What is this on my pepper plant?

Everything is moving along quite swimmingly, but I can't help but assume that this squiggly stuff is not a good thing. It's on my Chinese 5 color pepper plant. Any help and advice would be GREATLY appreciated! I need to know what it is and how to treat it please. (If you click on the picture, it will enlarge it)



Also, am I correct to assume this is an aphid? This would be the first one I've seen...


And...yet another potential problem/deficiency. Any identification/advice would be FABULOUS! This is also on a pepper plant.


Ok, on to the happy stuff...

My onions are looking awesome!


My sweet peppers (California Wonder) are doing great


Eggplant is looking good


A very happy tomato plant


Peaches




Bodie is enjoying the warm (horribly hot) weather


Happy Gardening!

Bird's Nest

Look what I found in our fig tree


Happy Monday!

Waiting for veggies...

Everything is officially outside now and I'm getting so anxious to finally get some produce. The suspense and waiting is killing me. I'm just dying to have my first tomato or pepper or squash. I'm trying to be patient and get on with other things, but it's hard! Hurry up little plant babies!

I have noticed some ants in my raised bed. Any suggestions from anyone out there on how to get rid of them organically? Other than that, I haven't found evidence of any other pests....yet. A few spider webs have popped up and I actually saw a lady bug yesterday. Good signs!

Here are a few new pictures...

There are a ton of birds hanging around and enjoying the bird feeders. So far, no issues with them bothering my plants and they are very vocal when the bird feeders are empty!


These are the latest plants to be put in pots


A spider web on a tomato plant


Chives started outside from seed


Everything seems to be doing well although I definitely had a few failures. My broccoli rabe and arugula bolted and surprisingly my zucchini and cucumbers aren't doing so hot. From what I've read, it seems that maybe I should not have started them indoors as they don't take kindly to transplanting. My scallop squash on the other hand though is doing amazing!

Bath Time!

A little Friday afternoon "shower" for my babies.


My scallop squash are all doing awesome. Kicking ass and taking names.


A tabasco plant started from seeds from one of my dad's plants.


I love kale so much! It's so pretty I don't think I'll want to ever eat it.


Eggplant


Have a fabulous weekend!

Veggies In The Ground

Today was big...all my plotting and planning finally came to fruition. I guess we'll soon see how well I did! I put about 1/2 of my seedlings in my new raised bed and larger, individual pots. The other half...well, I'll be going to buy more pots and giving some away soon. No complaints here though - I'm just shocked so many plants came up and did so well. Hopefully they will continue to do well and provide us with some food soon.

Here is the bed full of plants. It may look sparse now, but it should fill in quickly. I need to add some trellises soon for the tomatoes and cucumber.


Kale


Red onions


Chard - direct sow


Cherry tomato


Cucumber


Goldman's tomato


Sweet peppers



Chinese 5-color pepper - My husband is thrilled about this plant with it's small, hot peppers


Eggplants


Here are some other plants around the yard that are loving springtime:

Elephant ears


Roses






Happy Planting!

Spring Has Sprung

I really love this time of the year. It's not scorching hot yet and everything is bright green. Lots of new growth everywhere! Just a few weeks ago, our trees were bare and the grass was brown. Now there are birds and color everywhere.



I bought the bulb for this elephant ear plant in 2004. It was in a "bargain bin" for $1. It lived in a pot from 2004 - 2008 when we bought our house and it finally got to go in the ground. We had a very hard freeze for several days in a row this year and I was really worried that the elephant ears had died completely. I cut it all the way back and lo and behold, it's coming back up!



Our fig tree



Pear tree



Oh, and one of the most important things! My hubby finished my raised bed and this week I sowed the beet, chard and carrot seeds.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

In an attempt to be a bit more cognizant of our footprint on the Earth, of the animals, farmers and environments affected by our actions and just because well, it's kinda cool to be green now, we have taken the old phrase "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" to heart. Here are a few household items I used for seedlings this year. The plastic pots I have are all recycled from our local Home Depot. They have a shelving unit where people can drop off their old plastic pots and others can pick them up for reuse. It's a win-win. I plan to sterilize these and reuse them multiple times.

I drink entirely too much chocolate almond milk. I may have a slight addiction. Oh, and that hazelnut coconut milk creamer? It's delish!


Some soy yogurt...


Earth Balance butter and gelato containers (the whole back row may be more almond milk containers...don't judge me)! :)


How beautiful is this broccoli rabe??


And the kale? WHEW - so pretty I don't even know if I'll want to eat it!

BIG DAY

Yesterday, April 2, was a big day for my little seedlings. It was their very first time outside! I left them out for just a little over an hour in the shade and all seemed to be fine. I'm nervous though...I know the next week or 2 can really make or break them.

Everything is looking amazing - especially the kale. It's so beautiful I'm not sure that I will even want to cut it to eat it now! The tomato plants smell wonderful. The only plant I've had problems with so far is the arugula. Several of my plants "bolted" - they shot up and flowered which makes the leaves incredibly bitter and no longer very edible. They actually smell good though; you can smell the spiciness. I know that they bolt when they are under stress and it has been hard to get an even balance of too much/not enough water for them. I think that next time I plant them I will put them into larger pots so that they don't dry out so easily. But, I'm going to keep them around and see how they look as they flower. Maybe I will practice harvesting seeds from them.

Here are some pictures:




Pictures of peaches from our peach tree

Raised Beds

I feel like quite a lucky girl. I asked my hubby to help me make some raised beds and instead he has designed a totally custom, very cool looking L-shaped bed. I can't wait for it to be done! I've been plotting and planning what plants will get to go in the beds and which will be in containers. Since I've gone totally overboard there is a lot of planning involved!

This is what the area looked like when we first moved in:


In progress


I'm so excited! I really can't wait until they're totally done - they will be beautiful! The next step is some paneling between the posts, then the top pieces go on and I get to start filling them with compost and soil.

Here are some pics of our peach tree being pollinated by bees. They've been all over lately!




Here are some current pics of my veggies

Cherry Tomatoes


Kale


Arugula


Cucumber


Zucchini


Happy gardening!