Sally Struthers

Hello fellow dudes and Dudettes! It's been a couple weeks since my last blog entry.  And a lot has happened since the last time! And the more I think about it I come to the conclusion there really wasn't a excuse not to blog last week. Yeah it was Easter  but I had good Friday off. So i had extra time to blog!

I started putting my plants into plastic red cups.  I made my own soil mixture.  It's so easy and it's a lot better then buying premixed stuff. And this way I really know what's in it. Also making sure I do not buy any Monsanto products! Monsanto is pretty much a four letter word in the heirloom gardening community.  They are directly responsible for the decline of the Bee population.  They also bully and terrorize small family farms because their crops become contaminated by Monsantos gmo seed. I really don't want to go into my hatred for Monsanto right now because I could go on and on.

Back to the plants going onto red cups and new soil. The soil mixture I used us pretty basic. I mixed a bag of manure with some peat moss. That's it! The plants get the nutrients from the compost manure and the peat moss helps keep the soil light and loose and it also holds water. This is the same mixture I also use for my raised beds.

Some tomato plants from last week. They totally loved the new pots.  I bet they doubled in size. Couple days ago I started putting them in clear cups.  You can really see the root systems stating to take off. This pic is from today. And the plant was only transferred about 3 days ago!

I'm absolutely loving the results I am getting from my setup. Everything is starting too boom!

                            cuore di bue tomato

                             Malaysian eggplant

                  Trinidad scorpion pepper

I think I want to get a small fan in my grow room. It will help strengthen the stems. Toughen it up a little bit.

Next month I'm going to start some melons and squash. I fell in love with the squash and melons last year. Was my first year doing melons and the results were outstanding!  I produced some beautiful orangeglo watermelon! 

                  The biggest watermelon I grew . He was a monster! Shared it with my coworkers

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to grow these again this year. I picked up a couple new watermelon and melon seeds this year. And I really don't think I'm going have the room I need. But maybe I can squeeze in one more raised bed!

This week I gave one of my coworkers a tomato plant.I adopted it out!! I was kind of little sad about it.  I gave him a rainbow tomato plant. One of my best plants at the time. I wanted to give him the best chance to succeed.  I want this experience to be a pleasurable one. He lives in an apartment so he will be in a container on his deck. I hope he cares for my little tomato plant. Feed and water make sure it gets plenty of sunshine everyday.  And after a couple months of love and care I hope my little tomato plant I started from seed will produce a bountiful harvest of tomatoes for him. 

Dude & His Garden