It's official - I'll be in California over the July 4th weekend. Anime Expo is part of my plans, but I'm also looking to make this a varied and fun-filled vacation. Full of Intrigue and Danger and Adventure! I'm flying in with Jill Wednesday night and we'll be there till Sunday afternoon. Dis should be pretty fun.
I was on Amazon.com at 2am the other night. Around the same time I was admiring the convenience of their "one click shopping" button, I decided that I should probably avoid online stores after midnight. Luckily, I still felt good about my purchase the next morning. I ordered a rather unique looking cookbook I ran into at work, The Veganomicon, which will hopefully increase my healthy vegetable intake. I also ordered the first 13 episodes of the Funimation release of One Piece (acquaintances need not fear - as nearly all previous One Piece parties I have thrown have ended in disaster, I will refrain this time). They shipped separately, one from Nevada and one from Colorado. I'm tempted to say "let's have a race and see which one gets here first," but I'm not sure it's possible to count as a "race" when you choose free economy shipping. ETA June 4th. :p
Perhaps it's the spring air, but I've made several recent attempts to delve into the Amazing World of Plants. I started my garden last summer with two plants that grew well enough that I began to have grand illusions of my miraculous green thumb. It's now four failed starter-plants and one singed houseplant later, but I haven't given up! (Well, I have given up on starter plants.) I visited a nursery last weekend, and after assembling my current plants, leftover seeds, various pots, and dirt, I have myself a couple of nice little garden area.
My indoor area isn't very exciting at the moment - I have a recovering burn victim, a dying chives starter kit, and two recently seeded pots that will hopefully sprout soon.
The story behind my burned plant is kinda funny, but mostly sad. First off, here's what the thing looked like sometime last summer.
The picture's dark so the deep green is slightly deceptive, but it was a very healthy plant. I could tell it as going to need to be re-potted at some point. This spring during a really sunny day I put it outside for several hours. Only later when trying to deduce what sort of root-rot or evil foreign insect had destroyed it did I read "Indoor plants love the summer sun, but make sure to introduce them gradually or you may burn and severely damage your plant." Woo. A week later I re-potted it, which added transfer-shock to it's list of issues.
Abort, abort! Mayday! We're going down!
A lot of the leaves turned that sickly brown/yellow and either fell off or were pulled off out of pity. I don't have a picture of it at it's worst, but it was pretty limp and bare. There's actually a significant amount of new leaf growth going on currently, and it's starting to look fairly green and healthy again. I'm actually surprised it's still alive. Obviously, I'm keeping it indoors for the time being.
My outside area is awesome. The balcony faces east and gets a ton of early morning sun. My hanging plant had all but overtaken my bookshelf, and it seems to enjoy the bright sunshine, so moving it was a win-win. The empty pot on the top should eventually sprout sunflowers. On the left we see my new strawberry plant that I'm super excited about. I did a lot of strawberry research before purchasing. This type is Quinault, an everbearing variety which means it should produce strawberries in chunks throughout the summer and fall. The first year doesn't usually have a significant harvest, but one of the green strawberries has already grown a lot and is turning red. I'm pretty excited!
Strawberry test #1! Will birds land on our balcony and eat it?
Wasn't this entry exciting?! Expect more experts from the dramatic and amazing world of my garden soon!
1 comment:
Kim, you are a master gardener!
Your ABORT! photo gave me the best laugh I've had all week. So many memories of my past and the houseplants that I've killed.
Hang in there, maybe a net over the strawberry plant would discourage the birds
Grandma Fuller
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