Baby Fruit Plants Update: They're growing!

By: Pen-Pal Productions on 7:00 AM

It's been beautiful outside this week, 60's and not a cloud in the sky.  It feels incredible, after a long, dark Alaskan winter.  I'm in a better mood, my family is in a better mood, and my plants are soaking it up.  We've been spending more time outside; the sun doesn't even set until 10:00pm!

My strawberry plants are starting to bloom pretty little flowers, there's a new one almost daily.  Two of them produce white flowers and one is producing pink.  I was not expecting flowers yet, so it's a pleasant surprise.  My tomato plants are growing too, the one in the window sill is growing much quicker than the upside-down hanging plant.  I've been watering at least every other day, these babies are thirsty!  

I also re-potted some of my herbs: basil, cilantro, and chives.  I was a little nervous because they didn't look so great after their initial repotting, but they've since perked up and are loving their new location (I literally rearranged our dining room and moved the table against the window to ensure the most sunlight possible will reach the plants that don't fit on my hanging shelf.)  No update on my raspberry plant, it's doing fine but nothing too exciting has happened yet.  

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Baby Fruit Plants

By: Pen-Pal Productions on 7:00 AM

Let me preface by informing anyone who reads this that I am not a gardener.  I’ve never planted a garden of my own, I actually don’t even know the first thing about planting except that plants require water and sunlight.  I would say I’m at about a preschool level when it comes to gardening. If I plant a seed that sprouts, I am over the moon.

Now, that being said, I love plants.  I love herbs.  I love flowers.  I love how they look, I love their multitude of uses, and I love their smell.  A few months ago, my husband accidentally knocked over my shelf of plants and a few baby herbs could not be saved.  I ugly cried.

This year, I am ecstatic about giving gardening a go.  We have big plans for a raised flower bed in the yard, which will be a task in itself as we will be competing with our bouncy, almost-two-year-old lab who has a passion for digging holes and eating branches. But more importantly, I want to grow some fruit!  Strawberries, tomatoes, and raspberries to be precise.

Last weekend, we ventured out to the local nursery to browse some baby plants.  I walked away with three strawberry plants, two tomato plants, and a raspberry plant.  The next day we planted them in a pretty nifty planter that allows for a hanging tomato plant as well as flowers or, in my case, strawberries on top, all-in-one.  My second tomato plant is now living happily on my super sunny hanging window shelf, and my raspberry plant is living in a big, yellow pot of it’s own.

I’m overly excited, and overly optimistic.  My fingers and toes are crossed that the fruits of my labor (har, har) pay off and these plants actually produce fruit by the end of the summer.  I’ll be the first to admit they’ve got a rough road ahead of them, being that I’ve actually somehow managed to kill both mint and cactus in the past, my two-year-old is very, very curious, and my lab eats everything from welcome mats to plastic, but I am determined!

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