The comfrey is NOT comfrey!!
It is something called "Green Alkanet" and it was originally brought in to be a part of Victorian gardens and the root makes a red dye, sometimes used as a substitute for henna. Now, it's just a pain in the garden. Worst of all, it wasn't successful in Victorian gardens because the flower wasn't big enough :o
I returned to the ivy in the front/street-side space. Got all as much of the ivy as is possible, right now. AND next door neighbor helped me by climbing down in a window well and lopping of the tree(?) that was growing there. It had gotten very tall to reach ground level then it started sprouting branches and leaves and continued growing to almost outside my window (~10'). Well it's done! YAY, OH, YAY!!! That thing was hideous.
I'm having second thoughts about the bamboo. It's gonna require water, in all that I'd read that hadn't really been mentioned. So I'd rather opt for some things that are more native, less water-needy.
In better news, I may have been *under* watering the rosemary. The gardening guy's recommendation? Put water in the sink, put the plants directly into it, no pot. Let them soak until they are heavy with water, their soil expands around the roots, re pot. In this case, I used to soaking to transplant them into their intended terracotta pot out back. 2 parts old tomato compost mixed with 1 part sand. Planted the watered rosemary plants in and added one small bottle (1 quart?) of water to see if it drained or absorbed. I think it absorbed or was draining very slowly because I didn't see any come out the bottom. Only time will tell now.
Best of all today I transplanted the last of the beans from their seeding pots and started transplanting the tomato plants. They have all finally started looking tomato-y. I didn't have enough pots for all of them. Everything went out into the garden on shelves.
I think the next big mission is to find enough affordable compost and a large quantity of packing popcorn for the large pots that will become the ultimate home of most of many of these things.
My 4 large pots = 40 litres compost, 2/3rds full.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Ah, HA!!!!!
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2 comments:
Hi Sharon, what a wonderful blog. I love looking at your lovely photographs (with no garden furniture!). The foxes are lovely, I'm so glad they keep coming back each year. You don't seem to have mentioned the slugs too much yet. We're al fine. We are trying to create a roof garden here in Mexico, but the weeks of scorching sun, followed my torrential tropical rain and wind have made it difficult. Any ideas? Thomas x
Hi Thomas! So glad you found this and are enjoying it. Hope you see this note. I have some furniture out there now. Just one chair. Read the latest entry for more on garden furniture. Funny you mentioned slugs. They are all over. Snails too.
Not sure what to suggest about a roof garden. I've read the biggest problem is often wind. But in your case it's heat and too much sun. Have you considered creating an arbor? That would give filtered light, some shade for sitting under, flowers like wisteria or jasmine, maybe even grapes. I've recently read about some "self-watering" containers that are good for roof gardens. They are cheap to make. I'll try to find links. I need your email address though.
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