Title to be parsed as (stupid plant) (expert) and NOT (stupid) (plant expert).
The girls and I spent this weekend gardening.
Saturday, we went to the nursery to get some plants for the tortoise enclosure (thyme, rosemary, oregano and sage). I also got a new calla lily (to replace the one Sylvain got me for Valentine's that didn't make it) and a jasmine (the first in a series of climbing plants that we'll be putting all around the pergola to eventually have plant shade in a year or so). We also went to the hardware store for some supplies (gloves, shovel, dandelion seeds, wire). Then we got to work. We dismantled the small enclosure as the tortoises had outgrown it and can no longer get in, giving them more space to roam around in. Then I dug holes (or rather pickaxed holes) for and the girls planted the four herb plants, as well as Laureva's Australian hibiscus, which we also decided to put down there. Maëva used rocks to make a big heart outline where the small enclosure used to be and the girls sowed dandelion seeds in the inside area.
Finally, the girls helped me set up the jasmine. We emptied out a big pot that had had a succulent that wasn't doing too well. Then we attached three wires from the pergola (one straight up from the middle of the pot, the others out to the diagonals in a V shap) down to a rock which we placed at the bottom of the pot and anchored in place with potting soil and the plant. We started twirling the jasmine tendrils up along the wires as far as they'd go and clipped them in place.
Sunday, while Maëva was at a Scout outing, Laureva and I made chocolate raspberry muffins, then spent six hours weeding the long skinny bed between the driveway and the tortoise enclosure, trimming off the dead bits of the plants, and transplanting the rose bushes (from pots and planters on the patio, where they weren't doing so well) into the empty spaces in the bed. Laureva gained the title "Stupid Plant Expert" by taking on the task of prying out the nasty dandelion (stupid plant) roots with the pickaxe. We filled up quite a few bucketsful of plant waste that we added to a pile Marie-Elisabeth had started over on the side of the house outside Laureva's room. The bed now looks great! Instead of a wile space, it looks like a well-tended garden space, which is what I'd long wanted for this space that is so close to the patio. I also planted the new calla lily down in the space outside the tortoise enclosure, next to the cyprus tree and across from the tamaris.
Next steps on this project over the next few moths: get a climbing plant for the space in the planter freed up by the rose transplant, buy a square pot for the planter in the corner of the patio (which causes water to infiltrate if actually filled directly with soil) by the bathroom window and get a climbing plant for it, and order some planter boxes to go around the pergola poles and get more plants to go in those. I'm planning on a mixture of jasmine, wisteria, climbing roses and Virginia creeper so as to not put all my eggs in one shade basket in case of plant illness. Plus, a mixture of evergreen and decidious vines will allow a bit of sunlight to filter through in the winter months.
7 comments:
Just don't plant until mother's day.
Wait! Dandelion is the stupid plant? But you bought seeds and planted it on purpose in another place? Make it make sense!
Unfortunately, Mother's Day in France is not until May 31st.
Yes. We want it in the tortoise enclosure because they love to eat it, but we don't want it in the flower bed.
Do the tortoises just eat the plants or do they let them grow?
I guess just may 10th then.
We'll find out! The idea is for them to eat them. But we don't know if they'll just eat a bit and the plants will continue to thrive, or if they'll gobble them up and we'll have to plant new ones.
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