Friday, June 29, 2018

Friday, June 29, 2018: Carrots, beets, rhubarb, etc

I sowed the carrots and beets on April 11, 2018. The seed packet for both show 65 days. Not sure if that is when they are supposed to be harvested from the time of sowing or what. 

Today it has been 79 days since I planted the seeds. Both the carrots and the beets have good foliage showing, so I decided to dig up one of each to see how the root is progressing.

Beet foliage

Beet root

Carrot foliage

Carrot root
Obviously, both the carrot and the beet have a long way to go. I tried to stick the ones I pulled back into the ground. We will see if they survive.

The basil, rhubarb and cabbage are doing well.

Basil and cabbage

Rhubarb
All four of the okra plants are still alive. One, the oldest has fruit. Two others are growing well. One is sickly but still hanging in there.

Okra
Of the 30 or so pepper plants I planted in April, it appears maybe two or three are actually still alive. One has a small fruit on it while the other two are flowering.



Sunday, June 24, 2018

Sunday, June 24, 2018: Door shade, fish food; cactus

Friday, the Marvin people came out to install the new southeast door shade and adjust the south door. When they called earlier in the week, they said they were going to replace the lock on the south door. I did not understand why and, upon inspection, they agreed there was nothing wrong with the lock. So they just adjusted the hinges, for the third time. The new door shade they brought was even the correct color! They stated that if the south door continues to have problems, they might have to replace the hinges. How much of the problem is due to the floor, I don't know.


I also received the vacation fish food tablets I ordered. Each tablet is supposed to slowly dissolve and supply food for 5 to 10 fish (average length of 2") for up to 14 days. I really got these in hopes they would feed the inside fish vases. The back of the package warns not to use these in an un-filtered or un-aerated aquarium. We have aeration but no filtration. Hence I am going to try them out before I leave on my trip in July. I will be gone for about three weeks. There are only three fish (about 2" in length) in each vase.



I quartered one of the 14-day tablets and put one quarter in each vase. I do not plan to feed the fish for the next week or two, or until the experiment is complete. I did replace one-half of the water in each vase on Wednesday, June 21.




I am hoping, providing one-half a tablet in each vase and the Marimo moss balls, the fish will have enough to sustain them over three weeks. We will see how they do and how cloudy the water gets over the next week or two.

I've been watching the prickly pear cactus to see what happens to the spots where the flowers developed during the first week in June (about three weeks ago). Buds have now replaced the flowers. We will see what they finally develop into.