GreenWise Gardening 2017
“Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”
– Rumi
– Rumi
4/16/17:
.
Ah, the proverbial April showers. At least we got a few breaks during the past couple of weekends. On the 8th, I spent an hour basking in the sun, then visited a garden store, then planted my new purchases. I bought 4 tomato starter plants: 2 Big Beef and 2 Rugged Boy. I've never grown these particular varieties before, so this’ll be a fun experiment. Also new to me are a Fresno Chili plant, a Cubanelle sweet pepper, and a Hot Golden Cayenne pepper. I hope that the tomato and pepper seeds I planted (Beefsteak, Joe’s Long Cayenne) will eventually produce healthy young plants as well, but I think seed germination and sprout growth is delayed for everything in my garden, due to the warm sun only being out now and then.
Before the rains descended in force on the weekends, I wandered around the yard with my phone, finding a few things to photograph that hadn’t been featured recently on the blog. While I eagerly await roses in full bloom, the furled forms of the buds do have an elegance of their own. I’m glad I caught shots of these before stormy winds damaged them somewhat.
At one point I followed a bee into the hedge by our bedroom window, where jasmine is blooming (and wonderfully fragrant) among young blackberry leaves, oleander, escallonia, and honeysuckle. I’d decided to cultivate additional plants to attract pollinators over the last 2 years, so it’s gratifying to see them visiting, even on a drizzly early spring day.
Before the rains descended in force on the weekends, I wandered around the yard with my phone, finding a few things to photograph that hadn’t been featured recently on the blog. While I eagerly await roses in full bloom, the furled forms of the buds do have an elegance of their own. I’m glad I caught shots of these before stormy winds damaged them somewhat.
At one point I followed a bee into the hedge by our bedroom window, where jasmine is blooming (and wonderfully fragrant) among young blackberry leaves, oleander, escallonia, and honeysuckle. I’d decided to cultivate additional plants to attract pollinators over the last 2 years, so it’s gratifying to see them visiting, even on a drizzly early spring day.
Clicking on the small images below will bring up a larger version.
Raindrops on rosebuds.
Jasmine.
Begonia bloom, floating in a bowl.
There’s a Phalaenopsis orchid on the bedroom windowsill, and a Rieger begonia on the living room windowsill.
I’ve had the orchid since summer of 2014; once the blooms were finished after about a month, it never bloomed or grew a flower stem again. I tried moving it around to get more or less sun, I gave it orchid stake fertilizer, I watered it lightly but regularly. These days it has lost all but one leaf, and might be done for. Is this one a victim of cold indoor temperatures, like perhaps the lipstick plant was? Should I try again with a new orchid? If so, I’ll do some research and attempt to figure out where I went wrong with this one first.
The begonia was purchased in late December, covered in flowers, and is finally concluding its bloom cycle. It was lovely to have the bright crimson petals brightening up the indoors during darker, colder months of the year. If I can properly follow recommendations for maintaining it, this begonia could flower again next winter.
This week I noticed that the avocado seed I’d planted in good soil and placed on the kitchen windowsill has sprouted! I showed Steve, and he asked,
“Don’t avocados come from trees? Where are you going to PUT it?”
It’s true, we don't have space to stick plants in the ground, or much room in the row of trees along the fence for additional large pots, but I doubt it’ll grow that quickly, so we have years before it gets to be truly tree-sized, or capable of producing fruit.
Increasingly I realize: patience and long-term planning are certainly virtues to be cultivated in the gardening life.
I’ve had the orchid since summer of 2014; once the blooms were finished after about a month, it never bloomed or grew a flower stem again. I tried moving it around to get more or less sun, I gave it orchid stake fertilizer, I watered it lightly but regularly. These days it has lost all but one leaf, and might be done for. Is this one a victim of cold indoor temperatures, like perhaps the lipstick plant was? Should I try again with a new orchid? If so, I’ll do some research and attempt to figure out where I went wrong with this one first.
The begonia was purchased in late December, covered in flowers, and is finally concluding its bloom cycle. It was lovely to have the bright crimson petals brightening up the indoors during darker, colder months of the year. If I can properly follow recommendations for maintaining it, this begonia could flower again next winter.
This week I noticed that the avocado seed I’d planted in good soil and placed on the kitchen windowsill has sprouted! I showed Steve, and he asked,
“Don’t avocados come from trees? Where are you going to PUT it?”
It’s true, we don't have space to stick plants in the ground, or much room in the row of trees along the fence for additional large pots, but I doubt it’ll grow that quickly, so we have years before it gets to be truly tree-sized, or capable of producing fruit.
Increasingly I realize: patience and long-term planning are certainly virtues to be cultivated in the gardening life.