Dear weather,
I am using you as an excuse in not keeping up with planting stuff. To be honest, I've been working lots, and spending all my money on my pets and cars for upkeep and maintenance. When I am home, I'm hoping work hasn't ruined my ability to walk properly (standing on concrete for 7 hours a day sucks, and don't you deny it).
You've done your best to decimate my plans, but I've taken advantage of you, nonetheless. Where the tomatoes and such died out (I got one squash this year. One. That's unheard of.) I planted a few perennials. I need to dig up unwanted plants (azaleas are not the only shrub on the planet, thanks) but my flowers attracted bees. These bees moved in and made my yard more productive than I could have hoped for. So, yeah, no veggies for me, but since I don't spray or use anything other than compost (twice a year I use MiracleGro's granules, but I want to get away from it) the bees are happy to stay here. I intend to expand upon this with an expansive raised bed, incorporating wildflowers as well as veggies and herbs. Bees love herbs, actually - and there's a breed of bee that lives only to pollinate squashes, so those will be back again next year.
You think you beat us, weather? Think again. The darkened skies were great for not burning out my new flowers, or killing my pansies (until this month's heat finally took them out. Yes, I had pansies until July. Be jealous). My new orange osmanthus is looking happy, and my butterfly bush has bounced back from being twice mowed down. Also, my trees, which aren't exactly happy - they're old, and were mistreated in the past and seriously need to be removed - needed all this water and they needed it super badly.
The mulch and table scraps composted well, giving me colonies of earthworms around the yard I never had before. The crape myrtle was cleaned up, and it's old age it'd grown alongside unwanted Japanese Privet. It's currently happily flowering, feeding local species of bees and butterflies.
Sure, we didn't hike as much as we'd like, and produce prices may spike for now, but this is indicative of change. We need to be able to roll with the weather, and where we don't have tomatoes I do have potatoes - and lots of happy ecosystem stuff. Suck it, weather.
7.29.2013
2.27.2013
Update
To give a run-down on how busy you can make yourself as a Horticulture undergrad, if you aren't paying attention to how much you say 'yes' to everyone, I've decided to explain it here as an excuse for not updating (that'll work, right?)
I've got 15 credit hours worth of actual classes, which keep me busy from about 9.30-about 4-5 on Mon, Weds, and Thurs, but then there are research projects and work in the tissue culture lab that keep me busy on Tues and Fri until about 5-6. I've been waking up at about 6.30 to water my plants (I'm growing various things, which I'm sure will eventually be photographed and posted when they aren't so seed-like), but I get to sleep at about midnight or so. We get to do everything from playing with soil, or in the soil, or around the soil (or getting yelled at about being around the soil and then going into the tissue culture lab, which was a complete lack of communication on my part). We've spent lab blocks (about 3-4 hours) a week sowing seed, cuttings or working with bulbs - as well as watering, trimming, maintaining and moving things from one greenhouse room to another to prepare for a plant sale. Oh, and another lab has us go out to stick plant cuttings in hormone to attempt to root them, so the Clemson Botanical Gardens will have new fodder for this spring and years to come.
Oh, and I have exams coming up that I completely forgot about. Apparently, that's how they make sure you know what you're doing. I'd figure in a field like this, competency would be proven with how your plants stay alive, but I won the Dead Plant Essay in 101 last semester - so perhaps I'm better off with the exam.
Either way, I hope that blathering was a good enough excuse for my absence.
I won't be posting photos this time, but I may be uploading some things such as my tulip development, which was a lot of fun to track, and things in the greenhouses before they're sold or planted. We've grown tons of things, from zinnias and petunias to shrubs, horse chestnuts and osmanthus.
On top of it all, I have Brussels sprouts (if the cats didn't pee them to death) and lettuce growing; over the last couple weeks, I've seeded chamomile, cucumbers, cilantro, calendulas (pot marigold) and a cultivar of pepper I can't remember but I'm sure it'll be tasty; yesterday, we planted eucalyptus, lavender and something else I can't remember but it's a flower and it'll be pretty. Between them all, give or take ten or twenty, I've got about 500 seedlings in my game room, and some of them, like the cucumber, have been transplanted already. When they get enough leaves and the weather stays warm enough, they'll be ready to move out.
I've also procured some coleus cuttings from the greenhouse. I don't need coleus. They're toxic to cats, and I have three of those. Fortunately, they're pretty. Unfortunately, the architecture building with all the studious students is pretty devoid of color. Fortunately, the coleus have some neat variegation and color to them, so if I can temper them to handle a lower light situation for the rest of the semester some of my classmates can take them home this summer. I'm just glad they'll go to good use.
A friend of mine and I are doing a face-to-face seed swap; I'm saving a good bit of what I have to ship to a friend of mine in Baltimore, in hopes that the weather will be similar enough to tolerate the seed I chose for my area. I've got plenty of things planned and enough to share (I got one of those 'you save a ton of money if you order a bunch of seed' deals from parkseed.com ) so for people around here, I may donate a few plants to friends and TAs and such. Poor Rachel doesn't have that luxury, but that's okay.
All in all, I think I'll be more willing to post photos of my goings-on after about a week. I have a research class that's taking a trip (I'm working, which is fine) to present their research to some people far away. Once that crunch is over, I'll definitely be going into more depth about what's gone on this semester. Hopefully, it'll add a little perspective on some growing tips and give me a chance to discover a little clarity in my life. =)
I've got 15 credit hours worth of actual classes, which keep me busy from about 9.30-about 4-5 on Mon, Weds, and Thurs, but then there are research projects and work in the tissue culture lab that keep me busy on Tues and Fri until about 5-6. I've been waking up at about 6.30 to water my plants (I'm growing various things, which I'm sure will eventually be photographed and posted when they aren't so seed-like), but I get to sleep at about midnight or so. We get to do everything from playing with soil, or in the soil, or around the soil (or getting yelled at about being around the soil and then going into the tissue culture lab, which was a complete lack of communication on my part). We've spent lab blocks (about 3-4 hours) a week sowing seed, cuttings or working with bulbs - as well as watering, trimming, maintaining and moving things from one greenhouse room to another to prepare for a plant sale. Oh, and another lab has us go out to stick plant cuttings in hormone to attempt to root them, so the Clemson Botanical Gardens will have new fodder for this spring and years to come.
Oh, and I have exams coming up that I completely forgot about. Apparently, that's how they make sure you know what you're doing. I'd figure in a field like this, competency would be proven with how your plants stay alive, but I won the Dead Plant Essay in 101 last semester - so perhaps I'm better off with the exam.
Either way, I hope that blathering was a good enough excuse for my absence.
I won't be posting photos this time, but I may be uploading some things such as my tulip development, which was a lot of fun to track, and things in the greenhouses before they're sold or planted. We've grown tons of things, from zinnias and petunias to shrubs, horse chestnuts and osmanthus.
On top of it all, I have Brussels sprouts (if the cats didn't pee them to death) and lettuce growing; over the last couple weeks, I've seeded chamomile, cucumbers, cilantro, calendulas (pot marigold) and a cultivar of pepper I can't remember but I'm sure it'll be tasty; yesterday, we planted eucalyptus, lavender and something else I can't remember but it's a flower and it'll be pretty. Between them all, give or take ten or twenty, I've got about 500 seedlings in my game room, and some of them, like the cucumber, have been transplanted already. When they get enough leaves and the weather stays warm enough, they'll be ready to move out.
I've also procured some coleus cuttings from the greenhouse. I don't need coleus. They're toxic to cats, and I have three of those. Fortunately, they're pretty. Unfortunately, the architecture building with all the studious students is pretty devoid of color. Fortunately, the coleus have some neat variegation and color to them, so if I can temper them to handle a lower light situation for the rest of the semester some of my classmates can take them home this summer. I'm just glad they'll go to good use.
A friend of mine and I are doing a face-to-face seed swap; I'm saving a good bit of what I have to ship to a friend of mine in Baltimore, in hopes that the weather will be similar enough to tolerate the seed I chose for my area. I've got plenty of things planned and enough to share (I got one of those 'you save a ton of money if you order a bunch of seed' deals from parkseed.com ) so for people around here, I may donate a few plants to friends and TAs and such. Poor Rachel doesn't have that luxury, but that's okay.
All in all, I think I'll be more willing to post photos of my goings-on after about a week. I have a research class that's taking a trip (I'm working, which is fine) to present their research to some people far away. Once that crunch is over, I'll definitely be going into more depth about what's gone on this semester. Hopefully, it'll add a little perspective on some growing tips and give me a chance to discover a little clarity in my life. =)
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