The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 990 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 17 trips to carry that many people.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 3,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 5 years to get that many views.
What did I bring back from the Amazon? Well, an increased tolerance for high humidity and mosquitoes, and a feeling of peace, which I hope sticks around for a while. As for plants, I expected to see lots of bromeliads (pictured), which were in abundance. I was surprised at how many different ferns that I saw. The giant tree fern is especially hard to miss. Pictured here you can see 3 new giant “fiddle heads”, or new leaves unfurling. I also saw climbing ferns, many of which were simple leaved, not like the usual pinnate leaves of typical ferns. There were “bird’s nest ferns” (pictured) which we grow in North America as house-plants and ferns that resembled our maiden hair ferns. 
© 2011 Sharon Settlage. All rights reserved.
This is black-seeded Simpson lettuce, chosen simply because I have a packet of seed that I have been using for several years now. It is growing in a homemade system that uses a 10 gallon Rubbermaid container, with 3.5 inch holes drilled in the lid to hold the mesh pots. I have been using DutchMaster nutrients for foliage growth, with only one change of nutrients over the course of 2 months. The lettuce is grown close to a T5 lighting system, on the floor of my kitchen. My family has enjoyed several salad dinners when I harvested a single plant. It quickly grows back without having to start a new plant. However, just for fun, I started some new seedlings that are trying to grow alongside the older plants. I say trying because my cat has discovered that this is a wonderful place to warm himself in the artificial sun. He pays no mind to the smaller lettuce plants.
The cucumber plants have been unsuccessful in producing fruit. The variety is supposedly parthenocarpic, meaning the female flowers make fruit without pollination. There are two plants, both produce mostly female flowers, but one of the plants bore a few male flowers. I tried using these for pollination to no avail. They are growing under a HID lamp. My house is at about 68F. At this point I am concluding that cukes need heat to set fruit. They were grown in Dutchmaster foliage nutrients until flowering occured, then I switched them to flowering nutrients. I have changed the nutrient about once per two weeks. The only good that has come from them is my little kitten, Boo, loves to be fed the young tendrils and flower petals. Go figure. I plan on switching to broccoli.
If you live in the Raleigh area, look for my article on hydroponics in Triangle Gardener.
© 2011 Sharon Settlage. All rights reserved.
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