Amanda Takes Off...

It feels like Good Man and I got a lot of wedding stuff done today. We got the site survey done for the tent and it doesn't need sub-flooring (read: one less thing to spend money on).

Dropped off the flowers at Mark's Lover's house.

We got three-quarters of Mark and Mark's Lover's "thanks for doing so much" gift taken care of.

We went to Costco and priced food. Need to get some more vegan options for my vegan grandparents (thinking of looking at Whole Foods for that).

I helped my dad find and buy a plane ticket online.

Doesn't feel like there is a whole lot to do in the next week. Finish photo centerpieces and work on the program, mostly.

A few weeks ago a coworker came to our house for the first time. She guessed which condo was ours based on the fact that we had food growing on our balcony.

I've been battling aphids. I tried doing a home solution of water and dish soap, but it didn't help, so I finally bought a commercial insecticidal soap solution. I've used that twice. I also ended up getting one of those tape lint rollers. Last week I actually lint rolled aphids off of the plants.

Good Man thought I was nuts, but it seems to have worked. The aphids had nearly killed the red peppers, had attacked the green peppers, and had started in on the cayenne peppers. As of today I'm finding no aphids on the cayennes or greens and only a few on the reds.

The red peppers might just make it, but I wouldn't be surprised if we get nothing. I think I have too many green peppers in the pot, but one is starting to flower. The cayenne peppers are doing great, which is wonderful since those are the peppers we use the most often in Korean cooking!

The cayenne plants are making me so excited. I'm growing food! My own food!

Cayenne Peppers

Red Peppers

Green Peppers

We also have a bunch of herbs going. The peppermint needs a haircut. I trimmed a flower head off of the dill to keep it from going to seed. The basil was a mistake in that I only got one plant—I should've gotten two. The leeks? I have no clue why I thought I could grow leeks on a porch. It'd be great if I could because leeks are expensive, but right now I'm basically using the leeks as chives.

Peppermint

Dill

Basil

Leeks