L’amour du jardin
Photos: before (left) and after (right) repotting plants
Ever since finding my new apartment just over a month ago, I’ve been bitten by the gardening bug. Since it’s the perfect time — spring — to buy new plants, I haven’t wanted to wait until the final deed is signed in early June. Two weeks ago I got six strawberry plants, which have grown very fast since. I realized they needed to be repotted, so decided to repot all the other plants that needed it too. In the “before” picture on the left you can see that my red maple and myrtle (the green plant with loads of new growth) look too big for their pots, which is always a reliable sign that a plant needs a bigger home for its roots. The strawberry in front also shows clear signs of needing a new pot!
I found a bunch of true lavender plants (lavandula angustifolia) at the store where I bought pots and earth. Lavender repels insects naturally, and of course it smells wonderful and is a beautiful flower. I took home one of them, it’s the very light green bush on the left in both photos. In the “after” photo on the right, it’s pretty clear that the lavender plant and maple tree look much happier. The lavender plant inherited the myrtle’s old pot — this photo shows the myrtle better in its new pot, and here are some strawberry plants in their roomier new homes. Brand-new cherry tomato plants can be seen sprouting in the bottom left there. I planted thirty-odd seeds in two pots, thinking not all of them would sprout… but they all did! I moved half of them into two other pots. It should be interesting to see how the city gardening experience works out; this is the first time I’ve tried growing fruits and vegetables in pots. When I lived in Oregon there was plenty of land to go around.