An aside: Think of the children...well...plants

Tech aside, I had my first experience of pests the other day. The tomato plants were looking a little yellow on the lower leaves. Flipping the leaves over resulted in an army of little white aphids being exposed.

A quick spray bottle of dish soap (washing up liquid, folks in the UK) and a rinse a short time later seems to have slowed the invasion. Another dose in a day or so will hopefully keep the blighters at bay.

Positive news, bean pods are appearing, so at least one of my crops will produce a yield. Carrots continue to grow, but they're a little rangy, probably from the limited sun that my functional-but-ugly setup can receive in its out of the way spot. Not to say there isn't direct sunlight, but between the beans and the air conditioner condenser, there's a windows of about 1.5 to 2 hours of direct sunlight on the carrots.

Still, for an experiment I'm relatively happy so far. Nothing died, but the time that the auto-watering has been able to run has been limited. The principle is sound, but the execution less so.

Next time will require more planning and more careful planting. C'est la vie.

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