scrubjayspeaks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
scrubjayspeaks) wrote2022-06-10 10:04 am
scrubjayspeaks) wrote2022-06-10 10:04 am
Entry tags:
Pandemic Garden Club
Welcome to the June edition of Pandemic Garden Club! Growing good things in strange times!
Anyone is welcome to comment with what they're growing right now, things they would like to try, problems they're encountering, and questions they have. Share resources, answer questions, shout encouragement.
As for myself...
(Photo heavy this time!)
May brought several wind storms. We tend to get pretty windy here, but this is the first time it actually did significant damage. In addition to the above downed tree limbs--which thankfully missed both the house and a just-home-from-work me--, the wind decided to remove and relocate a large, heavy shelter from one of the horse corrals, and it made a real solid attempt at snapping my beloved ash tree. The ash tree, now anchored to the six log seats around it, looks like it's going to become the center pole of a circus tent or something.
In less traumatic news, I have corn! And beans, and squash, and sunflowers, in less significant quantities. The pumpkins and squash are all only a week past their planting date, so there are only a few plants visible so far. The beans are getting taller, though they're not yet tendril-y enough to start climbing the corn stalks. And the corn! Oh, the corn! It's already about hip-high on me.
As are some of the sunflowers. Some combination of Mammoth and Mongolian have survived, which are at least the ones I was most invested in. I was supposed to have some middling height yellow and red ones as well, though, and it doesn't seem like many, or perhaps any, have even germinated. We're having some substantial insect problems (what's new?), and we've lost an assortment of sprouts to being gnawed off at ground level.
But in the category of surviving despite everything, I've got both snapdragons and penstemon that successfully overwintered and started blooming again. I mentioned the penstemon last month--now it has three-foot-long flower stalks. Snapdragons really aren't perennial around here. But this one clump, which didn't even grow when I first planted the seeds, managed to hang on all through winter and now has a riot of flowers.
After a two-year hiatus for *gestures to everything* Reasons, my succulent club had its annual show and sale. I didn't want to buy TOO many new plants--what am I supposed to do with new plants? But there are rare varieties, and I am weak. I got two new aloes, a gasteria, and an agave, the safe choices that I know will grow well for me. Then I got two new-to-me sorts that I'll have to figure out as I go: a dioon, which is a kind of cycad and pleasantly Jurassic in appearance, and my first tillandsia, which are the now ubiquitous air plants.
Also, I was given a handcrafted pot as a gift for volunteering all weekend. And apparently, if you give me a fancy and beautiful pot, I'll have to win an equally fancy and beautiful plant in an auction to put in it. It's a euphorbia, which I don't really collect but somehow still have several of, and I enjoy its alien looks. Plus, hey, I'm always a sucker for any plant with a caudex, even though I'm not great at growing them so far.
Anyone is welcome to comment with what they're growing right now, things they would like to try, problems they're encountering, and questions they have. Share resources, answer questions, shout encouragement.
As for myself...
(Photo heavy this time!)
May brought several wind storms. We tend to get pretty windy here, but this is the first time it actually did significant damage. In addition to the above downed tree limbs--which thankfully missed both the house and a just-home-from-work me--, the wind decided to remove and relocate a large, heavy shelter from one of the horse corrals, and it made a real solid attempt at snapping my beloved ash tree. The ash tree, now anchored to the six log seats around it, looks like it's going to become the center pole of a circus tent or something.
In less traumatic news, I have corn! And beans, and squash, and sunflowers, in less significant quantities. The pumpkins and squash are all only a week past their planting date, so there are only a few plants visible so far. The beans are getting taller, though they're not yet tendril-y enough to start climbing the corn stalks. And the corn! Oh, the corn! It's already about hip-high on me.
As are some of the sunflowers. Some combination of Mammoth and Mongolian have survived, which are at least the ones I was most invested in. I was supposed to have some middling height yellow and red ones as well, though, and it doesn't seem like many, or perhaps any, have even germinated. We're having some substantial insect problems (what's new?), and we've lost an assortment of sprouts to being gnawed off at ground level.
But in the category of surviving despite everything, I've got both snapdragons and penstemon that successfully overwintered and started blooming again. I mentioned the penstemon last month--now it has three-foot-long flower stalks. Snapdragons really aren't perennial around here. But this one clump, which didn't even grow when I first planted the seeds, managed to hang on all through winter and now has a riot of flowers.
After a two-year hiatus for *gestures to everything* Reasons, my succulent club had its annual show and sale. I didn't want to buy TOO many new plants--what am I supposed to do with new plants? But there are rare varieties, and I am weak. I got two new aloes, a gasteria, and an agave, the safe choices that I know will grow well for me. Then I got two new-to-me sorts that I'll have to figure out as I go: a dioon, which is a kind of cycad and pleasantly Jurassic in appearance, and my first tillandsia, which are the now ubiquitous air plants.
Also, I was given a handcrafted pot as a gift for volunteering all weekend. And apparently, if you give me a fancy and beautiful pot, I'll have to win an equally fancy and beautiful plant in an auction to put in it. It's a euphorbia, which I don't really collect but somehow still have several of, and I enjoy its alien looks. Plus, hey, I'm always a sucker for any plant with a caudex, even though I'm not great at growing them so far.