janestarz | Apartment Garden: Persistent, Miraculous, Life!

The chestnuts have been outside for several weeks now, though my tomatoes still vie for a sunny spot in the windowsill (now 7cm high and growing). I hope they can go outside in a few weeks, but for now it's still too cold at night.

Since our cats enjoy the Cyperus alternifolius I have decided to make several more. The Cyperus alternifolius is better known as "plu" in this household - which is slang for umbrella. The umbrellaplant is not hazardous to cats, and they've been known to eat it. Dusty actually begged for it last time I took it from the sill. It's easily multiplied, so I made three cuttings, put them upside down in a jam jar, and I just planted them. I'm re-using the malnutricious soil from last year's tomato pots, but that's not an issue as the plu is probably looking for rather different nutrients than the tomato was, the soil has been out in the open for most of autumn and winter, and we use plant food when we water the indoors plants.

As I was digging in the large 20 liter pot that holds the old earth from last year, I ran into a rather big, white root-like thing. I carefully dug it up and ended up with at least 20 cm of white shoot that was obviously looking for sunlight, a big root of about equal size, branching left and right, and the remains of... an acorn.
I guess this means NoKey's oak is going to have a fosterling...

I planted it in a jar, carfully curling the long root in the bottom and extending the white shoot over the soil. I hope it will survive. But then, it was buried pretty deep in malnutricious soil. It was at least 20 cm deep and still reaching for the sun. Persistant little bugger! Of course, compared to the forest, there's hardly any competition on our balcony when it comes to oak saplings.

So, three plu's have been planted, a second oak tree has been planted, and my chestnut trees think it's autumn. The cold spring nights have wreaked havoc on their system, but I saw new buds on their stems, so perhaps they'll just pass into spring like the rest of the wildlife out there. NoKey's oak is pretty amazing, more leaves than ever, and our lavender has survived the snows quite well. It's got dozens of flowers, but little scent so far.

While our herbs (basil, chives, parsley) refuse to grow any higher than 3 cm, the wineberry is flourishing. I repotted it several weeks back and it seems to enjoy the new root space. The berry-bearing branch is longer than 1 meter and churning out side-branches, and the new growth that will bear fruit next year is off to a promising start. For a small 2x1 apartment garden, we're not doing so badly!