Winter Garden with Compact Peppers, Pixie Tomato, and Garage Zucchini

Mostly! I've gotten all of the boxes unpacked, and tomorrow will be my last trip to the dump! Everything's mostly put away, I'm mostly wandering around the house putting things on walls at this point. The house also came with a huge hot tub, which I'm not interested in owning. I've just never really seen the appeal, especially since I live alone and so wouldn't have company in it 99% of the time. My attention span is far too short for that. Also all summer long we're hitting triple digits, the last thing I wanna do is get in a hot tub. If it'd been a little pool, I'd probably be in there every day!! But I finally got it up on FB Market today to hopefully get rid of it, and make a little cash in the bargain. I'd really like the space it's in freed up for my potted plants, it's in the perfect spot for this part of the world (HOT, INTENSE SUN). Nice, shaded part of the porch that's only in direct sunlight in the mornings. Protected from the frequent high winds. Right next to a water faucet. I've got what I'm pretty sure is a firm deal, I'm draining it now and just finished un-wiring it from the wall to get it ready for pick-up tomorrow. Excited to have more room in my back yard!! Fingers crossed they come through for me, it's not good for them to sit around empty for a long time! Tomorrow, I'll figure out what adapter I need to run a watering hose from the guest bathroom to the plant room, so I can fill the AGs up easier. That was suuuuper nice to have in my last place. Once I have that, I'll fire up all of the other machines that I emptied out for the move! See if I can grow some tastier tomatoes!

I keep pining for my plants and my dogs. Hotels and airbnbs are so soulless. I'm about to go nuts and fill my new office with plants if I don't get a house soon. I got to see them for a few days on vacation though - the plants are thriving on my parents' porch. Flower is annoying them a bit, because she's "needier" than any of the other dogs we've had. She's my little cuddle-buddy!! I think she keeps trying to climb into their laps, which they're not a fan of because she's not a small dog. I always let her do it though, so that's on me lol. She also feels the need to supervise everything you do, which means she's pretty much always under foot. Prince keeps hearing moles burrowing in the kennel and trying to dig them up, which aggravates his arthritis and makes him limp terribly, so I had to take his pain pills to the house. He almost never had to take them at my house, since it was xeriscaped in the back yard and not good for digging. Mostly only ever needed them on really cold days in the winter.House hunting in Carlsbad has been annoying, to say the least.Set to tour 8 houses on Monday, so hopefully one of them is in acceptable condition this time! The biggest problem I've run into here is that people want a minimum of 350K for a house that I'd have to sink another 50K into for repairs, which is absurd. It blows my mind that these places are getting that sort of price. Which I guess is good for me if I have to move in the future, but super annoying to me right now. I just want a move-in ready house for under 400K, which I thought was an incredibly small ask but apparently isn't here.

Lol the one in Cali might be, but I'm in New Mexico - Carlsbad is an oil town in the middle of the desert. Everyone wants a piece of the oil field cash!The best thing about the airbnb is the washer and dryer in unit! And a real kitchen to cook in, instead of a teeny kitchenette!

Flower's a mutt! Her dna test showed a couple different types of herding dog, and some guard dog breeds. Which makes her somewhat clingy and absolutely convinced that strangers need go stay far, FAR away from me. Prince is the husky, and weirdly doesn't really like to cuddle. He LOVES to be petted, but if you try to snuggle up to or hug him, he turns and walks away from you

Visiting my parents for the new year - the plants look great! Got to harvest and taste the hot banana pepper, and I like them a lot! Sweet with just a little touch of heat. Also tried to La Bomba jalapeno! It's way better than the pot-a-peno, which has to fully ripen to red to get tasty. La bomba was good green!The pixie tomato has put on lots of blooms but hasn't set any tomatoes yet.

It's been a while!!! Visited mom and dad and took home a nice bag of peppers a couple weeks ago. This week I'm hoping to see tomato progress, there were some small green ones forming last time I was there. More importantly, I'll be in a house soon!! Closing in Portales Feb 7 and in Carlsbad Feb 18!! I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again, tending my plants, and harassing my dogs.

I'm closing on my new house in just a few days, and getting out of this teeny studio!! Soon I'll be back to experimenting and posting photos!

Pepper plants of some kind - 4 pepper plants in one side were too many, and they weren't really doing well, so I cut up all but one of them (the healthiest of the 4). The bases of the pepper plants had gotten big enough that it was really difficult to get them out without damaging the 1 I wanted to leave, so I just left them there until it was time to end the garden.

Good news!! My parents have agreed to temporary custody of my plants, so I don't have to end my projects after all!! Just won't be able to update on their progress much once they've been moved to their house. Moving should be interesting, planning to just drain most (but not all) of the water for the drive (2 hours) and cross our fingers that it doesn't kill them lol. I asked them because I got to thinking about being gone for a month+ with no one to water all the house plants, and threw the hydro projects in to see if they were interested in trying them out along with my potted plants. And they agreed!! Going to make it clear again when we do the move that if it becomes too much to just unplug them and I'll take care of cleaning them out when I can. They're already going to be caring for my dogs and house plants for a month or two, I don't want to overload them with hydro projects on top of that. I bet they'll enjoy the peppers and tomatoes if they keep them going though!

Yeah it was the trellis that came with the farm - when I get home from work tonight I'll post a better pic of them! They do require some fussing with but they work well for me.

I've had this tree for about 4 years, and I've mostly resigned myself to just keeping it as decoration. It's beautiful, it has beautiful orange flowers in the spring, but it never sets fruit. Maybe it will in the future, but I'm not holding my breath. Your plant may be different though! My dwarf pom was an off-shoot of one I gave my parents, and very much an experiment. Theirs DOES produce fruit, and they've had it around 8 or 9 years. I'm not sure how old it was when I bought it, but it was already fairly large. My tree is about the same size now, so maybe in another year or two it'll start producing fruit. The fully outdoor, in-ground pom I planted this year DID set 1 fruit, which was delicious. This was its first year in-ground, hoping for more fruit next year!! The nursery I bought it from said that it's a highly productive variety, even with only 1 tree. We'll see!

No pics yet because they're not big enough, but the pixie tom and La Bomba pepper are both up this time!There's a chance I'll be moving for work in a few months, which has me VERY nervous. I have so much stuff, and the AGs take up an entire bedroom all by themselves!! Finding a new house with room for them all has me pretty nervous. If it DOES happen, my job provides relocation services that includes packing, loading, moving, and unloading everything, along with storage until I find a new place, so that's making me way less anxious than I normally would be. I plan on enjoying the 4 gardens I've got running for as long as possible!! And ending just before they come to pack it all up. Keep your fingers crossed for me, I really want this job!!!

Well, the interview went really well, and the person in charge of selection already thinks highly of me (she's my boss's boss now and will be my boss if I land the position. Turns out interviewing is easier if you're already comfortable with the person asking the questions!). So outlook is good, I'll know for sure in a few weeks!!

It's crazy how much they heat the room up! I'm suddenly really glad that room doesn't get full sun though, I can only imagine how much worse that makes the heat!