The horror…stupid cabbage worms and yet another species of worm defoliated my broccoli in a day. I bought some Ortho spray (forget the name), but it didn’t seem to slow them down at all.  Oh well, guess it’s part of the learning process. I have to see what kills the damn bugs, that and plant earlier.

On a happier note, the lettuce is going well (see it in the background)  and I should have a good second crop in 2-3 weeks. The trick is to sprout the seeds indoors and transfer to the planter, works great. I have some Jericho lettuce started today using this method, the red pot has two plants that made it but they suffer from near-zero germination in warm weather just like Simpson. It will be interesting to see if it’s any different, the Simpson is sort of delicate and wispy.

YAY!! A Sunflower is peeking out! This is part of 20 plants jammed in two planter boxes, the seem to like it OK but don’t get nearly as tall as the ones in the dirt. Which is good, since they’d topple over.  I have high hopes for these, assuming I can keep the 4 legged pests at bay.

The berry patch. One Heritage Raspberry, one Black Satin blackberry, and another everbearing that I forget. Looking good, they love being in the big pots and are thriving. Sadly, I bought two each of the latter but the retards at BerriesUnlimited shipped them sideways jammed in a tiny box with only some foam peanuts to cushion the plants. I’m keeping those watered but I think they were killed in transit, one busted off the main cane and the other was shocked by overpruning.  We will see come spring, but I’m deeply skeptical I’ll get plants.

Two more lessons of the mini-garden

Anything in planters needs to be watered 2-3 times a day, and very few things want full sunlight. Bell peppers want to be shaded, they only get an hour or two afternoon sun and they are happy. They were wilting and losing their buds until I moved them on the porch. THis is actually good news, as my property has a lot of shade. 2-3 hours of good light and most things seem to grow just fine, at least here.