I wish I knew! I just got him as a 'I'm having a sad day and the local DIY store has a sale on houseplants' impulse buy. His original label never mentioned his breed, only his species XDD
Also, in case you doubted Tiamat's size, I gave everyone a bit of a tidy and trim today and culled some of her stemlings. I also took a pic of her pulled out of her niche there with her kids trailing down the draws to their full length. She looks much more impressive with her good side facing the camera! ^_^
Remind me to post pictures of my newest seedlings soon! I have rosemary, tarragon, marjoram, mint, and onions plus I cleared a spot and planted mustard greens (i assume they were mustard greens?? They were in an unlabeled 1-quart ziploc bag). I also need to go thru my heirloom tomato seeds and pick out the ones i want to start, because I'm gonna have to get them going soon if I want them ready to plant by april.
Started my earliest seed trays! This week in seeds is Broccoli, Cauliflower, Red Cabbage, a salad mix of Lettuce, Spinach, Rainbow Chard, and a couple different Tomato varieties (red and yellow pear and Black Krim) and some Walla Walla onions. Once again I'm a couple weeks late with the onions, but the last two weeks of February are the weeks of my daughter and her cousin's birthdays respectively so not a good time to start projects when I'm trying to do kid birthday stuff. I don't think it will mater that much in the end. I should have started some peppers with the toms buuuut I'm going to save that for next week. Because I lazy. And already spent a bunch of money adding new lights to the grow tower and a timer so I don't have to remember to plug and unplug the whole thing. So next week, a couple bell pepper varieties, maybe also some eggplant are going in the indoor starting trays, planting potatoes in containers, and my sources say I should be able to plant snap peas and beets as direct sow as long as the ground is workable. Cross your fingers on the weather holding out for me, lads.
Since it’s starting to warm up here I got an itch to start gardening. Since it’s still to early for outdoor plants I got two adorable little plants. A golden porthos and a tiny cactus that needs a bigger pot but all mine are too big.
S p r o u t s Spoiler MINT (Feat. My aloe plant Alejandro and a baby jade plant that i haven't named yet) AND MARJORAM My marjoram is getting TOO LEGGY i need to give it MORE S U N My cucumber and birdhouse gourd plants ALSO just sprouted but I didn't get a pic of them yet!!
Also I started some seedlings and some of them are almost ready to plant out! I got a self watering seed starting tray this year and it's been really helpful for my low spoon self. The really vigorous tall ones are brandy boy tomatoes. A couple of the ones that look empty have chamomile that's too small to see yet, and some of them haven't popped up yet because I started them late. Also making an appearance here is the mint plant i pirated by cutting off a sprig that was invading under the neighbor's fence and putting it in some dirt.
I'm cryin my poor cucumber plants died when I put them outside to get some Real Sunshine because I guess I left them out too long and they scorched :( I was gonna harden them off over the course of a week or so but i guess it was just Too Much for their delicate baby plant bodies. Luckily tho they germinate very quickly so it shouldn't be a problem for me to start a couple more plants this week when the signs are right (moon is in Cancer 20th and 21st y'all,, eye emojis)
Does anyone have any recommendations for plants that would work on a north-facing balcony in zone 5b? It feels like a lot of restrictions but I'm hoping to have at least a couple plants.
Ivy, philodendron, or a spider plant could work well, and ferns. There's also some types of dracaena that would do well, provided the nightime temps stayed above 45-50!
That's my situation as well. I've successfully grown cucumbers, tomatoes, morning glory, and a bunch of other stuff, so don't be discouraged by your location! Eta: this was my balcony last summer
I was thinking a couple herbs, like mint and cilantro. I love morning glory but we're not going to be here very long and I wouldn't want to leave it for the next tenants to deal with. My SO has never grown anything before, so something forgiving would be best.
Well mint is great for balconies, it's practically unkillable. I haven't grown cilantro but iirc it's pretty easy too. I've had good luck with basil, it's slightly more finicky but not too bad so long as you keep up with the watering. Rosemary and lavender are both trickier, I've heard they can do ok with a quick draining soil (like a cactus soil) but I haven't had a lot of luck personally. I'm going to be trying to do echinacea and chamomile this year, so wish me luck :) I'll report back on how that goes
I spent all my money at the spring garden fair but it was so fuckin worth it because this is the current plant situation at my house now
And so the yearly battle with the squirrels begins. This is the first volley, we'll see how they respond. So far I'm down a tomato.
Not sure how practical it would be for you, but the squirrels loved my sister's strawberry plants, so my dad made a rectangular prism wooden frame with chicken wire stapled to it. It gave the plants some height to grow while not being easily accessible to the squirrels. I'm not sure why they never tried digging under; maybe it just seemed like too much work when there were other gardens to pick from?
