so well.

Day 63/38/28 ~ Surprise, Surprise!

I woke up today to two surprises in my gardens!

First, the Twinkle Phlox has bloomed!

And second, the chives finally sprouted! It seems that if I say I’m giving up on something, that’s their cue to make a big push to grow.

Day 60/35/25 ~ It’s a Plant Extravaganza!

Wow….I can’t believe what progress has been made just since my last posting. The English Cottage garden (Yin) is really perking up alot. I think I actually am seeing the beginning of flower buds…maybe? I hope…on the Twinkle Phlox. I went in and got a super-duper-close-up…and whatever they are, they sure are cool-looking:

The Petunias have literally exploded in growth! They’ve already taken over their corner of the AG and have invaded what would have been the lavender’s territory, had it decided to sprout.

The rest of the flowers are coming along in their various stages. The stock is amazingly, hanging in there and trying to thrive. Everytime I think I’m just going to give up on it, it manages a little growth spurt. So, I’ll keep cheering it on and hope it makes it. The snapdragons are doing well, despite their very late start, and the dianthus is just chugging along, slow but steady.

On to Yang, the cherry tomato garden. I went ahead and did the 4-5 week pruning on the two original plants. The transplanted red is almost ready to be clipped….probably in another day or two. Overall, they’re doing great. I am still amazed that the transplanted one is thriving.

Last, but not least, the herb garden (Chi). I’ve been honing my appreciation of basil lately since it’s been growing like wildfire. Everything else is really taking off as well (except for the chives which is obviously a dud). I’m planning on going to the farmer’s market tomorrow to snag some more veggies. I’m definitely planning to get some lettuce so I can make some salad dressing with the Herb ‘n’ Serve I got at BB&B for half off when I bought Chi. Ooo…or I could make some marinade for some chicken tonight. Hmmm…

And, just because I thought it was pretty, a close-up of the thyme. I just love the texture of the leaves and the pretty purple tint on the underside.

Day 55/30/20 ~ Basil Breakfast Yummies!

TI decided to harvest a little bit of basil since it’s starting to get tall:

So I did a little internet searching for a recipe that involved eggs, basil and tomato (since I bought about 3 pounds of tomatoes at the farmers market yesterday) and found this: Tomato Basil Eggs Alfredo in Bread Baskets. I didn’t have some of the ingredients (refrigerated bread sticks, pesto), so I improvised. Essentially, I just scrambled eggs with jarred alfredo sauce, then added chopped tomatoes and basil, then dumped it all over a piece of buttered and grilled bread. I accompanied it with a dish of fresh raspberries (also from the farmers market) topped with a dollop of blueberry-pomogranate yogurt. It was yummy!

Day 54/29/19 ~ Snip, Clip, and Grow!

I realize I haven’t posted an update in awhile. Been really busy and so much has been going on with my AGs, I’m almost at a loss as to where to start. I’ll take this one at a time….

First, the English Garden.

 It’s…well, going slowly. The Twinkle Phlox actually has been growing nicely. So much, in fact that I had to prune it down because it was almost in the lights. The Mini Petunias have picked up the pace and are growing quite well now. The Stock still looks pretty pitiful….apparently something’s gotten into the pod because it’s turned green. I’m guessing it’s algae, but not 100% sure since everything I’ve read says that algae doens’t inhibit the plant’s growth…but whatever this is sure seems to be. The Dianthus are growing slowly, but pretty steadily. The new Lavender started growing one tiny sprout, then died. It looks like I’m just not meant to have Lavender in this garden. The Lavender Snapdragons looked like they were going to be a dud too, but just a few days ago, it started sprouting. Hopefully, they’ll be able to hang in there.

Next, the tomatoes.

 They’re doing great. When they got big enough, I had to make the difficult decision as to which ones to prune out. It was a very hard decision because all of the sprouts (except the ones in the left heirloom…which all died) were growing at an even rate…but I went ahead and pruned one of the Yellow Harvests out and actually decided to try and transplant one of the two healthy Red Heirlooms into the unsuccessful pod. It looked like it wasn’t going to make it the first few days, with some of the leaves turning brown. But now it looks like it just might because it’s started growing again. Yay!

Lastly, the herbs.

 The basil is growing like mad. I’m actually going to try to find a recipe to use some of it in because it’s gotten big enough to harvest already. The dill is doing great, as is the oregano and thyme. The mint is coming along lowly, but steadily. Unfortunately, it looks like the chives pod is a dud. Not a single sprout. Ah well…

Day 40/15/5 ~ Playing Darwin

It looks like it’s time for a little “Survival of the Fittest” in the AGs today. We’ve got a couple of struggling plants so it’s time to cull the herd so the suvivors can thrive.

First off, the Stock…There have been two plants, but only one has been growing, and very slowly at that. The other has been just hanging out, leeching off its podmate like a lazy roommate that eats all the food but doesn’t have a job or pay the bills. And our lazy bum of a plant started looking a bit sickly, the leaves turning yellow like before, just moreso. So….time for the eviction notice.

And in the tomato garden, we also had not one, but several little sproutlings trying to strangle the life out of the one brave sprout that is trying to thrive. If you look at the earlier pics of the red heirloom, you’ll notice that the sprouts are all tangled up together. I left it alone, thinking they’d straighten themselves out on their own, but they never did. One sprout managed to make its way above the fray, but never could seem to grow very well. So….I plucked out the tangled-up mass of half-dead sprouts (shown below) and set the one healthy one upright a bit more in the pod. It looks much better now.

On the up side, the herbs are growing like crazy! I can see why AeroGrow uses them as the default kit to include with the AGs….they’re easy and grow fast. Everything’s sprouted so far except the chives and dill. Yay!

Day 37/12/2 ~ Time For Your Close-Ups, Boys!

Since the last posting was just the over all view of my AGs, here’s some close-ups of my happy little plants.

First, Yin’s English Garden (clockwise from upper left): Twinkle Phlox, Mini Pink Petunia, Stock, and Dianthus, with Lavender (Take #2) in the middle:

Next, we have the tomatoes…Red Heirloom on top and Golden Harvest on bottom:

And last, but not least, the herbs….only the Thyme and Basil have shown signs of life thusfar…but it’s only day 2, so I’m sure the rest will be coming up soon.

Day 35/10/0 ~ My Garden is Complete!

Yes, I am officially addicted…but I think I’ve finally rounded out my garden. Went by Bed, Bath and Beyond and they had put out more SS6s on clearance. I initially restrained myself, but finally broke down today and bought one so that I could finally have one garden for each type of “crop”: herbs, veggies, and flowers. Number Three’s name is Chi and is my herb garden. I figured it was good timing since I found some of the leaf-shaped ice cube trays like they sell at the AG online store for freezing herbs, but for alot less at World Market.

Here’s the three in all their glory (L to R: Yin, Yang, Chi):

Yin’s flowers are doing great, as you might be able to see. The Twinkle Phlox is growing like mad, the Stock is recovering nicely, and the Dianthus looks like a mini bush. The Petunia is still hiding under the label, but growing nicely….and I see the beginnings of a sprout forming in the new Lavender Snapdragon pod.

Yang’s tomatoes are coming up nicely as well. The red heirloom on the right has about four sprouts all competing for space already…looks like we’re going to have our own little season of AeroGarden Survivor going on here. The one on the right has one sprout, but a bunch more that just haven’t managed to pop up yet in progress. The golden harvest is coming along nicely too.

And here’s our newcomer, Chi, with herb seed pods in place, ready to grow:

Day 31/6 ~ I See Tomato Sprouts (and Maybe Mold?)

When I left for work this morning, I was starting to worry about my tomato plants since we’re on day 6 and they say they sprout in 4-7 days, and there was not a sign of sprouting. But…I came home from work and one of the Red heirlooms has sprouted! The other one looks like it’s sprouting, but the sprouts look white while the other one is green. So I’m worried that mold might’ve struck them. I’m just going to cross my fingers and see what happens…pick off the mold if need be. I went ahead and took off the domes….I’d been alternating between leaving them off and putting them on since I didn’t want mold to form, but with them off, they didn’t seem to be doing anything. (Yes, I will admit to being impatient ) The Golden Harvest is actually sporting what looks like the beginning of a sprout too!

The Yin garden is progressing slowly. Not posting any pics because there’s little change from last week. The Twinkle Phlox has gotten a bit bigger. A second sprout had actually started growing, but didn’t last more than a couple of days. No biggie since the first one is doing wonderfully. The Dianthus is doing well…I’m anticipating having to thin it out a bit eventually because there appears to be about 4-5 plants growing. The Petunias are coming along, slowly but surely and the Stock is…well….there. It’s getting taller, but not filling out much. I did contact customer service about the Lavender and Snapdragon pods and they’re sending me new ones out. Yay!

Day 25/0 ~ A New Garden and Things Are Looking Up!

My new garden arrived today. I think I’m going to name them Yin and Yang, since now I have one black and one white. So Yin is the original black with English Cottage and Yang is the white one in which I’ve decided…or rather my 5-year-old daughter decided…to grow cherry tomatoes. Here they are:

Also, my little flower sprouts have perked up a bit. They’re not looking nearly as yellow anymore. I did have to pinch off a couple of leaves off of the Stock that were getting a bit shriveled and dry…now there are new leaves growing in their place, greener than the originals. Yay! Ironically, I didn’t change a thing. I still might try to order some of the hydroponics nutrients I’ve been hearing about anyway since even the tomato kit had bad tablets in it too (except, thankfully for the starter tablets). And the Twinkle Phlox has shot up! It seems to be doing the best out of all of them….which makes me happy because, aside from the lavender, the Twinkle Phlox was the one I was looking forward to seeing the most.