Friday, July 10, 2009

Mojopost Goes Green


It is important for a garden to enjoy a visually appealing watering can. Personally, I recommend yellow because it reflects all kinds of nutritious light. My watering can will support enough water to straighten out your back every morning, when we make three trips to the balcony to fortify precious plant matter.

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For your viewing pleasure I present my garden. First, here is what was going down in May:


After channeling my agrarian ancestors and consulting Dr. Frankenstein, I made some things happen.


Witness the same plants, two months later:





OMIGAHD! Can you believe it? Me neither! Clockwise from the left are Dad's dwarf gladiolus, impatients and what I believe to be a hydrangea, a mix of lettuce and tomato plants.





I ROOOLE!!!!


Here are the marigolds, pansies, miniature roses and impatients. This is why I get up in the morning, to see what they are doing! BIG FUN during coffee. La la la, I'm growing stuff...with my bare hands...la la laa.




Does it get any better than this? You think to yourself, "Prolly not," and yet we have not even discussed the tomato stand and herb garden. Have you ever read Stephen King's book, The Stand? I have recreated this exciting last fight of humanity, as represented by vegetables and herbs. My tomato stand used to look like this:

Once upon a time, this stand was a sparse lot of tomato plants with a small supply of natural light, and the plants were expected to grow upside down. To compensate for minimal light in the back, I handcrafted foil reflectors. They worked great until the plants took off like rockets and grew too close to the foil and started frying. I had to install a white light reflector (a/k/a "matte board"). Let's take a peek:



See how that works? I wonder how I found out about white light... Oh yes, I remember! It was on Goog, after I typed in "reflectors for plants" and came upon a golden cache of growing information supplied by pot farmers. Those people have a point, because I've already eaten the tomatoes growing on reflected light, while the tomato plants in the sun have yet to ripen real fruit. Yay for pot farmers! They knew that white relfects a full spectrum of joy!


Here is a photo to cherish, of the entire tomato stand and delicious herbs:

Look at that lusciousness! There are two tomato plants in conventional pots in the foreground, which are growing like cray-zay, but this stand is something I am proud of. It came with cheap plastic legs that bowed, and so I had to hammer in shower rods for support, to keep this thing from falling to it's death four stories below. More than one hundred pounds from that height means Mojopost would have an extreme insurance liability. Boo! We hate liabilities! But we love growing our 'maters.


If you look closely, you will witness the wonder of green tomatoes on the vine. I love the anticipation. No less than one dozen 'maters are promising delicious salads in a few weeks, to go with my lettuce. As for that herb garden I mentioned, feast your eyes on the wonder of aromatic beauty...





What you cannot see, because of the intense foliage, is that nine cilantro plants are maturing between the lavender and basil. There is salsa in my future! I love this.


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16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the pics and congratulations! It looks lovely!

LV

Unknown said...

Wow! I love, love, love your garden. This reminds me to find a GF who gardens. Oh, this also reminds me to make a run to the garden center down the street today.

PapaPig said...

Wow for livin' in an apt you are a real Ill A Noize Farmer!

Almost enough dirt out there to root in but it would mess things up, so no fear! :@)

I think you tomatoes are doing better than most of mine.

But I can tell you ain't no southern girl though, or you'd have a stand of Orka somewhere.

It's ok, we all love Mojo and you garden is beautiful girl!

Speedy said...

Mojo your garden is spectacular!!! It makes me miss home for Mom and Dad's humongous garden and all it's veggie goodness. Fantastic job Ms. Po!!!

p.s. I love the herbs too! Especially the lavender it smells so good when it blooms. =)

Mojopo said...

Hello! Thanks for the kind compliments. This is my New Thing.

Does anyone know anything about Stevia plants? I have one that has really grown up, and I'm trying to figure out how to use it once I trim off some leaves. Should I dry it or what? Thanks for your help!

Mojopo said...

Papa, my folks are Southern, which means that I am half Southern by God, but there is no excuse for anyone eating okra. It is the only vegetable I won't eat. The slime harshes my mellow.

Tipsy said...

I LOVE garden porn! But my pansies are bigger than your's. And by "pansies" I do mean pansies.

Mojopo said...

Tipsy - oh really? Cool on the pansies. Send me a photo! My pansies are actually kinda wide, and if they get any bigger I'm going to run out of space. What is the best way to prune these things?

Tipsy said...

Okay if I have to show you mine, then I have to confess they aren't bigger. You got me.

Prune 'em back to 6" and they'll keep growing. If you place them in a nice cool spot with morning sun you'll see them bloomin' well into Fall.

Mojopo said...

Thank you for the advice! I've just sprayed them for aphids. Those blasted suckers are infesting the pansies! I need to trim them, to get rid of the aphids, I think?

anony tu said...

THIS Mojopost gives us all hope that when the human race expires in 2012, it won't be because of starvation.

Mojo!!!! What a lovely thing you're doin'!

PapaPig said...

You and Tipsy are getting your Pansies in bunch of you don't watch it! :@)

I promise if you ate my okra and tomatoes, no slim... I cook it out. Most okra and tom recipes tell you to cook it 15 minutes, no!!! It takes an hour or more on a low simmer to get the okra right. Or my Duck's fried okra. Plus if you grow it yourself it actually tastes like you added sugar to the stew due to it being fresh.

You just have to like it, no excuses, well ok, but don't get those pansies in a bunch!

Mojopo said...

HA!

Hay, Papi - there was an air show in Indiana on Saturday. What a nice surprise at the beach.

anony tu said...

Pot growers are smart peoples. And if Barney Frank gets his legislation through, we can all take our plants out of doors to grow in the light of day the way the super intelligence of the universe intended us to do. YAY Barney Frank! Legalize! Legalize! Legalize!

Anonymous said...

It's been raining for weeks. I don't remeber how sun light looks like and I got a cold...

LV

Tipsy said...

Mojo,

Get yourself an army of ladybugs. Aphids are their natural prey. You can order the gals online in small quantities. 4500 ladies will work a 2500 sq. ft. garden. If that's too many, farm some out to the neighbors.

-Tips