It's been a year since my last post. I guess I'm not as good at this as I'd hoped to be.
This years garden is thriving in a tongue-in-cheek fashion.
Since we had a terrible heat spell a couple of weeks ago, I got alot of casualties. Both my Maples large and small have dried up and gone to crinkleville. I managed to salvage enough of themn that they still have a few leaves left on them
The experiment with the wax paper was a fail. It was good short term but the paper eventually disintegrated and I was back where I started. This year, I had a bucket of hydrated water crystals and I basically plastered the bottom of the coco fiber shell with a layer of wet crystals and put potting soil on top. Once the seedings were up and runny I put some shredded wood mulch on top. The Morning Glories Still seem to wilt a little each day, but being that there is less than 2 cups of soil in it's basket, I still have to water them every day, but only once it seems.
I'm experimenting with planting many plants close together.
For example, in this planter I have Cucumbers growing. I was told that Nasturtiums and Petunias provide some benefit to cucumbers, so I planted them in the planter also. Besides attracting butterflies to pollinate my Cucumbers, the leaves of the growing flowers keep the soil underneath shady and cool from the horrid hot sun. And to top it off, It looks darn cute together.
I've done the same thing with my Zukes and Pumpkins, planting Petunias, Marigolds, and Oregano along with them. And My Pepper plants are supposed to like humid conditions, so a living mulch of Basil, and other flowers should provide a small cool atmosphere around the peppers.
Make sure you read about companion planting thoroughly before putting plants together. I made the error of planting marigolds with my bean plants and realized later that they antagonize each other. Too late to dig 'em up now.
