I hate being sick, everything goes out of whack and my routines go down the drain and it takes a while for everything to settle back into a good rhythm.

Anyway, so I neglected the tomato plants a little and now they’re all on their way out. I harvested the tomatoes that I could and this weekend will be tomato dumping time. I’m nibbling on the ripe tomatoes and mmm… mmm… mmm… it’s so tasty. Next time I know to plant only one tomato plant per pot, the plants are very pot-bound at the moment, which I’m sure contributed to their dismay.

Once the plants make it to the trash, the old tomato pots are going to be cleaned sealed (they were terracotta) and something new will be planted in them, not sure what yet, maybe the hollyhock?

Speaking of hollyhock, out of 8 seeds 5 germinated and I already killed 2 from lack of water. I moved the hollyhock and frangipani seedlings outside and kinda forgot about them. The frangipani seedlings are still alive, but 2 of the hollyhock seedlings died. I stuck 5 more seeds in the jiffy pots and gave them all a good water.

I started new seeds this morning. I soaked 10 jiffy pellets, 5 for okra seeds and 5 for tomato seeds. I’m really thinking of getting a mini greenhouse so I can keep the seedlings outside. It’s ridiculous having so many seedlings indoors, it messes up the house.

Which reminds me, I need more charcoal coloured plastic pots! The two house plants I have at home are going to be moved to the office and me, being the somewhat anal retentive type, wants all the pots to match. I still have to re-pot the peace lily and the mother’s in law tongue as it is, now I can add the calathea and cordyline to the list.

It’s been 12 days and still no sign of my Garden Express goodies. This is the worst part about ordering stuff online, sometimes it just takes so damn long to receive stuff.

I also ordered some okra and dwarf hollyhock seeds from Oztion. Looking forward to growing them too, especially the okra (or lady’s fingers). I’m going to grow an extra couple of plants for my dad in exchange for a fish curry recipe that includes okra.

The first truss of cherry tomatoes have ripened. I got a picture in the cherry tomato 2007 gallery. I’m going to wait a few more days before harvesting and feasting on them.

I got a few jobs to do for August:

• Plant the momoko tomato seeds
• Re-pot the office plants
• Fertilise everything

My dad came over today to borrow some sanding stuff. I couldn’t resist showing him how large the tomato plants have gotten since he had a small hand raising them while I was away for a month. We ended up picking 2 of the ripest tomatoes and eating them. Yum, so sweet and they weren’t even *fully* ripe yet.

I told him about the Momoko tomatoes I’m going to start next month and he asked for a couple of plants when they’re big enough. My pleasure to do so, of course. Any excuse to grow more plants!

I finally found some pot sealer for the terracotta pots that I should have sealed before putting the tomatoes in them. Once this crop is finished, I’m going to throw out the existing tomato plants, clean the pots and seal them. I might even paint them so I have all matching black pots on the balcony.

It looks like the sunny weather is coming to an end soon, Thursday look to be the start of rain again. Saturday’s going to be windy, I hope the tomatoes will survive!

I’ve been told the little wormy things eating my frangipani seeds are fungus gnats, and my have they done some damage! I’m going to need to treat pretty much all of my plants and the soils their in.

I was advised to use pyrethrum to drench the soil. It sounds safe enough to use since it’s low toxic to humans and pets and is inactivated by sunlight. I would still prefer to use more organic control methods so I did a little bit of research and found that fungus gnats can be controlled by a predatory nematode called Steinernema feltiae and a mite called Hypoaspis miles. Now I just need to find out where I can get a hold of these creepy crawlies in Western Australia!

Otherwise, the frangipani seedlings seem to be doing well. I can see growth of new leaves between the cotyledons on many of the seedlings.

Some of the cherry tomatoes are starting to change colour too! There’s a distinct reddish tinge to many of the fruits. Make sure to see the cherry tomato gallery for the pictures!

Just a quick couple of notes. Firstly, the asiatic lilies are finally fading, which means I can finally re-pot them in the next couple of weeks (I think).

And here’s an updated photo of the tomato plant size. If you look closely, you can see lots of flowers and quite a few green round blobs of tomato fruits.

When you have a small balcony garden, nothing much happens most of the time. At the moment, the only thing worth mentioning are the gardenias, which are blooming left right and center despite the rather wet, rainy and windy weather we’re having.

I didn’t have time to take any new photos of the little darlings, so it’ll have to wait til tomorrow. It looks like I’ve done right by these gardenias this time around and they’re rather happy at the moment. I love heading out there in more morning and taking a quick whiff of their heavenly scent.

I’m heading away for 2 weeks on Sunday. I’m quite anxious about leaving the plants (they’re the equivalent of family pets to me). I think the gardenias will be ok with the late autumn rain we’re having and I’ve got some gel spike thingies from Bunnings for the tomato plants. The frangipani should also survive on mother nature’s rain, it’s pretty dormant at the moment so I’m not too worried about it. I had to stake it the other night because it got too windy outside and the cutting started to lean unfavourably.

My only concern is the lavender seedlings. They need constant care at the moment and watering every 2-3 days. My dad has volunteered himself to take care of them while we’re away, he’s probably the best person I know to look after them. I just have to remember that good old saying, “Plants die, get over it”. It’s not like I don’t have another 92 lavender seeds
left to germinate if these ones don’t make it.

Can’t wait til I come back, there’s a lot I want to do, but I’ll save that for tomorrows rantings and ravings.