Friday, September 14, 2012

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.

Monday, September 10, 2012

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:


Thursday, September 6, 2012

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