This bird feeder was already up when we moved into the house. Apparently, the last owner was pretty into birds and had a great hummingbird feeder. I looked into hummingbird feeders, by the way, and you are supposed to wash them out thoroughly every three to four days. That sounds like a lot of work.
Anyway. Our neighbor has a bird house/bath that attracts gobs of like six to eight birds at a time. Cardinals, blue jays, little fat grey birds. I've also seen goldfinches in our front yard and heard the call of a mourning dove.
So we went out and found some bird feed. I chose the "songbird mix" which seemed to apply to most of the birds we wanted. And true enough, now that they know it's there, they use it! We saw one afternoon where one little grey bird hopped next to it and then called out and within a minute, three more of his friend showed up.
It's true: we are now fully domesticated.
The eggplant that grew on its own is doing very very well. I don't know about the smaller eggplants. I think they will not grow up well. I wonder if I should pull them out so that the biggun' can have more of the nutrients in the soil.
The tomatoes have been growing well. I check them about every other day and water them whenever it has been dry. At the point at which I took this picture, it was still just flowers on them.
The other plants -- jalapeno, squash, cucumber -- were doing well enough also with the jalapeno probably looking the worst. I'm probably not surprised since he's the only one in a regular pot, although the base is always full of water. I'm not sure if that is good -- endless water supply -- or bad -- keeps his roots wet and therefore moldy. I'm still learning.
These are the tomatoes two days ago. These are the container tomatoes, and apparently the only full sized tomatoes that i bought. They are the farthest along in the growing process, but they were also the largest when I bought them.
These are roma grape tomatoes and they look like they are growing pretty well also. i have Josh come in and shake the pots every few days to help with pollination. I break out in a rash if I touch the plants which makes tomato farming kind of hard.
Here are the jalapenos. As you can see, they are flowering, but seem the farthest behind in terms of bearing actual fruit. I didn't take a picture of the cucumber, but it's starting to trail vines and the vines have a lot of flowers. From our experience last year, I assume that they will start fruiting soon.
So far, our squash blossoms are bearing a lot of male fruit but no female fruit. That means lots of squash blossoms in our future but perhaps no squash. Now, to be honest, when I bought this plant, and I said I would be fine if that were the case, and with it upon me, I still think I was telling the truth.
The eggplant plant is starting to fruit. That looks like a lot of little eggplants!
And here is the last of the tomato plants -- something closer to a black krim but in cherry form. It seems to be running the slowest, but I admit I think I will like them the best.
It drizzled on Saturday, but I thought the plants might be running dry, so I watered them and added fertilizer around 2pm. Of course, this means it started to rain about 4pm. Oh Mother Nature, you are funny.
I have no idea what this plant is. It sprouted in both earthboxes on the deck. The roots are sprout-like like radishes or ... you know, microgreens. When I first found this growing next to the basil, I replanted it and it seems to be doing okay. No idea if it's a weed or a vegetable plant.
This is the first of the earthboxes on the deck. As you can see, the basil is now doing very well, and I even pillaged it last night for my pesto. The chives really wish I would harvest them so they could grow better and the mint is recovering. Some of its leaves are still totally burnt but all the new ones look beautiful.
Herb earthbox #2. Two parsleys and Greek oregano. They all look okay but not spectacular. I wonder if I should move them closer together.
This is the herb section on the driveway. You can see the random plant is here along with the rosemary from the old house, which only seems to be keeping steady but not growing, and the ferny dill which is doing very well.
The other rosemary and herb that is so dead that it's not even recognizable never had a chance.
Overall, I'm pleased with how they are all doing. We are going to buy some more normal tomatoes today. The succulents on the screen porch seemed to have stop dropping leaves which I think means they have adjusted to the temperature. Even the jade seems to be sprouting some baby leaves. That's good because it already lost half its size!
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