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More Gardening
18 February 2017 10:29 pmThis is a thing that's going to be happening regularly every weekend into April, actually. When you're planting seeds, you have to go by the number of weeks each packet says it must be planted before/after the last average frost of the winter. Which can be ANYONE'S GUESS because "spring" is the craziest season. Today hit 80 (again) but there was frost on Thursday morning. Pfui.
I stopped at Home Depot and made the mistake of looking at the herbs. I'm feeling daring because the parsley I planted last fall is still going strong, having survived even the two separate occasions of temps in the teens. (Which the Goodwin Creek lavender did not. Hardy to 20 degrees, and they meant it. But I may try again, since it survived 100+ plus August days with watering only twice a week. That's a lot more certain than such hard freezes.) The parsley died back a bit, but not totally, and it's already coming back strong. To my surprise the thyme I planted then is also trucking along. Not thriving particularly, but still honestly impressive since I doubt it gets a whole lot of sunlight.
I'd been thinking I also wanted to some mint for recipes, but I know that mint in a flower bed is a baaad idea. And not sure the thyme will live long enough (or get big enough) to be a reliable source for cooking. So I came home with a mint, a German thyme, and an unspecified lavender (I keep trying!). I was proud of myself for putting the mint in a medium-sized pot. I plan to just set it in the front flower bed so it will be acclimatized and look pretty (nice cobalt pot) but unable to take over the world. The German thyme may do the same; not sure. I put it in a small rose-pink pot for now.
The lavender I did have to stick in the ground, though. I really took a risk with planting it so early in the year. (It was SO HARD to not go through Callaway's when I stopped at Trader Joe's next door! But I knew I would want to buy plants, although a warm February has very little guarantee that it will stay warm.) I'm going to have to keep an eye on the weather and cover the lavender if/when it gets cold again. I hope it grows well - I do love lavender.
I stopped at Home Depot and made the mistake of looking at the herbs. I'm feeling daring because the parsley I planted last fall is still going strong, having survived even the two separate occasions of temps in the teens. (Which the Goodwin Creek lavender did not. Hardy to 20 degrees, and they meant it. But I may try again, since it survived 100+ plus August days with watering only twice a week. That's a lot more certain than such hard freezes.) The parsley died back a bit, but not totally, and it's already coming back strong. To my surprise the thyme I planted then is also trucking along. Not thriving particularly, but still honestly impressive since I doubt it gets a whole lot of sunlight.
I'd been thinking I also wanted to some mint for recipes, but I know that mint in a flower bed is a baaad idea. And not sure the thyme will live long enough (or get big enough) to be a reliable source for cooking. So I came home with a mint, a German thyme, and an unspecified lavender (I keep trying!). I was proud of myself for putting the mint in a medium-sized pot. I plan to just set it in the front flower bed so it will be acclimatized and look pretty (nice cobalt pot) but unable to take over the world. The German thyme may do the same; not sure. I put it in a small rose-pink pot for now.
The lavender I did have to stick in the ground, though. I really took a risk with planting it so early in the year. (It was SO HARD to not go through Callaway's when I stopped at Trader Joe's next door! But I knew I would want to buy plants, although a warm February has very little guarantee that it will stay warm.) I'm going to have to keep an eye on the weather and cover the lavender if/when it gets cold again. I hope it grows well - I do love lavender.