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Smaug
June 12, 2018
First principle of gardening- it's not about buying stuff )I know that's un-American, but true). Some of this stuff may be helpful in easing first steps for novice gardeners (with money to burn), but you ultimately need to learn to do it for yourself. It's really much more satisfying anyway- we seem to be losing sight of the fact that a garden is an activity, not a possession. On a couple of specific points; seeds of common food plants are mostly very easy to germinate as long as they're reasonably fresh; most people will find it much easier to start their seeds than to adapt them to life in the real world. Most of the woody herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage etc.) are better grown from cuttings than seeds- seedlings will vary quite a bit as far as flavor). Southern exposures can be very tricky for container plants; unless you live in a dependably cool area, it can get blazing hot, particularly if you have heat reflecting from a wall or pavement. Not only will this cause problems with keeping the plants watered; most plants will shut down at high temperatures (low 90's for most sun loving vegetables) and simply not grow. High heat, particularly in combination with water stressed plants, can lead to explosive growth in pest populations, with spider mites leading the way, and once they get ahead of you they'll be the very devil to get rid of. If you have good, direct morning sun that will be a far better alternative in most cases. In a well designed home, the eaves should keep direct sun off of your windows in the summer, except in early morning and late afternoon. If you have ten hours of direct sun through a south facing window, you have my sympathy. The price of containers and soil can not be ignored- most of these plants will need a lot of room to thrive- tomatoes really need at least 15 gal. pots (which aren't really 15 gallons, but are pretty big)- and if you just go down to the nursery and buy them, this gets expensive fast. Breeders have come up with a lot of "patio tomatoes" (and are working on other veg) that take up less room, but the quality of the fruit is so far pretty disappointing. While it can be satisfying to pluck some herbs or salad greens from a window sill garden, do not count on high yields or great quality.
Susan M.
June 28, 2018
I had a wonderful south-facing window in Minnesota which got 10+ hours of sunlight every day (good for me as I have Major Depression and need the sun) and I grew a huge pot of rosemary and another of aloe on the wide windowsills which luckily came with the windows. I put them outside in front of the windows in the summer. I also grew lemon verbena (it gets YUUUGE) and avocados in large pots outside and put them on the floor in the living room back from the windows but still in the sun for the winter.
Everything throve!
Everything throve!
Smaug
July 25, 2018
Goes to show the problem with trying to write on gardening on a national scale- the low sun angles in Minnesota are far out of my experience, and will obviously change things considerably. Lemon verbena, by the way, is, in warmer areas, a large shrub to small tree-not your typical herb plant. Though rosemary can easily grow to 6' high and as much across.
Susan M.
July 25, 2018
It gets pretty hot & sunny, even in Minnesota, in the summer. As I said, I put the plants outside in the summer, but what about I really liked about the windows was the light I got in the winter. I could have started seeds in those windows, except that my cats liked to hang out on the windowsills themselves in the winter.
Thanks for assuring me that verbena gets that big. I let it grow just to see what would happen, but - wow! The building manager complained about it the following year, but by then I had learned to keep it in check.
Thanks for assuring me that verbena gets that big. I let it grow just to see what would happen, but - wow! The building manager complained about it the following year, but by then I had learned to keep it in check.
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