Patio Gardening

For a few months I have been collecting pots and containers out on the patio, and have been filling them with some heat loving plants.

I got started when the Green group on campus had people grow basil seedlings to sell as a fundraiser on Earth Day. My group of basil grew very well, and I had tons of basil seeds left over from the fundraiser, so I started growing basil. Later, we found Kang Kong at the grocery store, and I planted the cuttings to try to grow our own supply.

Next, I bought tomato seeds from the supermarket, to give them another try (I got tomato and celery seeds for Christmas, but they had all failed to take hold). This time the tomatoes are doing very well; they seem to love the hot weather.

Photos from May:

Kang Kong, a strange spinach substitute that's fairly popular here in Saudi.

Teeny tiny new tomatoes!

The basil was looking (and smelling) fantastic at this point.

Overview of all of the plants growing on our back porch.

We've seen a lot of growth and change since May, especially with the tomatoes and basil.

Photos from July:

Most of the tomato plants have gotten incredibly tall, although there are very few blossoms so tomatoes are sadly far off, if at all.

Some of the leaves look great like these.  Steve's also had to pull together some makeshift tomatoes stakes from construction waste around campus.  

He's also had a lot of problems with leaf miners, which chew through the inside of the leaves before laying eggs inside them.

The poor basils have suffered greatly.  They've been attacked by a bad case of weevils and are looking pretty bad these days.

We aren't growing these, but they grow in the public space behind our apartment, and I kind of think they're ugly.

Extra not fond of this brownish/purple plant.

Hopefully we'll see some tomatoes before we leave!