The spring itch
Mar. 19th, 2011 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzWith these lovely sunny vibes, we often find housewives cleaning their homes. The sun is shining in, life is continuing to happen to us, and sooner or later you'll have to pick up where you left off.
Especially that nasty sunshine... it makes the dirt on the windows shine and just when you've cleaned it off you find that there's dust everywhere.
I am quite different. As soon as the sun shines inside and the air smells of spring, I realise that I'm wasting valuable germination space in my windowsill and OMG I haven't planted or sown anything yet!
My father would be...ah, who cares anyway. His philosophy: if I didn't sow my tomatoes come February I'm late, and nothing can be done to save the Oh Noes the Tomatoes from certain doom, which is a gardening ethic I've never understood.
After all, in October when the weather changes it's mildew and rot for anything but the trees out there, so the tomatoes are doomed regardless and anyway, I didn't even end up eating half of them last year.
So this year we're trying a different approach. Permaculture blogs and websites say that you can work miracles with south-facing balconies and vines and other climbing berries, so last autumn I threaded my wineberry down the balcony side so it would catch the sun along the length.
Tomatoes are a good option if it's even marginally sunny, because all the concrete will work like a greenhouse, keeping temperatures up through the night. Just as long as it's sunny and not raining. But then, I don't like tomatoes that much, and I'm not planting any this year.
Instead, my mother's two large (30l?) planters are now filled with parsley and chives, and I've just picked up an additional 60l of earth to fill the other two planters from last year with. I'm going to have herbs out the wazoo this year in the hope that they'll survive this winter and I can eat from them until we manage to eventually, buy ourselves a garden with a house attached to it.
The oak is coming, the chestnuts aren't quite ready yet, the lavender died, and the wild blackberry we snuck out of the downstairs jungle before the concrete make-over is still undecided, but I've got violets, dill, basil and mint ready to break out in germination all over.
I've even replanted our Dragon Tree to a larger pot.
Especially that nasty sunshine... it makes the dirt on the windows shine and just when you've cleaned it off you find that there's dust everywhere.
I am quite different. As soon as the sun shines inside and the air smells of spring, I realise that I'm wasting valuable germination space in my windowsill and OMG I haven't planted or sown anything yet!
My father would be...ah, who cares anyway. His philosophy: if I didn't sow my tomatoes come February I'm late, and nothing can be done to save the Oh Noes the Tomatoes from certain doom, which is a gardening ethic I've never understood.
After all, in October when the weather changes it's mildew and rot for anything but the trees out there, so the tomatoes are doomed regardless and anyway, I didn't even end up eating half of them last year.
So this year we're trying a different approach. Permaculture blogs and websites say that you can work miracles with south-facing balconies and vines and other climbing berries, so last autumn I threaded my wineberry down the balcony side so it would catch the sun along the length.
Tomatoes are a good option if it's even marginally sunny, because all the concrete will work like a greenhouse, keeping temperatures up through the night. Just as long as it's sunny and not raining. But then, I don't like tomatoes that much, and I'm not planting any this year.
Instead, my mother's two large (30l?) planters are now filled with parsley and chives, and I've just picked up an additional 60l of earth to fill the other two planters from last year with. I'm going to have herbs out the wazoo this year in the hope that they'll survive this winter and I can eat from them until we manage to eventually, buy ourselves a garden with a house attached to it.
The oak is coming, the chestnuts aren't quite ready yet, the lavender died, and the wild blackberry we snuck out of the downstairs jungle before the concrete make-over is still undecided, but I've got violets, dill, basil and mint ready to break out in germination all over.
I've even replanted our Dragon Tree to a larger pot.
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 10:29 am (UTC)They love sunshine and regular watering.
Last year we had about 6 plants that gave us about 20 peppers (not as big as the supermarket ones, but enough for dinner), now I have about 60 seedlings. I plan on giving some away after they've proven to have survived the re-potting.
Yay for spring and sunshine!
~Brenda~
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 11:21 am (UTC)