Week 12 - Year 1: The Great Indoors?

The downside of living in an apartment building is that you do not have much in the way of property rights. This week, I was painfully reminded of this fact when we received a note that the building would be power washed on Thursday and Friday and that residents were to remove all decorations from their porches, unless of course you were okay with having them be blasted in a blaze of water glory. Immediately, I was concerned for our plants.

We moved almost everything inside (while dealing with the additional challenge of putting them somewhere out of our cat's reach). It made a pretty funny picture - lining everything up on whatever ledge we could find. The whole apartment smelled like a garden when I woke up the next morning.

But, not everything was easy to move. The black eyed susan, clematis and morning glory have all wrapped themselves hopelessly around the spindles - leaving me in a catch 22 situation - move them and risk destroying them or leave them and risk a drowning. And, even with the ones we could move, who knows what lack of sunlight and closed conditions could do to them? Therefore, we decided to leave them outside and risk it. We also had to leave a couple window box hangers out because we discovered that a family of hornets had moved in, and we did not have any Raid handy for an attack.

To make matters worse, it rained on Friday and when I got home terrified to see what had happened, it appeared that no one had been there at all and our neighbors said they had not noticed any difference either. Of course, we had to move everything back outside, but we may be doing this whole thing again on Monday ...

Moving everything inside did bring some fun revelations though. For one, we have definitive proof that there was indeed a bird's nest in the sweet potato/coleus hanger. Fortunately, it has since been abandoned (could you imagine having to try to bring that inside with a defending mommy bird in the mix?). It's kind of hard to see, but I tired to capture it:

Second, the petunias' color is even more unique under house lighting. While they appear to be a silvery purple outside, inside they have pinky edges while the deep purple ones appear to blue indoors. Similarly, the shamrocks seemingly white flowers are actually the palest shade of lavender (though the photos were not able to capture this).

Week 11 - Year 1: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

While I've already discussed the Bad (See Life Support) and the Ugly (See RIP), I thought I would continue my progress report of sorts by looking at the "Good." Overall, many of my plants are doing exceptionally well and I'm very happy with the progress I have made in my first attempt. Using the law school curve (forgive me, but its still pretty fresh in my mind), I would grade my "good" guys as follows:

The "A+"s (yes, they have A+s in law school, for the "best" in class):

Black-Eyed Susan Vine

This plant has always been a sure winner. From the first day, it has thrived. The only problem it faces is that it is out of room to grow. It is starting to grow downward on to the porch below, but I do not think it will grow long enough to actually get in anyone's way (at least I hope not).

Petunias

These guys are obvious winners. They have succeeded in spindling down their vines and make a nice visual from across the parking lot when you drive up to our building. I've even taken snippets in vases with me to work and they manage to last a full week without natural sunlight in a vase. I highly recommend them for any beginner. I chose to omit the picture, because they've already been featured a lot in this blog.

The "As":

Shamrock

I'm very proud of this little guy because it was near death when I bought it. I've nursed it back to health and it seems to be doing very well. The flowers are very understated, but incredibly charming up close as the the leaves & flowers look like shamrocks with little bells on them.

Browallia

This little guy has tripled in size. I started out with one straight shoot of leaves and flowers and now have a large, round plant with lots of blooms. This one does not require much maintenance and is happy to just keep blooming without interference.

Verbena

This plant is also thriving. It just keeps spreading and brightening up its box. It is also easy maintenance and often just chucks the dead heads itself.

The "Bs":

In law school, every class must finish with a B average, so most of my plants should fall in this category on this curve. Since math is not my strong suit and I'm too lazy to showcase every plant and figure out what their grades should be on a curve, I've featured the more interesting Bs below.

Morning Glory

This plant started out as an A with steady blooms. However, they have been downgraded to a B because it has not bloomed in a few weeks. I think its because the morning glory only wants to grow upward and it has nowhere to go, so it keeps growing on itself.

Every time I look at it, I can't help but think "Its alivvvvvvve" and it creeps me out a little. I could try planting a trellis, but we are already in July, so I will probably let it go for now. I just try to keep it from attacking the heliotrope, but otherwise let it do what it wants.

Sweet Potato Hanger

This hanger of vines is also doing exceptionally well. While it does house some neighborhood birds, it has managed to growth very large and withstand drought and bird-mangling. Some days it is looking more peaky than others, but it always bounces back, which is a great quality in a plant destined for a rookie's garden.

Begonias

This guy keeps wavering between A and B territory. Mostly, because he can't stand up straight. He keeps leaning. I will pack more soil in there, but inevitably, he eats it up and starts to lean again. Otherwise, he looks great.

Week 11 - Year 1: The Supplemental Draft

While I'm very proud of the success I've had with my first gardening attempt, it's time to face the music and admit that not everyone made it. I was forced to run a "Supplemental" draft last week to replace some of the plants that did not survive my rookie season.

RIP

A quick moment of silence for the ones that did not make it ... pictures omitted, as the sight was too unfortunate to photograph.

Violets

Osteopermum

Purple pansies (yes, all of them - wilted in the hot sun, yellow ones are still fine though!)

The Replacements

I could not resist filling out the holes that were left by my failed attempts. Hopefully, these new guys will fare better than their predecessors.

Calibrachoa - why mess with success? I figure the coral ones are still doing well, so why not try another color? This purple variety replaced the violets, which did not make it after looking like they got mauled by a bird one day.

Sampaguita - AKA, Arabian Jasmine. We originally got this plant for my in-laws, but we've ended up keeping it around as a replacement for the osteopermum. This flowering plant is popular in the Philippines and supposedly has a very nice smell once it blooms.

Life Support?

Finally, let's keep our fingers crossed for these guys, who may be in a code blue situation. Again, pictures omitted out of respect for the patients' privacy.

Kalanchoe

African Violets

Lobelia hanger

Week 10 - Year 1: Herbology Lessons

I'm no Neville Longbottom, but I hope Professor Sprout would give me decent marks on my latest experiment. I've added two herb containers to our garden with the help of my awesome aunt (who gave me the cute pots) and a marvelous co-worker (who found basil for me after my repeated failures to locate any).

Rosemarinus

Rosemary was the first herb added to our garden. We have already used it to great success in cooking a potato side dish. I planted the rosemary in a mix of peat poss and potting soil. It is only a week old, but it seems to be doing pretty well and was very tasty. My only question on this one is whether I should screw a hole into the bottom of the container. My research suggests that rosemary plants do require steady drainage, so I'm thinking we probably should add the hole to it, but this may be a bigger undertaking than I'm ready for - so we will risk it for now.

Basilicum

Our other newbie is a basil plant. I struggled to find basil every time I went out, but my awesome co-worker found some for me, so we are on our way with it. Like the rosemary, I planted it in a mix of peat moss and potting soil. Basil prefers to be pretty moist, so I'm not as worried about putting a hole in it.

The obvious and best usage for basil is PESTO - see the evidence above! Unfortunately, my basil plant is too young to produce this kind of awesomeness, but I spent a great morning making this pesto from scratch with some basil from my co-worker's garden. I can't wait to turn this into a creamy, decadent pesto pasta. Eventually, I will venture out and come up with some more uses for my basil, but right now I'm enjoying the pesto.

I've also learned that being an attorney can complicate gardening blogging, so my apologies for not posting over the past few weeks. I'll try to come up with some non-Harry Potter themes for the next post as well, but I can't help but find inspiration as I'm in the middle of re-reading the entire series.

Week 8 - Year 1: The Clematis Files

Unlike Harry Potter, I do not have a Resurrection Stone, but there must be some magic in the air because the Clematis are back and in business. Back in May, it seemed like I had taken a wrong turn with the clematis and I had trimmed them back down to start over. 5 Weeks later and it seems to be working. I moved both plants to the eastern exposure of the porch and replanted their soil. They both have new growth and the purple one is even blooming, while the red one has 5 buds about to bloom.

The purple one is really taking off.

It has grown vines all over the porch spindles and is even attempting to attack the petunias' box (which should make for an interesting fight given the petunia's battle history).

The red one was a bit slower to respond, but seems to be on its way. It has a healthy amount of vine growth and tons of new buds ready to bloom. The only lingering problem is that it hasn't really stuck itself anywhere yet, so it just sort of hangs there hoping to get comfortable. I keep wrapping it around spindles to inspire it, but it just doesn't take.

If these guys make it, the next worry will be winter. These are perennials and I would like to try to save them is possible over the winter. I've started devising an experiment upon the suggestion of a great co-worker, who has been the best gardening advisor. She has generously offered to plant them in her yard to see if they make it through the winter. So, as an experiment, I'm thinking we plant one and then I winter the other in the damp storage unit in the basement parking garage to our apartment building. It will be interesting to see if they make it. However, this is only July, so I've got a lot of time to plan this experiment. For now, I will just continue to baby these guys and enjoy their progress.

***7/24/10 - Update, the red one finally bloomed and it's spectacular! It's actually more of a magenta than a red, but either way it's gorgeous!