Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Container Gardening

One of the perks of living in the South is the jump we can get on gardening. Instead of planting on Mother's Day, we were able to observe some of the first blooms on our vegetable plants.

This is our first shot at container gardening, and so far so good! We went to Home Depot during a BOGO sale and came away with eight plants for the price of four. We bought two kinds of tomato plants, "Sweet 100 cherry" and "Patio container tomato". We expected the patio container to thrive, but the results from the cherry tomato have been amazing! We've NEVER had a tomato plant this tall. Both of the cherry tomato plants have grown above their 54" tomato cages!

We also have two sweet banana pepper plants that have many blooms. Unfortunately white flies seem incredibly attracted to these and the basil (boxwood and sweet), so they've been sprayed with a soap/water mixture a few times to get rid of the little pests. It takes care of the problem, but they seem to come back. Looks like we'll be spraying all of the plants weekly from here on out to ensure their survival.

The children have been left in charge of watering. Caitlin and Dylan water during the weekdays after we drop Nathan off at school. Nathan takes care of the plants during the weekend when the youngest two are asleep. They're always very eager to do their plant chores. Hopefully it continues!

Wrestling Tournament

Nathan took second place at The King of the Jungle Tournament on Saturday, May 22. His first match was intense, and he lost by points. The second ended with Nathan pinning the competition. The third was a pretty good match-up. The boys practice together regularly and already knew the others strengths and weaknesses. Nathan won the last match by a single point.