Garden Update 29/09/2021

It's been a while since I posted one of these.

A huge dragonfly was sitting on the lily for ages. I don't like bugs.

2021-dragonfly

These potatoes keep growing over my budgies' graves. No matter how many times I cut them down, they just keep springing up. Whereas the ones I plant deliberately never do well. So I guess I should take it as a gift from my little idiots:

2021-spuds

I got a bumper crop a couple of years ago, but the taste was nothing to write home about. I made them into oven chips.

2021-oldspuds

Last year, I also used the cooking water from my purple carrots...

2021-carrots

... to do a little experiment. The cooking water turned a really deep red the second time I cooked some of these. And I wondered if it was because I added a ittle vinegar to the cooking water. So I experimented with adding bicarb, and yes, purple carrots also produce a universal indicator! We dyed some fabric with it, and hung it outside to dry, but then it rained, so it all washed straight out. It was a fun experiment, though!

2021-carrotdye

I gave my mum's crab apple extra potassium phosphate, and it got a bumper crop this year! They tasted nice, too, a little like Golden Delicious. Last year, all the buds fell off and died.

2021-apple

I still can't get rid of those blessed thrips. They infested my room AGAIN, so everything had to go out. I lost two of my Chocolate Peppers to them. I got a pitiful harvest of two little peppers. All the other flowerbuds just fell off, even though I was artificially pollinating them. So everything had to get chucked out this year. I had a couple of chocolate pepper seeds left, plus I bought some Yolo WOnder seeds off eBay.I ended up planting too many, as they all germinated.

2021-peppereggplant

There are a few Black Beauty eggplants, and even though they're flowering well, they just aren't fruiting. They probably aren't getting enough warmth and sun, and I planted them all too close to each other.

2021-peppersnail

We also have an infestation of baby snails. They were all over my dill plant, and my family used up all my organic slug pellets, without asking, I might add, and none of the local hardware stores have them anymore.

2021-dill

2021-basil

So normally, I would grow these in my room, but thrips. I have only my areca palm in my room, which doesn't seem to have suffered any thrip damage, but I don't think my room is going to be clear for a long time, if ever. Neem oil does absolutely NOTHING. My thyme seeds won't germinate, and my poor budgie hasn't had any in months. Yeah, I should probably buy more seeds. But I still have nowhere to grow them 🙁

My passionflower died after particularly cold weather, but its baby was still around and has taken its place. I'm just leaving it to its fate. It hasn't flowered yet.

2021-passion

2021-passionvine

These sunflowers will end up being stolen by the squirrel, if my parents aren't careful. Frickin' écus.

2021-sunflower

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