Pandemic Garden Club
Sep. 9th, 2023 05:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scrubjayspeaksWelcome to the September 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...
We finally got a break in the weather. It was positively cool at times (if you have very low standards, which I do at this time of year).
I have had this...thing, which is marketed as a dinosaur plant, since probably about 1990. I don’t know where we got it exactly; in my memory, it is classified as “one of the odd things Dad brought home from a gas station he was delivering to,” which may or may not be accurate. It does feel extremely 80s in its enthusiasm. The plastic tube and its two balled-up plants have lived in the upper reaches of the kitchen cabinets of two houses now, largely ignored but never abandoned.
It explains inside that it’s a club moss, which will go dormant when dry and then resurrect itself when given water. We used to plop it down in a pie pan full of water. In my child’s eyes, it was huge and lush when it unfurled. Now, it looks sort of small and sad, which just makes me love it more.
It also explains inside that it can be planted and kept as a normal houseplant. I’ve never tried this before. However, I had this very nice pot, in which died what had been a very nice (and expensive) succulent. Then I found the dinosaur plant tube while cleaning behind the washing machine, after wondering for quite some time where it had wandered off to again. So.
(Note: elapsed time between these three pictures was twenty minutes. It begins to visibly unfold basically instantly after being exposed to water.)
I’ve only planted the one--the other is still in the tube, just in case this goes poorly. I’m hoping to get it to develop a root system so that it can stay active and growing for longer than just the length of time it takes for a misting of water to evaporate. I think that would be a charming lifestyle for this old friend of mine.
We happened to get a bunch of free seed packets, including several of morning glories. These pipes are holding up the shade cloth that shelters the side of the house where my bedroom is, as well as the cold frames. We had thought it would be nice to plant something that would climb up them. The morning glories have grown vigorously. They have not, however, bloomed at all. I had the same problem when I tried to grow them out in the castle garden. Our soil appears to be too rich, as morning glories need to be somewhat deprived to make them decide that reproduction should be a priority. Still, even just the vines and leaves are pretty.
First corn! First corn! ...possibly only corn! Hmmm… It’s just been a really bad year for produce. Late start due to rain, blazing heat, problems with the soaker hoses that left one of the corn/squash/bean patches badly starved. The corn never got very tall (no wandering between the rows for me, so what even is the point of life?) and the ears are very late in developing. But dammit, we got something!
I bought these two wild buckwheats from the half-off section of the good nursery, where they were bedraggled and frost damaged. But unlike the one I had at home, they weren’t dead yet. Now they are big and fluffy and, as it turns out, host to at least one preying mantis. Hello, alien bug friend!
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...
We finally got a break in the weather. It was positively cool at times (if you have very low standards, which I do at this time of year).
I have had this...thing, which is marketed as a dinosaur plant, since probably about 1990. I don’t know where we got it exactly; in my memory, it is classified as “one of the odd things Dad brought home from a gas station he was delivering to,” which may or may not be accurate. It does feel extremely 80s in its enthusiasm. The plastic tube and its two balled-up plants have lived in the upper reaches of the kitchen cabinets of two houses now, largely ignored but never abandoned.
It explains inside that it’s a club moss, which will go dormant when dry and then resurrect itself when given water. We used to plop it down in a pie pan full of water. In my child’s eyes, it was huge and lush when it unfurled. Now, it looks sort of small and sad, which just makes me love it more.
It also explains inside that it can be planted and kept as a normal houseplant. I’ve never tried this before. However, I had this very nice pot, in which died what had been a very nice (and expensive) succulent. Then I found the dinosaur plant tube while cleaning behind the washing machine, after wondering for quite some time where it had wandered off to again. So.
(Note: elapsed time between these three pictures was twenty minutes. It begins to visibly unfold basically instantly after being exposed to water.)
I’ve only planted the one--the other is still in the tube, just in case this goes poorly. I’m hoping to get it to develop a root system so that it can stay active and growing for longer than just the length of time it takes for a misting of water to evaporate. I think that would be a charming lifestyle for this old friend of mine.
We happened to get a bunch of free seed packets, including several of morning glories. These pipes are holding up the shade cloth that shelters the side of the house where my bedroom is, as well as the cold frames. We had thought it would be nice to plant something that would climb up them. The morning glories have grown vigorously. They have not, however, bloomed at all. I had the same problem when I tried to grow them out in the castle garden. Our soil appears to be too rich, as morning glories need to be somewhat deprived to make them decide that reproduction should be a priority. Still, even just the vines and leaves are pretty.
First corn! First corn! ...possibly only corn! Hmmm… It’s just been a really bad year for produce. Late start due to rain, blazing heat, problems with the soaker hoses that left one of the corn/squash/bean patches badly starved. The corn never got very tall (no wandering between the rows for me, so what even is the point of life?) and the ears are very late in developing. But dammit, we got something!
I bought these two wild buckwheats from the half-off section of the good nursery, where they were bedraggled and frost damaged. But unlike the one I had at home, they weren’t dead yet. Now they are big and fluffy and, as it turns out, host to at least one preying mantis. Hello, alien bug friend!
(no subject)
Date: 2023-09-18 03:24 am (UTC)The amaryllis that had root rot seem to be recovering. It was touch and go for a little bit.
I've got two kinds of persistent vines attempting to take over everything. They escaped from some mixed potted plants my grandparents had decades ago. We've determined that the only way we'll ever get rid of them is to completely get rid of the patch of ferns and purple stuff by the back door. I guess I'll just keep hacking them back.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-09-24 06:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-09-24 11:27 pm (UTC)