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Some things I've done in the garden this month:
I've been reconditioning old potting soil. I had to sift it anyway to get out the LECA that I used in my pots (mixed with soil) in 2019. So I sifted the soil into a barrel (the one B used for the electrolysis years ago) and added perlite, then added the last of my ladybug granular fertilizer. I mixed that all up and used it to pot up the mint and rue we planted this year (on Holy Saturday we put in our herb garden, but we put the rest in the ground.) Oh and I used it to pot the celery we got last week, along with some rabbit manure mixed in.
I was out of fertilizer then, so I bought a big bag of microlife 6-2-4. I sifted more soil, and mixed in some perlite and microlife and, since i was cleaning the rabbit litter box, some rabbit poo. I used that to repot my tree morning glory, Ive been asking B for months to dig a hole so I could put it in the ground and he hasn't, and it was dying. I ended up having to cut the roots to get it out of its pot as it had grown through the bottom and made a big knot. So I put thjat in a big pot, and I also repotted one of the plumerias.
Unpotting that plumeria and sifting the LECA was a mad bitch. I knew something was wrong but I did not expect that inside the pot I would find just mud and LECA. It was sticky and gross. There were no fine roots alive, and the larger roots were live but easy to tear. I think it was on the verge of root rot. Once I got almost all of the LECA off the root ball was much smaller than expected. Thank goodness I decided to repot this year.
Why I knew something was wrong: it's April and the plumerias haven't grown new leaves. I thought the soil was depleted of nutrients, not broken down to mud. I decided to prune them this year to keep them shorter and get thicker trunks. So I pruned last week. Pruning them made them more manageable for repotting too. I will repot the second plumeria later this week after I mix up more soil.
I couldn't find leaf celery anywhere in town so I ordered some from Etsy. Worth it! I bought 4 plants, one of them isn't doing well so I might order 5 more, to replace it and have another big pot of it. We love that stuff and we can always feed any extra herbs to BUNDOR.
I need to repot some other things. Right before the freeze my sole remaining begonia had diminished to one single live stem, so I just pulled it and brought it inside to root in some water. It's ready to pot now. Also need to pot some cuttings from my peperomia that survived BUNDOR, and it's probably time to repot Figgy Smalls. I should probably repot my dwarf jade and my aloe, come to think of it. And I definitely need to repot my sage or even better, put it in the ground.
It's nice to sift soil and get dirty and plant things. I really like being able to reuse old potting soil, maybe it's silly because potting soil is cheap, but I hate just dumping it out. Adding some perlite and fertilizer seems the way to go, to me at least.
I am trying rosemary again this year, I've put it in a clay pot, with some soil but mostly LECA, and it's on the patio so it can't get drowned in rain. So far it's growing apace. I am a killer of rosemary but I had a good run in 2019 when I planted it in mostly bark, but it got rained on. Maybe this will be my year!
The grass I seeded last year is hanging in there but many weeds are kind of blocking it. I think I might hire someone to come rip them all out and then I will throw down more seed.
Plumerias seem to thrive on neglect (at least mine do) but they still need a little tlc now and then.
I've been reconditioning old potting soil. I had to sift it anyway to get out the LECA that I used in my pots (mixed with soil) in 2019. So I sifted the soil into a barrel (the one B used for the electrolysis years ago) and added perlite, then added the last of my ladybug granular fertilizer. I mixed that all up and used it to pot up the mint and rue we planted this year (on Holy Saturday we put in our herb garden, but we put the rest in the ground.) Oh and I used it to pot the celery we got last week, along with some rabbit manure mixed in.
I was out of fertilizer then, so I bought a big bag of microlife 6-2-4. I sifted more soil, and mixed in some perlite and microlife and, since i was cleaning the rabbit litter box, some rabbit poo. I used that to repot my tree morning glory, Ive been asking B for months to dig a hole so I could put it in the ground and he hasn't, and it was dying. I ended up having to cut the roots to get it out of its pot as it had grown through the bottom and made a big knot. So I put thjat in a big pot, and I also repotted one of the plumerias.
Unpotting that plumeria and sifting the LECA was a mad bitch. I knew something was wrong but I did not expect that inside the pot I would find just mud and LECA. It was sticky and gross. There were no fine roots alive, and the larger roots were live but easy to tear. I think it was on the verge of root rot. Once I got almost all of the LECA off the root ball was much smaller than expected. Thank goodness I decided to repot this year.
Why I knew something was wrong: it's April and the plumerias haven't grown new leaves. I thought the soil was depleted of nutrients, not broken down to mud. I decided to prune them this year to keep them shorter and get thicker trunks. So I pruned last week. Pruning them made them more manageable for repotting too. I will repot the second plumeria later this week after I mix up more soil.
I couldn't find leaf celery anywhere in town so I ordered some from Etsy. Worth it! I bought 4 plants, one of them isn't doing well so I might order 5 more, to replace it and have another big pot of it. We love that stuff and we can always feed any extra herbs to BUNDOR.
I need to repot some other things. Right before the freeze my sole remaining begonia had diminished to one single live stem, so I just pulled it and brought it inside to root in some water. It's ready to pot now. Also need to pot some cuttings from my peperomia that survived BUNDOR, and it's probably time to repot Figgy Smalls. I should probably repot my dwarf jade and my aloe, come to think of it. And I definitely need to repot my sage or even better, put it in the ground.
It's nice to sift soil and get dirty and plant things. I really like being able to reuse old potting soil, maybe it's silly because potting soil is cheap, but I hate just dumping it out. Adding some perlite and fertilizer seems the way to go, to me at least.
I am trying rosemary again this year, I've put it in a clay pot, with some soil but mostly LECA, and it's on the patio so it can't get drowned in rain. So far it's growing apace. I am a killer of rosemary but I had a good run in 2019 when I planted it in mostly bark, but it got rained on. Maybe this will be my year!
The grass I seeded last year is hanging in there but many weeds are kind of blocking it. I think I might hire someone to come rip them all out and then I will throw down more seed.
Plumerias seem to thrive on neglect (at least mine do) but they still need a little tlc now and then.
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