Dormant

It's that time of year again. The temperatures become colder and winter begins to roll in. The wondrous trees, bushes, and other plants have been stripped of their leaves. Everything's bare. Everything's silent. Everything's cold. Blankets of white will soon cover the now sleeping plants. All signs of life seem to be gone as the world moves us through this phase once again. Everything's bare. Everything's silent. Everything's cold.

Lately it's been very stormy. We've had quite a bit of rain and even some snow. As the cloudy days consume us, my pepper plants seem to have finally figured out it's autumn/winter. At first I was a little concerned about their condition because all of the healthy looking green leaves were falling off. They were falling off very quickly and easily. One light touch of a leaf could cause it to tumble down onto the soil. My first thought was that they were starting to die, but it didn't make sense considering the entirety of the plants were still a healthy looking green color. Because of this, I once again found myself questioning my tiny forest. What was happening to my plants?

It should have been a very obvious answer considering I watch the same thing happen to trees every year, but for some reason the thought never crossed my mind. Like always, I took my question to Google and searched for my answer. Upon some reading, I discovered that my plants were simply becoming dormant for the season (Rhoades). They weren't dying, they were only going to sleep.

Almost dormant habanero plant.

When reading this article, I couldn't help but pick up the irony in it. It's very common for people to bring their pepper plants indoors for the winter because they are able to survive and be replanted the following season (Rhoades). However, this wasn't the reason my dad and I brought them inside. We thought maybe we could get more produce out of them throughout the entire year. We had no idea that you could actually do this let alone that it's a common gardening tip. With this new information, I wondered more about this "overwintering" process that many gardeners take part in.

How do you overwinter? How do you care for the plants so they don't die in their sleep? There's a few simple things you can do for your plants to help, but mostly you have to allow them to fall into their slumber by themselves. The tips I found include: moving it somewhere that's warm and has sunlight, watering it regularly, and fertilizing it ("Overwintering"). In other words, you want to keep doing what you're already supposed to be doing. However, even by doing these tips, not every pepper plant will survive. Some are much harder to overwinter than others and it's almost a "trial and error" type of thing ("Overwintering"). This explains why my cayenne pepper plant and my jalapeño pepper plant died. 

Winter has officially rolled in. It's starting to perform its seasonal job by sending most of the life into a deep sleep. Now that my plants are sleeping for the winter, so must this blog. 

Over the course of the summer and even this project, I've become very fond of my garden and I've learned so much about gardening, life, and the world. This experience has taught me to pay closer attention to the small details and has left me thinking about, wondering about, and questioning everything around me. It's opened me up to new ideas and new perspectives. What started off as a silly little project turned into a huge eye opener, and I'm honestly glad I had the opportunity to take part in this. 

My tiny forest has transformed into an even tinier sleeping forest. For now, I will let my plants sleep the cold away, and in the meantime, I'll let this blog fall into it's own deep slumber. Enjoy your winter wonderlands whatever they may be, stay warm, and sleep well. Goodnight. ♥

Works Cited

"Overwintering Peppers- How to Overwinter Hot Pepper Plants." Hot Pepper Seeds.Com. Hot Pepper Seeds.Com, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.
Rhoades, Heather. "Keeping Peppers Over The Winter: How To Winter Peppers." Gardening Know How. Gardening Know How, 21 Feb. 2014. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.

Hardships

What do you do when you get your hopes up just to be let down? Do you feel disappointed? Do you get back up and try again? Do you just shake it off and move on? Life is never an easy path, it's never straight forward, and it throws many curve balls in your direction. We, as people, create many expectations for ourselves and other people. We set goals and wish for the impossible. Unfortunately, not everything always goes how we expect it to. We can hope for the best, but sometimes we only get the worst.

When moving the peppers inside, we expected them to start wilting and dying from shock of the sudden environmental change. However, we hoped that they would continue to thrive and that we'd get some more produce out of them. Luckily, it seemed as if our hopes were becoming more of a reality than a wish. 

After about a week or so, the condition of the plants actually seemed to get better than when they were outside. Notably, the serrano pepper plant started to grow more leaves and even started blossoming some flowers. However, none of the flowers ever produced any peppers. They only wilted and died. Every time a flower blossomed, I would get excited that a pepper may come, but then when it didn't, I became very disappointed. This disappointment I was feeling sparked some curiosity. Why were the flowers dying before they produced anything? After researching some, I found my answer. Even though pepper plants are self-fertilizing plants, they sometimes require assistance from their environment. This assistance usually comes from the wind or bees. They assist in shaking the pollen around in the flowers, thus pollinating the flowers (De Jauregui). Because they are inside, there's no outside factors like these to assist in the process. This led me to my second question. How can I help pollinate the flowers so that I can actually get some produce out of it? With some more research, I discovered that it only takes a simple flick or shake of the flower to move the pollen around enough to begin the pollinating process (Epler). I was extremely excited when I found this out, because I thought maybe I could solve the problem that was irritating me the most. There was one flower left on the serrano plant, so I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, I was a little too harsh with the flower, and I flicked it right off the stem. My simple solution turned into another curve ball. 

After a few more weeks, I noticed some more changes. The cayenne pepper plant was starting to turn brown and all its leaves had fallen off. I was really hoping this one would make it because it had produced the most peppers out of all the others. As it started to die, I was again feeling disappointed that it wasn't surviving and I couldn't save it. The only thing I was able to do was pick off the remaining four peppers. Even though I was upset about it, I realized that there was nothing I could do about it, and that I had to just let it go and move on. It's unfortunate, but at the same time it was inevitable.

During the time I've had this garden, I've experienced a roller coaster of thoughts and emotions. It may seem strange to someone that a simple vegetable garden can cause so many emotions, but I don't think you'll ever understand some of the struggles that a garden comes with until you care for your own. It's a lot of sitting around, watching, waiting, and hoping. You hope for produce, healthy plants, no bugs, and perfect conditions. That would be the easy way, but it doesn't always work like that. You set your expectations high and hope for the best possible outcome. Unfortunately, the curve balls you wanted to avoid always seem to hit you at some point. 

Everyone goes through ups and downs in their life. But what amount of strength does it take to get over things? I believe all your strength comes from the mindset you give yourself. If you believe it, then you are capable of achieving it. And I think that's what really makes you stand strong against the curve balls and hardships that life throws in your direction, because even though sometimes it may seem like it, it's never the end of the world.

Works Cited

De Jauregui, Ruth. "Pollination of Pepper Plants Without Bees." Home Guides. Demand Media, n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.

Epler, Melinda Briana. "Gardening 101: How To Hand-Pollinate Tomatoes And Peppers." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 22 Aug. 2008. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.

Attached

As humans, we seem to find ourselves constantly latching onto different things. If you spend enough time with something you can easily find yourself stuck to it. Commonly you see people attached to their phones, or food, or even other people. Anything that has some sort of value to you can become almost sentimental and you develop emotions relating to it. When something bad happens to it, you can't help but feel upset, and when you're at the risk of losing it, you don't want to let go. You feel the need to keep it, protect it, and care for it.

After the first freezing temperatures hit the garden, I immediately noticed the changes. The leaves of all four tomato plants started to droop and turn from bright green to a grayish black. The leaves on the tips of the habaneros, serrano, bell pepper, jalapeño, and cayenne faded in color and adopted a crunchy texture. The celery survived and remained green while the carrots, cucumber, eggplant, snap peas, radishes, spinach, zucchini, and yellow crookneck squash were long gone.

Because the peppers weren't hit too bad by the changing weather, my dad decided he wanted to bring them inside. He transplanted the habaneros, serrano, cayenne, and jalapeño plants into a planter and created a little space for them in front of a window in our living room. He wanted to save them because he wasn't ready to let them die. You could almost say he was connected to them in a way. He was attached to the plants and didn't want to see them go. But what motivates this attachment that we possess? The Attachment Theory, as explained by simplypsychology.org, gives some insight to this big idea. Humans are naturally attached to other humans. This starts from the very instant we're born. We find ourselves attached to whoever our caregiver is. You also see that the caregivers find themselves attached to the young child. It's almost as if it's our natural instinct to become attached. Maybe this is why my dad was so fond of the plants. He didn't want to let them go. He wanted to care for them a little while longer.

The death of the tomato plants is inevitable. They're quite large and vulnerable to the cold temperatures. After all, they started to fall apart just overnight. Even though their lives are coming to an end, they continued to hold on to dozens of tomatoes. Why didn't they all start to fall off? Is it maybe because the plants are attached to their offspring as well? The bonds were strong, especially on the unripened tomatoes, but my dad and I managed to cut off every single last tomato from the plants. Big, small, green, red. The pile of tomatoes on our kitchen counter was enormous. Part of me felt a little bad for stripping the plants completely of their most prized possessions, but if we didn't cut them off, they would've died with the plants. Maybe sometimes it's good to cut that strong attachment from something.

I never thought when starting this garden that I'd love it so much. I myself feel an attachment toward the plants. I never wanted to see them die and it makes me kind of sad that they're gone, but that also makes me really excited to start a new garden next year. Considering how I felt this year, I can almost guarantee that next year I'll be just as attached. It doesn't take much to grab my attention. I find beauty in simplicity. Maybe that's why I love my garden so much. And maybe that's why I hooked on, and never let go.

They All Fall Down

I've always thought that the season autumn was commonly referred to as fall because it's the time of year when the leaves start to fall off the trees and nature starts to decline. I remember fall when I was 10. My best friend and I would rake a massive pile of leaves in my front yard. The pile consisted of leaves from the tall maple tree and the prominent apricot tree in front of my house. The two trees would be bare but the yard was a sea of yellow and brown. We would make our pile the size of a small hill and take turns jumping into our massive creation. I quite miss that time because now all fall means to me is knit sweaters, boots, fuzzy socks, lots of leaves, and pumpkin flavored everything. That time was simple and innocent. Nowadays, things are much different.

My modernized idea of autumn. Courtesy of tumblr.

Fall is by far my favorite season, however I'm pretty sure my tiny forest isn't a big fan. As the leaves from the trees by the fence fall all around the garden, some of my plants are starting to turn colors and lose leaves as well. It's sad to watch some die, but I appreciate the wonderful produce that I've gained from them. As the temperatures start to become colder and the wind starts to pick up, my garden changes day by day.

It's apparent to me that the tomato plants are going to outlive every other plant. They show no signs of decay and continue to display their bright green leaves everyday. I can say the same for the habanero, cayenne, jalapeño, serrano, and bell peppers. Some of the plants, such as the spinach, snap peas, radishes, and eggplant didn't survive the season and died many months ago in the middle of summer. However, I've noticed that the yellow crookneck squash and the cucumber plants have just recently started to slowly fade away. The cool air has tinged and hardened the leaves while the wind has blown some across the yard.

I noticed my leafy yellow squash first, mainly because the leaves are bigger than my hand and take up a lot of space in the corner. "Instead of being their usual vibrant green color, they are now becoming more pale and yellow/grey. They aren't as soft anymore either. They're becoming more crunchy." Field Notes, 9/26/14. There are still a couple of squash attached to the plant that we haven't harvested yet. They are a very bright yellow in comparison to their faint colored leaves. Also, I would like to mention that the bright green leaves on the right side of the picture below are from the brandywine tomato plant next to it. You can really see how light the squash leaves are in comparison to the tomato leaves.

Yellow crookneck squash plant, 9/26/14.

Directly behind the squash is the cucumber plant. As I bent down to look at the small cucumber still attached to the plant, I noticed how it seemed to be on its last leg. Many of the leaves have browned and fallen off as well as the vine has started to turn from green to almost black. The changing weather impacted the cucumber plant much sooner than the rest. I was curious as to why this happened so I did a little research. According to bonnieplants.com, cucumbers are a tropical vegetable and are very frost-tender. They thrive in warmer weather and don't survive well when the soil is less than 70 degrees. This explains why the plant started to die when the low temperatures reached the 50-60 degree range.

The dying cucumber plant along with its baby cucumber.

From one perspective, autumn is beautiful, but from another it's depressing. The variously colored leaves cover the ground and create a beautiful sight to see. However, at the same time, the leaves are from many plants that have either died or become dormant for the season. As the freezing temperatures rapidly approach and the wind starts to blow, I know my garden doesn't have much longer. The cold temperatures will soon freeze every root in the ground and the wind will blow every single last leaf into my yard. It makes me sad to see them go, but I can't be angry with the winds. They're just doing their part in nature. So for now, I must sit back and watch the autumn winds do their seasonal job. Their light breezes take the leaves on a journey and their strong gusts blow the plants over. I do wish they wouldn't take my plants so soon, but spring will come shortly and the plants will begin to bloom their wonderful colors once again. But unfortunately for right now, they all must fall down.

**The Wind**

The wind it moves in wondrous ways
Through the tree branches it blows and its sways
It takes all the leaves and flies them so high
Then briefly it lets go and they fall from the sky

Its strength is so varied from timid to strong
The length of the blowing can be short or long
Sometimes it tickles the tip of your nose
Sometimes sends shivers to the tips of your toes

It can bring some surprises with each passing day
The wind will surprise you in many a way
The sweet sound of whistling, the roar of a storm
It can bring you some happiness and also bring harm

The next time you see a bag blow down the street 
The next time you feel the wind at you feet
Remember its power, its beauty and grace
For the wind can be anywhere, it can be any place.

                                      --Dee Mcdonald

Many Kinds of Life

Life is an interesting thing. It comes in various forms, some more complex than others. Everyone has some sort of idea as to what life is, but how exactly do you define it?

life, noun:
the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being  manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to      environment through changes originating internally. 

--dictionary.com

The definition seems a little too scientific to me. I've witnessed many forms of life in my tiny forest and they all conduct their way of living differently. I find that you don't see much unless you have a close look. A lot of the life in my garden is small and would go unnoticed with just a quick glance.

Something my garden has been lacking is bugs. Trust me when I say I am no bug person, so part of me was happy the little creatures had been avoiding the area. However it seemed a little odd to me that a garden would have no bugs. After my second week of observations, I realized I was very wrong. Of course the bugs were there, I just wasn't looking close enough. Ants. I found ants crawling on the tip of one of the yellow crookneck squash. I counted eight, however there could've been more that weren't in my sight. I wondered what attracted the little black ants and I also wondered whether they were beneficial or not. Upon some research, I discovered that they are attracted to the nectar and the dead plant material. The ants harvest it. I also learned that they aren't harmful to the plant. They have many benefits such as aerating the soil, moving around organic material, dragging around pollen, and getting rid of harmful bugs such as aphids.

The ants I spotted on September 22, 2014.

Of course, being that it's a garden, the most obvious form of life is the vegetable plants. They don't move like the ants, but they grow amazing produce that my family and I have been enjoying for the past few months. For years my best friend had been growing a fruit and vegetable garden in her backyard and bragged to me about how much better the produce was from her garden than from the grocery store. I never really understood the extent to which that was true. A tomato is a tomato right? Wrong. All those years my friend was right, and I realize that now. Not only is the flavor of the produce so much better, but something about knowing that you grew it yourself makes it worth it. Recently, we had the biggest harvest of the entire season. It wasn't just large in quantity. It was big in variety too.

26 vegetables in total.

We harvested on September 23, 2014 and it included one stumpy cucumber, 10 bush champion tomatoes, 12 roma tomatoes, one bell pepper, and two yellow crookneck squash. That night we were able to try some of them. "We made a salad using the cucumber and some of the tomatoes. The cucumber was sweet, but the rind had some sour parts. The bush champion tomatoes were sweeter than the romas but both were juicy and better than the previous harvest because they weren't grainy." Field Notes, 9/23/14

It fascinates me how much my tiny forest thrives. Every inch of it seems to be covered in life. I've been pondering the question as to how exactly you define life. However, I don't think theres a need to say that something is exactly anything. You don't need to pin life onto a set of words to understand what it is. Just find it. Watch it. Admire it. Learn from it. But most of all, live it.

First Look

At the beginning of summer this year my parents and I planted a garden in my backyard. When we first moved into our house 4 years ago, we had to have the backyard landscaped. In our design, we added a rectangular, wooden box in the corner for the purpose of growing a vegetable garden. We'd never actually planted a garden in the space until this year, however this is not our first garden. We had a garden in the backyard of our previous house, but it hadn't ever been very successful. We were all excited to start planting our new garden, so one sunny day in May we went down to a shop that sells already grown plants that can easily be transferred into your own garden. The goal of this garden was to be able to grow our own food and because of that we didn't buy any of the flower plants. We bought $100 worth of vegetable plants and planted them the same day. Ever since that day we've had much success. Even though I've been looking at my garden all summer, I've decided to now use this project as an opportunity to look at the finer details and record all my experiences with the tiny forest growing in my backyard.

When we first planted the garden (left) and the garden today (right).

The first thing you notice when walking into my garden is the overwhelmingly large tomato plants. They've grown taller than their supports and are weighed down by the dozens of tomatoes growing on them. It's only the brandywine, bush champion, and roma tomato plants that are growing big and tall though. The beefsteak tomato plant is hidden between them and hasn't produced much. The brandywine tomatoes are noticeably big and I like to refer to them as "pumpkin tomatoes". They're plump, round, and wide, just like a pumpkin. It seems weird to me to have 4 different tomato plants. I've never been one to like tomatoes so to me they're all the same; something I always rip off my sandwich and end up throwing away later. However, after observing them closer this first week, I have a new fondness of how they grow. They strive to live long and grow as much as possible, something I see in myself too.

Brandywine "pumpkin" tomato.

Hidden underneath all the tomato vines are a few different kinds of pepper plants. I'm most interested in the habanero plants. We have two but only one of them has recently been growing two small peppers. Most peppers adopt a green color, however the habanero is bright orange. I've always been one for spicy food, and my dad has also, so you can expect that we're pretty excited about these growing fireballs. They may be small, but they bite your tongue and can leave you in tears. I've seen and tasted many habanero peppers before. My dad and I even make a hot sauce out of them. But I'm anxious to find out if the peppers in my garden are hotter than the ones we buy at the grocery store.

Two habaneros above. One orange, one green.

I've never paid so much attention to something before, but something about this gets me a little excited. Maybe it's the idea of the project. Maybe it's the subject I picked. I'm not sure, but I'm eager to see what's around the corner.