Matty's Friend

A few weeks ago I posted about our "pet" praying mantis, Matty.  Well, we've been watching Matty grow and move around more, and yes, (s)he is still here.  Last week Paul commented on how much bigger and greener Matty is now.  Still not that big, but about the size of a grass hopper now.

So this morning I was pretty confused when I went to the plant.  "How thin you look Matt.  And oh so pale again."  Maybe the mantis is sick?  Have I been watering the plant too much? Not enough?  As I bent down to get a closer look something moved on a large leaf about 2 inches away.  It was Matty.  "But...if that is Matty (big and green), who is this little white guy?"

I have no clue where the new guy came from, but I hope Matty doesn't him.  He could not physically eat Matty as he is about 1/3 the size.  He?...she?...it is young.


If you can see the zoomed in view of the top picture, you would see that the new guy is basically transparent.  We can see four little dots in his stomach!  Probably his siblings.

My Pet Matty

If you're my brother Dusty, you know what this is about and you are probably laughing at me :)  Still - I think it is cool. 

I'll come right out and tell you.  Matty is a praying mantis. 

I was walking past one of the trees in our house (we have a lot of plants) and I noticed a bug on the wall.  I pulled my hand, prepared my swing, and half way through the execution - I stopped.  Oh...my...gosh.  I almost broke the law.  Wait...that doesn't make sense.  When I was little we though killing a praying mantis was against the law.  Now, as I almost accidentally (ehhhh) killed one, I am realizing that if I had killed it no one would have come in and done and investigation.  They wouldn't have given me a huge fine and I surely wouldn't have been carried off in handcuffs.  Still...I felt bad.

I did a bit of research and it turns out killing praying mantis isn't against the law.  So I did it.  Whhhap!  Just kidding!  The myth about killing a praying mantis probably came about because they are such valuable creatures in a garden.  They don't eat any of the good stuff, but eat the bugs that are attacking your plants - similar to lady bugs.  (And then I remembered the plague of lady bugs that tried to take over Ohio a few years back.)  I only have one praying mantis so it probably won't be a plague...and even if there were two, the female would eat the male so the population wouldn't grow too quickly.  I digress....

Matty is in the center of this picture.

So Matty is a great sign for our garden, except she isn't in the garden.  (My cousin Mitch told me Matty was actually a she.)  She is on the solitary pepper plant (next to the tree).  The plant itself came from the compost bin, quite by mistake.  The peppers are too hot for me to eat, but apparently Matty loves it. 

For the past 3 weeks we've been able to find Matty everyday, hanging out (usually upside down) on her pepper plant.  Sometime she climbs up to the top of tree.  Sometimes she hides.  Usually she hides.  She is pretty scared of us and didn't much care for the photo shoot (but if it didn't get the pictures you all wouldn't believe me).  She also really does not like Roomba (our robot vacuum cleaner). 
 
I don't know how long Matty will stay with us - but for the time being, I'm just going to be happy that our little plant is healthy and sturdy and up to the standards of this little guy....gal. (PS.  If you can see the up close photo...she looks a lot like an alien.)

Our Balcony Garden

The eternal summer that we're living in poses an interesting question:  can we garden all year round here?!?!  Yes, and no.  Yes, because it doesn't get below freezing so we won't be running out early in the morning to pick every green tomato like we did last year.  No, some plants (and trees) require cold weather, and more importantly, many things stop growing when it is too hot.  This was new for me.  I knew sun and water were factors - but according to my research tomatoes don't turn red below 40 or above 85.





So our garden looked amazing but nothing ripened...until about last week.  Now we have lots of beautiful (but small) red tomatoes!  Our experiment with hanging tomatoes was mixed.  We used one larger black bucket and two recycled bottles.  The main lesson learned here is to put plants under the hanging plants to catch the falling water.  After watering the hanging ones the water drains through very well - and then the patio is soaked and we waste the precious commodity.



Prior to the tomatoes ripening we only had lots and lots of beautiful zucchini flower (the yellow one on the right) and a few eggplant flowers (the pinkish-purple one on the left).   Although you can eat the yellow flowers you usually fry them to eat them...and we didn't try that. The pink flower on the other hand...we are just waiting for that one to turn into a baby eggplant like some of the others have!



In addition to the heat problem we recently found out that our water is super basic....I mean, it has a really high PH level.  Plants don't really like that.  I was worried the acid in the coffee grinds - which constitute a decent portion of our compost - was making the soil too acidic. Turns out we have the opposite problem.

So, to answer our question about gardening in the eternal summer: Yes, and no.  As crazy as it sounds for those of you in the northern United States - there is such a thing as too much summer.  September should be cooler, so the plan is to tear up the garden and start from seed again in August.  We're hoping it works!  Fresh tomatoes to anyone who comes to visit! 

This is why I can't paint my house

The first reason why I shouldn't paint my apartment is evident if you are reading this blog on the website as opposed to an email: I have changed the background and colors again. I just like to change it :)

Second is that I really really don't like the plastic and the mess caused by the process of painting. This week workers have been here to fix a small leak above our window and the house and patio are covered with a light dusting of plaster. The leak wasn't serious - as it only rains 3 times a year for a total of 30 minutes - but still it had to be fixed.

So last Sunday at 8am 5 guys showed up and covered our furniture in plastic and began their work covering the house (and plants) and patio in white dust. My poor plants have gotten the worst of it. The bulk of the work is happening on the patio between the tomato/zucchini/eggplants which act as bookends for the patio. Not only can we not reach all of the plants to water them - but the leaves are covered in dust so they aren't getting light. The downside is that the leaves are dying, the upside is that the tomatoes are turning red!

The first day (Sunday) we were here the whole day while they were working and we left out hummus, meat and crackers for the guys at lunchtime. The next day they were late and we had to leave for work - so we locked them out. The third and fourth day they showed up early, and on the fifth day the boss brought us a really good bottle of wine! He said it was to thank us for the hummus :) I'm telling you, Paul has perfected this hummus! Israeli's and Arabs have agreed that it is good!