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I discovered on Saturday that there are turds where my Alaskan snow peas and onions used to be. Sadly, there is no practical remedy, since i can't put up a fence (neighbor's car door would hit it) or put up a sign (which would almost guarantee the garden gets fucked with). I will just have to be more diligent about using the anti-critter spray, I suppose.Started radish, squash, sage, spearmint and more basil seedlings.

spacebar wrote:Wrapping up last season:...Catnip has been healthy as well...What kind of catnip is it? We've had no luck over here with that.Thanks,Jim

Jim wrote:What kind of catnip is it? We've had no luck over here with that.I looked around, and I can't find the envelope, so I have no idea (sorry!). If it helps, here's a picture:As you can see, it's not doing anything special. It's just not dying. Guessing it should flower in the next month, but again... not sure till it happens.---Made a new batch of "JSP's Black Label Pest Control Spray for Garden". Not sure if this has any major effect, but I found these ivory-colored Hungarian hot peppers, so I added one into the mix, just because it looked like something to be afraid of. Forgot about the Cayenne pepper until the last second. All I could find was Chili Powder. A slightly different batch, but pretty similar I think. It stunk up the kitchen and if I got too close it burned my throat as I breathed in. Should keep away little animals (or "learn 'em" not to eat in my garden). I should know soon if that'll get the job done.I have Sage, Spearmint and Rosemary seedlings. These three are all really weak looking, so I'm keeping a close eye on them. I spoke to a guest engineer with a greener thumb than mine a few weeks ago, and he suggested I ease up on the amount of water I was giving the Sage and Rosemary. Seems they're doing better than they have in years past, so valuable advice so far (thanks!).I am starting to see sprouts from a new wave of Parsley, Bell and Jalapeño peppers, and more Basil. Also, the squash seedlings I planted earlier didn't make it, so I have two more of them. With any luck, these will all find their way outside within the next two weeks.Added Miracle Gro spikes to all of my potted seedlings. I might use some of the Miracle Gro water mix on the Jiffy greenouse seedlings next week, too.

Transplanted basil, jalapeño, parsley, spearmint and squash a few weeks ago with the help of intern Tyler. Nothing lived past Memorial day weekend except for the squash. Well, the parsley might rebound, but nothing else made it. Solution? Off to the Logan Square Farmers Market for seedlings, which ended up being 10 times the size of anything I planted anyway.I picked up three kinds of hot peppers and a rosemary bush. This time I put the peppers in dirt buckets in hopes that critters won't get to them as easily. Rosemary is in the plot with the squash. Again, with help from intern Tyler.Pics pre-transplant below:Also, started more seedlings for bell peppers, basil, parsley and spearmint. I hope they actually make it. If not, well, another trip out to buy seedlings...

spacebar wrote:Jim wrote:What kind of catnip is it? We've had no luck over here with that.I looked around, and I can't find the envelope, so I have no idea (sorry!). If it helps, here's a picture:As you can see, it's not doing anything special. It's just not dying. Guessing it should flower in the next month, but again... not sure till it happens.Thanks for looking for me!

Jon, does your rosemary ever develop a coating of whitish powdery stuff on it? Mine has a coating of white powdery stuff all over it. Does this mean it's germinating or something? Is it dying or diseased? What is your secret for beautiful, fresh herbs?

DregsInTheCrowd - I don't have that going on, but the internet seems to think it's not good - PM'ed you what I found!The farmer's market peppers are kicking ass. I transplanted them out of the bucket and into the plot this afternoon. I think I'm going to start using the buckets to grow the more vulnerable plants / plants not strong enough to withstand critters in small doses. They are a little droopy and likely will for a day or two until they are used to their new home, but here are pictures:Also, I didn't plant it, but it appears that Summerlong Basil from last year managed to grow all by itself, which filled me with glee. Picture below:I went to the Daley Plaza farmer's market and picked up new parsley (Old Man Parsley didn't survive the last critter feast).Also from the DPFM was this Mint seedling (picture below):The squash, as I hoped, isn't nearly as crazy in growth as the pumpkins from last year. It's already starting to blossom (picture below):I also moved some of the Cinnamon Basil and in-house Parsley seedlings (intern Tyler helped me plant the seeds for these) into smaller pots. It took an extra month to get this stuff started, but finally there's some progress.

Hooray! It s garden time again.Looking back to last year, I actually had great luck with my seedlings. The rosemary was plentiful, the basil kicked ass and all of the pepper seedlings gave us more peppers than we knew what to do with. We had enough left over in the fall that Intern Charlie and I pickled 4 or 5 jars worth of sweet peppers, jalapeños and Thai Hot peppers. I took lots of pictures. Then, I didn t back them up anywhere. Then, my phone blew up. Specifically, somebody sent a spam email to a good 15,000+ people on behalf of an email address I had in the middle of the night. Didn t hack my account, mind you. They just used my email as a return address. So after about the fourteen-thousandth email, my phone had a œsoft implode and could only say œDROOOOOID! over and over until I did a factory reset. But trust me, the harvest was fantastic. So, let s start this season off by introducing the seedlings:Tarragon (they didn t have any rosemary the day I went shopping for seedlings - this ll do):Oregano: ˜bitty onions:Basil:Broad Leaf Basil:Mini Bell Peppers:Hungarian Lightning Peppers:Jalapeños:Thai Hot Peppers:Old Man Parsley survived the winter, and he s going outside for the summer:Sage - what a hard-ass! Old Man Sage survived the whole winter (with the blizzard, let s not forget) outside in a bucket. Totally gristle:Mint - I did not plant this! It just showed up! So nice!And here s a shot of everything after I pulled up weeds and transplanted all of the little seedlings (and Old Man plants):This happened last week. So far all of the seedlings are doing well, but not enough growth for new pictures (plus it s rainy and gross out).More soon! For real this time!

spacebar wrote:Tarragon (they didn t have any rosemary the day I went shopping for seedlings - this ll do)That'll do? I'm not ready to agree with your assessment.Hungarian Lightning PeppersIs this an excercise from BRW's WOD list?I'm looking forward to future updates, Weekend Guy.

The garden is looking pretty good so far, Jon. Do you have any cilantro back there?