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 5 - Year 1: June Showers, Bring July ____?

Before we started gardening, I used to love rain - the smell, the sounds, and the excuse to snuggle up with a good book were a great way to spend a day. Now that I'm gardening, me and the rain gods need to have a talk. We have had rain for a week straight and the forecast predicts more gray and more rain are in our future. I'm wondering if June has become the new April in Madison.

Last weekend was especially bad. Things got so bad with the wind and massive downpour that we had to have an emergency rescue mission, which is what the picture at the top of the blog shows. The window boxes were being pummeled and the pots along the sides were being blown in every direction. So, in the midst of it all, I went out and moved everything to the center. The rain was pretty severe and water was running everywhere.

While the rest of the week days were not as bad, we did not get any sun either, and it's starting to wreak havoc on the garden. I had to move the African Violet inside because I was afraid it could not take this outdoor deluge. The roses have not bloomed since the beginning of the rain. The Morning Glory's leaves are starting to decay. The heliotrope and verbena have not had any new growth and are starting to look sad. The pansies are wilting (in fact, I had to toss some of the ones I had replanted in the Clematis containers). And, the Osteospermum got so excited that it bloomed all at once, keeled over and gave in. This was what was left of the carcass.

However, all hope is not lost yet. The clematis are actually doing pretty well all things considered and some of the smaller pots are starting to bloom. While sun may be coming mid week, I am hard pressed to believe the weather man and am wondering if a grow light would be a better investment.

Week 5 - Year 1: Good Morning, Glory

One of my latest acquisitions is a Morning Glory. Morning Glories are vigorous climbers and I'm hoping this guy can handle the right side of our deck. As most of our flowers are in the purple family, I was really drawn by the deep purple flowers on this particular Morning Glory. Like the Clematis and Black-Eyed Susans, I potted these in a large plastic container with a mix of potting soil & peat moss.

Unlike the other climbers though, these came with wooden hoops rather than a mini trellis, so it was harder to use that as the original climbing structure. Instead, I wound the existing vines around our spindles and secured them with zip ties to help them get started.

The flower itself is gorgeous. If you look closely, you can see it has red striations with a white center that seems to almost glow in the photos.

The biggest problem I've had with it so far is the problem I'm having with all of our flowers - no sun. We've had gray, rainy day after gray day and we only have more in sight (more on this later). If you look closely at the leaves, you can see they are starting to decay a little and I'm worried about the long term impact this could have on the new additions. So far, the Morning Glory is still flowering, but I'm concerned that this could change with continued gray days.

Week 4 - Year 1: The New Guys

Given the semi-success we've had so far with our container garden, I just couldn't resist adding more members to our wolfpack. We usually go to Johannsen's Greenhouse in Madison, but I thought we should check out the competition and today we went to Felly's Garden Center out near Verona. It was huge and had more selections than Johannsen's and we were able to add some new variety to our collection. However, I think we will probably stick with Johannsen's. While both are nice greenhouses, the longer drive wasn't really worth it, even with the extra stock and we like the staff and set up at Johannsen's better. Plus, Johannsen's has a lot more odds ands ends (like soil, pots variety, etc.), which allows us avoid a trip to the big orange box.

As for the new talent, we added two new containers and two new windowboxes. I planted all of them in a mix of potting soil.

Window Boxes

I placed the new boxes on the sides of the deck. The flowers are a mix of sun/part-sun. The sides of the deck do not get as much sun as the center, but I'm hopeful that it will be enough to support both new boxes.

Window Box #4 (from left to right)

1. Painted Porcelain Sweet Violets

2. ???? - I can't remember! It's driving me crazy, but I cannot remember the name of these flowers. I think it starts with an R. Update - One of my awesome co-workers was able to identify this one for me - it's flowering tobacco, or Nicotiana, which is also known as night jasmine. Thanks, Kathy!

3. Enduring Blue Brachycome

Window Box #5 (from left to right)

1. Dark Blue Verbena

2. Unknown - we found this guy mixed in with the heliotrope, but none of the staff members at Felly's could tell us what it is and there were not any tags on it. It looks like a marigold hybrid of sorts. I'm hoping it plays nice with others, but we will have to wait and see.

3. Heliotrope

Containers

1. African Violets

2. "Grandpa Ott" Morning Glories