Office Ants

Sometimes, even three stories up, you run across the problem of ants.  Ants of course live in dirt and when you have many plants sometimes they get the idea that it would make a nice home. Apart from removing the dirt you have few options.  What I recommend is taking the plant out and soaking the dirt to drive the ants out. After you are sure the ants are out and have fled for their lives you can then let the water drain out and put it back where it came from.
To prevent ants from returning you need to try to find out what they've been eating that makes the dirt such a convenient home. In my office's case it seems to be crumbs left over from having food in the conference room a little too often. Once the food source is removed all you have left to do is a little preventative spraying and you should be fine. If they return then something else is wrong. Maybe the floor under or over you is providing plenty of food for everyone and the problem you're having may just be run over from theirs. In that case you would need to discuss this with your neighbors.

Garden Harvest

The garden is growing well. Here are a few of the picks from yesterday.  We already ate one of the zucchini and a few of the cherry tomatoes.  The peppers we have planned for a curry although we haven't decided which kind to make yet.  It will almost definitely involve potatoes though since, as far as we can tell, potatoes seem to go well in every curry dish.

 

There are plenty more tomatoes out there as well as some more forming zucchini and peppers. There is also some squash that should be ready soon and hopefully some cucumber.

 

I planted some green onion from seed recently and it's taking off well enough.  It isn't huge but it's already a few inches tall. Quicker than I expected.

 

It's supposed to continue raining for some time this week which hopefully won't interfere too much with the outdoor activities we have planned. The percent isn't too high so maybe it will be mostly morning showers.  We can deal with that.