Plant Babies

I don't have a green thumb. It's pretty black. I've had a lot of failed outdoor "experiments" over the years.

Astilbe: I thought we had a shady spot in our landscaping so I bought astilbe to plant. Little did I know that although this location received shade in the winter time, it received lots of afternoon sun in the summer time. Tricky huh? Blame the angle of the sun and the changing seasons...Unfortunately, the astilbe didn't make it because it was too hot. 

Gardenia: We bought a clearance pot of gardenia from the store and I took it home. I revived it and actually saw some new greenery starting to grow from the existing branches. Unfortunately, we had another frost that spring and I did not protect the plant properly so despite trying, it didn't make it. 

The nice part about experiments is that you just start over and try again whether it be the same or something different. So this spring, we tried again, and we tried something different.

1. Nasturtiums

Last Christmas, we visited our arboretum for their special winter displays. They also had a Santa's village set up for the children to explore. At the Santa's village, they were handing out packets of seeds in one of the houses. These seeds were nasturtiums. I kept them in a shelf, and then this spring, we planted them. I wasn't expecting much, but I figured you can't go wrong with good soil, water, and sunlight. Sure enough, they sprouted and started growing really well. 

Now I did start to notice that the leaves were getting eaten. I picked off the caterpillars for a day or two, but then I did some research online and read that gardeners will actually purposely plant nasturtiums next to edibles as to lure them away from the true vegetables they want to eat. After that, I figured I'd let the caterpillars nibble those all they wanted.

The flowers haven't bloomed yet but we had all seven seeds germinate. 100% success! I call that a win. Later in the summer I'll have to do an update once the flowers come out.

2. Bell Peppers

Last fall, I'd started saving seeds from bell peppers. I dried them out and then saved them in a ziplock bag in our refrigerator to keep them cool and dormant until it was planting time. This March, I pulled them out and started a little tray of them inside. I watered them for a few weeks and waited.

Nothing happened. After a few weeks of watering what looked like just a tray of dirt, I gave up on them. 

A few weeks after that, we received some green onion plants from a friend and I decided to take them home and plant them. While getting them set up in a pot, I decided to take the tray of dirt and bell pepper seeds from inside and add them to the pot. After all, if the seeds weren't germinating, I didn't want to waste the soil either. So in everything went into my pot.

Well, the green onions didn't transplant well. I'm pretty sure they're alive but they weren't growing. The roots are probably spreading underneath and forming new plants which will eventually grow, but right now they just look like an ugly mess.

However, the pepper seeds that I thought were duds were actually sprouting...rapidly....almost every single seed germinated. I didn't count but when you see an entire colony of little seed sprouts popping up, you start to get really excited and panicky.

I'll probably get criticized by a bunch of gardeners out there as to how I started my peppers from seed, but remember, I thought this was a tray of dirt with dead seeds. I was not expecting them all to grow...hence the not seeding them in their little trays correctly. 

So now I have about 50 pepper plants growing in one pot which is way too many, but they're also too delicate to transplant right now. I've been thinning them out periodically and hope to get them down to the strongest 10-20 plants. 

Thinning them out has been super counterintuitive for me because I feel bad plucking a perfectly good sprout out of the pot simply because I don't have room to grow it. However, I have to keep reminding myself that this is part of the growing process. I'd rather have 5 really great, strong plants than 50 mediocre ones. Peppers also don't play nice with each other and they want their own space and nutrients. So thinning it is. 

3. Thai Basil

I've always wanted to grow Thai basil. It seems to be a decently easy herb to grow and we use it by the handful in specific recipes. When I buy it in the store, it costs me about $3 per recipe. Friends have given me their surplus from their garden in previous years as well, but I've wanted to try growing my own. 

Sometimes you can start them from cuttings. I've never been successful with this method. I think it has something to do with my cuttings having bloomed already. This spring, I finally decided to buy some seeds and plant them. We were already planting nasturtiums and bell peppers. I figured, why not add a third plant to the mix? (Not the same logic with having a third child....) So the seeds arrived and I planted them. This time I was smart enough not to sprinkle all 100 seeds into the pot because I'd seen what had happened with my bell peppers. Instead, I carefully placed 4 holes of 2 seeds each into my pot. That way, if at least one of each group sprouted, I could easily divide 4 plants later. 

The seed packet said sprouts would emerge within 6-10 days. I saw sprouts after 5 days! They're the tiniest little bitty sprouts, but they're there! 

I spy 2 tiny sprouts.

We joke these are my plant babies. My husband has caught me outside staring at my pots of plants on multiple occasions. And my morning routine now includes bringing out a jug of water to hydrate them. Gardening is no joke, seriously. 

On a different note, we finally decided on doing our patio. We've never been this excited to spend thousands of dollars before. 😂