“If you've never experienced the joy of accomplishing more than you can imagine, plant a garden.”
– Robert Brault
12/12/17:
As usual in the dark wintery months, my houseplants get more attention than when I'm busy outdoors during the warm growing season. The holiday cacti (zygocactus), one red-flowering and one white, reached full bloom in November and are just now slowing down. They get a fair amount of sun from the skylight in our kitchen, and I remembered to fertilize them earlier in the fall. I'm still looking for proper containers to transplant the vigorous maranta (M. tricolor, prayer plant) and spiderplant (Chlorophytum comosum) into; they're growing long and thickly-leaved in small pots hanging from the ceiling.
I put the summer-sprouted tomato seedling in the green glazed pot I bought this month. I've been leaving it outside from 7:40 a.m., when the sun's just come up, until 5:40 p.m., when I get home from work. When it's inside at night, I want to have it under a grow light, so will look into buying one this week.
It was 38 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. I figure the first frost will happen pretty soon. As I recall from past years, hardy perennials (such as the African daisies and rosemary) will continue to bloom despite the cold, and I should see orange flowers on the cape honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis) before long.
This December's camellia flowers are mostly high up on the hedges, so I haven't been able to get a good photo yet. Maybe I'll stand on the stepstool and lean into the hedge (and freak out the squirrels).
I put the summer-sprouted tomato seedling in the green glazed pot I bought this month. I've been leaving it outside from 7:40 a.m., when the sun's just come up, until 5:40 p.m., when I get home from work. When it's inside at night, I want to have it under a grow light, so will look into buying one this week.
It was 38 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. I figure the first frost will happen pretty soon. As I recall from past years, hardy perennials (such as the African daisies and rosemary) will continue to bloom despite the cold, and I should see orange flowers on the cape honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis) before long.
This December's camellia flowers are mostly high up on the hedges, so I haven't been able to get a good photo yet. Maybe I'll stand on the stepstool and lean into the hedge (and freak out the squirrels).
Clicking on the cropped images below will show the full image in a new window.
Daisies, rosemary, bottlebrush leaves.
Tomato in my new glazed pot.
Potpourri sachet.
As I look back on the year and start lists/notes about which plants thrived, or simply survived, or failed completely, I think about how even the master gardeners can't keep everything alive, and I do move forward in experience and knowledge.
One learning resource has been the gardening community on Twitter. My account reached 3000 followers this week! I like to share updates to this blog there, and additional photos from my garden, but it seems I recieve more than I contribute: people have identified plants for me, posted links to informative articles, and shared specific advice, such as this thread where I asked about parsnips.
My garden-themed etsy site also continues to grow, slowly. I've finally added the potpourri sachets.
With the expansion of my online gardening world, I need to keep from getting overwhelmed by taking on too much. I'll continue to devote time to this Blog, GreenWise Gazette, etsy and Twitter, but perhaps give less effort to Pinterest and Facebook.
So, in order to streamline all of this into a main channel, I purchased the domain GreenWiseWorld.com. I'm stoked about getting to work on a fresh landing page and professional-looking content presentations after the holidays.
One learning resource has been the gardening community on Twitter. My account reached 3000 followers this week! I like to share updates to this blog there, and additional photos from my garden, but it seems I recieve more than I contribute: people have identified plants for me, posted links to informative articles, and shared specific advice, such as this thread where I asked about parsnips.
My garden-themed etsy site also continues to grow, slowly. I've finally added the potpourri sachets.
With the expansion of my online gardening world, I need to keep from getting overwhelmed by taking on too much. I'll continue to devote time to this Blog, GreenWise Gazette, etsy and Twitter, but perhaps give less effort to Pinterest and Facebook.
So, in order to streamline all of this into a main channel, I purchased the domain GreenWiseWorld.com. I'm stoked about getting to work on a fresh landing page and professional-looking content presentations after the holidays.