Hanging Tomatoes

I was looking at the upside down tomato planters at Big Lots the other day, and while the idea seemed like a good one, the execution left a lot to be desired aesthetically. Ugly is what they were. This is much more pleasant to look at and hopefully just as effective. You can hang it from a shepherd's hook by your porch even if you don't have much space.

First I found a couple of hanging baskets with coco liners just sitting on my planting bench, condos for spiders. If you buy them new they probably won't have any spiders in them. They are fairly cheap. Other things you need are some potting soil (or just some dirt) and of course, tomato plants. I ordered mine from Gurney's but there are plenty of places you can find them around here now that it is getting warmer. The Morgantown Farmers Market starts up this Saturday, and that's where Keith got my tomato plants last year.

Put an inch or two of soil in the bottom of your planter. Right above the soil line poke a hole where your tomato plant will stick out. Don't make it too big, but make it big enough to get a few leaves through. Make another hole on the opposite side of the basket. Lay the tomato plants in the basket like so, and gently coax the top set of leaves through the hole till they're poking out.

I have always heard that tomato plants like to be buried quite deep. When I transplanted these guys from their tiny tiny shipping pots, I buried them as deeply as the new pots would allow, and they really started growing like mad, so here they are again getting transplanted rather deeply.

Grandpa Lloyd used to plop a dead sunfish in the hole before planting his tomatoes, so if you have any dead fish lying around your garden shed then this would be a good place to put them. I, alas, had none handy, nor are there any fish in Decker's Creek for us to catch, so we are going without the dead fish here at this time.

Cover the plants up with a bunch more dirt. I planted basil seeds on the top of my basket, because I read somewhere that tomatoes and basil get along quite well. Or maybe I just made that up. Anyway, I expect it to look lovely and be handy if I want to make tomato salad. I guess you could also plant lettuce on top, or parsley, or whatever.

Please be advised that this arrangement will require some tomato food, as the plants are crammed kind of close together and will exhaust the nutrients in the dirt after a while. You can use some nice compost, if you have some, or plant food spikes. I use Miracle-Gro. It was good enough for my Grandpa, and I ate sun warm tomatoes right off the vine every summer from the time I was old enough to climb the hill to the garden - probably even before that. Maybe by next year I'll have learned how to make urban composting work (my compost heap didn't turn into beautiful rich soil over the winter, it looks like a pile of dessicated weeds and kitchen scraps!).

New Plants

This sweet pothos came from Aldi last week. I love these plants because you almost can't kill them! They thrive even in low light and with minimal watering. As in you can forget to water them for weeks (and there are a few in my house that may have gone months without any love) and they still survive. If anybody would like some cuttings, I have several of these babies in my house, growing like gangbusters. They take right off, you just cut and stick into a pot, no messing around.
This little guy is a Sassy fern. He was on the clearance rack at Lowes this afternoon. I LOVE the one dollar plants. A little loving care, and possibly a slightly bigger pot, and this frilly fella will be the star of my kitchen (or bathroom, or wherever he ends up this winter).
Nephthytis is my new favorite houseplant. They remind me of caladiums, which I had a few years ago. Several weeks ago I rescued two little nephthytis from the sad plants rack at Lowes, they were marked down to 10 cents each which is almost a toe tag for houseplants, but with a bit of trimming and some attention, they came back and are looking good. This hanging basket was a dollar, and I couldn't resist her either, she's labeled Nephthytis Maria. I think these pretties need serious attention, they like to be watered frequently but do not like to be soggy, so we'll see how they survive in this house of sporadic plant care.

We tried to take a bike ride this afternoon, but got rained out. Instead we went shopping, and ended up at Lowes. I needed a new 10 inch pot because a recent squall knocked one of my plants off the porch and busted the pot. The new pot I picked out was a chocolate colored terra cotta, but the check out clerk broke it while she was scanning it out and it was the last one. So I got a plain orange terra cotta pot, AND some guys from the sad plants rack. I would have brought two more home but there really wasn't room in the car.

Then Keith fired up his drill and installed a plant hook I bought at the beginning of the summer. It was supposed to go on the front porch but now that winter is coming I need a place to put all the plants I have collected. They will have to hang from the ceiling to survive with 2 rambunctious kitties flipping out all over the place.

Delia and I made Double Chocolate Nutella Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies after supper, and they were great! That girl is an expressive cook, and she just loves chocolate. She wants a double chocolate cake for her birthday and I intend to make it from scratch. If anyone out there has an extra Time Turner lying around, I could certainly use it for the next few weeks. I promise not to bump into myself and disrupt the fabric of space and time!

I tried to watch the debate for WV's senate seat but the Capitalist Pig made me want to throw up in my mouth, I thought about turning it off but the website crashed out before I could do it. Maybe I will be able to watch the replay tomorrow. I am so tired at 8:30 pm, this working 6 days a week is for the birds, I hope someone qualified applies for the relief baker's job soon because we all need some relief!

And that's the way it is. Goodnight.

Things that are making me happy Right Now

Pizza with garlic & onion sauce, topped with spinach, mushrooms, ricotta, roasted beets and Havarti cheese.


My fern is growing!


Elizabeth Zimmerman's puzzle of a baby sweater pattern, and the magical internet community of knitters called Ravelry which helps me make sense of it. Oh, and the Araucania Nature Wool that is such a pleasure to knit up.


My Distinguished Scholar daughter, who brought home some stratospheric WesTest results, decided to scent our last batch of homemade laundry soap with her lemon balm from the garden, and also gave me a foot massage.


The wet orange leaves all over my neighbor's driveway and the smell of earth after rain.


Our little PurrMonster Rohn, jumping up onto my lap on purpose.

K-Mart has these little geraniums in their rapidly dwindling garden center for ONE AMERICAN DOLLAR each. I couldn't resist them, and may go back and buy a few more come payday.


Emboldened by the joy those two little flowers brought to me, I stopped at Lowes on my way home to see what they had in the "soon to die" rack. I can't resist the sad, neglected little guys, especially when they are on sale for a tiny pittance. This is a Lemon Butter fern, and it cost a quarter. I trimmed off the dead and dying fronds and it looks pretty respectable.

This guy is a Fluffy Ruffle, who also required a little selective trimming up. I brought him home for two quarters.

I had been talking about getting another jade plant, I haven't had one since we lived on Dewey, and lo and behold, this Baby Jade was there, begging me to take her home for a dollar.

Best of all, the Virginia Creeper was totally free, and is rapidly taking over the front of my house. Ryan says it will tear the aluminum siding off, but I have my doubts about that. I love the way I can see it reaching farther every day, and I especially love the scarlet color it turns in the fall.

Playing in the mud

This evening Delia and I got dirty. I mean, incredibly dirty, covered in mud, with dirt under our fingernails and between our toes. We decided we would plant some of our seeds, even if it was rainy. Well, I planted most of the seeds, Delia made little tags so we could remember what we planted where, and then she played in the mud. It was AWESOME! Yay for Spring!
Some of the seeds we found were leftover from last spring, so I don't know if they'll come up. I found some seeds I saved from the purple columbines in the backyard at Park Boulevard, and I really hope they come up, but if they don't I will collect some more and try again. I splurged on a packet of Lime Sorbet columbines. Can you tell I love columbines?
The trees framing my backyard have come into full leaf in what seemed like three days, and now we are surrounded by the green that helps us forget we are living in the city. There is a new little member of our squirrel family, and we love watching him chitter and race with the big guys. Things are Great here at Edgehill House.

I'm off to read another couple of chapters of the Percy Jackson saga. Really great tween lit, IMHO. The other night when we encountered Artemis the Huntress, Delia piped up and started asking questions. She knows that's her namesake, and I was tickled to see her showing an interest. Gotta go, Storytime is calling me (from the top of the stairs, at the top of her lungs).

Delia got an aloe plant for her room. On the way home from the store a piece of it broke off, but she saved it in a plactic bag and made a note for her Dad. He is prone to bug bites and so she had the answer. She is a really great kid. It never ceases to amaze me when she does stuff like this.