Collage!!

October 23rd

This week I did the usual weeding, fertilizing and spraying pesticides. I also made trellises for my tomato plants. I will probably have to do it for my peas next week, but we'll see. I was surprised that I really didn't have too many weeds since I missed last week. When I got out to the garden this week I was a little disappointed at first because my plants looked super small compared to everyone else's. However, I had a bunch of beans, cute little cucumbers, a decent sized green bell pepper and a bunch of little green tomatoes. It was sad having to compost all of it because of the pesticides. I also thought a weed was a sunflower and accidently fertilized it, so we'll see how big it is next week haha. 

As for the lecture, I actually learned a lot. I didn't realize that there's a difference between vegetables. Like, some are flowers, fruits, buds etc. 

My carrots and radishes are roots.

My tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplants, peppers and okra (or so it says online) are fruits.

My peas, beans and sunflower are seeds.

My cilantro and basil are leafs. 

My squash and cauliflower are flowers. 

My plot

Zinnia-hope it blooms soon

cilantro yay! 

lonely basil

beans 

carrots

cauliflower

eggplant

zucchini

squash

okra

peas

giant fertilized weed 

cucumber

baby cucumber :)

little bell pepper

new trellises

little green tomatoes

October 9th

This week we took a quiz which means no lecture. I didn't have much to do in the garden either. I weeded and sprayed my plants with thuricide and neem. I accidently sprayed a caterpillar with neem and it died. I also planted my cauliflower. I forgot to plant radishes I guess I have to do that next week :/
I was super excited when I went out into the garden. All of my plants are getting big especially my zucchini and squash. I had to replant my basil and cilantro because they haven't germinated.

When I got home I looked in the fridge and the pantry. All of my food comes from Publix and I don't buy organic food so most of my produce is GMOs. I had tomatoes in the fridge. They're TastiLee because I remember Matt saying we should buy those ones. I make my roommates buy them as well. Most of my food is processed. The only fresh food I have are tomatoes and apples. Which is why I can't wait till I get vegetables from my garden!!

My plot

TOMATOES! 

My sad pepper plant

Cucumbers :)

New baby cauliflower plants

Squash on the top and zucchini on the bottom 

peas!

sunflower?

carrots

beans

lonely germinated basil

replanted cilantro

zinnia

so beautiful 

eggplant

October 2nd

Today definitely was not the most fun I've had in the garden. It took me seriously forever to do everything that I had to do. I started with weeding. There wasn't really that much to weed but it gets tedious. Then I sprayed my plants with pesticides. I sprayed my tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and squash with Neem and everything else with Thuricide because it had chewing. I also had to re-fertilize everything in my third row (zucchini, squash, okra and peas) and my beans because they were starting to look a little yellow, which we learned in class is from a nutrient deficiency. I also had to basically rebuild my row things because the rain eroded them away. That took FOREVER and when I went home I literally had dirt everywhere. Like in between my toes, all over my legs, under my nails and even on my face. I also, some how cut my finger in the worst possible place. It's basically a flap of skin now and it's super annoying to type.

Everything was bigger in my garden this week. I was most pleased with my tomatoes. They are kinda huge and are blossoming. I was super disappointed when I saw my pepper plants, though. They had a lot of chewing on them and I noticed that everyone else's had blossomed and one persons already had a little green pepper. My carrots are showing now. They're super cute, although I thought they were weeds at first. My peas are also showing.

As I mentioned before, we talked about plant nutrients and nutrient deficiency in class. There are three essential plant nutrients: environmental, macro and micro. They are all equally important. The environmental nutrients make up about 95% of the plant. They are carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. Macro nutrients are phosphorus, potassium, calcium, nitrogen, sulfur and magnesium. Micro nutrients are iron, zinc, copper, manganese, Mo (don't know to say or spell it), boron and chloride. We also learned that the optimal pH for plants is about 6.5. From what we learned in class I'd say that my okra has a Nitrogen deficiency because the older leaves are yellowing. To fix this I fertilized since that is basically what fertilizer is. 

My plot with my newly formed beds

Tomato Bloom! 

My holy pepper :(

New beds with my blood and sweat in them

Eggplants

Little tiny carrots!

Carrot

Peas