Amazing Race, Gardening
First of all, Yay!!! Amazing Race All Stars starts tonight!!!
It is very early spring here, whether the weather agrees, or not.
Sitting at my computer desk has been bothering my knee, so instead of being online this weekend, I've been gardening. For starters, I have been on my patio cleaning out pots (so I can repot the rose, tiger kitten and 1 geranium and have something to put cuttings in) and examining the plants left out there from last year's garden. The yarrow is up and fairly large. The sedum has started to come back. I think the salvia is beginning to, also. And there is lots and lots of nemesia everywhere, but there was last year, too. No pentas -- I discovered I should have brought them in to overwinter inside. :( But ... Snapdragons! They are already quite large. I bet they begin blooming early to mid-march. The biggest surprise was that one of my old petunia plants from last summer was still alive, after all this cold weather. I'll pitch it anyway, because it's rangey and leggy and I have too many new ones. The wisteria is heavily budded. I'm sure it will be happy in its new home where it has room to really grown once dad comes and gets it.
Gardening done today:
- Some patio pots cleaned
- Rose transplanted
- Tiger kitten begonia transplanted
- Small Pelargonium transplanted
- Cuttings made from large Pelargonium and put in potting mix to root
- Petunias thinned
- Assorted seeds planted in third biodome, including Hollyhock and Asclepius .
The third biodome has seeds I've had trouble with in the past and seeds that looked to tricky to bother with, or that I've never tried before. It's my I-don't-care biodome, because I'm assuming none of the plants will germinate. If even one does, I'll be happy.
The bad, bad, bad news:
*heaving sobs* I cannot find my copy of Botany for Gardners, or my copy of Success with Seeds (Karen Park's version -- there's another book by that name that also looks good). I ended up ordering new copies of both, but I am very upset with myself for misplacing them. I remember putting them somewhere that was supposed to be really handy, but I cannot for the life of me remember where that was, and I've searched everywhere.
The good news that resulted from the bad news:
I wish I could put this in that glitter font! I found a botany coloring book!!! There are biology and zoology coloring books I want as well, but I will wait on them. I also ordered American Horticultural Society Plant Propogation which has rave reviews on Amazon.com.
And finally, a preliminary product review:
Wonder Soil
This stuff is great fun and a very convenient form of potting soil. This review is preliminary because I do not yet know how well the plants will do in it, long term. The soil comes in wafers about 3 inches in circumference (I'm guesstimating, but they are much bigger than a quarter and much smaller than a CD, if that helps). You place wafers in a bowl or directly in the pot you're going to use, add water and voila! Soil! The wafers absorb the water and expand to about 10 times their original size, so dry they take up very little room. Plus your soil is already thoroughly moistened before you start working with it, so you don't have problems with soil settling or refusing to absorb water. It claims to hold moisture better than regular potting soil, but I cannot yet give an opinion of the claim. Best of all, though, it makes instant sterile mud pies!!! If you have kids you're trying to interest in gardening, this could be a really fun way to get and keep their attention for the seed planting and transplanting portions of the process.
One minor word of caution -- The company gives wafer:pot ratios in centimeters, and most American pots are measured in inches. Four centimeters is a lot less than 4 inches and you will need to take that into account when determining how many wafers to put in a pot, and how much to buy (as well as how much the stuff really costs). It's not cheap, and I found it more sensible to mix the stuff up in a big bowl and then fill pots rather than mixing it directly in the pot.
I'll let you know whether the plants I've put in it thrive or keel over after a few weeks.
It is very early spring here, whether the weather agrees, or not.
Sitting at my computer desk has been bothering my knee, so instead of being online this weekend, I've been gardening. For starters, I have been on my patio cleaning out pots (so I can repot the rose, tiger kitten and 1 geranium and have something to put cuttings in) and examining the plants left out there from last year's garden. The yarrow is up and fairly large. The sedum has started to come back. I think the salvia is beginning to, also. And there is lots and lots of nemesia everywhere, but there was last year, too. No pentas -- I discovered I should have brought them in to overwinter inside. :( But ... Snapdragons! They are already quite large. I bet they begin blooming early to mid-march. The biggest surprise was that one of my old petunia plants from last summer was still alive, after all this cold weather. I'll pitch it anyway, because it's rangey and leggy and I have too many new ones. The wisteria is heavily budded. I'm sure it will be happy in its new home where it has room to really grown once dad comes and gets it.
Gardening done today:
- Some patio pots cleaned
- Rose transplanted
- Tiger kitten begonia transplanted
- Small Pelargonium transplanted
- Cuttings made from large Pelargonium and put in potting mix to root
- Petunias thinned
- Assorted seeds planted in third biodome, including Hollyhock and Asclepius .
The third biodome has seeds I've had trouble with in the past and seeds that looked to tricky to bother with, or that I've never tried before. It's my I-don't-care biodome, because I'm assuming none of the plants will germinate. If even one does, I'll be happy.
The bad, bad, bad news:
*heaving sobs* I cannot find my copy of Botany for Gardners, or my copy of Success with Seeds (Karen Park's version -- there's another book by that name that also looks good). I ended up ordering new copies of both, but I am very upset with myself for misplacing them. I remember putting them somewhere that was supposed to be really handy, but I cannot for the life of me remember where that was, and I've searched everywhere.
The good news that resulted from the bad news:
I wish I could put this in that glitter font! I found a botany coloring book!!! There are biology and zoology coloring books I want as well, but I will wait on them. I also ordered American Horticultural Society Plant Propogation which has rave reviews on Amazon.com.
And finally, a preliminary product review:
Wonder Soil
This stuff is great fun and a very convenient form of potting soil. This review is preliminary because I do not yet know how well the plants will do in it, long term. The soil comes in wafers about 3 inches in circumference (I'm guesstimating, but they are much bigger than a quarter and much smaller than a CD, if that helps). You place wafers in a bowl or directly in the pot you're going to use, add water and voila! Soil! The wafers absorb the water and expand to about 10 times their original size, so dry they take up very little room. Plus your soil is already thoroughly moistened before you start working with it, so you don't have problems with soil settling or refusing to absorb water. It claims to hold moisture better than regular potting soil, but I cannot yet give an opinion of the claim. Best of all, though, it makes instant sterile mud pies!!! If you have kids you're trying to interest in gardening, this could be a really fun way to get and keep their attention for the seed planting and transplanting portions of the process.
One minor word of caution -- The company gives wafer:pot ratios in centimeters, and most American pots are measured in inches. Four centimeters is a lot less than 4 inches and you will need to take that into account when determining how many wafers to put in a pot, and how much to buy (as well as how much the stuff really costs). It's not cheap, and I found it more sensible to mix the stuff up in a big bowl and then fill pots rather than mixing it directly in the pot.
I'll let you know whether the plants I've put in it thrive or keel over after a few weeks.