Best Homemade Pizza Ever

Get ready for your mouth to water!  You're going to be so jealous of the pizza I made a couple nights ago.  It was so yummy and so beautiful!  I used 3 of my green bell peppers and half a dozen of my Roma tomatoes, along with some mozzarella and pepperoni and a smidge of pepper.

Now for the close-ups:

I know you're jealous, right?

I had a couple extra bell peppers that I couldn't fit on the pizza, and in the past couple days, they've turned completely red!  They're really pretty.  I think I'm going to pick another green one and make a stirfry with the red and green bell peppers.  I noticed something else from my garden had turned red today, too -- one of my jalapenos is almost completely red!  I've never seen that before, but it looks cute.  Does the color change effect the spiciness?

 

Still Going Strong

I got back to my garden after being gone this weekend and I got to pick a ton of veggies!  I got 11 jalapenos, 5 bell peppers, and 7 Roma tomatoes.  The jalapenos are about 2 1/2 inches, the Romas are 2 to 3 inches, and the bell peppers are only 2 1/2 to 3 inches.  I had hoped they would get at least 4 inches long, but they still look and smell delicious!  I plan on making a couple homemade pizzas with some of the bell peppers and Roma tomatoes.

The bell pepper flower buds started showing up on Aug. 5 but I don't have a picture or a plant log note about the actual bell pepper fruit until Aug. 22.  That means it took about 40 days for that baby fruit to mature into a 2 1/2 to 3 inch bell pepper.  I would say that they stopped growing at least a week or week and a half ago, so maybe they only need 25 to 30 days to mature.  One of them already has a spot that's starting to turn orange.

My jalapenos have done better than any of my other plants by far.  They're still going strong and there are a ton left to pick!

We even made stuffed jalapenos!  They were sooooo yummy!  We started eating them before I could get a picture, but we made at least a pound or a pound and a half of them.

The only problem I've ever had with my jalapenos was a mystery spot on a single jalapeno a couple weeks ago.  I don't know what it was, but it looked weird.  If it was rotten, you would think it would turn black or something.  But it turned a very light color in just one spot and I haven't seen it on any other jalapenos since.

And I was worried that my little lizard friend had either moved on to a different yard or had been snatched up by a bird, but he came back!  That obnoxious little dude is still eye-balling me, too.

My plants look very healthy, especially for it starting to get so cold out.  But my tomato plants are so heavy that the branches keep collapsing and I either have to tie or prop them up.  I might try growing them in a planter on the ground next year so they have more support.

I should be able to pick another half a dozen bell peppers and a dozen more jalapenos in the next few days.  Same with my Romas.  Those cherry tomatoes are the slowest to mature -- I've only gotten one ripe cherry tomato this whole time!  They all need to hurry up if they don't want the cold weather to kill them.

Here's my little "helper" giving you a big aaarrrrroooooooooooohhh!!!

My Biggest Fan?

I found an interesting new creature hanging out by my plants today.  I went outside this afternoon and was surprised to discover a lizard sitting on the plastic of one of my plant hangers!  After he got over his second of being stunned by my presence, he quickly regained his confidence and scurried up to the rope of the plant hanger.  I say confidence, but he was actually really obnoxious!  Check him out:

It turns out he's a green anole lizard.  They like to eat grasshoppers and crickets -- something they have in common with my dog.  Apparently they don't eat veggies, so I suspect he's on my plants because he's after the little black ants crawling all over the place.  I guueeeesssss that's okay.  But I'm still mad at him.  I tried so hard to shoo him away!  I yelled at him, I whined at him, I bargained with him, I told my dog she had to help (which she didn't; she just sniffed the ground and was a totally useless helper).  My neighbor even had to poke his head out his door to see what I was freaking out about!  I chased that little douche (the lizard, not my neighbor) all over that plant and he still wouldn't leave.  I told you he was obnoxious.  Here are some of the best pictures from our battle:

His butt is on my vegetables!  I will definitely be washing my bell peppers before I eat them.

Look at this little douche rolling his eyes at me, like he's thinking, "Who me?  I'm just a cute little lizard, keeping these bell peppers warm with my stinky lizard butt.  Don't mind me."  I hate him and his sassy eye-rolling.

Okay, lizard... You may have won this battle this time, but you're going down if you start eating my vegetables.

My First Roma Tomato

I finally picked my first Roma tomato a few days ago!  As a reminder, let me show you its baby picture:

In my plant log, I note that Aug. 5 was the first time I noticed this baby tomato pop up, and this is the first picture of it from that day.  It might have gone unnoticed for a day or so, though.  I waited several weeks before I noticed any change in color, but then it start turning a different shade of green, then yellow, then orange, and finally red!  It turned a different color each day.  Here are the countdown photos:

Aug. 3 - starting to change color

 

Aug. 4 - turning yellow 

Aug. 5 - turning orange (exactly a month after the original picture)

Aug. 6 - almost completely red!

Aug. 7 - right before I picked my beautiful Roma off the plant.

And you can see how many more I have that should start changing colors in the next couple weeks!

I picked this Roma tomato on Aug. 7, about 33 days after the baby fruit was originally spotted on the plant.  It is about 2 1/2 inches long.  I haven't tasted it yet, but it looks delicious!  My green bell peppers are also 2 1/2 inches long right now, but I'm hoping those will keep growing.  Here's my most recent picture of the bell peppers:

And Then There Were Six...

 

RIP Zucchini Plant

I tried very hard to keep you alive

But it seems you tried even harder to die

I'm sorry I let you down

A Month Makes a Huge Difference

Speaking of growing like crazy, let me remind you how my plants looked on that first day when I brought them home (July 29):

Now look at how big they are a month later! (Aug. 28) 

This process has been so amazing.  They all grow at different rates and go through different life cycles, but every little bud that pops up and every baby fruit that starts growing is equally exciting!  Growing on a smaller scale like this, where I can go out a couple times every day and closely examine every single plant, has been especially amazing, too, because I get to see how fast they change from each hour of the day.  I go out in the morning, and sometimes I spend half an hour picking caterpillars off my tomato plants, trying to spare the little spiders that have made webs there.  I can't even keep up with all the jalapenos popping up!  I go out midday sometimes and find that my zucchini plant is super-droopy, so I give it a little bit more water, and within minutes, all the stems and leaves have popped back up and look happy again (despite its sick spots).  I can see all the little holes from the caterpillars and aphids, and I see the harmless little ants crawling all over the place, but every single plant has been producing fruit - though few have matured enough to pick yet.  The only thing I've been able to pick so far is the jalapeno plant.  I made the mistake of trying a bite of one of the fresh jalapenos, though.  I crunched down only once and had to immediately spit it out!  From one bite, that I didn't even chew or swallow, my mouth burned for half an hour.  Fresh jalapenos are no joke.

Besides the helpful little spiders, the only other insects I like seeing out near my plants are the bumblebees!  Look at his cute little fuzzy body!

Except the other thing with a cute little fuzzy body (my dog Paisley), got curious about what I was taking a picture of, so she ran over and stuck her face right on the bumblebee!  Luckily she didn't get stung, but she did freak it out and it flew away.  She's not the best gardening helper.  Here's that little stinker "helping" with my plants:

And one more just for laughs:

Bell Peppers Galore!

My zucchini may be deteriorating, but my bell peppers are thriving!  I've got 5 or 6 big bell peppers on one of my plants and almost 10 little bell peppers on the other plant!  They're growing crazy-fast, too!  Check this out.  Here's one of the bell peppers on Aug. 27:

Here's that same bell pepper 2 days later (Aug. 29):

And here's that bell pepper this morning (Aug. 31):

It's growing a warp-speed!  All 5 or 6 bell peppers on that plant are about that same size.  Here's another:

And another:

They're 1 1/2 to 2 inches long now!  I'm hoping they get as big as the ones in the grocery store because then I can make some awesome stuffed bell peppers!  They're sooo good baked, and if I'm able to do it from this batch, I'll try to post the recipe.  Either way, these baby bell peppers are super cute and I'm super excited.

Oh, Zucchini... how you disappoint me...

When I first got my plants a month ago, I was the most excited about the zucchini.  I love zucchini and it's one of my go-to additions to a lot of the meals I make.  So being able to grow my own seemed so amazing!  However, this excitement brought much disappointment.  My zucchini plant has been deteriorating over the past couple weeks and almost every leaf has now been taken over by a powdery mildew and it is literally covered in little white spots.

Many of the leaves in the back have turned yellow and I've had to trim them off, and the rest are quickly being taken over by these sick spots.  This wouldn't be so bad if I was at least still getting healthy zucchini.  But every time I get a female flower that produces at beautiful little baby zucchini, the blossom refuses to open and it shrivels up and dies.  I've been hesitant to just rip it open and pollinate it myself.  I thought that forcing it open would damage it, but I guess at this point, there's not much to lose.  I don't want to just junk the entire plant yet, especially since it's not infecting any of my other plants.  I have a couple good baby zucchinis still waiting to be pollinated, so I guess I'll get up early tomorrow and see if I can pull those female blossoms open a bit and keep them from shriveling up yet again.  Oh, zucchini... why must you be so delicious to eat yet so difficult to grow?

The War on Worms and More Excitement

My plants are growing like crazy!  In the past 5 days, almost 10 baby Roma tomatoes have popped up on one of my plants!  My 2 Romas that have been growing for the past 3 weeks are getting quite impressive, but neither of them have started turning red.  Here's one of them:

I've had a hard time finding the flowering time for the kinds of plants I'm growing - all I can find is the maturation time of the whole plant.  What I really want to know is how long it takes for a single fruit to mature.  From the plant log that I've been keeping, I can tell that it takes between 2 and 3 weeks for a jalapeno fruit to mature.  The first two jalapenos that grew were first logged on Aug. 2 and were picked on Aug. 21.  The third jalapeno was first logged on Aug. 6 and was picked this morning, Aug. 22.  All three are about 2 inches long, but I haven't taste-tested them yet.  In the same amount of time, my two oldest Roma tomatoes have gotten very big, but they're obviously not mature enough to pick yet.  The internet is good for a lot of stuff, but it won't tell me how much longer I have to wait on my tomatoes!

At least a fruit has finally popped up on my Cherry tomato plant!  But more exciting than the Cherry tomato is my Bell Pepper plant!  I finally have Bell Peppers!  I counted 3 this morning, but there could be more.  Just like the Roma tomatoes, they pop up so fast and so tiny that they're hard to spot and keep track of.  Look at how cute the Bell Pepper is!

What I love about this picture is that it shows the entire life cycle so far of the Bell Peppers.  You can see the tiny bud in the middle, then a bud slightly larger and lighter in color as the leaves turn to petals, then the white open flower, and finally the adorable Bell Pepper fruit!  I'm not sure if they're going to get as big as the ones I see in the grocery store, but that would be amazing!  Either way, my dog loves Bell Peppers, so hopefully we'll get to taste them in a few weeks.

But back to the Romas - The War on Worms is still underway!  Here's a picture of the enemy:

It's weapon is that big black spike on its butt, but it obviously doesn't know how to use it because it's pretty harmless.  I picked at least a dozen of these evil worms off my Roma plants yesterday.  My neighbors probably thought I was crazy because I was out there screaming at those dumb worms!  After I couldn't find any more worms, I went back inside and did some research.  Apparently these are Green Horned Caterpillars or Tomato Hornworms because they're specialized eaters.  They attack tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and maybe a couple other veggies.  I've found a couple on my other plants, but they're mainly just on the two Roma plants.  Then there's a completely different kind of caterpillar on my Cherry tomato plant.  They better watch out for me, though, cuz it's on!

We're Under Attack!

Everything is falling apart now!  I don't know how it all turned around in just a couple days, but there is a definite problem with the plants.  I first noticed my zucchini leaves were getting lighter in color and there were some little fuzzy white spots on them.  This is what it looks like:

You can clearly see the healthy leaf on the right, and the lighter, fuzzy leaves on the left.  I did some research and as far as I can tell, it's some kind of powdery mildew that is caused by the "honeydew" left over from aphids.  I haven't been able to see any aphids, but I've spotted some little fly-looking things that I think are adult aphids.  That's culprit 1.  Culprit 2 is the tiny, black ants I've seen crawling around my zucchini plant, but I don't think they're really messing with my plants.  I actually think ants (and spiders) help control the aphids.  Culprit 3 is the worms.  The damn worms!  They got in my marigolds, too!  I had to cut off a bunch of marigold blossoms, but I moved them over near my veggie plants because I've heard that they can help deter aphids also.  Here's Culprit 3:

It looks cute, but it's NOT cute - it's evil!  Evil worm!  My tomato plants are also looking really eaten up.  I mean REALLY eaten up:

The top half of the tomato plant looks fine, but a lot of the lower leaves are like little leaf skeletons now!  And I found some little black dots.  Is it aphid poop?  Worm poop?  Just dirt?  Either way, I want it to get off my plants.  Here's what it looks like:

The Roma tomatoes are fine as far as I can tell, but my zucchini - my original, beautiful, baby zucchini!!! - has shriveled up and died!  I'm so sad.  I can hardly even post the picture, it makes me so sad.  Here's my poor baby zucchini:

But luckily, the other zucchini is getting bigger, darker, and more beautiful!  It's hiding behind all the other stems and leaves, but you can tell it's still healthy:

My jalapenos are right next to the zucchini, but they're not showing any signs of worm or aphid damage.  In fact, one of the baby jalapenos is getting really big!

So it's not all bad, but my zucchini and tomato plants are definitely worrying me.  I'm hoping the homemade insecticide we made last night will help.  We sprayed the board and the ropes the planters are hanging on and the underside of the zucchini and tomato leaves, so I'm hoping it'll work.  Or it's gonna be war!

The plants know what they're doing, even if I don't

I went out this morning to water my plants and made some surprising discoveries.  For one thing, I noticed that a ton of tiny, new buds had sprouted on my jalapeno plant!  They're very little and cute, and I'm excited that I'm going to get a bunch of jalapenos growing soon!

Here's a better picture of the 2 main jalapenos that I've already posted about:

So the jalapenos sprouting were a good discovery, but I was really surprised when the biggest bell pepper bud I've been watching turned into a flower!  I definitely thought it was a baby bell pepper, but really it was a beautiful flower!

The discovery of this flower has shown me that I still have a lot to learn about the growth stages of these vegetables.  One stage that I did know about ahead of time has to do with my zucchini plant.  The amazing golden blossom that I got up early to take pictures of just a couple days ago has fallen off the plant!  I read from a couple sources that one day you walk out to check on your zucchini plant and it looks like someone has snuck into your garden and snipped all your blossoms clean off the stem!  It really does look like that, too.

It was hard for my camera to focus on the stem, but you can definitely see how clean of a "cut" there is on the stem where the golden blossom used to be.  I expect more of this in the next few days since I have at least a couple more flowers that have gotten to the golden stage.  I also read that it is normal for there to be a bunch more male flowers than female flowers on a zucchini plant, so here's my single zucchini:

It looks just like an itty bitty version of the kind I see in the grocery store!  I reeeeeally want more to start growing!  I LOVE zucchini (the child in me is disgusted at that thought, but the adult in me has grown to love zucchini and squash) and I can't wait to eat these awesome veggies that I've grown!  Hurry up, plants!  So I have a bunch of little buds and a bunch of little flowers on all of my plants, but few have actually started to fruit.  I guess I just need to do a little more research and be patient.  But I know one thing for sure: The plants know what they're doing, even if I don't.