I may have mentioned that we have a bit of a lawn in front of the building, where every year the landlord does a bit of gardening. However, gardening is completely contrary to his personality, so it doesn't really turn out.
Hmmmmm...
There could be a synergy here, no? I could ask him to let me make a flowerbed. Then I get more room and more sunlight, and he gets a successful flowerbed. Seems like a win-win situation, right?
I'm thinking it would take quite a bit of digging. The ground must be hideously packed, plus it has grass on it, weeds, and all kinds of vileness from years of people misusing it, like urine, gasoline, and motor oil. So not only I'd have to dig it, I don't think I'd even want to reuse the soil. I'd have to fill it back in with store-bought soil and manure. Lots and lots of manure. Maybe I could get Corrections to come out and dig it for me, come to think of it. That would save me hours of back-breaking labour.
For the first year, I think I'd put asters in it. Specifically, the Duchess mix I'm coveting from Veseys. You get about 400 seeds and there are 12 colours. Assuming it's a formula mix, which I'd like to hope, you have to plant something like 73 of them to have a better than 99% chance of getting one of each colour, and 118 to have a better than 99.995% chance. If you space them 12" apart, you would then need an 8' x 8' bed. Or I could get the Matsumoto mix from Stokes, which is a formula blend of 14 colours. And aster seeds are dirt cheap and low-maintenance.
Then I could get two of those 72-cell starter trays and start 144 asters. Three seeds per cell in case some don't sprout makes 432 seeds. Perfect. I can start them April 24 and they'll be 60 days old by last frost. Though maybe they can't live 60 days in the starter trays.
Then, I'd get the three colours of nemophilas, mix them up, and spread them all around three sides of the bed, so they wouldn't be hideously overcrowded like in my window boxes. They're quick and too numerous to transplant, so I'd just direct-seed them. And then maybe some hollyhocks for the back of the bed.
Then in the fall, I could get tulip bulbs, and have a huge bed of tulips come summer 2013. I don't know anyone else in town who has a huge bed of tulips.
Hmmmmm... I think it just might work.
Hmmmmm...
There could be a synergy here, no? I could ask him to let me make a flowerbed. Then I get more room and more sunlight, and he gets a successful flowerbed. Seems like a win-win situation, right?
I'm thinking it would take quite a bit of digging. The ground must be hideously packed, plus it has grass on it, weeds, and all kinds of vileness from years of people misusing it, like urine, gasoline, and motor oil. So not only I'd have to dig it, I don't think I'd even want to reuse the soil. I'd have to fill it back in with store-bought soil and manure. Lots and lots of manure. Maybe I could get Corrections to come out and dig it for me, come to think of it. That would save me hours of back-breaking labour.
For the first year, I think I'd put asters in it. Specifically, the Duchess mix I'm coveting from Veseys. You get about 400 seeds and there are 12 colours. Assuming it's a formula mix, which I'd like to hope, you have to plant something like 73 of them to have a better than 99% chance of getting one of each colour, and 118 to have a better than 99.995% chance. If you space them 12" apart, you would then need an 8' x 8' bed. Or I could get the Matsumoto mix from Stokes, which is a formula blend of 14 colours. And aster seeds are dirt cheap and low-maintenance.
Then I could get two of those 72-cell starter trays and start 144 asters. Three seeds per cell in case some don't sprout makes 432 seeds. Perfect. I can start them April 24 and they'll be 60 days old by last frost. Though maybe they can't live 60 days in the starter trays.
Then, I'd get the three colours of nemophilas, mix them up, and spread them all around three sides of the bed, so they wouldn't be hideously overcrowded like in my window boxes. They're quick and too numerous to transplant, so I'd just direct-seed them. And then maybe some hollyhocks for the back of the bed.
Then in the fall, I could get tulip bulbs, and have a huge bed of tulips come summer 2013. I don't know anyone else in town who has a huge bed of tulips.
Hmmmmm... I think it just might work.
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