Yo, listen up here's a story about a little guy that has a blue finger...

I, being the smart guy I am, asked her to instead look it up online.  Turns out, there isn’t much about this on the ol’ interwebs, so off to the doctor we went.  I was completely at a loss, as I haven’t hit my finger on anything, it’s not in pain, and is just awkwardly swollen.  We get get to the office, wait for a couple thousand years, and finally get seen.  The doctor is perplexed.  I was informed he’s never seen a spread like this for a finger that wasn’t broken and he questioned me for what seemed like forever, but I had no answers for him.  Now came the poking and prodding.  No matter what he did, it didn’t hurt, just felt uncomfortable… kinda “full” sorta.  He told me that if it hurt or if it tingled or if I felt nothing this would be easier, but since it felt normal all he could assume is that somehow I managed to burst a blood vessel.  The current working theory is that I did something to weaken or cause a very slight break in the blood vessel on Sunday, so when I worked out (and my blood pressure rose) on Monday, it fully burst, causing the weird blue finger.

It's blue (da ba dee da ba die), it's blue (if it was green I would cry)...

Pure weirdness.  As a bonus, as I was being worked over, it was noticed that my heart isn’t sounding quite right… cue the EKG!  Yep, it looks like my heart is missing a beat or something… the doctor said that it was “regularly irregular” and that since I’m asymptomatic, it’s not an emergency, but something that needs to be researched.  Nice.  You know, I don’t eat trans fats, I eat Omega-3s… what more does my heart want from me?  Oh well, at least the doc isn’t that worried about it.

The best part of the story?  I returned home to remember that I never put the chicken back in the fridge… it had been sitting in the microwave for close to 5 hours.  D’oh!  Into the trash it went… guess I’ll be having chicken sausage instead.  Anyway, at this point I just need to get my finger to turn back to a normal size and color and I’ll be good.  I never realized how often I bend the thing, but it turns out while typing and writing, I do it quite a bit.  Has this, or any other medical mystery, happened to any one of you (or someone you know)?

The first thing I need to do is just decide what I wanted to grow.  After some thought, I decided I really wanted peppers… hot peppers and I have become very close friends.  The second thing I needed were the seeds themselves.  I took a drive out to a few stores and found very little in terms of seed selection, which was very sad.  Then I suddenly had an epiphany!  I have a ton of dried peppers I use when cooking… perhaps the seeds from these will germinate if I plant them!  I started going through the dried peppers I had along with a couple seeds I purchased.  In the end I ended up with:

• Bell Peppers – Seeds purchased from store, colors unknown.
• Jalepenos – Peppers were smoked, test to see if the seeds will still germinate.
• Naga Jolokia – Leftover seeds from peppers I purchased at the Omaha Farmer’s Market last year.
• Chocolate Habanero – Same with Naga… leftover from Farmer’s Market.
• Poblano – Seeds taken from dried ancho chiles.
• Bird’s Eye – Seeds taken from dried peppers simply marked “Thai.”

So, now that I have my seeds, what do I do with them?  I’ll tell you what I should have done: I should have asked someone.  Instead of asking, I decided I’d figure it out I went along.  Another trip down to my local garden center and I grabbed a little seedling starter kit, planted the seeds (on 01/30/10), put the whole thing high up on a shelf near a light.  Perfect, right?  Not quite.

After the first week the first seedlings began sprouting and I was very excited.  By day 16 I had quite a few little seedlings, but a slight problem.  It turns out a normal light, placed about 3 feet above seedling, is just not enough light.  My little plants were all growing very tall, but didn’t really have any leaves. I started worrying that they would fall over, so I ran to my local Internet and started searching.  Turns out the peppers were becoming “leggy” due to the lack of light.  Also, I was beginning to notice some while mold/fungus growing on the soil.  Seems this is due (usually) to lack of air movement.  Of course the room I put these guys in had no ventilation… talk about good planning on my part.  I was beginning to panic and started researching lighting until Jess reminded me that I had an AeroGarden in storage.  Now, I didn’t want to make these peppers grow in the AeroGarden as I had way more peppers than it’d support (also, they’d had already started growing), so I decided to tinker a bit.

Behold… the PepperDome:

Behold... the Device!

Hope this works!

Grow baby, grow!

What you see is my AeroGarden unit rigged with some tape so the water doesn’t run, but the lights work.  I have the plants sitting right on top, with foil on the sides to reflect any light (as the tray is a little bigger than the opening for the aerogarden).  The fan over on the right is used in the mornings to move air over the soil so the white stuff goes away (it has worked, believe it or not).  You can see what I meant about the plants, though… very long and skinny.  Jess made fun of my setup, saying that I made a “fort for [my] plants,” and while I disagree on the “fort” part, I do hafta say it looks a little weird.  If this works out this year, perhaps next year I’ll have a better looking setup.  Either way, after 8 days in this new setup you can see how much better the little guys look:

Alright! Now we're growin' good!

That was taken this morning, now 27 days into my gardening for this year… not too bad!  You will also notice that the smoked seeds failed to germinate.  This is what I thought, but I had wanted to try and see as some seeds actually will grow better after being smoked (a long shot, but SCIENCE!!).  From the left to the right we have the Naga, Habanero, Thai, Non-Existent Jalapenos, Poblano and Bell.

My watering schedule is about a squeeze from my water bottle every morning.  The water is room temp and has about a capful of plant food added.  The little cloth under the plants catches any excess water (of which there shouldn’t be any), just in case.  The lights are on from around 6:00am to around 9:00pm, giving them a decent 14 – 16 hours of light.  I’ve positioned the lights around 2″ above the plants as instructed by many and now we just wait!  The temperatures outside are still very cold (highs still in the 50′s with lows in the 30′s) and I can’t put these guys outside until the low temps are over 60° F, so they’ll be inside for at least another few weeks.  The hardest part is the waiting, I tells ya!

Wish me luck and stay tuned for updates!!  So what are you guys all growing this season?

The first thing I looked for was a Whole Foods, but the nearest is 4+ hours away. Yikes. The closest thing I could find was the Fresh Market, but even that is over an hour away. I’ve luckily stumbled upon a few farmer’s market type things, such as Off the Vine and Zen Garden Market, but I dunno how they will work. I also recently got in touch with the people at Twin Oaks Farm and was told that Seaside has a year-round farmer’s market as well (again, about an hour away). We’ll have to play it by ear for the first few months, but hopefully I’ll be able to locate what I consider the necessities:

• Farm Fresh Eggs
• Pasture Butter
• Grass-Fed Beef
• Locally Grown Produce

If I can locate these things, I’ll be just fine. The other things I need to find are some decent regional markets, namely Asian and Hispanic. Luckily some of the things I’ve grown to love up here (Penzey’s and The Tea Smith) allow you to order online, so I don’t have to miss out.

So, anyone out there know of some great restaurants in the Panama City area? Good places to get local food? If so, please comment and help a soon-to-be transplant out!

Bright side? Models... quite a few more than pictured.

Anywho, this has had the unfortunate side effects of causing me to miss two awesome sounding parties I was invited to, my weekly trip to the Farmer’s Market, getting my goods from my CSA, being able to really cook anything until next week and other things.

So, sorry for the delay, enjoy some of what I got to see this weekend via my cell phone camera:

Not quite rock...

Modern pack mule

Gettin' hair done

Behind the scenes

The worst thing about working these things is that I have to stand still on concrete for hours.  It woudn’t be so bad if I could walk around, but the just standing in place wrecks my feet and back.  Blech.  I tell you, trade shows can be fun… if it happens to be a trade you’re in (and you’re not working it).

Poor little guy... he didn't deserve this!

I say “semi-able” because upon almost getting it back together, it happened again.  It looks like I’ll be looking for a new lens soon.  Until then, I’m sorry for the photo quality (in fact, the past four posts have been with my “spare” point’n'shoot camera and cell phone)… sucks to not have my dSLR in working condition.  Oh well.  So, since I have to get a new lens, any suggestions?  I’m rolling with a Nikon D50 and currently only have a working 70-300mm zoom and I need something much closer (maybe a macro?).  Cost is a factor, but so is performance!

Bok Choi

Herbs

Kale

That was a bunch of herbs,  bok choi and kale… I still have three heads of bok choi (one of which is trying to bolt, so I think I’ll be harvesting it soon) and plenty of kale. The next biggest thing is that the massive amount of rain we got here followed by a sudden increase in temperature (60 and 70 degrees for over a week, followed by temps in the 90s) caused my herbs and leafy plants to explode, while stunting my tomatoes and peppers a bit. You can note in the photo that my arugula and spinach flowered, but I decided to leave ‘em be (I had already harvested all I could, so what’s the harm in letting it bloom?).

Here are some closeups of a few of my veggies (tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, etc):

Strawberry

Strawberry

Strawberry

Nasturtium

Jalepeno

Tomatoes

Side 2

Side 1

Not too shabby for being grown on a balcony, no? I’ll admit, it hasn’t been easy… here are some things I’ve learned:

1. Celery needs water. A lot of water. Tons of water. I use an entire watering can every morning just to make sure that they don’t get droopy in the heat.
2. Spring Garlic turn into garlic cloves very fast… and they aren’t plucked easily. This wouldn’t be a problem, except I planted some carrots with them. Bad move.
3. Birds like strawberries. Seems obvious, but I didn’t think about it. I’ve taken to harvesting my berries first thing in the morning so that I can get them before the birds show up.
4. Only plant herbs you’ll use often because you’ll have a lot of them. A lot. Seriously. I don’t know what I was thinking getting Summer Savory. I’ve used it once (I need to buy some spring lamb, methinks).

Now, I almost lost a bunch of my veggies two days ago due to a sudden hail storm with very strong winds. Jess and I ended up having to run out and grab all of our plants and bring them in before they were destroyed (one of the good things about a balcony garden). Hopefully there aren’t too many more of those in the future!

That’s it for now… things continue to grow, hopefully the rains stop and I get to have some peppers and tomatoes in the coming weeks!!

I didn’t plan on having to write this letter, but at this point you leave me no choice.  Your constant stealing of my strawberries has gone too far and I feel the need to call you out.  Now, things didn’t have to be this way, but you apparently thought there was nothing wrong with parading around in my strawberry boxes eating whatever you wanted.  It’s not like you have even been sneaky about it!  You proudly stand next to the boxes when you’ve eaten your fill, and chirp to the world about what you have done.  That’s just cold.

What do you think you're doing? I see you!

We weren’t always enemies, you and I.  I love birds… I tend to visit them in the pet store, zoos and backyards whenever I can.  You and your friends used to just simply fly around and give us something to look at… I didn’t bother you, you didn’t bother me.  It was a great arrangement for you and I, Mr. Mystery Bird…until *you* just had to go and change it.  Does your greed know no bounds?  You have access to all the bugs, non-garden plants and french fries you can eat so why add my strawberries to that list?  At that, why can’t you simply eat one and just be on your way?  No, you’d rather peck at random berries, ruining them all with little mystery bird beak marks!  Apparently if you can’t eat them, no one will.  If that doesn’t reveal your true colors, I don’t know what will!

These are mine, not yours.

Now, I’m sure at this point you think you’ve got nothing to worry about.  I mean, what am I going to do to you?  Well, my friend, perhaps you hadn’t noticed, but I live with cats.  Yeah, that’s right… and you know what else?  I’ve been showing your picture to them and perhaps the next time you show up, the screen door may be open.  This isn’t a threat, just saying, I may get forgetful.  I’d hate for anything to happen to you, so perhaps you could go and visit someone else’s garden and we could avoid all these issues.

You think you're invincible, don't you?

At this point I don’t know what else to say.  I don’t even know what kind of bird you are (you have failed to ever introduce yourself) or where you come from.  Are you perhaps a Western Meadowlark?  A Melanistic Robin?  A Starling?  Who knows… at this point, I’m not sure if I really care to know.  I really don’t want to have to escalate our conflict, seriously, I don’t want to fight you, but you are giving me very few other options.  Hopefully this letter makes you think about what you have done, how it has affected me, and how I will retaliate.  The ball is in your court, bird… don’t make me have to take this to the next level.

Respectfully,

Jason

I have nowhere to stand!

You’ll probably notice that I once again rearranged everything.  This wasn’t really all my doing.  Jess decided it looked nicer this way and who am I to argue?  I just want them to grow up strong and tasty.  So far it seems like they aren’t bothered so I don’t mind one bit.

So I’ve finally gotten my “final” crop list and here it is:

I have nowhere to sit!

Strawberries | Kale |
Bok Choy | Pak Choy |
Garlic | Carrots |
Celery | Leeks |
Onions | Bell Peppers |
Jalapenos | Tomatoes |
Swiss Chard | Basil |
Chives | Oregano |
Parsley | Chervil |
Peppermint |
Chocolate Mint |
Summer Savory |
Cilantro | Nasturtium

Not bad!  The big questions are, will it all grow and if so, will it all taste good?  Stay tuned for future updates (probably much wider spaced) and conclusions about how it all worked out for me this year! So, tell me that I’m not the only one with a garden growing on his balcony… share your experiences with us!

Growin' up strong!

If you notice in the picture, I rotated many of the boxes so that they get more sun throughout the day.   Another thing I did was to grind up some eggshells (cleaned, of course) with my mortar and pestle and spread them around the plants for a bit of a calcium boost.  Lastly I spread a tiny bit of used coffee grounds around the leafy plants, as the nitrogen boost should help them out.  So far it looks like this is working out pretty well.

You may notice an extra few crops.  Well, I decided that I’d try a few experiments.  The first is Strawberries, my first attempt at a fruit.  The second is spring garlic and carrots.  The carrots went in as seeds, so I don’t know if they’ll grow yet.  The garlic was just purchased at Whole Foods when I was shopping.  I saw a bunch that had started sprouting so I bought it, came home, separated the bulbs and planted them.  They’ve begun growing more, so we’ll see what happens with that.

I have another couple weeks until I feel it’s safe enough for my warmer crops, but so far this is a very good start.  In fact, I’ve already had to trim the Arugula once!

Well, that’s it for now… hopefully my next update is still positive and perhaps will have a few baby carrots growing!

Lookin' good, guys!

Last year was my first attempt at a garden on my balcony and it didn’t turn out half bad.  I grew some herbs (mint, basil, parsley, chives, savory) and they thrived. I also grew some kale that kept me in greens for weeks… the downfall of my garden last year were my peppers and tomatoes.  I still don’t know what I did wrong, but they all grew to about the size of cherries.  They weren’t cherry peppers or cherry tomatoes, either… in fact, they were bell peppers and beefsteaks.  I’m not 100% for sure on if I’ll be attempting those again, still thinking about it.

Anyway, this year I’ve decided to start early!  I heard about these wonderful things called “cole crops,” that usually refer to plants from the cabbage family, but many people use the term for plants that can handle cooler weather.  So, without further ado, let me introduce you to my current lineup.

We have Pak Choi and Bok Choi (two types of Chinese cabbage), Kale (of course), Leeks, Walla Walla Onions, Spinach, Swiss Chard and Arugula.  As my garden continues I’ll keep this up to date with anything I discover, new plants I get and, of course, any recipes.

So, as this is only my second time growing a garden, if you have any tips for me, I’d love to hear them!!