Gardening: Already Bearing Fruit

Last week, I posted about having begun my garden (here), which contains two varieties of tomatoes, cubanelle and bell peppers. Well over the course of the week, things were beginning to look a little with both pepper plants. In spite of all the rain, they were just looking wilty and withery; or maybe because of the rain, since peppers and tomatoes like dry, hot weather.

Regardless, I had to do something, since the compost I had amended the soil with in the offseason was clearly lacking some vital mineral. So I did what I was able to avoid doing all of last summer - I applied some Miracle-Gro Tomato Plant Food. And eighteen hours later, the difference really was miraculous. The next morning all four plants were looking spry and healthy, and ready to produce many tasty morsels for me.

Bell Pepper Buds

The first little tomato

Cubanelle Pepper Flower

 Having already begun to see some insect damage to leaves, I decided it was time to bring in something to manage it. Last year, I used Sevin Bug Killer Spray, and I figured if Sevin was good, eight will be better. So I brought in some arachnid help to stave off those dirty devils who are trying to eat my plants.

Well that's all I've got for today, but future developments aren't far off, so keep looking for those updates. And please feel free to offer any suggestions or help; I'm all ears, as I'm still pretty green with all this gardening stuff.

Getting Back into the Gardening Grind

With last year's success in tomato-growing, I have decided to expand my horizons. Last year, I had three Better Boy tomato plants going strong, but I didn't just really love that variety. So this year I got what I thought were two Pink Brandywine Heirloom plants, but once I got home I realized the plants bear different leaves (top-right and bottom-left); so presumably, I have one Pink Brandywine Heirloom and one of another variety. 

I also quite like peppers, so I got a Yellow Bell Pepper plant (bottom-right) and a Cubanelle Pepper plant (top-left). I wasn't familiar with Cubanelles when I picked it up, but they're listed as a sweet pepper with some heat, similar to an Anaheims; they're good for roasting, frying, or stuffing.

Fortuitously, it rained the day after the vegetation was planted, aiding their transplantation. In 70-90 days, all of them should be bearing ripe fruit, so I'll be sure to keep you updated.