Very important tip that I forgot: if you're having trouble with your garden, grow annuals.
"Annuals", as the name entails, go through their whole lifecycle in one year. So you go from seed in the spring to flowers in the summer to seed production in the fall. If you let the seeds fall where they may, they can grow again in the same spot the next year and give the illusion of the same plant coming up again and again. That's what happens with Insanity Plant. Morning glories are annuals, so Insanity Plant isn't the same plant I seeded in 2009, or the same one I had in 2010. It's a new plant every year, descended from the one the year before. (In fact it's not "a" plant but a large number of separate vines all tangled together, but they're like Borg, really.)
Perennials, on the other hand, live more than two years. Trees, for example, are perennials. So this poses several gardening challenges. First of all many perennials don't bloom the first year; in fact many of them are supposed to be seeded in the fall, not in the spring. So you don't get the satisfaction of having something to show for your efforts. Second, if they die, you're a lot more invested in them. An annual is an annual; you knew it was gonna die by the end of summer anyway, so what does it matter if it dies? But a perennial can outlive you. Some peonies can live more than a hundred years. There are trees 5000 years old. So if your perennial dies, it wasn't supposed to, which means you screwed up, which makes you sad and demoralized.
And third, you have to find a way to winter your perennials. If you live somewhere that doesn't freeze in winter, it's probably easy. Anywhere else, either you can plant perennials that are hardy in your climate, or you're gonna have issues. I'm in hardiness zone 0a, which means not a lot of anything can survive the winter up here. Not only that, perennials that are hardy in the ground are not hardy in containers on a seventh-floor balcony. That's part of why my Jungle never succeeds, actually. A lot of what I throw in there at random is perennials, and I've never bothered wintering it properly. This year, because I've planted many perennials on purpose, I'm hatching a plan to see them through the winter. I have no idea if it will work, but I'll try. All my other perennials are gonna be inside, meaning pansies, oriental lily, English daisies, and all the trees. The lemon trees are never going to winter outside, obviously, but the chokecherries will if I can make the Jungle survive this winter.
Now the thing is though, plants need to be dormant in winter. So normally if you have perennials in containers, you put them in your garage, where it's most dark and cool, and they sleep until spring. Since I don't have a garage, I have to find a way to make my perennials hibernate at room temperature. Hmmmm... Well I know the lemons do it, because they work off the hours of daylight, but I have no idea how everyone else will behave. The plan so far is to move things into my hallway as they go dormant. Then they'll be at least out of the sunlight - and in my feng shui again, but oh well. We'll call them "decor" and not "clutter" and pretend they're energizing my relationship luck.
So all this to say, if you have any gardening troubles, stick with annuals, then at least you won't have to deal with the winter issues.
"Annuals", as the name entails, go through their whole lifecycle in one year. So you go from seed in the spring to flowers in the summer to seed production in the fall. If you let the seeds fall where they may, they can grow again in the same spot the next year and give the illusion of the same plant coming up again and again. That's what happens with Insanity Plant. Morning glories are annuals, so Insanity Plant isn't the same plant I seeded in 2009, or the same one I had in 2010. It's a new plant every year, descended from the one the year before. (In fact it's not "a" plant but a large number of separate vines all tangled together, but they're like Borg, really.)
Perennials, on the other hand, live more than two years. Trees, for example, are perennials. So this poses several gardening challenges. First of all many perennials don't bloom the first year; in fact many of them are supposed to be seeded in the fall, not in the spring. So you don't get the satisfaction of having something to show for your efforts. Second, if they die, you're a lot more invested in them. An annual is an annual; you knew it was gonna die by the end of summer anyway, so what does it matter if it dies? But a perennial can outlive you. Some peonies can live more than a hundred years. There are trees 5000 years old. So if your perennial dies, it wasn't supposed to, which means you screwed up, which makes you sad and demoralized.
And third, you have to find a way to winter your perennials. If you live somewhere that doesn't freeze in winter, it's probably easy. Anywhere else, either you can plant perennials that are hardy in your climate, or you're gonna have issues. I'm in hardiness zone 0a, which means not a lot of anything can survive the winter up here. Not only that, perennials that are hardy in the ground are not hardy in containers on a seventh-floor balcony. That's part of why my Jungle never succeeds, actually. A lot of what I throw in there at random is perennials, and I've never bothered wintering it properly. This year, because I've planted many perennials on purpose, I'm hatching a plan to see them through the winter. I have no idea if it will work, but I'll try. All my other perennials are gonna be inside, meaning pansies, oriental lily, English daisies, and all the trees. The lemon trees are never going to winter outside, obviously, but the chokecherries will if I can make the Jungle survive this winter.
Now the thing is though, plants need to be dormant in winter. So normally if you have perennials in containers, you put them in your garage, where it's most dark and cool, and they sleep until spring. Since I don't have a garage, I have to find a way to make my perennials hibernate at room temperature. Hmmmm... Well I know the lemons do it, because they work off the hours of daylight, but I have no idea how everyone else will behave. The plan so far is to move things into my hallway as they go dormant. Then they'll be at least out of the sunlight - and in my feng shui again, but oh well. We'll call them "decor" and not "clutter" and pretend they're energizing my relationship luck.
So all this to say, if you have any gardening troubles, stick with annuals, then at least you won't have to deal with the winter issues.
No comments:
Post a Comment