how doth your garden grow
Depression is currently kicking my ass. I had around two weeks of amazing wonderful lovely indescribably good creativity at my new studio, but now I'm having to confront my impending trip to the Philippines, which will mean I'll be gone from my beloved and my studio and my pommas and all the things I have worked so hard to build into some sort of coherent, livable life-- I'll be gone from everything, my home, and back in the motherland I have missed desperately, the motherland that almost killed me. So feelings... feelings are being had.
(Cy has been a thousand kinds of wonderful all throughout. It hurts my heart to think I'll be away from her.)
So right now I am doing this thing where I am railing against depression, clenched fist waving in the air, and so I am going to post... garden pictures! I raised everything in it (except the capsicum seedling, which was a birthday gift) from seed. And look, they are now alive and sprouting, blooming even! I have raised flowering plants from seed! When I'm able to enjoy the garden, I'm pretty proud of myself.
I raised the seeds in little pots and planters, and then I moved them to the ground when I was done procrastinating for weeks they were ready. This little garden patch was nothing but dry grass when we moved here. Now, of course, there are my plants, and a ton of enterprising weeds, most of which I'm not removing because I think they look nice. I had some reservations about planting in the ground, because I won't be able to take these plants with me when we move, but... it's okay. I'll just plant more stuff. And for some reason, having a garden in the ground, not just in containers, makes me happy. It gives me a feeling of rootedness.
My garden is mostly for cuteness, for looking at and babying and taking pleasure in the flowers. I have realized that I am someone who gardens mostly for mental health, because she thinks plants are beautiful, and I don't do as well when I garden because I want to grow crops. I made an attempt to choose seeds for herbs and things -- I have this one broccoli plant that's thriving, for instance, for all that it was actually a random seed that got accidentally moved from a pot to a different planter and absolutely loved that -- but I can't deny that my enthusiasm for gardening is pretty much motivated by cuteness. (When I played MMOs I used to have a motto, "cuteness > all" -- it's funny that twelve years later it still applies!) So even though I think Growstuff is great, it's not exactly for me.
So, there's... French marigolds, lobelia, Pacific calendula, a huge planter of parsley, random broccoli, baby alyssum, Chabaud carnations, coriander (some of which delightfully sprouted after I threw it all over the ground, I love coriander), tiny dill, even tinier parsley, my bbtrap, my ridiculous nerines, and tiny capsicum. When I'm home and the sun is out I sit on the steps with a cup of tea and ogle my plants. Now that they have flowers it's even nicer.
The marigolds are blooming. I think I have decided I must always have marigolds, season permitting. They are easy to raise, the leaves are pretty, the flowers are gorgeously vivid. Marigolds are a must-have thing.
I planted nerines -- the Winter Cheer variety -- as it turns out I am someone who really likes bulb flowers. (I have planted some tulips, hyacinths and freesia, although they won't be poking their heads out until spring of course.) I am a bit befuddled because though the leaves are sprouting very happily, the flowers... are not. There isn't even a stalk! Oh well. I'll give it some time. I'm happy to keep these nerines in their pot for years and years, as apparently they hate being disturbed. Maybe one year I'll get lucky and have flowers!
My bbtrap -- my little Venus Flytrap -- is going into dormancy, thus the black leaves. I thought about overwintering it inside, and making sure it stays awake and perky all throughout winter. But if you do that you shorten its lifespan, apparently, so I decided not to.
(Shoutout to
vi: bbtrap was very easy to care for! After I transplanted it to its bigger pot -- it's a mixture of peat moss and perlite -- I also moved it outside, and it's taken to that pretty well, I think. I haven't needed to water it for a while because it's been raining so much. I think I want another bbtrap eheeeee :D)
The lobelias surprised me. I hadn't intended to get them originally, but they were recommended buys for autumn planting, and they make good little companions/ground cover, the site said. They took ages (it felt like it, anyway) to sprout, and then suddenly there were heaps of them. I very carefully separated the seedlings and transplanted them at the same time I transplanted most of the calendulas, and they're thriving. And the flowers are so cute!
The calendulas are FAT AND HAPPY AND NOT BLOOMING :|||||||||
Chabaud carnations. I stuck some seeds randomly in the same space I planted my alyssum, not expecting them to grow because my goodness, they took forever to sprout. And then all at once there they were, and they of course tangled their roots together and yesterday I was not feeling it, so they got very messily planted. I already watered them once this morning, but I went and watered them again after taking these pictures, because I've found that helps them a lot. I hope they survive. It usually takes at least a couple of days for them to recover so I'm not too worried, but if they don't make it... IT'S THEIR FAULT NOT MINE DDDDDDD:
The alyssum are doing better than the carnations! I hope they multiply and cover all the ground with lovely flowers. Outcompete the weeds, little babies!
When spring comes, I'm looking forward to planting even more flowers! Now that I know how to raise seedlings (instead of sowing directly into the ground, which hahahaaaaa has not yielded anything at all here) I want all the flowers. All of them!
This entry was originally posted at http://surpassingly.dreamwidth.org/204593.html. You may comment there using OpenID or your own DW account.
(Cy has been a thousand kinds of wonderful all throughout. It hurts my heart to think I'll be away from her.)
So right now I am doing this thing where I am railing against depression, clenched fist waving in the air, and so I am going to post... garden pictures! I raised everything in it (except the capsicum seedling, which was a birthday gift) from seed. And look, they are now alive and sprouting, blooming even! I have raised flowering plants from seed! When I'm able to enjoy the garden, I'm pretty proud of myself.
I raised the seeds in little pots and planters, and then I moved them to the ground when I was done procrastinating for weeks they were ready. This little garden patch was nothing but dry grass when we moved here. Now, of course, there are my plants, and a ton of enterprising weeds, most of which I'm not removing because I think they look nice. I had some reservations about planting in the ground, because I won't be able to take these plants with me when we move, but... it's okay. I'll just plant more stuff. And for some reason, having a garden in the ground, not just in containers, makes me happy. It gives me a feeling of rootedness.
My garden is mostly for cuteness, for looking at and babying and taking pleasure in the flowers. I have realized that I am someone who gardens mostly for mental health, because she thinks plants are beautiful, and I don't do as well when I garden because I want to grow crops. I made an attempt to choose seeds for herbs and things -- I have this one broccoli plant that's thriving, for instance, for all that it was actually a random seed that got accidentally moved from a pot to a different planter and absolutely loved that -- but I can't deny that my enthusiasm for gardening is pretty much motivated by cuteness. (When I played MMOs I used to have a motto, "cuteness > all" -- it's funny that twelve years later it still applies!) So even though I think Growstuff is great, it's not exactly for me.
So, there's... French marigolds, lobelia, Pacific calendula, a huge planter of parsley, random broccoli, baby alyssum, Chabaud carnations, coriander (some of which delightfully sprouted after I threw it all over the ground, I love coriander), tiny dill, even tinier parsley, my bbtrap, my ridiculous nerines, and tiny capsicum. When I'm home and the sun is out I sit on the steps with a cup of tea and ogle my plants. Now that they have flowers it's even nicer.
The marigolds are blooming. I think I have decided I must always have marigolds, season permitting. They are easy to raise, the leaves are pretty, the flowers are gorgeously vivid. Marigolds are a must-have thing.
I planted nerines -- the Winter Cheer variety -- as it turns out I am someone who really likes bulb flowers. (I have planted some tulips, hyacinths and freesia, although they won't be poking their heads out until spring of course.) I am a bit befuddled because though the leaves are sprouting very happily, the flowers... are not. There isn't even a stalk! Oh well. I'll give it some time. I'm happy to keep these nerines in their pot for years and years, as apparently they hate being disturbed. Maybe one year I'll get lucky and have flowers!
My bbtrap -- my little Venus Flytrap -- is going into dormancy, thus the black leaves. I thought about overwintering it inside, and making sure it stays awake and perky all throughout winter. But if you do that you shorten its lifespan, apparently, so I decided not to.
(Shoutout to
vi: bbtrap was very easy to care for! After I transplanted it to its bigger pot -- it's a mixture of peat moss and perlite -- I also moved it outside, and it's taken to that pretty well, I think. I haven't needed to water it for a while because it's been raining so much. I think I want another bbtrap eheeeee :D)
The lobelias surprised me. I hadn't intended to get them originally, but they were recommended buys for autumn planting, and they make good little companions/ground cover, the site said. They took ages (it felt like it, anyway) to sprout, and then suddenly there were heaps of them. I very carefully separated the seedlings and transplanted them at the same time I transplanted most of the calendulas, and they're thriving. And the flowers are so cute!
The calendulas are FAT AND HAPPY AND NOT BLOOMING :|||||||||
Chabaud carnations. I stuck some seeds randomly in the same space I planted my alyssum, not expecting them to grow because my goodness, they took forever to sprout. And then all at once there they were, and they of course tangled their roots together and yesterday I was not feeling it, so they got very messily planted. I already watered them once this morning, but I went and watered them again after taking these pictures, because I've found that helps them a lot. I hope they survive. It usually takes at least a couple of days for them to recover so I'm not too worried, but if they don't make it... IT'S THEIR FAULT NOT MINE DDDDDDD:
The alyssum are doing better than the carnations! I hope they multiply and cover all the ground with lovely flowers. Outcompete the weeds, little babies!
When spring comes, I'm looking forward to planting even more flowers! Now that I know how to raise seedlings (instead of sowing directly into the ground, which hahahaaaaa has not yielded anything at all here) I want all the flowers. All of them!
This entry was originally posted at http://surpassingly.dreamwidth.org/204593.html. You may comment there using OpenID or your own DW account.