Sow Thistles and Tomatoes

My tomatoes are thriving!
They love a good soak in water every week (every other day when they're seedlings) and plenty of sunshine. I've placed them on a south facing balcony so they get about 6 hours of direct sunlight everyday. They're growing fast, probably because I put a generous amount of compost in the soil before transplanting them in it.
If you plan to grow them in a desert, I would probably suggest getting a heat and drought resistant variety (find a locally grown tomato in your farmer's market, and plant the seeds of that) and place them in partial sun/shade during the hot summer keeping them well watered. Now is a good time to start planting tomatoes indoors in the more cold and northern parts, transplanting them outside to a bigger pot about 5-6 weeks after they germinate. Sometime in mid May.
I used little plastic cups filled with peat, 3 seeds per cup, and used 5 cups. I now have 3 successful tomato plants. Not all seeds germinate, so it's best to plant a lot of them, and take out the weakest in each cup later leaving the strongest plant. A little human selection goes a long way to ensuring your planting endeavors are successful. Remember the strongest plant is not necessarily the longest or the one that germinates first. A younger one could be growing faster and has a stouter structure.



In other news, I discovered after weeks of researching that the mystery weed growing outside my windows sill (above) is called a perennial sow thistle. It's an edible plant, tasting a bit like lettuce and chard, and is often fed to cattle and lactating sows (female pigs), hence the name. Unfortunately, I did not attempt to eat it because, much to my dismay, I discovered a host of aphids all over the plants. One of many insects that are a gardener's mortal enemy. I panicked and immediately started worrying about my tomatoes growing on the balcony next door. Aphids, as you might know, do not crawl up a plant, but are carried by a breeze or wind, and are thrown on it. One single pear shaped aphid can asexually reproduce and produce thousands of aphids within a few short weeks. Your plant is infested and dying before you even see or know that there is a problem. I once lost a large healthy bean bush to those little insects. So I mixed up my own insecticide, 1 part vegetable oil, 4 parts water, and a few drops of plain dish washing liquid. Shake and spray covering leaves and stems liberally. You can try it first on a small part of the plant first to see if it will tolerate it. Do this once a week. Next day I proceeded to carefully cut away and remove the entire group of plants and throw them away. I liberally sprayed the area and soil with my insecticide, and I'm glad to say that I haven't seen any alive anywhere. I'm paranoid and keep checking all my plants and flowers and the undersides of leaves, but I think I caught the problem early.