Sarah

Good luck! And hopefully fewer nightmares too! 🫂

And hopefully that will be it. There isn’t enough space or sunshine or kitchen counter for anything more!

Oh and also the little terrarium… sigh. Need to try getting that put together. No idea where that will go. Maybe my desk.

Four more pots arriving tomorrow: 8, 10, and 12 inch hanging pots, and a big 14 inch pot for the zucchini. Bigger would be better but space is limited.

Yep. Eight more pots. Special pots!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kratky_...

Brownish (terracotta) pots with little tripods in them. Cerberus our three headed lamp lights the scene in back. Back right, three empty peat pots, and three full of dirt. Front right, tools and supplies.

Same as previous picture but the brown pots are now labeled T1 and T2, and both are labeled Sugar Ann Dwarf Peas. There’s soil in both pots. And peas, though you can’t really see them. Trellis tripods are in the far back; I’ll install them when I move the pots outside.

Planting some peas in extra pots I found in a closet. Moved radical round zucchini to peat pots I found in the same closet.

I always love a little scripting engine! 🥳👍

Well, at least it doesn’t need recapping!

Salad with fresh bok choy! Not shown: honey ginger dressing. 😋

Hydroponic system with too much stuff in it. Back to front: lettuce, bok choy, alpine strawberries

Bok Choy growing pod removed from the hydroponic system.

Leftover pods. I saved the plastic frames but not the brown sponge cones that support the roots.

After: lettuce still in back, former bok choy cells are capped, and the alpine strawberries have room to grow.

Harvesting the bok choy! 🥬

💯. Also, the gravity on this planet is TOO DAMN HIGH.

Yeah I can't really handle the heat either. Good news, I have air conditioning. Bad news, we have some of the highest electricity prices in the country here.

It's going to be a looong summer this year. 😭

We're supposed to get 31C/88F today in Southern California. 🥵

My sensors show 82F right now.

My plants might die from heat, but they're probably safe from frost!

I have a food processor and a dehydrator. Energy to actually do some processing or dehydrating will probably be the tricky bit.

I certainly hope so! They’re getting their own pot. It will be the biggest one out there.

I really like zucchini. 🙂

View of a white countertop hydroponic system. Back row: little gem lettuce Middle row: baby bok choy Front row: alpine strawberries. No actual berries yet.

I think I’m going to have to eat the rest of the bok choy from the hydro system and then cap those cells; they’re starting to block the light for the alpine strawberries, which are finally starting to grow a bit.

Some peas soaking in water in a plastic container prior to planting. We can see the grow lights reflected in the water.

Giving peas a chance. Again.

A clear pot labeled “Chaos Pot” with all sorts of stuff growing in it.

Chaos pot living up to its reputation. Now with extra gnats!

Four zucchini seeds with radicles emerging. These will become the roots of the plant.

Kowabunga, radical radicles, zucchini seeds! 😜🥷🐢

Insect: part of lower body, legs, wings

Insect: head, upper body, parts of antenna, wing, leg

Insect: antenna

Insect: Abdomen? Tail? Little pincers? Dunno.

Quick and dirty snaps from the $25 microscope of an insect that fell into a trap in the garden sometime this morning.

I think it might be a fungus gnat.

Definitely quicker than breaking out the bigger microscopes!

The period at the end of a handwritten sentence.

Quick test of a $25 digital microscope: rechargeable, MicroSD card, integrated 2 inch display. Supports snapshots and videos. No image controls.

May be a useful tool. Time will tell.

Yeah, I'd assume so.

One thing I learned from my Dad’s career in the Navy is that there are also perfectly ordinary, reasonable things that are essentially impossible to purchase because of weird rules. And I suspect the problem is worse now.

Complex bureaucratic systems are just hard.

Strongly agree! So annoying. Some things are expensive for weird reasons that are nonobvious to outsiders.

50+? Hey, I’m 50+! Sign me up! 🥳

(Additional free time will magically appear. Aargh, I can’t wait to retire; work is really starting to interfere with my education! 🤭)

😆😆😆

Also I think it might be… 14 pots not six. 🤦‍♀️

Or you fart so much that a dragon comes to scold you.

🐉🐉🐉 DRAGON beans! Maybe they attract dragons! 🧙‍♀️

But, I mean, Dragon’s Tongue beans? How could I NOT try to grow them?!?! 😆

Kajari melons

Round Zucchini seed packet.

Brand: Sherwoods Seeds Dragons Tongue Dutch Heirloom Bush Bean Premium Seeds for Planting Packet

😆😆😆

Well if I ever finish the planting maybe I’ll find time to take a look.

Looks like I’ll add six more pots to the balcony. One more big one, for zucchini, and five smaller ones for various nonsense.

No… should I? 🙂

How big is his balcony? 🤭