Archive for May 2012

May152012

Tomatoes!

We have tomatoes! Hannah spotted this one over the weekend and after we gave it another couple of days we decided to pick it. These guys are so tiny.

There are a bunch more in the orange stage and as I mentioned last week, there are still blossoms popping up too.

Last night we sprayed the plants down with the caterpillar killer so I’m hoping that starts working soon and my poor leaves stop getting munched.

If you’re here often or via Tuesdays With Dorie, you’ve noticed I didn’t do this week’s project. I decided to give this one a pass because I really couldn’t justify all. that. butter. since we’re trying to watch what we put in our pie holes. I’ll let you know how that goes.

May92012

EarthTainer Update #6: Nooooo!

Last Friday I was out poking around the tomato plants and saw a bunch of chomped leaves (above), and a lot of little brown dots spread across several more. Now, I’m not a gardening expert but I do have enough experience with critters to know that little pellets usually mean one thing: poop.

I Googled it and came up with… ugh. Tomato Hornworms. I went straight back out and immediately spotted one happily chowing down on a leaf. He didn’t last long. I’ve only found two more since, and they’re not big yet (thankfully, because gross), and we went out last night to hunt down some more. Yuck!

Unfortunately, we also had one of our main stems snap in half over the weekend. We got some wind kicking through all Friday and Friday night, and the stem couldn’t handle it and collapsed. We carefully removed it and everything else looks to be doing pretty well, but I’m disappointed about all the lost tomatoes on that branch.

The Sweet 100s are going crazy. Not only do we have bunches of nearly-full sized tomatoes, but we’re still getting new blossoms. I can’t wait until these guys are ready!

We also finally have some beefsteaks making an appearance. These blossoms seem to stay put forever.

So for next year we already know that we have to put up the cage around these guys, and we need to research pest-repelling plants like marigolds to put around them. I’m kind of miffed that some stupid moths found their way into our little courtyard to lay their stupid eggs, but I think for this year we’re going to give one of the recommended sprays a try (like this one).

Have you had to deal with tomato pests? What worked best for you?

May82012

It’s May What?

I can’t believe it’s been a week since I last posted, but that’s partly because I can’t believe how fast the last week went by! May is always insanely busy, between our anniversary, the twins’ birthday, mother’s day, end-of-school stuff, and Mike’s travel.

However, the fun stuff started on Monday April 30th when our six-year-old water heater decided to spring a leak and we spent all day removing and replacing it. Then one of the twins needed a doctor’s appointment the next day, and then there were groceries, and then birthday celebrations, I finally got a waaaay overdue haircut, we had some of our favorite out-of-state family visit for a night and then we had the twins’ birthday lunch over the weekend.

When I sat down at the computer yesterday I swore I wasn’t going to move from the chair all day. But then I remembered all the stuff that’s piled up since last week and I think I got about an hour of computer time all day. Whatevs, as the kids say.

So, I really didn’t get to do anything fun in the kitchen all week. Aside from a cake that I made the girls that had a, well, gerbil on it. Why this madness? The girls each got a gerbil for their birthday!

It was a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and I shredded some white chocolate on top for the “bedding.” I frosted a Twinkie with some coconut pecan frosting and piped on the details. It didn’t quite turn out how I pictured it in my head, and yeah, I know, “oooh gross,” but they loved it and it was delicious.