My Green Thumb

Painting by Dan Butler

There were two things I wanted when I moved back to California from Alaska.

1. A place to live where we could have a pet.
2. A place to live where I could grow a garden.

Well our 90-year-old landlord Jerry says "NO PETS," but we at least have a private backyard where I can attempt to grow things. Last year I attempted herbs, but the bugs got them almost immediately. Last years tomatoes sucked because I planted two tomato plants in the same container. I guess that is bad. Very bad because one plant never produced a thing and the other plant which had a few tomatoes when I planted it, died as soon as they were picked. My flowers got scorched in the heat, and my strawberries were planted too late in the season, so we had no berries.

This year I tried to grow:

1. Juliet Tomatoes
2. Strawberries
3. Aloe Vera
   
4. Kangaroo Paw Plant-AKA Pink Joey
5. Eastern Star Dianthus
6. Great White Bacopa
7. Several other miscellaneous house plants.

I will now only post the pictures of the things I didn't kill...

The Juliet Tomatoes are growing in nicely! One plant per container did the trick.

I only have grown a handful of strawberries this year, and they appear to be stunted in size. On a positive note, they are very sweet.

Eastern Star Dianthus

This Pink Joey has been fighting for it's life since the day I drived it home from Ace Hardware. I'm still finding pieces of it in my car. Basically, I over watered it or didn't water it enough. The verdict is still out...the point is that it finally started to bloom again, but only in one really awkward spot. Oh well, it's not like I'm going for the "Golden Rake" award or anything.