That's the hardest season for gardening, but if you into it, you'll always find something to do. At least house plants are alive, hopefully. I don't know if I ever become a professional gardener, but it brings me great joy and that's what counts.
These are my brand-new plants that I had to, well... I wanted to buy because, the other ones didn't make it. They say you need to learn your plants, the honest ones admit this will mean some of the plants will die, and I really dislike this method of learning. I also don't like my pretty pots to be idle and that's already enough reasons to go shopping.
As I got to work, I run into some design issues. When I was picking my plants, I wanted something different than just green to make my house collection more versatile. The result of it was, that the pots that I planned for my newly bought plants didn't match. Variegated plants look best in plain white. Therefore, I needed to replant some other plants as well. Hopefully, they all will survive the transplantation.
After I planted my new Hedera Helix Variegated Ivy, I was pleased because it looks very nice. The reason I bought it, apart of the fact, that I find it beautiful, is that I grow my plants with a thought of my new house. There's going to be a lot of room for greenery decorations and the hanging ones too, so the Ivy in this case will surely find a place for itself.
I decided that the Hypoestes Polka Dot should be separated into two smaller pots and in the company of the red berries it represents winter garden very well. As for now the leaves are more white than green but I like its lovely pattern. I tried to read up about the care for them and hopefully they'll do better than their predecessors.
About the old plants... My Eucalyptus, that I planned to use for dried floral arrangements, didn't survive. Kalanchoe, was beautiful when I received it and when I was waiting for it to bloom again, it actually wilted. There's a lot of wilderness by the new house but I'd also like to add some plants of my own choice. Therefore, I wanted to start and experiment with ideas like; propagating ferns by their pores but... the resources I used had confusing instructions. So, my Ostrich Fern that I still don't know if it can be propagated by pores or not, did good for a few months outside but after I brough it home for the winter, it died.
That's all house garden not the real one! So my thoughts wander to...
The memory of the last garden
One of the things I learnt from studying about gardening is the importance of hardscaping.
Even the small things like steppingstones, which in reality are just a bunch of random pieces, I found around the house added a practical and visual interest to my garden past summer.
The pictures remind me that I managed to harvest some crop. I struggled a lot with bugs though that were eating my herbs and vegetables before me.
The dream of the new garden
I'm an optimist and always have hope so I'm looking for what I'll be doing in the future. Even though it's recommended to stick what you're good at (although if it comes to my gardening, I wonder if there's anything), I like to be trying new things.
I saved many different seeds from flowers, herbs and variety of vegetables, including new types of bell peppers and tomatoes (haven't figured out their names yet). For the first time, I'm planning to grow watermelon, pumpkin and mums.
As for today
Santa brought me new seed starter containers and I'm soon going to start with these difficult herbs like rosemary and oregano that take a long time to grow and mature. I also keep expanding my garden library, which helps with even more motivation for starting a new garden again.
No matter how hard I try, sometimes, I truly think the gardening success is more of God's blessing than anything else. So, God I know "Your will be done" but really don't you want me to grow plants? What I believe He answered to this prayer was: "Growing plants is your hobby, growing people is your calling".