My intention was for annual updates, but we’ve gone a smidge past that – it’s more like 18 months since my last gardening experiments post.
My current gardening policy centres around benign neglect with occasional watering. Despite this (because of this?), most everything seems to be doing pretty well.
For the past couple of years we’ve had mild, wet summers, so I’m not sure how everything will survive the forecast apocalyptic heat. In our summer-will-be-appalling planning, we didn’t anticipate a 6 month lead time on our pergola – which won’t be installed until early autumn. I may have to rig up some sort of shading if it gets too horrendous out there. For context in 2018 we had temperatures of 47.8oC on the upper balcony where most of these plants live!
We do need to have a plant reckoning when the pergola is installed – there will be some very difficult decisions to be made on what plants to keep. This will be A Sad Day. Fortunately when I put plants out on the footpath with a “take me!” sign affixed they’re always quickly snapped up.
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Experiment 1: seeds from a Xmas lunch 2019 pomegranate
Shoved some seeds from our Xmas pomegranate in a pot and here we are!
92cm
It’s quite a pretty tree and the only deciduous tree in that space. Our crow friends very much enjoy digging in this pot – as evidenced by the mulch scattered all over the tiles.
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Experiment 2: mangoes planted from summer feasting in 2019/20!
I threw some mango seeds in soil and they went bonkers!
also 92cm
They’ve flowered (amazing!) and definitely need another pot, but at some point they’ll be way too heavy for the somewhat fragile balcony. I think I need to stop experimenting with Giant Trees. But I didn’t really anticipate such success!
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Experiment 3: ginger
Harvested. Underwhelming. Experiment complete.
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Experiment 4:lemons
The under-performers of the group. Fave food of the local caterpillars. I’m astonished they still have leaves.
45cm
These don’t live on the upper balcony, but there will probably be wrapped up in A Reckoning at some point. Either that or they’ll be chomped to bits.
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Experiment 5: cold-stratified muscat grape seeds
I had no idea what I was doing, but I figured cold stratifying might work – and much to my surprise it did!
Thriving!
I tried the same method the next year and while my seeds sprouted well, the seedlings all died off. The Information Superhighway tells me this is likely damping off.
These are the ones I worry the most for in the extreme heat!
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In other plant-experiment updates:
Way way back in 2016, I harvested wee figgy seeds from the ground near my favourite tree when we were regularly bike-riding.
170cm
These live at the front of ThePalace(OfLove) and are not thriving quite so well as they were in 2022. The conditions are tough out there! I think they probably need to be pruned a bit (a lot?). I have a complex arrangement of supports, which are barely adequate.
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Stone pine grown from seed bought in April 2020. My first time to cold stratifying anything and astonishingly one wee plant survived!
35cm
Branched! That wee pine-cone-like-shape held more needles! I feel like this has something to do with the crown, but who can know?
No way is this going anywhere!
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Star jasmine flowers bursting out!
Gorgeous, but slightly worrying that they are flowering this early! It’s usually at least another month.
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