Hello! My Name’s Lara and I’m addicted to green…living.
Well, plant life, that's for sure.
This is the start of a blog about gardening (shock horror) that
will look at how you can create a garden from a concrete pit, turn a desk into
a little natural escape, and other bits and bobs that include recipes and
pictures of my cat…
It’s been around two years since I moved out of my parents’
house, and when I was suddenly faced with a dull, beige and magnolia bedroom
and kitchen to lighten up – and some absolutely horrendous curtains to distract
myself from (who would have ever thought of putting red, blue and green wavy
stripes with orange blotches?).
Enter the plants.
I can’t get over how many plants I managed to accumulate and
squeeze into my small flat last year. Windowsills were filled with hyacinths,
daffodils, amaryllis, cactus, lavender and rosemary, as well as vases of cut
flowers bought as a treat.
I was incredibly lucky because the flat received a lot of
sunlight, particularly in the kitchen. It was so sunny, in fact, that it taught
me one of my first lessons: there’s such
a thing as too much sunlight. Or direct sunlight, to be more accurate
perhaps. The poor forsythia I was attempting to root was scorched after being
left in the bright sun over the weekend. I came back to three, very dry sticks
plunged into very dry soil.
My tip? Treat your
plants like people. Give them shelter from too much direct sunlight so they
don’t get ‘sunburnt’ and keep them from going thirsty by watering them (little
and often is usually best, as you don’t want the soil to shrink or become
water-logged). For succulents and cacti, though, you can let the soil get quite
dry before watering. They thrive in dry, warm environments and tolerate a lot
of neglect, so will survive being forgotten over a hot weekend.
When it comes to winter and you need to keep indoor
little’uns warm, cut off the top of a
water bottle and use it as a cloche to keep the plant safe from frost. Just
be sure to allow some airflow by removing the cap. Bark and mulch can be used
outside. I have used bin bags in the past when protecting young cabbages from
snow (the seasons decided they didn’t want to work like normal, and we had snow
in spring), but removed them again when it was safe. Be sure to allow airflow
and water to the plant when covering outdoor plants.
I was initially put off gardening by the cost. I didn’t want
to end up spending a fortune (which, frankly, I didn’t have) on a pretty
flowerbed or windowbox. But it doesn’t have to be expensive at all.
The first cactus I bought, a Christmas cactus (Zygocactus trunatus), has just finished
its second flowering season and seems to be in a happy state. It’s a great example
of how gardening – or just adding a few little plants around home – doesn’t
need to be expensive. He (yes, he) was a bargain buy from Lidl, costing no more
than £2.50 I think, but he’s survived thus far. If you’re willing to put in the little effort, you can raise a healthy
plant without throwing money at everything.
Another great tip for making the pennies go further is to look at the reduced sections in garden
centres or supermarket plant shelves. Supermarkets and other non-specialist
shops, in particular, rarely water the plants once they’re on the shop floor.
As a result, you can find the thirsty plants much cheaper once they lose their
zest. These chaps and chapettes take a little more attention, as you slowly
re-invigorate them with watering and feeding, but they can usually end up doing
quite well.
My potted rosemary (Rosmarinus
officinalis) was reduced in Tesco, to about £1.50 I think, and it’s now
doing very well in a sunny spot on the windowsill in my parents’ kitchen. The
rosemary was interesting, actually, because it was left in a back garden for
weeks before I was able to take it to my flat. It meant it wasn’t in great
shape, but with a little careful pruning and TLC it has become a nice grower –
bearing in mind that rosemary is a slow grower.
Hopefully see you again sometime!
Lara,
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