The Time is Soon

To put the rest of the plants in the ground

Well, I’ve just gotten to my getaway place and this article is going to be a short one, but next week I suspect it will be longer. Next week most likely, 7 days from today, I will be putting the rest of the plants into the ground. Between now and then there is work to be done and I’m excited to be back here at my getaway place to do the work that I enjoy. It gives me pleasure to nurture these plants and see if I got what it takes to get some of them to grow. It is work still, but if you enjoy working, then what could be better than that (besides love of course - ha, ha)?

I had a job before paid way more money, with benefits, but it got to where I didn’t really enjoy it, so I knew it was time for something better. I’ve done this sort of thing before - start down a new pathway and I’d like to think I’ve improved over time in this regard. Only so many pathways to go down so as you age one would hope that the pathways chosen are based upon wisdom and life lessons learned.

Now, I am sad to report that the aphids did a number on my peppers this season and I’ve come to learn that it could be the aphids is why the pepper leaves were curling - not because they were “too close” to the grow lights. Even so, I still have a few survivor pepper sprouts and I hope to plant them in the ground and then I will do whatever I can to help them to have at least some “fruit” this season and my suspicion right or wrong, is if I save the seeds from those fruits for the future, they will be somewhat resistant to aphids - I’m not banking on it, but I’m hoping it is true.

So, here are the images for this week’s post:

This is the whole set of inside plants now all here together again that I’ll be putting in the ground in 7 days or so. The little ones are mostly the pepper plants suffering from aphid’s eating their sap. I might try to harden these plants before setting them outside over the next few days, but it is just too windy out there presently for me to do this, and it is relatively cool with below average temperature. I’m just gonna keep them inside today.

This is a close-up of one of the peppers (a Tabasco pepper sprout) that has done better than the others but I remember last year the peppers were so much bigger at this time - oh well. If you look close, you will see some “cilia” on the pepper stems and leaves and one function of cilia is for defensive purposes against little critters like aphids, so maybe this is a “hairy” pepper sprout relatively speaking and that is why it looks so much better than the other ones even if it is little. I am encouraged that it has new leaves emerging at the top and this means this little sprout has energy to spare for the sake of growth and that is a good sign for its future potential.

This is nothing more than an update of a similar image I’ve posted previously showing lettuce (3 of one type and 2 of another type if you look close), beets that seem fairly content and established, and onions that have grown roots enough that they aren’t so hard to find anymore in the image - so I consider these initial plants so far to be successful and in fact I’m wondering now why I bought some salad from our home place when I already had some here. Have I mentioned the one larger plant there is a blueberry bush? I think I have, but I can’t remember for sure, but it is still alive and this is its 3rd year if I remember correctly.

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So, truly that is it for this week and while I have made a little update in the “pee-wee” football game story, it wasn’t enough of an update for me to post the link here again, but I suspect by next week I will finish Chapter 3 of that story. I am having a lot of fun telling the story and letting the words flow when my fingers desire to type them. I know there are several typos there and I will correct them all in good time.

I hope all readers are doing well and happy May 1 to all my brothers and sisters out there. To all folks who work hard - to all of us just happy to be alive!

Peace,

Ken