The Great Cucurbita Experiment

Yeah, not going so well thus far. I hardened my seedlings off for about a week. Okay, maybe not quite a week, but they were doing well, so in the ground they went late Thursday afternoon. All the cucurbits and the four melons. So far, so good. Friday morning I got up to check on everything and water before I went to work. One of the Winter Luxury Pie pumpkins was eaten down to bare stalk. All the leaves were eaten, leaving just the veins. Whatever had eaten it was gone by morning, and (I don't know what I was thinking!) I just left the other Winter Lux, hoping whatever had eaten its mate was satiated and would leave it alone the following night. It did! But last night... it came back and ate the other one. So, goodbye, Winter Lux for this year. No punkin pies. We'll try again next year.

Other than that, still no good news. It was really windy yesterday. REALLY windy. The wind really boffed my plantlets about, and they're looking kinda the worse for wear. AND... the 4x4 foot square where I was supposed to put the loofas, HUGE anthill. Don't tell anybody, but I let Rob "Ortho Ant B Gon" them again yesterday. So I'll probably rip out the Winter Luxes tonight and put the loofas there. Yes, I'll cover them up at night with plastic bottles. In fact, I'll cover *everything* up tonight.

The Thai basil and cilantro that I tried to start from seed is not doing well at all, either. They're under lights in the garage. They keep drying out faster than I can water them. I'm not crazy about trying to start herbs from seed, but its hard to find the herbs that you really really want at the garden center. The mint and chives went into their planters in the Asian Soup Garden yesterday, and (knock knock) they seem to be doing well so far.

I still need to put the tomatoes in the ground, but I'm scared shitless at this point. I have absolutely NO confidence anymore. They look so strong and healthy right now, I'm afraid I'll ruin them. Same with the lavender and the lemon grass that I got in the mail last week.

I read up on how to plant the lavenders, and its going to be a huge project for this coming Wednesday and Thursday: mixing up compost, gravel, sand, native soil and lime, and making six separate mounds. Not to mention weeding and loosening the soil underneath each mound. Yawn.

So, here's my current list of stuff to do:

* Plant tomatoes, loofa and sunflowers in the ground
* Plant lemongrass and peppers in containers
* Prepare soil for and then plant the lavenders

This is definitely more fun when there's less carnage.