Saturday, October 11, 2008

Planting, Round 2

Still lots of rain, and the soil mix is retaining plenty of water. I'm hoping it's not retaining TOO much water. Most of my plants look like they're thriving. The exception is the rosemary plant I bought at Lowes and transplanted. Slowly, slowly, lots of the leaves are turning brown and dropping off the plant. Is it the shock of transplanting, too much moisture, or maybe it was just a crummy plant? The reason I bought it was because I forgot to order rosemary seeds and couldn't find seeds locally either. I guess I'll have to keep an eye on it and see if it recovers.

My spearmint hadn't germinated at all. Probably a rookie mistake like covering the seeds (smaller than poppyseeds) with soil so sunlight didn't get through. So this morning I sprinkled a few seeds right on top of the soil. Cross your fingers! Yesterday at work, one of my coworkers was waxing poetically about making mojitos. If half of this spearmint takes off, I bet I'll have enough mint to give him a packet of mint so he can have a happy happy hour!

I only planted one square of tomatillos (one plant, really). Yesterday I was reading another gardening blog which mentioned that you needed at least one other tomatillo plant close by (pollination, most likely). I had a brief moment of panic about my lone plant. I did have one empty square in the same box with my tomatillo that was originally slated for more lettuce mix. This morning I planted another tomatillo seed there instead. The original plant has a three-week head start, but at least it'll have a pollinating pal.

I transplanted the (dead) cactus into my compost bucket. It was time. That square now has lettuce seeds. The three week lag time after my original planting day should give me a steady crop of lettuce when the first round of lettuce is done or bolts, whichever comes first.

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