Well, after my excitement with the seedlings popping up, I was fully motivated to work on my transplants, which I had purchased the night before with some co-workers after a good ol' American meal (burgers, fries, chocolate malts). But, it was cold outside, well for me, don't worry about the plants. So I geared up-- tank top, tshirt, thermal, sweatshirt, sweatpants, knee high socks, and tennis shoes. READY!
As you can see, the patio was in a bit of dis-array. Plants everywhere, pots everywhere, soil bags galore. But I just pushed on. Aided by Magneti, my darling 2 year old orange tabby, we began to prep the pots.
I won't bore you with the all the details, but some highlights and learnings...
Tomatoes were first. I got this "best tomato cage ever" thing from Home
Depot and it may be the best but it was overkill
for my little tomato plant. I ended up with Champion Tomato plant and
and it is so small compared to this GIANT cage. So I improvised, taking a key from Mom's book, who is the queen of improvising and making things work. I just took the twist ties from the cage packaging and molded all three posts together to make one big stake, which it turns out the Bountiful Container ladies recommend anyways, go figure. So, don't waste your money on a crazy cage if you're not planting a ton of tomatoes. It didn't even fit in my pot (I threw the basil in here too, in case you're wondering).
Next, the blueberries. They were my last plant to pot, as all the other had gone smoothly with fertilizing, planting, watering and arranging. I ended up running out of soil (you see how big that pot is!) and made an emergency Home Depot run. Another bag of soil, some moss (which I had forgotten) and a rolly-thing. Now, a rolly-thing, you may ask? Well, I keep having nightmares of ruining my blueberries (which I am the most excited about, save the mint) with root rot. The ladies of The BC (Bountiful Container) constantly talk about water sitting under the plants and how susceptible blueberries are to root rot. So, with a solid concrete floor beneath my pots I figured it best to prop it up and give it some good drainage space. Hence the rolly-thingy. Super cheap and added bonus, I can roll that giant pot around instead of lugging it everywhere and throwing out my back. Yay! Oh the moss? Helps keep moisture in and makes the pot look gorgeous with that green on top, don't you think?
So, it took me about 4 hours to do it all and then clean up. I think my patio looks amazing, but I'll let you be the judge.
Don't be jealous, Devon, Chicago weather will allow your planting soon. Plus, I think the rainy Seattle weather will help keep everything moist, so I don't forget.
If only it were warmer. I can just imagine myself sitting out with all my greenery sipping a cup of tea and watching the water with Magneti and good book by my side. It's a really, really wonderful feeling. Now we just sit back and watch it grow.
No comments:
Post a Comment