I had high hopes for the garden this year. I took the little border around the edge of the patio, and put in all sort of plants - 8 tomato plants (some in pots), basil, rosemary, oregano, a red pepper, a yellow pepper, 6 jalapeños, 6 sugar snap peas, and mint.

The results?

• Everything was constantly over- or under-watered. We got 3 times the normal rainfall this summer. Several times it rained every day for a week.
• One tomato plant grew to about 10 ft tall and never put on a tomato. I got a total of 3 tomatoes out of the rest of the tomato plants (two big and one pear).
• The peas all broke off at the ground during a particularly nasty week of thunderstorms.
• I lost the basil and the red and yellow peppers to snails.
• The rosemary struggled and struggled and finally gave up the ghost.
• The oregano is still alive, but not noticeably larger then it was when I planted it in April.
• The jalapeños did well until this last week. I came home from work one day, and one of the plants was missing every single leaf. I didn't think much about it, since the peppers were already ripe - I just picked the peppers and shrugged.

Yesterday, we were sitting out on the patio when Mike noticed why the jalapeños were missing their leaves - there were two tomato worms working their way through the rest of them. I debated squishing them, but since I'd already picked most of the peppers, I figured they could just have the plants.

It's amazing how fast they're devouring them. In 3 days, they've eaten all the leaves, several leftover peppers, and are starting to work on the stems. I had no clue there were bugs that could eat an entire jalapeño, including the seeds.

Next year, I'm going to find a nice organic bug repellent. And the tomatoes are going in upside-down hanging pots.

But, hey, I seem to have grown myself some fine-looking tomato worms!

Tags: garden, photos
Current Mood: amused

After nearly a year, I finally have a cable outlet on the same wall as my television.

When I bought the townhouse, I thought there was one. When I moved in, I realized it wasn't - it was an old antenna connection from an antenna that wasn't there anymore. I thought fixing it would be trivial - after all, they just had to use the existing cable to pull a new line to the attic. The big problem was the second floor, which was inconveniently placed between the attic (where the cable comes in) and the downstairs (where I wanted the cable to come out).

The problem with using the old cable to pull new ones was that the old antenna didn't go to the attic, and even if it had, it was stapled to the studs. The first electrician I had out didn't want to mess with it, and wanted a lot of money to run it all over the place so he wouldn't have to cut into the wall. I explained several times I didn't care if he cut into the wall, but it didn't seem to get through.

So I waited a few months, then called someone else. They came out this morning, and now I have CAT5E and cable TV on a jack on the wall behind the TV (Dylan, this means next time you come to visit we won't have to run 100 ft of cable from upstairs to hook up your laptop!). The other end of the Ethernet isn't hooked to anything yet, because the contractor ran out of connectors, but that's trivial in the whole scheme of things. And, of course, I have a (small!) hole in the drywall to patch, but that's not a huge deal either.

This was one of the last big things I needed to do. Next on the list is the air conditioner, which is 23 years old and starting to have some issues. They told me last year it would probably last one more year, so it's time to replace it this spring. I suspect anything I get is likely to be far more energy-efficient then what I have, and my summer electric bills were terrifying last year.

After that, it'll be time to plant the garden. I've got tomato seeds on order that are going in hanging pots, and I know I'm going to put in basil, mint, sage and another rosemary. I've got a lot of mostly-shady spots, and I'm not sure what will work best there.

I see the light at the end of the tunnel....

Tags: garden, townhouse
Current Mood: optimistic
Current Music: NPR: Books