Affairs of a Heathen

I had a great time this year for my birthday. I took the day off from work and spent it at home with Jenn. Then that weekend I had friends over for some drinks and gaming. I finally got an Xbox 360. I’d like to get around to playing some of the games I bought but I’ve been preoccupied with the programming of Blitz.

Last night I contemplated a full re-write of the code into VB2008 until I noticed a major problem with the current code. I could go ahead and fix the issue while re-writing it into VB2008 although I’m not sure how well Ubuntu handles .Net applications. If I upgrade the language, it might cause more problems than I’m willing to deal with. I’ve tested the current code under Ubuntu 8 and it runs fine. There is a great incentive for me to re-write it for VB2008 in hopes of learning the language and avoiding problems with automatically upgrading the code with the VB upgrade utility.

This week I picked the last of the jalapenos for the season. This is my first time gardening and I learned a lot about container and organic gardening this year. I hope this Florida weather stays like it is throughout the winter months and that the plant will continue to produce. I’m working on some green bean plants inside and plan on picking up some broccoli and possibly onions to grow. I’m glad that one of the pepper plants I started inside has perked up and it growing well outside. One of the big problems with beginning gardeners is over-watering and I was not an exception. The plant ended up getting edema and was close to death.

Since I first started growing plants this year, I’ve focused so much on learning when and how to feed and avoid disease that I completely forgot about hurricane season. This is no problem for the plants I’m growing in-doors but it’s a different story for the 4ft plants outside. I’ve learned a lot so far and I have a feeling I’ll be learning much more on how to care for out-door plants inside our apartment. I’m thinking of picking up a new light fixture for the plants inside and might have to accomidate the two pepper plants if the weather gets worse.

I moved some of the best looking herbs out of their starter “molds” and into larger peat pots. I still have some younger looking seedlings growing and might have to put them into a box together possibly near a window.

Current In-door Setup

From foreground to background: Sage, Basil, Cilantro

Rosemary

Basil

Habanero Pepper

UPDATE:
I just picked up a new light fixture and some pulleys to easily raise and lower the lights or adjust for plants that are growing faster than others.

I’ve been looking for new interests and after seeing Ian’s porch garden, I was inspired to start my own. It’s turning out to be an enjoyable hobby so far. I can already tell how excited I’ll be during the first harvest. It’s going to be a long project and will test my patience. I’ve gone through different attempts at growing from seeds but had little success. None of the seeds I had germinated with the exception of a few basil that reached sprouts. Currently I have a jalapeño and an orange bell pepper starting to produce some fruit. I have a mini-green house waiting for my next attempt at growing from seed. This time I have rosemary, sage, cilantro making up the herb side and Santiago hybrid, cheyenne, and Portugal hot on the pepper side.