Monday, May 18, 2009

Outside the Comfort Zone

I have always had a brown thumb. My grand botanical achievement to date (aside from my B in Botany 101) is that I managed to keep a cactus alive for three whole years. Clearly I am a talented horticulturist.

So why I decided it would be a good idea to plant an herb garden is beyond me. I picked up two plantlings (basil and thyme) at the farmer's market a few weeks ago. When these plants continued to live and, indeed, thrive for 2 weeks in my kitchen, I decided it was time to put them in the ground. Armed with naught but trepidation and a shovel, yesterday I cleared out a weedy patch of soil that was growing next to my house. I dug deep holes, then gently buried my plants about a foot apart, with the crown slightly below the soil level, as per instructions. I watered them. Then I walked away.

Before


After

I went to check on them this morning and they looked droopy already (buy not yellow or brown! That's encouraging, right? Right?). The soil was dry so I watered them again. I really hope this takes...I don't know what I did wrong! The soil there is pretty shitty, but the weeds seem to like it ok. LB thought I didn't need to buy any of that there fancy soil. We'll see again tomorrow...we should be getting some rain then.

2 comments:

The Dutchess of Kickball said...

Don't fret. Most plants will look they are dying for a few days because of the shock of being planted. They were out of their element for a few seconds and that can really effect them.

For the first week or so you should water them twice a day. Dose them with enough water until it starts to pool on top of the soil instead of soaking in. Once this happens then the soil is saturated and putting more water on it won't help. If the soil isn't saturated the water is going to seep away and not actually help the plants at all.

Don't fret. These things take time.

queenrandom said...

Oh! Thanks for the encouragement :D I checked the soil this morning and it was already pretty dry so I'll try to keep on top of it :)