fishy

I have been thinking of one day getting a worm-bin and learning vermicomposting to feed my plants... but then realized just yesterday I have another readily-available source of plant food: fish waste!

From the occupant of this two-gallon bowl:

He's hiding because he didn't like it that I moved his bowl away from the kitchen counter into the light (albeit indirect) on the kitchen table to try for some photos.

I tried, but can't seem to get good pictures of him:

It's a male betta, with a lovely purple and blue color. My daughter named him Hector. I'm enjoying his little, silent company so much have thought of getting a slightly larger tank (five gallons?) to house a handful of female bettas, maybe three or five. I was afraid my daughter would be jealous of the idea of mommy getting her own fish, but instead she was thrilled: "then we can put them together and get baby fish!" She even knew all about sequestering the male with one female in a separate tank, then leaving the male alone to tend to the eggs, from reading up on betta care on her own. Fish breeding? Maybe. We'll see. First to get the other fish, which is probably weeks down the road. Just an idea so far...

This picture blurry but you can really see the vivid colors.

So anyway the point of this post was to remind myself that once a week when we clean out the fishbowl, the dirty water ought to go on the balcony plants and give them some nutrients.

chard lasagna

The Chard lasagna turned out great! Here is the assembly stage:

nice and golden out of the oven

scrumptious on the plate.

It didn't taste quite as good as when made with real ricotta, but I liked it and my toddler snarfed down a whole plateful, which is really saying something! All it lacked was- more chard! Definitely have to fill more pots with that plant.

birding

One of the great things about this new place which I didn't forsee is the bird watching! I have lots of large windows flanked by tall evergreen trees, and look right into the heart of their branches. The squirrels make flying leaps from higher locales onto branches just outside the window. I've seen lots of robins, sparrows, and a rosy, streaked bird I don't recognize. Also a pair of brilliant blue jays and a mourning dove. There are plenty of others but they flit around so quick I don't get a good luck (much less a photo!)

But I will be putting these to good use again. I'm fond of this old pair of field-glasses, which see just as good in the dark as daylight! Love the feature that lets me adjust each lens separately to the individual eye. I believe they are WWII  era, German-made. Picked them up in an antique store many years ago.

Chard

I've cut my first bunch of Swiss Chard from the pots,

to make sort of pseudo-lasagna for dinner. I don't have ricotta cheese nor lasagna pasta sheets but all the other ingredients are on hand so will make do substituting cottage cheese and using faralle noodles in layers. It might turn out more like a casserole but I hope the flavor is the same.

Anyway, the chard went from looking like this:

to this!

I think I need to go back to the old garden and dig up more for pots, if I seriously want to eat a chard dish once a week. Didn't get enough for more than half the normal recipe, but I wanted to cut most of it down to make sure I'd rid the plants of their parasite. They were getting eaten by these tiny caterpillars! I picked most of them off the leaves days ago, but found this last one while washing the cut chard for food.

Figure if all the damaged leaves are gone, I can easily see if more new damage occurs and know there's still a pest or two left in there.

houseplants

After a few days of shuffling I think I've figured out where each of my houseplants will be happiest. They all have slightly different light requirements so it took a bit of time observing where the sunlight comes in to see how they'd all do best.

Most of the plants are in the big kitchen window. I've got quite a few Jades (crassula)

my Crotons seem happy with the new light levels; they're already sprouting new leaves (but not lower down on the stems like I'd hoped, in the crown)

The African Violets still show no sign of blooming but look healthy

The other Hibiscus and Marjoram are inside- to see which do better overwintering, indoors or out-

as is the one surviving Mimosa (silk tree) baby- the other one lost all its leaves and hasn't recovered. This one seems to like the warmth inside the house; it is sprouting new growth which makes me so happy. I've always been fond of ferns (but don't have any) so find the fern-like foliage of mimosa especially attractive.

and I kept the little Tarragon plant inside, too. It seems to be growing new leaves at its base, so I hope this one does better now.

The centerpiece on the table is the Poinsettia, looking lovely.

My big Spider plant is always so droopy. I'm afraid I err in overwatering it...

the little SIP one hanging on the wall looks a bit better

I've also got inside here the big Bell Pepper in a pot

(still producing!)

and a pair of Basil plants- they seem happier inside, are sprouting new leaves near the base.

In the living room area the tall Avocado (seems to be suffering a bit of shock)

and my dumb-cane Dieffenbachia which looks the best it has in a long time.

In the tiny office/bedroom I've got my dragon-tree Dracanea (looking more handsome than ever!)

and the little mini-Geranium (odd appearance because I pinched out some stem tips but not others)

also the Creeping Charlie- this one is struggling. It keeps getting leaf burn and dropping them.

But there is also plenty of new leaves growing so I'm hoping it continues well. Moved it back from the window some.

Phew! I didn't realize I had so many plants. And I missed a few- there's also one (nearly dead) venus flytrap, the pothos, the cyclamen.... will get more pics and update again soon.

balcony

Here's the outside plants, back in their balcony spots. I brought over my daughter's Apple tree, now about four feet tall. Thought it would take up quite a bit of space, but it turns out the balcony was bigger than my brain imagined (I guess compared to all the open-ground space I used to have!). I did prune some branches, so it would fit in my car- it rode over with the top foot of foliage waving out a crack in the car window!

Next to it are three pots- two of perennial green Onions, one of Chives.

Then there are the Lavender and Rosemary.

My two Mints

Two Thyme plants- regular and lemon variety

A trio of little pots- Marjoram, Hibiscus baby and shabby Parsley (the other marjoram and hibiscus are indoors)

Another corner grouping- the tall wavy Stevia, year-old Echinacea, beautiful light blue-green Sage.

There's also Swiss Chard in that right-hand corner. Here's a wider view:

Still a lot of space! I could easily put a few planter boxes out there, a worm bin, some more large pots, some five-gallon-bucket SIPs, a little table and chair to enjoy the view... the possibilities are wonderful!

all safe indoors

Shortly after setting out the majority of my plants onto the new apartment balcony, we got warning of approaching hurricane Sandy. So my older daughter and I brought them all back in again, where I arranged them in front of the kitchen window. It was quite a full space!

Seen from one side

and the other

There were only a few plants by the smaller window; I show this picture to enjoy the last of the Marigold flowers. My toddler has since pulled off and shredded (with glee) most of the blooms.

The storm blew over with much wind and rain, we were just on the outskirts of it. A day later I shifted most of those pots back outside again. Hopefully won't have to do that too often!

plants in boxes

I moved last week, and the best way to transport my fifty-odd potted plants, was just to set them in boxes.

The Avocado plant (behind the dragon-tree here) was so tall I worried it wouldn't fit in a vehicle, plus it was starting to look top-heavy, so I bit my lip and cut the upper third of its stem off. Crossing my fingers that it sprouts multiple new shoots! (Those little side-shoots that were emerging before never grew into anything.)

Most of the plants ended up traveling in an open-bed truck, luckily it was just a short distance.

The smaller houseplants in shallow boxes went on the floor of someone's car, I believe.

I was glad of the many plants living in SIP containers; it was easy to nestle them close to each other and fill up a box; this one full of houseplants has ten specimens in it, I believe.

And they all made it just fine! Not even much shock. Will post further on settling in and gardening in small spaces.