Cucumber Time!

 The best cucumbers in the world are the ones grown in your own backyard or in my case on my balcony.  

My cucumber and redskin pepper plants!

One of my favorite daily visitors!

Hang on Snoopy, Snoopy hang on

So far things are a little slow going on my balcony due to the extreme heat this summer.  I finally was able to pick five cucumbers off my plant.  There are about a dozen still growing.  I picked  four more peppers off my pepper plant.  I had to move my pepper plant to my balcony because the sun was burning my peppers.  I had it beside my apartment building and it was in the sun from sunup to sundown.  I moved it to my balcony, which limited it to the afternoon/evening sun and the new peppers didn't get burned.  One of the benefits of container gardening is that you can move your plants.  I witnessed a bee pollinating my cucumber plant.  It fascinated me because the bee went to every single blossom.  There are probably at least 50 blossoms on my plant. The last pictures is of a tendril from my cucumber plant that somehow found a spider web to wrap itself around.  Take a closer look and you can just barely see the web.  If you click on the picture, it should enlarge it and it gives you a closer look.  It starts at the tip of the leaf at the bottom of the picture and goes straight up to the roof. Nature simply amazes me.

My Lemon Tree

Looking a little sad :(

About six years ago when I lived with my sister she received a small lemon tree.  If I remember correctly it was approximately six inches tall so not very big at all. Since I am the one who has the green thumb in the family, my sister so graciously gave it to me, or at least that is what I thought.   We continued to live together and I continued to care for the lemon tree.  It grew to a couple feet tall and we found out that if you pulled off a leaf and rubbed it, it smelled like a lemon.  I wonder if all citrus fruit tree leaves smell like their fruit.  Anyway, my sister decided it was time to get married to boyfriend.  She moved out and got married and I continued to care for the lemon tree for a few months after her wedding, which was in April.  August rolled around and I actually moved back in with my sister and her husband.  My sister has an awesome sunroom so when I moved in, all my plants ended up in her sunroom, including the lemon tree.  While living with my sister, again, the lemon tree bloomed and produced a couple of lemons.  The blossoms are very sweet smelling by the way.  After awhile, I decided that I should move out, or was given a gentle nudge to move out.  While my sister and I were sorting out what was mine and what was hers,  she decided to lay claim on my lemon tree.  She claimed it was given to her and I agreed but then she said that she never gave it to me.  I disagreed. After much debate, we decided to share it.


I hadn't been over to my sister's for a couple of weeks so when I went over there I noticed that the leaves were falling off.  When I took a closer look, I noticed tiny webs all over the tree.  I immediately knew what was going on.  My tree was being attacked by spider mites.  I loathe spider mites.  I immediately made my insecticidal soap and went into battle mode.  After covering every leaf, thorn, blossom, and branch, I felt much better.  I knew the battle wasn't over yet.  They lay eggs and the soap won't kill the eggs.  Once I conquered the mites, it was healing time for my tree.  


The lemon tree resided with my sister for a few months after the war.  I felt it wasn't bouncing back fast enough and determined it was not getting enough direct sun light in its current location.  It had two lemons growing on it and I felt they weren't helping the situation either. When there is fruit on a tree, it uses all its energy on the fruit.  After discussing what we should do, we determined the tree should go outside and the fruit needed to be cut off.  If you know anything about taking plants from the indoors to out you know that there is a transition phase.  If you take your plant outside in direct sunlight you risk burning the leaves.  So I took the tree to my place and put in on my balcony where it would receive partial sun.  After a week, I took it back to my sister's and it is now getting full sun and growing quite nicely.