May 2024 - P52 Challenge

[Susan Ewart]

1 hour ago, Sharla said:

Hi Susan, I grow lots of things in raised beds and containers. The larger the container the least likely I am to change the soil but, in some cases, like with blueberries and the acer, I remove a couple of inches of the top layer of soil and add some fresh. If I don’t do this then I make sure that I give the plant a liquid feed during the growing season. 

Most of my annual plants like tomatoes, peas, and asters get planted into containers that still have some of last year’s soil within them – I just top up with fresh compost to give them a good start and feed them during the growing season. The old compost is added to borders or to the compost bin.

The idea of changing the soil is just impossible for me with the number of containers that I use so I generally don’t. To be honest,  I never found it very useful advice because it usually means that if the plant has a large root ball you need a bigger pot each year – and that’s just not practical as well as expensive. I just accept that some plants will thrive under my method and that some won’t.

 I never move pots around to catch the sun like you describe – once they have their spot that’s where they stay for the growing season. Out of the two you mention – if the conditions are good, rosemary really thrives (not in my garden!) but thyme always tends to get woody and needs to cut back drastically after each growing season or replaced. The best advice I can give you is to experiment, accept both the successes and the failures, and enjoy the process. And, if you don’t want to repot then start your young plants in a larger pot.

You’ll always have some plants that thrive and others that don’t. I used to try follow gardening advice but I’m not very good at following rules so I just experiment. I celebrate the good results and accept the failures as part of the learning process which never ends. 
 

Sharla, this is the best advice I've gotten.  thank you so much.  I do repot into bigger and I agree, it's really expensive.  I'll start feeding them and even try to remember to water then now and then (kidding).  the rosemary is great because I can neglect it and it just keep growing and even flowers.  You are so right about the thyme, mine is woody but I didnt know about cutting it back.  they were pretty old too, so I send them over the plant version of the rainbow bridge.  Sad to say, I only move the pots around for photo ops and not for the plants sake.  I would have being a terrible mother!   It's all about me😁.  I haven't had very good luck growing food plants in the past.  I plant and forget, usually my husband feels bad for the plants and takes over care (another reason I would have been a bad mother, on the other hand, my husband would have been a GREAT mother!).   I'm trying two veggies this year; peas and pumpkins.  We'll see how that goes.  I subscribe to your ways....not following the rules.  If it works, great, if it doesn't....I can always buy potted plants to photograph.  I appreciate your advice and help. 

BTW, I would read the back of the package and think, naaa, that doesn't work for me, I'm going to do it this way.  And I bought one kind of bulb....the directions say, plant with the "crown" up.  I"m thinking, what?! I'm growing a plant not a Princess!  I just planted the little green part sticking upwards, hoping it really is a plant since the whole dried up thing looked like the mother-of-all dried up cat hairballs!  Plants are weird...so am I, I guess we go together.

Edited May 23 by Susan Ewart

[Corrie Kinkel]

6 hours ago, Sharla said:

Hi Susan, I grow lots of things in raised beds and containers. The larger the container the least likely I am to change the soil but, in some cases, like with blueberries and the acer, I remove a couple of inches of the top layer of soil and add some fresh. If I don’t do this then I make sure that I give the plant a liquid feed during the growing season. 

Most of my annual plants like tomatoes, peas, and asters get planted into containers that still have some of last year’s soil within them – I just top up with fresh compost to give them a good start and feed them during the growing season. The old compost is added to borders or to the compost bin.

The idea of changing the soil is just impossible for me with the number of containers that I use so I generally don’t. To be honest,  I never found it very useful advice because it usually means that if the plant has a large root ball you need a bigger pot each year – and that’s just not practical as well as expensive. I just accept that some plants will thrive under my method and that some won’t.

 I never move pots around to catch the sun like you describe – once they have their spot that’s where they stay for the growing season. Out of the two you mention – if the conditions are good, rosemary really thrives (not in my garden!) but thyme always tends to get woody and needs to cut back drastically after each growing season or replaced. The best advice I can give you is to experiment, accept both the successes and the failures, and enjoy the process. And, if you don’t want to repot then start your young plants in a larger pot.

You’ll always have some plants that thrive and others that don’t. I used to try follow gardening advice but I’m not very good at following rules so I just experiment. I celebrate the good results and accept the failures as part of the learning process which never ends. 
 

I wholeheartedly agree with Sharla, plants in pots/containers are always a risk and sometimes it is a mystery or a miracle. Nowadays we only have plants in containers and we try to give them shade or sun according to their needs. But that is only a rule of thumb and some experience from our gardening days.

[Sue Thomas]

Week twenty one.  Finally the seeders are going flat out in our area. 

Edited May 24 by Sue Thomas

[Ann Seeber]

Week Twenty One - a face only a mother could love 😉 My buddy Ed Frampton sent this as a joke, but I couldn't resist putting it up on the showcase. 

[Corrie Kinkel]

I have no photos of this week, very unusual for me! We have had bad weather with lots of rain and we had to make some alterations in the house that were waiting until I was back from California and had slept off the jetlag. Therefore I decided today to make a photo from my workspace where I do all my scrapping; I already had decided to have that idea as a backup for when there really wasn't anything else going on.

[Sharla]

Week 21 Hawthorn flowers photographed at the start of the week. I walked past the tree again yesterday and all the flowers had been dislodged by the heavy rain of the last few days so I was glad to have caught this image when I did.

 

[Corrie Kinkel]

41 minutes ago, Sharla said:

Week 21 Hawthorn flowers photographed at the start of the week. I walked past the tree again yesterday and all the flowers had been dislodged by the heavy rain of the last few days so I was glad to have caught this image when I did.

 

With hindsight a lucky shot!

[Sharla]

3 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

With hindsight a lucky shot!

As it so often is...

[Susan Ewart]

14 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

I have no photos of this week, very unusual for me! We have had bad weather with lots of rain and we had to make some alterations in the house that were waiting until I was back from California and had slept off the jetlag. Therefore I decided today to make a photo from my workspace where I do all my scrapping; I already had decided to have that idea as a backup for when there really wasn't anything else going on.

What a nice neat and tidy workspace Corrie.  I'm jealous.

[Corrie Kinkel]

6 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

What a nice neat and tidy workspace Corrie.  I'm jealous.

I have just a small workspace and if it gets too cluttered it interferes with getting things done. Hence the pinboard and I have a small chest of drawers behind me where I have my ordners with all the paperwork, old fashioned dictionaries, print papers etc.

[Corrie Kinkel]

This week was all about saying goodbye to our car. As some of you know I can't drive anymore due to my eye condition and now my husband quits driving too. For him it was a tough decision and we had a lot of difficult conversations about it but I'm so glad he does quit. The last couple of years we had some near miss accidents and I  was in constant fear that one of these days it would turn out to be a serious accident! Our car was already a rather old one, so we were glad the garage  that does the maintenance was interested and bought it. On Wednesday afternoon we brought the car and went home on foot; it's only 15 minutes at the most. Now we have the whole summer to get used to the fact that we have to use bike, bus or train. In the Netherlands that is not a problem, we live 5 minutes from the train station and in 8 minutes we are in the city that has all the amenities like a hospital that our village doesn't have. I had to make a photo of our trusted companion of the last 8 years; it is parked on the parking spot behind our house.

[Susan Ewart]

7 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

This week was all about saying goodbye to our car. As some of you know I can't drive anymore due to my eye condition and now my husband quits driving too. For him it was a tough decision and we had a lot of difficult conversations about it but I'm so glad he does quit. The last couple of years we had some near miss accidents and I  was in constant fear that one of these days it would turn out to be a serious accident! Our car was already a rather old one, so we were glad the garage  that does the maintenance was interested and bought it. On Wednesday afternoon we brought the car and went home on foot; it's only 15 minutes at the most. Now we have the whole summer to get used to the fact that we have to use bike, bus or train. In the Netherlands that is not a problem, we live 5 minutes from the train station and in 8 minutes we are in the city that has all the amenities like a hospital that our village doesn't have. I had to make a photo of our trusted companion of the last 8 years; it is parked on the parking spot behind our house.

I think it's one of the hardest decisions to make Corrie.  Driving offers such independence and it's hard to give that up.  Your both sound very reasonable about why it was time to stop driving.  You are lucky to have such good transportation nearby.    

[Susan Ewart]

Week 19

I'm finally back to some PSP time.  Playing catch-up as usual. This jpg is darker than the .pspimage file.  bummer.  There is more color in the original and the date and week number is meant to be subtle but not this subtle.  

Edited June 1 by Susan Ewart
type the wrong week number

[Susan Ewart]

Week 20

I'm on a roll.

 

[Susan Ewart]

And Week 21

...with a slipped in photo.  You'll see that look again in Wk 24.

[Susan Ewart]

What week does May go up to.  I see only 19, 20 and 21 so far.  Is week 22 part of May?

[Ann Seeber]

1 hour ago, Susan Ewart said:

What week does May go up to.  I see only 19, 20 and 21 so far.  Is week 22 part of May?

I count week 22 as the start of June. For me, it will be 5 Sundays.

[Sharla]

Week 22 I came across a few of these flowers in the woods where I often walk. I’d never seen them before so had to look them up. It is apparently a Lilium pyrenaicum / Pyrenean Lily.

[Susan Ewart]

5 hours ago, Sharla said:

Week 22 I came across a few of these flowers in the woods where I often walk. I’d never seen them before so had to look them up. It is apparently a Lilium pyrenaicum / Pyrenean Lily.

What a pretty flower Sharla.  Mother Nature makes the best color palettes

[Susan Ewart]

Week 22

I didnt have a joker card and the joker in the round cards I use for the magnet element was hideous so I made one if each (card and magnet).  I duplicated the text for the opposite corner. You'd all have a good laugh watching me try and wrap my head around the correct sequence: flip this, mirror that...argh, that's not right.  Must've done it 10 times, when it should only take two moves.

Edited June 1 by Susan Ewart

[Corrie Kinkel]

11 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

What week does May go up to.  I see only 19, 20 and 21 so far.  Is week 22 part of May?

I did week 22 still in May, my weeks start on Monday.