garden update

Our little container garden has really grown since we created it only about a month ago. Some new happenings with existing plants, and the adding of new plants as well. :)

New seeds sown: lettuce, mesclun & some 2ish year old nasturtium seeds hub had in the closet

Mesclun seeds sprouted! Didn't take long at all. Lettuce and mesclun have a very short time until they grow to full maturity about 30-48 days

Mesclun shooting up, getting bigger

Mesclun close-up

Our bell pepper sprouts! Definitely got bigger. The one on the right didn't make it though. Some kind of disease took it; red "rusty" patches appeared on the leaves and it wilted

But one is still alive! And is in a new, larger pot

Cherry tomato plant started flowering like crazy

Just yesterday I noticed the first fruits coming in!

More flower-to-fruiting going on

New dill plant

New apple mint plant

So the first lemon balm plant we had pretty much died. Why? Because I went fertilizer crazy = too much fertilizer too often. I've since educated myself about when to do it and how much to dilute. BUT, the plant was too far gone, so we said screw it - just buy a new lemon balm plant. Tadaa.

Garden 6/20

Garden 6/28

Today I also purchased some basic sprout growing merchandise from a website my dad made me privy to. I've always LOVED sprouts since I was a kid. I used to eat sprout sandwiches in elementary school, and I remember a boy asking me "Is that grass??" I couldn't persuade him to try it! Sprouts are a little overpriced in the grocery stores if you ask me - so what a good thing to just grow at home? I'm excited to start sprouted. I bought a pound of clover sprout seeds with it. Check out their website!

From the website: The "Easy Sprout Sprouter"

All of its parts

job scene

So since losing the job in Chantilly in April, after a month of working there, the job scene was pretty stagnate yet again. It's amazing how tough the competition can be these days, for even mundane part-time jobs. Finally in the beginning of this month, I was hired for another retail job - for a new store that was opening. I was happy to get it, and I had a good number of hours when coming in to help with stocking the store, getting ready for it to open. Also, not-so-bad hours for the grand opening this past weekend. But as soon as this week started, the hours dropped down to almost nothing. This week I only work on Saturday for 5 hours.


Needless to say I need another job. Great.


Another update, though, just happened today. A few days ago I had answered a listing posted for a paid Graphic Design intern for a tea retailer/boutique-ish business - only hitch was that it is located 1.5 hours away from us. That's actually a big hitch for us, at this point in time. That means lots money for gas, lots of mileage on the car, and obviously a huge journey every day and back to work there.


But because I was extremely excited to see a listing that I was actually interested in, tea, I had already set up an interview with them. Hub came home and pretty much knocked some reality back into me, and we agreed that it wasn't the best choice to take this position right now. We would just be making our financial situation worse. I send a last minute email to them saying as such and apologize. They send a response saying, "You wouldn't necessarily have to come to Annapolis for the internship. If you're still interested let us know."


Long story short, I had a phone chat with the co-owner of the place today, and it looks like we could set up something, where I could work from home most the time, and then have 1 day a week where I'd go to Annapolis to touch base with them in person, prioritize projects, etc. And I'd actually get a bi-weekly stipend! I hope this works out. It means more experience, portfolio/resume material, actually getting paid for it, designing for TEA (oh yeah), and they said there was a possibility of it turning into a full-time position. The internship is roughly 10 months. So we'll see how this pans out!

container garden

So since the warmer weather has officially started, I decided a few weeks ago, to put our plants outside. Also, when we were cooking dinner at my friend's house, he gave me some bell pepper seeds from the ones we cooked, to take home. I planted them and was thrilled when they finally sprouted! I went and transplanted all of my plants in the end, into bigger containers; both pregnant onions, my cactus, and my money tree. Takeshi also ended up buying a small (here's a real herb plant for you to have!) mint plant at the grocery store, so I decided to transplant it as well. It had a bit of a rough time, since I ended up reverting back to my old ways of KILLING all plants in reach because I "over-mother" them = over-watering. I drowned them with love, essentially. >__>;;


I'm much better about it now though. I've found the best thing to do with plants, in the whole, is to leave them alone. Just let them grow forget them for a couple days, and try not to over-manage them.


I guess hub has gotten back into the container garden hobby as well, since we went out to Lowe's the other day and bought more plants! Lemon balm, sweet basil, thyme, and cherry tomato. So all of the plants are outside now on the balcony (which gets good sun during the day), except for the 2 onions and money tree that are still on the windowsill in the spare bedroom.


I am keeping an eye on my 3 bell pepper seedlings though (2 as a pair, and then 1 by itself). They used to be inside on the sill as well. The day before yesterday they looked a little wilted, and I started to get worried, reading about damping off disease and all. So I've moved them outside as well, for better air circulation. Fingers crossed!

Pregnant onion splitting down the middle! Growing bigger!

Bell peppers sprouted! About 2 weeks ago.

Progress! Still growing and separated into 2 pots.

The most recent photo before they started to go wilty' on me

Decrepit mint and the cactus

My first transplanting expedition, getting down an' dirty

Pregnant onion out of it's former container - had totally outgrown it!

Our newest plants - Top: lemon balm & thyme; Bottom: tomato & basil