Drats, Gnats!

It's been really rainy lately.  This past weekend, it finally let up and I was on my balcony making sure the plants were o.k.  Well, unfortunately, the moist soil and the warm temperatures have brought on a gnat infestation!! I spent all afternoon yesterday re-potting some of my infected plants, which were ones that were planted in Miracle Grow Organic potting soil. My radishes, lettuces and carrots- all O.K. and they were planted in a cheap Big Lots brand, called Black Magic.  This morning, I go out there and the gnats are all in my pepper plant and my parsley/marigold/thyme/nasturtium mixed planter!! I hate gnats!!

The afflicted

Vinegar and dish soap trap 

I don't mind re-potting the peppers, but my mixed planter?!..... damnit! I even used a diluted chlorine solution to drench the soil.  Apparently, the chlorine should kill the eggs. This sucks!

A Beautiful Surprise!

Got back from a week working in DC to this.....

They are gorgeous! And best of all, they were a gift given to the boyfriend who in turn gave them to me! I'm excited to learn how to care for them and hope they'll thrive. XOXO

Dulce de Leche Obsession!

I have been a little obsessed with making dulce de leche by boiling cans of sweetened condensed milk.  The recipe and instructions can be found on the Ravenous Couple blog: http://www.theravenouscouple.com/2011/03/dulce-de-leche-ice-cream.html

So, they used it to make ice cream, which sounds pretty amazing but as a person suffering from lactose intolerance, not so good. :-(  I was also curious to see if the sweetened condense milk would be different if boiled for 3 hours as opposed to 2.  Well, last night, I just couldn't let it go and had to experiment. I boiled 2 cans of sweetened condense milk, one for 2 hours and the other for 3. 

As you can see the one on the right, which was boiled for 3 hours, is a wee bit darker.  The sweetened condense milk also thickened a bit more and the flavor intensified.  It was like dulce de leche pudding!!!  SOOOOO GOOOOD!  Anyway, so if one can't make ice cream, what are you supposed to do?

Container Garden Update

Well, my humble beginnings to try to grow something was truly humble. My goal was really not to kill anything. I started with hand-me-down containers and 3 packets of seeds.  Some hand-me-down chives and a teeny tiny stonecrop plant.

Before

Now, my little balcony container garden has become my little gardening oasis.

Today!

Worm Poop and Mites!

Today, I had to check up on the worms!  Once again, these efficient consumers of my vegetal and paper waste are ready to harvest!

My original set of worms seem to have produced even more castings than the last harvest.  I also noticed, which isn't unusual, clusters of little brown mites on the edges of my bin.  They are completely harmless to the worms but compete for the food. 

I don't want the mites to get out of control and starve my worms, so I had to do a little pest control.  Usually, I just scoop up the mites and drown them in a bowl of water.

Mites drowning.  Sorry little guys.

I have no problems with them being in my bin, but I want the majority of the food to feed my worms and not mites!  Happy Earth Weekend Everyone!

Toilet Paper Roll Seedlings + Container Garden

This week has been a busy one.  I spent half of the week staying with a friend in Northern VA while working on a contract project up there.  I'm so grateful for the work and love seeing my friends there, but I missed my plants and worms. :-(  I was worried that the seedlings that had just started to sprout would die.  I put the boyfriend on plant watering duty and came back to see that they were healthy and growing!

 

Did I mention before that I planted my perilla seeds?  I actually didn't think they would germinate since my mother had no idea when she had actually collected the seeds, but they had started to grow the beginning of this week and now a couple of new ones have popped up!

Korean Perilla

My Balcony Garden

The weather has been pretty wack-a-doo.  We've been having schizo weather here in the south; one day it's 80 degrees, the next day it'll drop to 50!  Well, yesterday, it was in the low 50's for most of the day until about the evening, when it finally reached the 60s. I thought it was supposed to be spring?  I couldn't take not being outside gardening and decided to plant my fledgling lettuces in larger containers anyway. I had been hardening them for about a week now and thought it would be o.k.  Well, they didn't look too good after I planted them, but this morning, I feel a little more positive!

Some of the lettuces perked up after a little rain this morning!!  I also added more lettuce seeds and put in my radish seeds in the same container yesterday.  Cross your fingers! I think next year, I'll directly sow my lettuces instead of starting them as seedlings. Not all of the seedlings grew so well.  Anyway, what I am happy about is my little succulent-like plant that I found out was a variety of stonecrop.