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Comments:
Brett - 2004-06-26 01:15:37 Brett! One word! Container gardening. OK, two words. Do you have a balcony? If so, you can grow enough produce to feed a 4-person family. Beans and tomatoes, in particular. If not, you can even grow them indoors. Yes! And it's not too late in the season to get a tomato plant started. You'll have to cross-pollinate your plants with a Q-Tip, or destroy your screens so that every insect known to man can come in, but that's a small price to pay I'd say for home-grown produce. Park 'em by a southerly window & you're home free. Meijer's on Carpenter Rd. still has a few bedraggled tomato plants. Go pick some up immediately and remember to plant 80 per cent of the plant below the soil line in order to produce deep-rooted plants. Good luck.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-06-26 16:47:12 If you repot that poor aloe in a twice-as-big pot with fresh potting soil, it will increase in size. Potted plants increase in size according to the size of the pot, generally. The poor thing has extracted every last nutrient from the worn-out soil--new, fresh potting soil, ideally the kind that contains Miracle-Gro nutrients built-in, would do that plant a world of good. Use a terra cotta pot, never plastic (with a succulent like an aloe, plastic traps way too much moisture whereas terra cotta "breathes." Ypsidixit has several million extra pots if you'd like one. Not that you asked--just unsolicited advice. Toe fungus does not count as a plant since it's a fungus, which is the "fifth kingdom," distinct from plants.* * * * * * * * * * * * Patrick - 2004-06-27 11:02:40 Peppers are blooming. Blooming, blooming, blooming. Neighbor lady told me to feed them Epsom salts. Best bet this week. The rasleberries are kicking. No toe fungus seen by this mycologist.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-06-27 22:58:59 Well, Patrick, you must have started your peppers later than mine since I already have 2 peppers--one purple & one green--on my pepper plants. In a pot (container gardening!) My tomatoes are in bloom, though, and starting to get sprawly--I'll have to tie them up this week. I spread gardening salt all over my lawn one year and the grass promptly died. It's still on the brown side...I retired my bag of salt after that little episode and stick to Miracle-Gro. Luckily I have enough weeds in my lawn so that it's always green.* * * * * * * * * * * * raymond - 2004-06-28 10:39:07 thistle, chickweed, mullein (flannel leaf), mullein pink, catnip, mugwort, queen anne's lace, hay i can't put up, wormwood, hops, a blaze of day lillies, poison ivy everywhere, and on-and-on... oh and a few tomato and pepper plants* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-06-28 10:42:55 I can just picture that--I grew up in a rural area and remember the meadow plants. I have one anomalous Queen Anne's Lace that materialized out of nowhere this year which I am treasuring. And I forgot catnip--it's all over. * * * * * * * * * * * * raymond - 2004-06-28 18:34:01 finally mowed a path around the backside of the compound. hadn't been out there since i-dont-know-when. been WAY too wet to even think about mowing. but what a heaven of daisies and some timothy. and of course more thistle and poison ivy. but also some nice bee-balm and yarrow. dragon flies a-flitter and swallows following.* * * * * * * * * * * * Brandon - 2004-06-28 20:38:40 Well, at the sterile condo I currently live in (woo yard and porch for Fall), I have 2 potted tomatoes and a potted pepper on my concrete slab (patio). One of the tomato plants has 3 green fruits, the other is blooming, and so is the pepper. And then there's all my 4-year-old houseplants that need to be re-potted... When you garden for a living, though, I guess it is less exciting to do it when you get home, too.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-06-28 22:43:40 Brandon: Gardening for a living is one of my dream jobs. That's what I do nonstop on the weekends...to get paid for it would be the best. Speaking as an outsider who doesn't put up with the day to day backbreaking and exhausting labor that fulltime gardening can be. Raymond: my fire pit is full of lovely shasta daisies; they're at their peak now, I just love it. And I have lots of yarrow all over, too. Sounds like you live in a sort of earthly plant paradise to me.* * * * * * * * * * * * Brett - 2004-06-29 11:41:50 (late reply to laura's responses above) Nope, no balcony. 75% of the apartment is out of the question, as well, due to the three near-feral felines which dominate the environment. The only remaining space is a small area filled with archival items (books, photographs, etc) which we try to keep fairly dry and clean. Also, thanks to the ypsiDPW (no relation to ypsidixit), the slow process of road renovation has caused a fine white dust to settle over the entire interior of our apartment, including all plants. The aloe I mentioned was replanted, with some superduper soil mixture, in a big clay pot, but still seems oddly stunted. Several months ago one of the Aforementioned cats had partially eaten some of it, and I personally feel the plant now holds deep resentment and a sense of apathy ("What's the point in getting bigger, that damn cat will just attack me again"). Actually, the only real option this environment has is terrarium gardening, which I consider from time to time but never pursue as it would require either purchasing new items or else evicting some fish from my existing tanks. Now don't get me wrong, your suggestions were all perfectly good and anyone out there with more than a single square foot of usable space certainly should put them to good use. I was just being sarcastic due to the deep-seated bitterness I have about our current digs- which, beyond prohibiting having a garden of eden, also keep us from doing virtually anything but maintaining a warehouse environment of hundreds of stacked tubs. Let this be a warning to all: a photographer/painter/writer and a potter/painter/seamstress who both collect antiques and have multiple pets should probably seek out something with more than 600 sq. ft. of floor space.* * * * * * * * * * * * add your comment: |