The Orchid and other Plantings
Aug. 28th, 2005 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liralenJohn and Jet bought me an orchid plant last May for Mother's Day. Today it finally dropped the last of the flowers it had on it. Wow. It seems healthy and happy with the weekly waterings, and today, for the first time, I fed it a quarter strength solution of plant food. I think it'll do okay.
With the dozen herbs I repotted today, the dozen baby spider plants I propagated into dirt, and the sensitive plant that came up in one of the newspaper pots and seems to be quite solidly full of chlorophyll from the sunshine outside, the plant population has increased significantly. I pulled a mint out of my thyme bed, and put it into a pot along with a bit of spearmint from my mint box. Keeping the potted plants outdoors until they're well established so I can bring them in for the winter will insure that I have *something* in my herb beds next spring. Winters here get down to the negatives at night, so I'm happier keeping some plants, even if they look like ghosts of themselves in the winter, inside. They'll do fine in the spring, so long as I don't plant them until AFTER the last frost. And even then, a water balloon or two seems to keep them from freezing just enough.
The rosemary and garlic chives in the yard are crazy-happy. I think the rosemary has tripled in size, and the garlic chives have tripled in number. There's a Chinese friend who wants some of the plants from my yard as I don't actually eat them that often, and they'd love to have some plants already established to put into their garden. I'd be fine with that, I think, as I can't even use the amount I have. The mint and thyme have overfilled their boxes. I may clip them severely tomorrow and bring it all into work in the morning and let those less well herbally-endowed enjoy the bounty. It's not like they will survive the winter in the boxes.
With the dozen herbs I repotted today, the dozen baby spider plants I propagated into dirt, and the sensitive plant that came up in one of the newspaper pots and seems to be quite solidly full of chlorophyll from the sunshine outside, the plant population has increased significantly. I pulled a mint out of my thyme bed, and put it into a pot along with a bit of spearmint from my mint box. Keeping the potted plants outdoors until they're well established so I can bring them in for the winter will insure that I have *something* in my herb beds next spring. Winters here get down to the negatives at night, so I'm happier keeping some plants, even if they look like ghosts of themselves in the winter, inside. They'll do fine in the spring, so long as I don't plant them until AFTER the last frost. And even then, a water balloon or two seems to keep them from freezing just enough.
The rosemary and garlic chives in the yard are crazy-happy. I think the rosemary has tripled in size, and the garlic chives have tripled in number. There's a Chinese friend who wants some of the plants from my yard as I don't actually eat them that often, and they'd love to have some plants already established to put into their garden. I'd be fine with that, I think, as I can't even use the amount I have. The mint and thyme have overfilled their boxes. I may clip them severely tomorrow and bring it all into work in the morning and let those less well herbally-endowed enjoy the bounty. It's not like they will survive the winter in the boxes.
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-29 11:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-29 04:45 pm (UTC)Turns out that even if it's 32 or 31 degrees F outside that if you put a big enough body of water next to the plant the water will stay above freezing until ALL of it gets cold enough to freeze. Keeping that body of water in contact with the plant (in the case of mint, putting the balloon right on top of the pretty resiliant plant) will actually insure that the plant, itself, doesn't freeze until the water does. So a late spring frost or early fall frost can be combatted with water balloons and, in the fall, tarps to just enclose the air in an area and keep it just that much warmer than the freezing temps outside.
So a water balloon can save a plant from freezing. Jet loves to pop them the morning after, too. :-)