It's been almost one month exactly since our last trip to the site of my wildflower seed experiment.
On the plus side, I now have a couple flowers blooming.
Unfortunately, they're very small, there's literally only a couple of them, and otherwise the garden looks nearly idententical (which means it's covered in growth under the apple tree in the back of the first photo, and that there's hardly any plants everywhere else).
Drat. Drat. Drat. Seed shakers and I are in a fight. I'm trying not to be discouraged, but honestly this doesn't look a whole lot better than the empty gardens of last summer.
Does anyone have any sage wisdom they would like to impart right now?
Interested in following along? Go back to see the last post in the series.
4 comments:
Girl, I wish I had advice... our tomatoes are growing, but my lavender, peppers and snow peas are DEAD as a doornail : ( How do people do it?!
Hmmm, not sure where you live. I planted my summer blooming flower seeds around april 1st in tiny little cups and kept them moist all the time with only indirect sun exposure. In about a week or so, I transplanted to sprouts to 3 larger, community flowerpots then about 2 weeks later, transplanted the hardy plants to the flowerbed. (My flowerbeds had been enriched with lots of high quality garden soil - very important.) Same with the herbs, except I'm growing them in flowerpots rather than in the ground.
On the other hand, I planted some wildflower seeds, using the same method, in early May and now, 2 months later, have only 1 marginally healthy plant. I think I waited far too long to germinate the seeds.
Next year I'm going to follow the same protocol, starting as early as possible.
Good luck with your garden - don't give up! Just keep trying until something works!
Next year, I PROMISE that those seeds that did actually sprout will multiply themselves 10-fold. Wildflower mix is really synonymous with Weed mix (and I have plenty and speak from experience).
Many wild flowers need full sun, not the dappled shade of an apple tree. There are shade loving and shade tolerant plants though. Coop Extension Service can help figure out what those would be for your part of the country. A walk through neighborhoods or parks to see what other folks have planted under trees might give you some ideas. Soil improvement is a big deal. Most states have at least one university with agriculture programs. Most of these have web sites the can help you make plant selections. Many have faculty you can email questions. For planting dates I like the web site version of The Old Farmer's Almanac. Enter your zip code or town and it gives you last frost dates and plant by the moon dates too for your area.
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