laceblade | Entries tagged with gardening

Growing stuff is going better this year than it did last year.

My spider plants are a little crabby about the buckets of rain - I finally brought them inside yesterday. Right now they're hanging out on the porch, but I expect to bring them in this afternoon, when our chance of rain gets to about 60%.
Spider plants are gr9 because not much maintenance is needed. Sometimes, cut off yellowed leaves. I do need to get some pots for the two ~~small~~ babies growing off of the main one.
I am now one of those people with "too many" spider plants. BUT. These are about the only ones that last through the winter, so it will be nice to have them around then.

Other Indoor Plants
The peace lily, which is large, is doing well. No flowers for a long time, but the leaves are quite beautiful. I keep this one in our bedroom. I like to think that the plant helps make the air better, although I have no idea that's actually true.

My rabbit foot fern has seen better days - I won't be surprised if it dies soon, but I have had it for a few months.

I had bought an orange flowered plant from the farmer's market a couple weeks ago, & it just went through a mostly sudden and violent death :(

Things I'm growing from seed
This is going much better than last year.
Instead of using toilet paper rolls, I got some black plastic planters, the ones where each "pack" has six segments. These work way better! Out of things I planted into 5 segments, 6 are doing great.

While I live in the same apartment building as last year, I'm now on the top floor. I think this means that the plants outside & the ones next to the patio door are getting more sunlight.

One plastic segment = marigold, which is much bigger than the tiny tendrils I planted last year.

I planted two segments of arugula. This morning, I moved them both into a tiny pink pot. I hope they get over the trauma of being repotted & continue to grow - they're about 2-3 inches tall right now. I keep wanting to bite one :3

I also have two segments of Mexican sour gherkin, which are looking nice!

Lastly, there's the basil growing inside a miniature plastic greenhouse that I bought at Target for $1. These are growing strong!

Things I bought as plants
Lettuce: bought from the farmer's market as a variety bush. I should cut & eat a few leaves today.
This morning, I moved it from its plastic holder into a larger pot. This wilts dramatically when it wants water, bahaha.

Cucumber: For this one, the plant itself looks sturdy. I moved it to a pot this morning, from its plastic holder. Although there's no flowers or etc. yet, it smelled like cucumber when I did it.

Thyme: Very bushy! Smells & looks amazing.

Pictures & Advice
I posted about my Mexican sour gherkin & thyme plants over here on GrowStuff because I'm seeking some advice. So if you have any, I'm happy to hear it!

Future Plans
--Move thyme to a pot.
--Plant scarlet runner bean seeds directly into pot & place outside with trellis. These grow so well that no starter time-period is needed in the black plastic holders.
--Break off two baby spider plants & start them in their own pots.

I still feel very much like a novice with regard to plants. I'm not sure how to cultivate them, a little scared to eat them (need to get over this with the lettuce, I think!), etc.
BUT, I still think I'm doing a way better job than last year.

Current Music: Surfing Like a Guru - Eva On the Western Island Castle
Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/646037.html

Feeling frustrated with plants, but given the weather (extreme heat), I'm trying not to take it as a critique on my own lack of skill or effort.
I think almost every day in the last 2-3 weeks has been in the 90s-100s. It is gross out.

Plants I'm probably going to toss because I'm pretty sure they're dead:
Irish moss
tiny grass plant in a planter that made it look like hair on some dude
Ivy (not 100% sure this is dead yet)

Plants that are sort of surviving:
Basil (but this is the least successful basil plant I've ever had)
Red runner bean plant (the flowers were brief, sadness)
Spider plant (seems to be thriving, that bastard)
Morning glory (I'd intended to pot this, but it's already climbed around a chive, snaked itself around the basil, and has found its way to the balcony. NINJA PLANT.)

?!
So sick of the strawberry pot, which holds lavender, chives, thyme, rosemary, and oregano. Every time I water it in the top, water comes out the side, and it always takes dirt with it. It's messy, & I find it obnoxious to deal with.
The dresser drawer (as described previously, I drilled holes in the bottom & lined it with plastic). It holds a bunch of lettuce, collard greens, and a broccoli plant, plus 3 things I had tried to grow from seed (which are now dead from the heat): marigolds, arugula, and some other kind of lettuce. The collard leaves were chewed almost immediately by bugs, as soon as I put it out on the balcony. The dirt inside this drawer is teeming with bugs. Not just like, a couple, but everywhere. Gross! This morning I noticed tiny, gross-looking mushrooms growing in it (not planted, obviously!). Pretty sure I'm going to throw the whole thing out as soon as my apartment complex's dumpster is emptied (so there's room), and someone can help me carry it down (so I don't have to hug it next to my chest, ugh).

So, yeah. Frustrated with gardening in general. On the upside, there will be fewer plants to move to my new apartment, and maybe if I tidy up the few I've got left, I can bring them inside on hot days, and hopefully revive them a little. (Minus the red runner bean plant, which is tangled around a trellis & too big to move.)

Also recycling: a stash of toilet paper rolls, empty water bottles I'd hoarded to use as watering things/cloches for seedlings.
Keeping: Seeds, seeds, seeds. Pots.

Current Music: The Bones of You - Elbow
Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/586481.html

I've been frustrated with the plants lately.

I bought two different kinds of lettuce from a greenhouse on Sunday. They are already quite droopy, even though I've been keeping one of them inside and water them both every day.

I'd like to be able to plant them in my drawer, but I don't have enough plants to fill the drawer at the moment. The shoots of plants inside the tp tubes are small and weak - arugula, some flowers, sage, I don't remember what else. They're tiny and ineffectual.
The grown-up plants for sale at places like the Co-Op are almost exclusively tomato and pepper plants. I can't eat tomatoes or peppers, so I don't have much interest in growing them.
Maybe I'll just buy pretty flowers to fill up the rest of the box, and say to hell with growing/expecting to harvest food.

So I've bought a few plants that are more grown-up: a basil plant, which is doing pretty nicely. The one I bought was one of those in a degradable "pot." As instructed by the plastic on the pot, I ripped most of the pot off without tearing any roots, and left bits of it inside of the actual terra cotta post. These leftover degradable pot chunks don't seem to be degrading at all, so I'm worried I shouldn't have used them, or messed it up somehow.
When I bought lettuce on Sunday, I also bought some herbs to put into a strawberry pot: oregano, chives, lavender, thyme, and rosemary. I'm scared that I totally killed all of the herbs just from wrestling them all into the pot. They're still alive for now, but I am unconvinced they'll stay that way.

The only plants that I sprouted from seed in toilet paper tube rolls that have made it out of the tube are my red runner bean plants. I've put them in a pot and they've been climbing on a trellis that my parents bought for me. The mid-section of the vines' leaves all like, burned and fell off. I hadn't realized that the right side of my balcony caught the heat coming out of my air conditioner. I've since moved the plant to the other side of the balcony, but the mid-section/bottom has yet to re-grow. Since this plant grows so well, I stuck two new seeds into the pot, and we'll see if new red runner bean plants can fill in the sucky part.
In the meantime, the top of the plant is healthy and flowering.

Smaller plants that are still alive: small ivy that I bought from the co-op in the early spring or maybe last fall. There's only a single ivy guy left. Tied to a Hello Kitty pencil, it's not growing or getting any bigger, but it's alive.
Irish moss from Hy-Vee keeps doing its thing. It's pretty, but not exciting.
Spider plant (grown from when it fit into my palm; a gift from a friend) is doing okay, and still has its spawn hanging from a long shoot. I guess I should detach and pot its baby, to have another plant, :p

I hate stepping out on to the balcony because there seem to be spider webs EVERYWHERE. Bugs seem to enjoy congregating on my screen door, so it's always a fumble to open/close it as quickly as possible while juggling two glasses of water.

At the moment, things are very UGH.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/581700.html

( Cut for plant talk. )

Some day I will take some pictures (maybe).

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/572559.html

The people who live in my apartment complex generally fail at responsibly taking care of things they don't want any more. I get that it can be a pain in the ass to sell things on Craigslist or etc., but a lot of nice-looking furniture ends up sitting next to the dumpsters in our parking garage, as opposed to being donated to Goodwill or St. Vincent dePaul's. Even setting the stuff out on the side of the road would be better - then more people would see it!

Anyway, the latest things to be abandoned were two large dressers. When I first saw the pile of dresser drawers, I thought, "I wonder if you could grow plants in those!"
I like to follow other people instead of inventing things myself, so I googled and found this blog post, in which a person turned a drawer into a planter!

So yesterday morning I went downstairs to pick up a drawer and stick it in the back of my car. Two dudes gave me really weird looks!

I took the drawer to my boyfriend's house, to borrow his roommate's drill. I own no power tools of my own!
We drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom, for drainage. My boyfriend drilled a little less than half, as he was excited to use the drill, bwahaha.
My boyfriend's roommate advised that the wood my rot if I don't line it with plastic first.
As it's been unseasonably warm this last week, I took a sheet of plastic that had been sealing one of their windows all winter long. I plan to try and line the drawer today!

I'm not going to put dirt into this makeshift planter yet, as I don't really have anything that can be transplanted into it. But once I start the various herbs and vegetables, I'll now have place to transplant them to, in a month or two!

I find myself saving all kinds of things lately - toilet paper rolls, container tops to use as drainage-catchers, water bottles, etc.

NOBODY'S TRASH IS SAFE!

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/563843.html

Wisconsin typically has a late date for "last-frost," so I haven't planted anything yet, with the exception of micro-greens.

I planted these in a fit of rage last Thursday, loosely following this blog post as a guide.
My containers were plastic ~5x5" take-out containers from the hospital cafeteria I frequent while at work. I cut each clamshell in half, and used the top-half to catch water.
I created 5 holes in each bottom by repeatedly shoving a nail through them.
Filled the holey half of the container with dirt after setting it into the "water collection" half. Attempted to evenly distribute the entire seed packet on the dirt, and then sprinkled dirt on top of the seeds.

I used two different types of lettuce/greens seed, one entire packet in each one. I had bought the seeds on sale at Farm & Fleet.
The packet of Japanese greens had 1g of seeds. These looked kind of sparse when fully grown.
The packet of lettuce had 3g of seeds. These filled the entire container until it looked overflowing when fully grown.
I watered the trays every day, and set them in front of my sunny window/door.
I saw tiny sprouts beginning on Monday. I harvested for the first time Thursday morning, although I probably could have done so on Wednesday.

This was a great thing for me to do as a beginner because the effort was minimal, and the gratification was almost instant.
If you're impatient to start growing things and live somewhere with a late last-frost date like me, I recommend them!

I ate some on a half-sandwich today, and I'm sure they'd go fine in a salad. Unsure what else a person would use microgreens for.
Our co-op sells sprouts year-round, which I have bought & eaten in the past. I think they cost about $4, although I can't remember. Assuming a packet of seeds would cost $2 at the upper-end, growing these myself saves me $2 from the store.
I guess it would make the most sense to start one container, and then start a second container a week later, when you begin harvesting from the first container. Then, the supply would be endless! Of course, if you tire of foods easily, that might not be recommended.

Other plant progress:
It's been unseasonably warm here this past week. Each afternoon, it gets up around 80 degrees.
I've begun the process of "hardening off" the potted plants I already own: a spider plant, African violet, a weak-looking but stubborn ivy, and some Irish moss.
It's too cold to set the plants out in the mornings (~45 degrees), but I set them out as soon as I get home from work, and leave them in 75-degree weather for 3-4 hours. The spider plant especially seems to like this, and I think I'm having some success in reviving the African violet. I've been trying to be better about watering them. It's easier to remember since the sprouts have to be watered each day.

Etc.
I have no furniture for my deck, so for now these relatively small plants just get set on the floor of the balcony.
What do you guys set your plants on outside? Plastic furniture? Tables, or some kind of shelves? Where do you buy them? What are they made out of?

I'd like something to set plants on indoors, too. Right now the microgreens/etc. just get set on the floor in front of my window/door. I'd prefer them on some kind of shelf so that it's easier to clean (vacuum up spilled dirt granules). I've had my eye out for such a shelf for a while now, but haven't found one (except for the one I found three years ago, which holds my linens in the bathroom ever since I moved into this apartment).

I'm annoyed that my apartment complex landlord people are painting the floors of the balconies. Right now they're unfinished/unpainted, well-weathered wood. They're painting the wood a burgundy color. Won't this attract a lot of heat??