Roo's (very first) Glog!

I have never glog'ed before, but since I'm starting from seeds this year it seemed only appropriate to start now! I've never actually followed a glog, so apologies if mine misses the mark a bit...
 
On March 8, I started seeds for Dragon Cayenne (I saved these seeds last year and I'm not entirely sure they'll be dragon cayenne, but I'd be happy with either Thai dragon or cayenne so I figured I have nothing to lose!) and Cherry Hot (these guys haven't sprouted yet - hopefully they will!). 
 
On March 15, I started 7 Pod White (yikes!), FilFil Baladi, Tekne Dolmasi, and Turkish Charleston (all from pepperlover.com).
 
As of yesterday (3/15), I have two Dragon Cayenne hooks sprouting up! Now I'm trying to figure out the best place for natural sunlight in my house, and I'm going to pick up a fluorescent light at Walmart later today and see if I can rig that up somewhere that my mom won't object to (ha!). I have a couple ideas that will hopefully not elicit "Absolutely not!"s.
 
 
On the list of things to grow are early jalapeños, a cayenne mix, and sweet pepper mix (all three from Park Seed, though my order hasn't arrived yet...). 
 
Very excited for this year! (Especially since we have a plan to combat the deer...She ate the leaves off most of my pepper plants last year and it's a wonder I got pods off of them!)

 

[newril]

looking good, and cute rat! I had a rat when i was younger. Been thinking about getting a new one, since they are really nice pets. My rat used to sit on my shoulder when i played quake 2 back in the days

 

[Roo]

The anti-deer fence is up!

 
8-ish feet tall (with the board on top so they can SEE it's that tall) with wire strung up around it. The rabbit fence at the bottom is for the pesky little bunnies who think eating the leaves off stuff is fun. We're going to add more wire or rope between the existing wire to make it more visible.
 
I picked up some peppers at plant sales and a nursery this week. One Caribbean Red, one sweet pepper (lunchbox pepper, I think?), three long red cayennes, and one Black Hungarian. I'm going back to the nursery today and I'm hoping they'll have a couple jalapenos (they were all out and my seeds didn't work out!). I'm also going to pick up another Black Hungarian, and perhaps a ghost pepper if I'm brave enough! (I probably won't be.) My seedlings need another few days of hardening off before I plant them, but they've moved out of the house and into the sunroom (to hopefully adjust to the heat) while I harden them off. Now I'm left with just my chives under the lights. Looks so bare!
 
In addition to the peppers, I have two Black Krims and a Cherokee Purple plant. I need a cherry tomato of some sort, just for fun. I planted two rows of white potatoes (unsure of the variety) and two rows of purple potatoes (perhaps terra rosa? I have the box in the sunroom and can check later). Mom planted Beauregard sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash, and two zucchini plants. We also have a little raised-bed herb garden. Most of it is mom's stuff, but I have some garlic around the border and a row of purple basil (though a few are dead - I'm going to buy some more today).
 
Potato rows!

(I'm putting up a fence around this, too, since I read that deer eat potato plant leaves. It'll be a shorter fence with deer netting over the top of it. Nothing quite as monstrous as the big one!)

 

[Comptine]

Your garden looks great! Do you get a lot of deer where you live or is it more of a precautionary measure?

 

[Roo]

Thanks!

We get a lot of deer, but it's one deer in particular. We call her Clara Just the other day we were eating dinner on the deck and watched the whole herd walk by in the woods. Except one. Clara. She split off from the herd, came up to the fence, and looked from us to the garden and back again, like she was waiting for us to get up and go inside so she could come look for food. It's ridiculous! And hilarious. But ridiculous.

But if we don't cover everything, we don't get to actually harvest anything.

 

[Roo]

I went pepper shopping today to fill in some gaps in my grow. I also got a purple basil plant that is growing purple AND green/purple splotched in the same pot. Picked up a Carmen sweet pepper (it sounded cool) and a tabasco pepper plant. Well, kind of "a" tabasco pepper. It has 3 stems, but seems to be one plant (I poked around before planting to see if they would separate and they didn't show any signs of wanting to so I just stuck the whole thing in the ground).
 

 
Then I picked up a couple jalapeños and found one that had just sprouted and the seed was stuck on one of the leaves (but it was growing anyway!). I asked an employee if there was a discount on sad looking peppers and he just gave it to me I stuck it in the garden next to the other baby jalapeños - hopefully it'll take off! (It's not quite as sad as it looks in the picture - it's actually rather green and happy-looking, despite being teensy.)

 
Two of the wires around our fence were messed with. One was merely pulled loose but the other higher wire was broken entirely - like she (the deer) tried to jump and pulled it loose. The garden wasn't messed with, so she just broke it and didn't get in. We repaired it and are going to order stronger wire, since it seems like we'll need it now Little jerk.
 
I'm going back to Lowe's tomorrow to get some cucumbers to plant. Mmmmm

 

[Comptine]

Have you considered making it an electrical fence? Like the ones they use to keep cattle in. I must say that's a pretty persistent deer you have. 

 

[Roo]

She certainly is persistent! We thought about it, but I can't remember why we decided against it. Either because of the cost of electricity or the likelihood that one of us would forget it was on and touch it

 

[Roo]

My seedlings are in the ground! I feel like a parent sending a child off into the big bad world They're not as big as I hoped they'd be, but for the most part they seem pretty healthy. Had to plant them a little close together - underestimated the number of plants who would survive!

 
Anyone know what's wrong with this guy? It's a "lunchbox" pepper - I bought it at an herb sale on April 23. It was doing great till the weekend, then it started to look wilty. Should I just pull it? Is it, like, a disease, or just a weak plant?

 

[NeedsWork]

Anyone know what's wrong with this guy? It's a "lunchbox" pepper - I bought it at an herb sale on April 23. It was doing great till the weekend, then it started to look wilty. Should I just pull it? Is it, like, a disease, or just a weak plant?

 
It looks wilted to me.  My varieties wilt at different levels of dryness.  Soak it and it should recover overnight.  I'd soak all of them. 

 

[Roo]

Thanks! I soaked it yesterday (and then it poured last night, so now it can't possibly be thirsty). Hopefully that'll help. If not, I know a nursery in town that had ghost pepper plants last time I was there... Pull up the sweet pepper, plant a pepper I could never possibly eat... Seems like a plan

 

[Roo]

It looks perkier today! Can't decide if I'm happy it's alive or a little disappointed that I don't have space for a ghost pepper... How do those do in pots, anyway? 
 
The pathetic little jalapeño sprout I rescued got for free from Lowe's because it was pathetic is doing pretty well!

 
I noticed this guy yesterday, too. Apparently there was a tomato seed in the compost I mixed with soil for the garlic, so the garlic has a roommate until the tomato is big enough to transplant elsewhere

 

[Comptine]

 
I noticed this guy yesterday, too. Apparently there was a tomato seed in the compost I mixed with soil for the garlic, so the garlic has a roommate until the tomato is big enough to transplant elsewhere

 
 
I totally had that too! I planted a sweet pepper and out came a tomato! I don't know where the seed came from either.