How does your garden grow?
May. 28th, 2008 04:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaA while back I asked for some advice on making use of the little courtyard in front of our house. I think the best advice we got was just to dive in and try some stuff, and not to worry too much about not doing it perfectly. We put a bunch of plants in the ground in the first week of May, without doing a lot of planning or research. And so far, most things seem to be doing pretty well:
I planted food plants in containers, because I was worried about potential lead in the soil. We started grape tomatoes, red and yellow miniature bell peppers, a "Minnesota midget" miniature muskmelon, and flat leaf parsley. Here's how the vegetables looked two weeks ago:
The smaller pepper in the smaller pot was uprooted by Alex when we were planting. She saw me pulling seedlings from their plastic containers and didn't realize that I was carefully easing out all their dirt with them, so she just yanked it up. I put it in soil anyway, and against all expectation it hung on.
Here's how they look today. The grape tomato and the red bell pepper are real heroes - the pepper has even put out two little white flowers, and there are several more buds coming along. The yellow pepper is growing too, but it's coming along much more slowly and the color doesn't look as healthy.
The flat leaf parsley is looking utterly delighted with itself. Must start cooking with it more often.
The mini muskmelon, unfortunately, doesn't seem happy at all. We moved it to the sunniest, most sheltered spot in the garden, and it does seem to be working to put out leaves, but I don't think we're going to have adorable little melons this year. I think we just don't have enough hours of sunlight. Alas.
All the flowers are thriving. I planted petunias and verbena in the center medallion:
The shade bed is doing beautifully, except for one fuchsia which is sort of underperforming. From front to back, it has impatiens, fuchsias, and streptocarpella, which is a form of African violet.
I planted something called "angellonia" along the house. The blossoms look like miniature snapdragons. They're really thriving, I love having them tall and cheery against the bricks.
I trimmed the hell out of the overgrown thicket of herbs planted by the previous tenant, and they apparently loved it. They're regrowing at breakneck speed. The mystery plant in back did indeed, as some surmised, turn out to be lavender, which is now blooming. The sage has blossomed too and is really lovely.
The only other thing that isn't doing at all well is the clematis. I tried to put it on a trellis instead of just propping a trellis invitingly next to it, and I think I strained it too much. It hasn't put out any more flowers. Alas. Well, it's a perennial, so we can try again next year.
I'm really enjoying this. When you have one of the only front yards in the neighborhood, there is a certain amount of social pressure to make it look good, and a certain pleasure and pride in succeeding. But it also just makes me happy to walk in the gate into our lovely little oasis of color and fragrance. A fresh herbal scent hangs over everything. It's fun to watch the vegetables grow, and look for little changes from day to day.
Michael and I are thinking of signing up for a City Farm next year, if I don't get pregnant. For $20, we can get a 150-square-foot garden plot in a city park plus tools to borrow and all the water, leaf mulch, and wood chips we can use. I'd love to be able to have enough sunlight and lead-free soil to really grow things. But this isn't too bad, for a start.
I planted food plants in containers, because I was worried about potential lead in the soil. We started grape tomatoes, red and yellow miniature bell peppers, a "Minnesota midget" miniature muskmelon, and flat leaf parsley. Here's how the vegetables looked two weeks ago:
The smaller pepper in the smaller pot was uprooted by Alex when we were planting. She saw me pulling seedlings from their plastic containers and didn't realize that I was carefully easing out all their dirt with them, so she just yanked it up. I put it in soil anyway, and against all expectation it hung on.
Here's how they look today. The grape tomato and the red bell pepper are real heroes - the pepper has even put out two little white flowers, and there are several more buds coming along. The yellow pepper is growing too, but it's coming along much more slowly and the color doesn't look as healthy.
The flat leaf parsley is looking utterly delighted with itself. Must start cooking with it more often.
The mini muskmelon, unfortunately, doesn't seem happy at all. We moved it to the sunniest, most sheltered spot in the garden, and it does seem to be working to put out leaves, but I don't think we're going to have adorable little melons this year. I think we just don't have enough hours of sunlight. Alas.
All the flowers are thriving. I planted petunias and verbena in the center medallion:
The shade bed is doing beautifully, except for one fuchsia which is sort of underperforming. From front to back, it has impatiens, fuchsias, and streptocarpella, which is a form of African violet.
I planted something called "angellonia" along the house. The blossoms look like miniature snapdragons. They're really thriving, I love having them tall and cheery against the bricks.
I trimmed the hell out of the overgrown thicket of herbs planted by the previous tenant, and they apparently loved it. They're regrowing at breakneck speed. The mystery plant in back did indeed, as some surmised, turn out to be lavender, which is now blooming. The sage has blossomed too and is really lovely.
The only other thing that isn't doing at all well is the clematis. I tried to put it on a trellis instead of just propping a trellis invitingly next to it, and I think I strained it too much. It hasn't put out any more flowers. Alas. Well, it's a perennial, so we can try again next year.
I'm really enjoying this. When you have one of the only front yards in the neighborhood, there is a certain amount of social pressure to make it look good, and a certain pleasure and pride in succeeding. But it also just makes me happy to walk in the gate into our lovely little oasis of color and fragrance. A fresh herbal scent hangs over everything. It's fun to watch the vegetables grow, and look for little changes from day to day.
Michael and I are thinking of signing up for a City Farm next year, if I don't get pregnant. For $20, we can get a 150-square-foot garden plot in a city park plus tools to borrow and all the water, leaf mulch, and wood chips we can use. I'd love to be able to have enough sunlight and lead-free soil to really grow things. But this isn't too bad, for a start.
