Need Help With Problem Plants

I'm seeing some problems on some of my plants.  If anyone can help me identify the problem and what to do about it, I'd be very grateful.

First, there are brown spots on some of my tomato plant leaves.   Interestingly, even though I planted four different types of seeds, the brown spots only appear on the San Marzano plant leaves.  Here are shots of several different plants:

Second, I planted several carrot seeds outside over a month ago.  Only one has had any significant growth and it was looking pretty good until yesterday.  Now the leaves are all mottled, like this:

Finally, I bought some succulents at Home Depot, which I planted in a container.  One of them is starting to turn an yellowy orange.  The first photo below the top part of the plant, which looks pretty much as green as when I first bought it.  The second photo is of the ends of the plant, which are now turning yellow.

Any help would be appreciated!

More Container Plantings and a Surprise Gift

It was a beautiful sunny day here in Metuchen, New Jersey, so I decided to plant my herb barrel.  I picked up the barrel a few days ago and have been very eager to get some herbs into it.  I had originally purchased one from Amazon but it was badly packed, so it arrived broken.  I returned it but did not want to wait for a replacement to be delivered, so just bought a new one at the local Home Depot.  I usually have great experiences with Amazon and have never had to return anything, so I was extremely impressed with how easy the return process was.  I just printed out the label, repacked the barrel, slapped the label on and my mail carrier picked it up.  A couple of days later, I had my refund.  I didn't even have to talk to anyone to complain or ask for a refund.  Amazon is pretty awesome, I have to say.

Anyway, some of the herbs came from the Rutger's University garden day (which we attended last weekend), but I grew some of them myself from seed.  I started by putting some plastic bottles in the bottom of the barrel and filled it with potting mix, peat moss and some dry fertilizer.  Supposedly the plastic bottles make the pot lighter because you use less potting mix and improve drainage.  Also, it's great for us because the MOTH drinks tons of bottled water (which I hardly ever drink) and I always feel so guilty about throwing those little bottles into the recycling bins.  Who knows if they don't just end up in some landfill somewhere anyway?  So, now I can actually use them for something productive and positive.  Then I transplanted herbs, watered them and added a layer of mulch.  And Voila!

Clockwise from the top, we have:  tarragon, flat parsley, oregano, curly parsley, sweet basil, thyme, sage and (in the center) lemon verbena.

I also planted a container of succulents.  Again, most of these are from Rutgers, but I picked up a couple more from Home Depot to fill out the pot.  I planted these in regular potting mix but I added some extra perlite to make it lighter and improve drainage.  Here is the finished product:

Finally, I got a nice surprise gift from one of the landscapers who is bidding for the job on my property.  He initially came by on Thursday (he's the one who noticed the bird's nest).  Then, he came by again today to take photos of the property, and gave me a Lily that he said was left over from another landscaping job.  It was a bit sad looking and dry with a bunch of yellow fronds, so I cut off the dead fronds and gave her some water.  Now I just have to figure out where to put her:

According to her tag, she is a Black Eyed Stella Daylily who should be planted in sun to partial sun.

Probably More Than You Would Want to Know About Tomatoes

Several months ago, I signed up for a free e-newsletter from Mother Earth News.  In the issue I received today, one of the topics was Growing Tomatoes: A Collection of Expert Advice.  The link takes you to a page with dozens of articles about tomatoes.

Topics include:

• The best tomatoes to grow in your location, including here in the Northeast.  Apparently, the best "slicers" are Brandywine, Early Girl and Beefsteak.
• Vertical Gardening Techniques, including caging, trellises, etc.
• How to save your own seeds. 
• Several tomato recipes, including tomato jam and what they claim is the perfect tomato sandwich.  I think the point of that last recipe is that any sandwich made from a tomato grown and ripened in your own garden is the perfect tomato sandwich.  I'm sure I will feel the same way once I've tasted my first homegrown tomato.

For a beginner, it's always nice to find a resource that provides a lot of information about a subject in one convenient location.  I'm sure I will be returning to these articles as I continue my tomato growing journey.

Oh and if tomatoes don't rock your boat, this month's e-newsletter also includes an article on growing potatoes in a barrel.

We Have a Nest

Over the past week, we've been meeting with various landscapers and tree people to try to come up with a plan for our backyard.  We have a number of large trees that hang over the yard (and in some cases quite close to the house).  So, in almost every case, the landscapers and tree people have advised us to cut back various tree limbs both to open up the canopy and to protect against limbs hitting the house during storms, etc.  Interestingly, the last landscaper who met with us today was the only one who noticed this:

Excuse the poor quality - I don't have a telephoto lens

We have a little bird's nest (with a little mommy bird in it) in one of the tree limbs that everyone has been telling us to cut down.  Obviously, that tree limb ain't going nowhere until mama bird finishes her business.  I'm not saying the other guys wouldn't have noticed it at some point before it was too late - I'm sure they would have.  But it was interesting that only one person was observant enough to catch it right then during the initial consult.

Round up the Usual Suspects

Creepy Crawlies

So now I have to start paying serious attention to bugs for the first time in my life.  Evidently, there are good insects and bad insects.  As a city girl, this is news to me.  In New York, there are really only bad bugs as far as I'm concerned.  Most of them are cockroaches against which we fight a never ending war.

But, since all the gardening books and blogs tell me there are in fact good bugs and bad bugs, I have to believe it's true.  So, this morning I decided to start cataloging the bugs I run across in my garden to figure out who can stay and who has to go.  Some of them are truly disgusting, like those aphids I had to pull off my lettuce plant and squish yesterday.  Blech!

This morning, I ran across this guy at the entrance of my garage:

Okay, so this first one is pretty easy.  Seems to be an earthworm.  I figure he must be okay, because I found this cute cartoon picture of him through Google images:

Courtesy of this website

I also solved the mystery of why he was in my garage.  According to Wikipedia:

Earthworms can sometimes be found on the surface of the ground following heavy rain storms, as a storm may flood the soil with excessive water. However, if the surface where they find themselves is unexpectedly paved, rocky, or compacted (hardened), they may become stranded, potentially suffering injury or death from causes such as heat, exposure, dehydration, or predation.

Well, we have been experiencing several days of heavy rain around here, so maybe this guy got stranded on my driveway and, instead of turning around and going back into the garden, he headed the wrong direction.

Since Wikipedia also tells me that he "play[s] a major role in converting large pieces of organic matter (e.g. dead leaves) into rich humus, and thus improving soil fertility," I picked him up and placed him gently back into the garden where he belongs.  And, if you must know, I did not use my bare hands - I used a pen to scootch him into a plastic cup and carried him to the garden in that.

So, that was easy, but I don't think these next guys are quite so benign.  They just have a bad look about them.

First, there's this gelatinous looking thing:

Looks like some sort of slug

If he is a slug, I have no idea what kind of slug or even if it matters.  I figure any slug is probably bad, but I'm not sure.  My usual litmus test failed me, because I did in fact find some adorable cartoon pictures of slugs on-line.  However, my trusty Vegetable Gardener's Bible tells me that slugs "feed on the soft tissues of a number of vegetables and flowers" and that "[l]ike vampires, they usually work at night or on cloudy days."  Aha!  I did mention that we've had a lot of rain over the past few days . . . ergo, cloudy days . . . ergo Slugs!

I'm afraid that anyone of a vampiric nature must be eliminated.

Then, finally, I have a plethora of these guys:

They seem to collect around moist, watery areas.  Again, I'm sure they can't be good.  However, they don't match any of the pictures in my Vegetable Gardener's Bible or my All-New Illustrated Guide to Gardening.  I will continue to search on-line and see if I can figure out what they are, but if anyone knows, please tell me!

Update:  I think I've figured out what the last guy is.  After scouring insect identification websites and running a bunch of searches like "brown scaly bug in damp area of garden" I found with this:

Say hello to Mr. Woodlouse, courtesy of Bugguide.net

According to Wikipedia, a Woodlouse is a not an insect, but a "crustacean with a rigid, segmented, long exoskeleton and fourteen jointed limbs."  More interesting information about Woodlice from Wikipedia:

Living in a terrestrial environment, woodlice breathe through trachea-like lungs in their paddle-shaped hind legs . . . . Woodlice need moisture because they rapidly lose water by excretion and through their cuticle, and so are usually found in damp, dark places, such as under rocks and logs. . . . They are usually nocturnal and are detritivores, feeding mostly on dead plant matter, although they have been known to feed on cultivated plants, such as ripening strawberries and tender seedlings. Woodlice then recycle the nutrients back into the soil. In artificial environments such as greenhouses where it can be very moist, woodlice may become abundant and damage young plants.

So, that explains why they were congregating in moist, damp areas of my property.  I'm also relieved that they are not quite as evil as they look.  Interestingly, I did find them close to some rotting leaves and other dead plant matter, so maybe they were just innocently munching on those.  On the other hand, they were also quite close to some of my seedlings and young plants, so they may not be entirely without guilt.  The circumstantial evidence does not point me toward a clear conclusion.

Seedlings, and Closets and Trees, Oh My

This week, I'm taking a "staycation" from work, to try to get a bunch of stuff down around the house and garden.  Our schedule is chock full of appointments with landscapers, tree trimmers, and closet designers.

Yes, I have decided to get a custom closet in the master bedroom closet.  I will finally have built-in shoe racks!  It's quite fun - although a little overwhelming because you have to choose how you want the closet configured.  And once you decide, you're pretty much stuck with the outcome, so you have to choose wisely!  I know I need a lot of shoe space and the MOTH needs tons of drawer and shelf space for his enormous and continually expanding collection of T-shirts, many dating all the way back to the early '80s (have I mentioned he's all mine, ladies!).

We have between 4 and 6 appointments scheduled throughout each day.  We've received several estimates from tree trimmers, with suggestions on how to tame the hideous overgrowth in my backyard:

And a couple of landscapers who have promised to provide us with design plans and estimates.  Interestingly, they all tell me that the plantings the builder put in at the front of the house are all wrong for that space.  Most of them will have to be moved elsewhere, or just eliminated altogether.

The good news is, I shouldn't be too sad about the death of my poor tree:

Because, evidently, it was all wrong for that space too, and now we can just take it out and replace it with something more appropriate.  Oh, another piece of great news?  Evidently, there is a huge cluster of poison ivy growing in my backyard like a ground cover, and like a vine up the gigantic oak tree at the bottom of the yard.  That will have to go!

Any free moments in between appointments are spent on garden-related tasks.  Today, I planted some new seeds:

I also picked several clusters of disgusting tiny green insects off my Lettuce (Rosalita) and Swiss Chard:

I don't know anything about insects, but I think they were Aphids.  They did sort of look like this:

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Today and yesterday, I transplanted some of my seedlings into bigger pots.  Here are some different varieties of tomato, an ornamental black pepper, which I planted along with some parsley, and another parsley seedling that I've planted in a pot with some chives seeds.

Tomato Sweet 100 (Cherry tomatoes), which I grew from seed

Tomato Akers West Virgina, purchased at the Rutgers Garden day on Saturday

Ornamental black pepper (from Rutgers) with a couple of parsley plants grown from seed

A type of black tomato I can't remember the name of right now - purchased at Rutgers

Parsley from seed.  I planted some Chives seeds around the edge of the pot

Here is a long view of all the new pots lined up next to each other:

I added bamboo stakes to the tomato plants, so they can be tied up as they grow

These are all transplanted into organic potting mix with a little fish emulsion fertilizer.

Then, I snapped a shot of this little Arugula seedling, which I direct sowed in one of the garden beds in front of the house about two weeks ago.  I sowed about 6 seeds at the time and around 4 of them are coming up.  I previously started some Arugula seeds inside, but they did not do well -  I think they "bolted" because they were on heat mats and were probably too warm.  So, after that I started several more Arugula seeds inside (without heat mats) and these ones outside.  It will be interesting to see which turn out better.  However, since it looks as though my plant beds are all going to be disrupted in the landscaping process, I won't be direct sowing any more seeds in those beds for now. 

Finally, I planted this guy on the corner of my house.  I have no idea what or who he is.  I went to a  meeting of my local town garden club a couple of months ago and several people brought in plants from their gardens to exchange.  I ended up taking home this guy - the person who brought him could not remember his name, but said it is a flowering plant and grows well.  He has been sitting in his little pot for that whole time while I tried to decide where to put him.  Again, he will probably have to be moved in the landscaping process, but according to his original owner, he transplants very well, so I'm hoping he'll be fine.  If not ... well ... easy come, easy go?

Unknown plant from a stranger

 Tomorrow, we make another trip to home depot for more  pots and potting mix. 

Before and After

Today, we finally mowed the lawn with our new lawnmower.

Here is the before shot:

The first step was to move all the fallen tree branches off the lawn.  Here, my lovely assistant and spokesmodel demonstrates step one:

After that, my spokesmodel suddenly turned into a caveman who would not even hear of me mowing the lawn - not even part of it.  He did the whole thing himself, while I went around the edges and trimmed the long pieces of grass that the lawnmower missed.  Apparently, the space-time continuum temporarily turned in on itself and I ended up in 1955 for a full 45 minutes.

Now the after shot:

Ahhh . . . it looks just the way I feel after a new haircut

Wait a minute ... who is that in the distance, peering out the front, left window?

Let us approach ... stealthily ...

Hi - my name is Emma - I spend lots of time gazing wistfully out the window

Side note: This morning, Emma, who tends to be a little stand-offish to me, abandoned her usual post next to the MOTH and snuggled up to me - I consider it a Mother's Day gift.

The good thing about finally mowing, is that there were lots of grass clippings to add to Geoffrey the Geobin composter:

Yum! Tasty grass clippings for Geoffrey!

Also, I'm sure our neighbors are very happy that our eyesore of lawn is finally under control.

Raking, and mowing, and laundry, oh my

Another weekend full of activity.  I did tons of raking and bagging in the backyard on Saturday.  This is what I left on my curb for pick-up tomorrow morning:

We also assembled the new lawn mower:

And the new garden cart:

You may recall how it looked before assembly:

I have to say, it was a huge pain in the neck to assemble, but it seems to be a great cart.  Very study and easy to navigate.

The seedlings I transplanted almost a month ago are coming along fine - you can see a few of them in the garden cart, above.  I have been hardening them off for the past week, bringing them in and out of the garage each day to soak in some sunlight.  I hope to transplant them next weekend.  Some will go in the side garden plot - but I also bought some containers today, where I'm planning to plant some of the herbs and maybe a couple of tomato and pepper plants.

My evergreen is still looking very sad:

I have applied the insecticide/fertilizer that the lady from the garden center recommended.  I hope it will work.

I decided my front stoop needed some sprucing up, so I bought a container and some plants from the garden center and made a little welcoming garden urn.  The plants I chose are supposed to attract hummingbirds and butterflies.

I forgot to mention this last week, but I bought these adorable little hose guards (or whatever they're called) in the shape of pine cones.  They work great, and look so much nicer than those plastic green things that the previous owners left:

Finally, I also did some indoor organizing today.  I have a tiny laundry area, with a stacking washer and dryer - really just a closet off the kitchen area.  Other than the appliances and a utility sink, it's just an empty closet, so we've been keeping our laundry detergent and an old hamper on the floor.  Not very satisfactory.  So I went onto amazon.com and bought a laundry cart (which I had to assemble):

And a laundry organizer with a bar to hang clothes that are too delicate for the dryer:

I can't tell you how exciting that is - up until now, we've been just hanging our delicates wherever they can fit on the closet doors or the bathroom door down the hall.  Now, we actually have a dedicated place to hang them.  I realize the fact that I'm excited about this makes me a huge dork.  Anyway, here's how it looks in combination:

 
No, it's not garden related, but, well, I wash a lot of garden-related clothes in there. And I'm quite proud of how it all came out.  Especially since I have such a small laundry space to work with and I ordered everything based on the measurements on-line, not knowing for sure how well it would fit.  I was particularly worried the cart might be too big.  But, fortunately, it all fits perfectly and I can wheel the cart in and out of the space easily if I need to.