Spaghetti!

I have been meaning to do this for quite awhile now.  The morning glories were growing close to the ground in a spaghetti mess, and I finally decided that it was time to get things straightened out and properly wound on trellises.

This pic gives you an idea of how tangled things were.

I had a temporary fence (landscape border) to get them started,
but  they never wanted to advance to climbing the wall by
themselves.

More spaghetti

It took an hour and a half, in two different sessions, to untangle it all!!!  Bending over really kills the back.  I had to be so gentle to not yank and break the stems and leaves.  I think I broke one segment of stem throughout the whole process (maybe a 6" piece).  No biggie.  Two leaves came off also, and a few other leaves got a little bruised when I was unwinding them past the brick wall.  All in all, I did pretty well, with, I would say, 95% of the plants undamaged.

This process definitely took some patience!  I remained focused on the end product because I knew it would look cool.

Tangles around the little fence - the trickiest part!  I wanted
to remove this fence and get everything growing directly from
the ground onto the trellis.

BEFORE - bed 1.  The tall one is actually wrapped around
a stick I put there temporarily, until I could buy the trellis.

AFTER - bed 1.  Pretty cool, huh?

BEFORE - bed 2.  See how everything is just laying twisted
in the back?

AFTER - bed 2.  See the pink flower bud?

AFTER - bed 2

I took these "after" pics a day or two later, to allow the morning glories a chance to recover from the stress.  When I was done winding them on the trellis in the evening, I misted them with a spray bottle of water.  I also watered their roots.

They seem much happier now, and so am I!

So if anyone ever tries to grow morning glories, buy your trellis early, and train them early!  Do not wait until they start wrapping around each other and the other plants like crazy.  Otherwise it's a lot of work to untangle!

Lilies and morning glories

A rain lily has bloomed.  These were planted in the flower bed by the previous owner.  I gathered them into bunches to make them more aesthetically pleasing.  I also added a few different types of lily plants around them.

It's lovely!

A second one opened up a day later!

The morning glories are happy!  Here is one climbing a stick.  The others just want to wrap around this one and make a spaghetti, I guess.  They don't want to climb the wall on their own.  I thought they would have little sticky things on them that grab the wall, but they really don't.  They just like to wrap around things.  Their habit of growing is pretty cool.  I plan on getting a trellis and trying to train them a little better.

The very first morning glory flower!  You can't really tell from this picture, but it has little bluish purple specks.  I planted assorted morning glories, so I don't know which color will be where when they all bloom.

I saw a few more flower buds getting ready... stay tuned!

Upside-down tomato

Here is the upside-down tomato plant.  It's got a ton of flowers and a bunch of little tomatoes!

Close-up of tomato bunch.  I used store-bought cherry
tomato seeds.

This is from a leaf borer.  Right after finding this, I sprayed the plant with a dish soap/water solution (about a tsp of dish soap per 4 cups of water).  Homemade safe pesticide!

Speaking of tomatoes, we ate a second very red tomato off the Aerogarden tomato.  It was even better than the first one!  Some of the tomatoes are getting pretty big (well, for cherry tomatoes).

First pepper flowers

Here is the first flower from one of the two pepper plants that I started in the Aerogarden.

There are a bunch more flower buds!  These peppers are doing really great.  They love Miracle Grow, and it caused their leaves to grow bigger than my hands.

Boyfriend's onion patch.  I ran my hand through and cleared the leaves out.  The onions are very happy.

Upside-down tomatoes

Wow! Look at the bunch of tomatoes!

Tomato bunch

The plant is going crazy after a hard rain

I hope my dad started his upside down tomato too.  I got him one for Christmas.  A good place to start the seeds is in a pellet in the Aerogarden.  Then it can be moved to the pot.  This is really fun!

This tomato plant gets Miracle Grow like once a week.  Apparently it loves it!  There's a whole bunch of flowers ready to go on it also.

Aerogarden tomatoes & herbs

flowers

sneaky hidden tomato

The thyme and oregano are not getting enough light
due to the tomatoes creating a canopy and shading them
out.  As you can see, these herbs are turning brown.
I will be taking these herbs out soon.

Tomatoes are hogging the thyme's light, light raised too high
for the thyme to thrive.

  

Parsley seems ok though and reaches for the light.

Parsley

Earth Day

Earth Day was yesterday, and I just had to plant something.  I chose some cheerful daisies and eggplant.

before

 


I keep a stepping stone in the middle because we do walk through there.

eggplant!

Morning glories.  I wrapped it around a long stick and
now it's getting the hang of climbing.

The morning glories in the other bed, next to the wall.  They
kind of fold up when it's really sunny.




Back inside, at the Aerogarden

Specialty basils - beginning to thrive!  Soon it will be time
to go outside.

Tons of flowers on the tomato plants!!

Veggies, herbs, roses

Look how much this pepper plant grew with the help of
some weekly Miracle Grow!  Remember these peppers were
started in the Aerogarden from seed!

Basil that dad gave me, doing good!

The other pepper that was started in the Aerogarden

Dill, doing so-so.  The squirrels love to dig in this pot and
disturb the seedlings

Mini roses planted by previous homeowner