A Transplant Story

The Queen's thumb isn't exactly green. Not even the thumbnail is green unless painted so (thank goodness for that, eh?). Nevertheless, I yearn to grow plants and someday hope to have a successful garden - nay, a farm. Probably a hobby farm, but perhaps a full fledged sell-vegetables-to-the-masses type farm with moo cows, chickens and hoppity rabbits with adorable twitchy noses.

But we all must start somewhere. Until the Queen obtains a tiller, her options are much reduced in scope and today we take a tour of the royal gardens, such as they are.

This is a Draecana deremensis I obtained from Walmart (the Queen's shopping options are also limited). It was languishing in the original pot, doing an admirable job of holding on, but it was time for a bigger pot. As a bonus, its new abode also better matches the Queen's abode. The color is less of an intense blue than it appears here, I would call it a muted turquoise.

Since my land holdings don't pay revenue and those serfs are still a pipe dream, I was frugal and only spent $1.98 on the two candle holders at Goodwill. The Queen loves to shop at Goodwill.

Until I can get plants in the ground I am relying on my AeroGarden to supply me with fresh herbs. This one is kind of nifty because it uses LED lights that don't need to be replaced like the bulbs on older models. It is very, very bright and needs to be relocated (it's in front of the television right now), but until the royal electrician fixes the outlets in the kitchen, this is where it shall reside. If you want an AeroGarden like the Queen's you can find it by clicking this affiliate link. Purchasing it through an affiliate link costs you nothing but puts about $10 into the Queen's landscaping fund.

In front of the royal garden is a cute little succulent vignette. The Queen adores succulents. They don't require much love and they reproduce like crazy, so in the future, I will have free plants that I can use in my landscaping. The Queen loves free plants.

In fact, this is a little succulent sproutling that I harvested last night. I stuck it into a pot and hopefully it will take root and make little succulent babies of its own.

It sounds as if I want to eat them doesn't it? But they are actually called succulents.

This is our lucky bamboo. Does it work? Well, our luck has changed for the better since I brought it home. AND I've managed to keep it alive for over a year now, so the bamboo itself should be feeling pretty lucky!

And next to it is another succulent. It was in an ugly nursery container so after I transplanted the aloe vera I repurposed the container. It's a cute little clay pot, so why not? (free)

This aloe vera has really grown. If you can imagine, it was in that little clay pot and there just wasn't enough room in there. So I moved it to a bigger container. It's still probably too small, but we are taking baby steps here...

Yes, more succulents. The two smaller ones are babies that I plucked mercilessly away from their mothers and repotted. Soon they will have their revenge... they will take over the castle and there will no room for anything but succulents...

Fancy aerial view. I rented an airplane and everything.

This is an experiment. I took cuttings of parsley, rosemary and thyme and dipped them into some rooting compound to see if I can grow more free plants. The Queen is impatient, and this is like the gardening version of fast forwarding through the commercials.

Last year I subscribed to an online video course by The Smiling Gardener (not an affiliate link) and I've been watching more of the videos. If you are interested in gardening I highly recommend it, the videos are short so if your attention span is also short (like the Queen's) it is a great way to learn. Phil is easy to listen to and does a good job of explaining things, but I also like that he shows you how to do them and tells you why.

I feel as if I should play some Simon & Garfunkel to encourage them to grow.

It's not much to look at is it? Completely uninteresting except for the fact that it's upside down.

I planted a bunch of random seeds in the hopes that I can grow my own salads. There are mustard greens in there, spinach, arugula (the Queen's favorite!), mache, and a few different kinds of lettuce. I'm going biointensive and not worrying about the spacing because I figure I'll be lucky if anything grows.

How fancy is that? "Biointensive," normally I would just call it randomly tossing a bunch of seeds into a pot and overcrowding it, but that's actually a thing now...

I did as I was taught... I soaked the seeds in a seaweed based sludge (affiliate link) for six hours. Soaking them gives them a head start on hydration, probably makes the skin of the seed easier for the plant to emerge from, and the seaweed has a hormone in it that encourages plants to grow. I then inoculated them with mycorrhizal fungi to help grow a strong root structure. I added some water retaining agents into the soil along with a peat mixture (which I think is right), and I watered the soil before and after planting. I sprinkled the seeds into the soil and didn't really worry about covering them except with a light dusting of peat. Now it's sitting in front of a window that gets a lot of sunlight, and I have my fingers crossed.

This is my monster basil. It was doing horribly for a while until I pinched it back and added some Miracle Gro to the soil. I know it isn't ideal to add MG, but it helped a lot. Ideally these plants would be outside thriving in the soil, but you do what you have to do.

In between the basil is this Pinterest thing I'm trying with lemon seeds. I don't expect the seeds to grow trees, much less trees that I can harvest from, but if that happens I will be on cloud 9. Aside from homegrown tomatoes there is no food in life that I love more than lemons.

Look at those gorgeous big leaves!

These plants are waiting to be put into the ground. I have my eye on a used tiller, so when the King gets home we will take a look-see and hopefully we can get some landscaping done.

I have a few coleus, a eucalyptus, I think the big plant at the bottom is lemon balm. A couple of tomato plants, two rosemarys, one thyme, some parsley, another succulent... and I ordered some trees from the Arbor Day Foundation.

When the King and Queen lived in the royal RV I had a couple of plum trees that we toted around with us and they were doing pretty well... but then the RV went into the shop and we couldn't take them with us as we shuffled between friends and family and hotel rooms, so they died... I wish I had them now because the plum trees would have been a decent size by now. But in any case, I love the 10 "free" trees you get for joining... I love trees in general. In addition to those I ordered some fruit trees and a couple of forsythia because those do really well out here and they are gorgeous. Can't wait to have a beautiful yard! I mean... a Queenly courtyard. *ahem*

I am planning on taking a cutting my grandmother's fig tree, but I also have a figlet coming from an Etsy seller (support small business!), and jasmine... because the Queen's favorite scent is jasmine. Unfortunately jasmine is not suited for this climate, but I'm going to attempt to grow it in a pot so that it can be brought in over the winter. I may try lemon and limes that way as well because I would love to have fresh citrus fruit. Eventually perhaps the King will help me put my greenhouse up... we have to have a spot leveled first because the royal grounds are a series of hills with no flat spots to be found except within the castle... and even that might be pushing it.

My sycamore is looking purdy. Next year I might prune off some of the lower branches. I like to let them grow for at least three years before I start to do that. Though after watching the pruning videos I may just leave it to grow as it wishes.

Hydrangeas!

They are zombie hydrangeas because they literally came back from the dead. They were sitting in their original pots on the back patio, untouched, unwatered, I thought they were dead and just hadn't tossed them out yet. I was just about to walk them to the trashcan when I noticed that they weren't quite dead yet... yes, just like Monty Python! So I thought 'what the heck, I'll put them into the ground and see what happens... can't get any worse.'

So I did... and two years later they are slowly but surely growing. I actually like that they are green and pink. I like the blue, pink and purple, but something about this color combo is my favorite.

Happy accidents.

So I will leave you with that uplifting story of triumph over adversity and return to my royal duties. If you have any gardening tips feel free to share them below. I'm ravenous for knowledge on the topic.