gothwalk: (gardening)
gothwalk ([personal profile] gothwalk) wrote2005-03-29 10:15 pm

Gardening Report

Well, I planted carrots and peas. The carrots are now coming up in pairs of thin grass-like leaves, and the peas are pushing up small clumps of leaves. This initial success pleases me, and so I planted some spring onions today, and also buried a Spanish onion that was starting to grow in the veg basket - more to see what happens than anything else. I have tomatoes, not for planting until a little later in the year, some very experimental gourd things, and lettuce, both also for a bit later.

For the peas, I'm wondering what kind of support they'll need. They're growing in pots by a wall, between two posts of the pergola, so I can run waxed string or wire back and forth in bars or a zig-zag pattern - I think that should do. My grandfather used to run parallel strings about a foot apart down a row of poles. They were bright orange when he put them up, and pale pink by autumn - the strings, that is, not the peas.

I also tidied up the jasmine in the corner, and went about training stray shoots back around the pergola post they're supposed to be climbing. The wisteria on the other house-side post is still looking rather miserable, though. We have two wisterias - the one in front of the house, on a north-west facing wall, is very very healthy, and tries to get in through the bedroom windows in summer. The one on the pergola, on a south-west corner, with a pole to climb, is a miserable specimen, which comes into leaf later, loses the leaves earlier, and never really gets all that green. We trimmed it back last year, having read that it's encouraged thus, but it doesn't seem to have done much. I'd blame the limited area of soil it has, but other plants take root in there regularly and thrive.

I like this gardening thing. This really shouldn't surprise me.

[identity profile] kamaitachi.livejournal.com 2005-03-30 01:05 am (UTC)(link)
My guess on light. Does one of the two get more direct sunlight? Is one spot significantly hotter than the other? Some plants are amazingly picky about that.
ext_34769: (gardening)

[identity profile] gothwalk.livejournal.com 2005-03-30 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
I think the failing plant gets more light and is probably in a warmer, more sheltered spot. Presumably, this is not what it likes...

[identity profile] kamaitachi.livejournal.com 2005-03-30 04:45 am (UTC)(link)
It probably likes a little more shadowy spot. I had a coleus some years back, which I mistakenly took out on the balcony for the summer to get more light and air. It lost all its color and withered, eventually becoming nothing more than a twig in a pot. Some plants just prefer shade, though you'd imagine it's "the more light, the better" with all of them.

[identity profile] springinautumn.livejournal.com 2005-03-30 06:38 am (UTC)(link)
The carrots are now coming up in pairs of thin grass-like leaves, and the peas are pushing up small clumps of leaves.

Pictures please. As I already asked of [livejournal.com profile] inannajones.