The Brown Thumb Report

It has been more than a month since I planted, and posted about, my patio garden. (You can read that post here). At that time, I mentioned I don't have a great deal of success growing things.

I have been watering twice a day in this hot weather, I have fertilized with Miracle Grow as per the instructions, I have removed the dead blossoms daily........and this is what I have:

A sad state of affairs

Dying kalanchoe

Dying hanging basket

Dying fuschia

Ho-Hum fence basket

Ho-hum hanging basket

And more dying flowers

I learned, after the fact, that the planters I used on the fence should have been lined with plastic, at least at the bottom, and the cocoa fibre lining should have been submerged in water for an hour or so before using. Now why oh why didn't the instructions say that? So part of the problem getting flowers to grow there is that the water pours right through and there is no way to keep the soil moist. Live and learn.

Okay, things aren't quite as bad as those first pictures make it seem. They were taken about a week ago, and most of the plants have perked up a bit since then. Even a week ago, there were some vigorously growing, beautiful flowers on the patio:

I do have some lovely petunias :

And geraniums, too:



One of the baskets on the fence is doing pretty well, though the trailing geraniums on each end are neither trailing nor blooming profusely, perhaps waging war with the petunias when they might have prefered their own container:



The trailing geraniums which I planted with the petunias in the planters on the fence may not be trailing, but one flowerless potted plant (which I thought was also a trailing geranium but could be wrong) is trailing like crazy all over my patio. As you can see, it cascades down by the dog statue and then creeps along the ground:





The flowerboxes at the base of the fence are coming along nicely, though the white flowers I planted in the boxes have become suffocated by the red and blue ones


And the cherry tomatoes are doing well :


I've had some wonderful larger (Early Girl) tomatoes, too, even if the plant looks like it is ready for the compost at any time. I didn't photograph the plant - it is just too sad - but look at these:



My strawberries just keep right on blooming and berry-ing:



And, while not on the patio, my apple tree seems to be doing quite well:



The teacher in me says the project is running about a C+ right now - some good stuff, but some weak spots, and definitely doesn't reach the "outstanding" level. Enthusiasm and effort, though? Maybe that will bring me closer to a B. We'll see what it is like in another month.

Patio at end of first month